Humpy Koneru Wins Skolkovo FIDE Grand Prix
Humpy Koneru (India), not Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun (China), won the Women's Grand Prix in Skolkovo, Russia. Humpy took over the lead after the ninth round and didn't let go.
The Indian grandmaster scored eight points in 11 games with six draws and five wins. She won 15,000 euros and got 160 Grand Prix points. Ju tied for second place with Aleksandra Goryachkina, and both earned 11,000 euros and 120 GP points.
The remaining three Grand Prix tournaments will be held in December 2019 (Monaco), March 2020 (Lausanne, Switzerland) and May 2020 (Sardinia, Italy). The Grand Prix winner and the runner-up qualify for the Women's Candidates' Tournament to be held in the first half of 2021.
Ju was leading the tournament with three rounds to go (see our first report), but everything changed on Friday. The world champion suffered her first defeat of the tournament against Kateryna Lagno in their first clash since the final of the 2018 FIDE knockout world championship.
Lagno was extremely well prepared, which was possible because Ju has played this Petroff with the topical 6...Bf5 several times, including against Lagno herself. The Russian grandmaster could play her first 20(!) moves fast, and it was 20.h4 that surprised Ju.
After 19 minutes the Chinese GM played her reply, but only a few moves later she made an inaccuracy with 23...e5. The pawn break didn't bring her relief and, like Bobby Fischer so clearly showed half a century ago, Lagno demonstrated why a position like this with bishop vs. knight is clearly better for White.
Half a point behind Ju, Humpy grabbed her chance. The Indian grandmaster defeated Russia's Valentina Gunina, who tried the rare Blumenfeld Gambit, named after the Russian master Benjamin Blumenfeld (1884-1947). Gunina's modern interpretation of this old counter-gambit was a mix with the Benko/Volga Gambit as she went 6...a6!? instead of the more common 6...d5.
In the early middlegame Gunina miscalculated and was forced to sacrifice an exchange. She came back into the game but made another tactical error, and then Humpy finished it off:
The new order was as follows:
- Humpy with 7 points,
- Ju with 6.5,
- Goryachkina with 6, and
- Lagno with 5.5.
The penultimate round saw the clash between Ju and Goryachkina, a preview of their world championship match that will be split between Shanghai, China and Vladivostok, Russia and is tentatively scheduled for January 2020.
Ju got a big advantage in the early endgame but let her opponent slip away until Goryachkina erred. The basic rook endgame that ensued was winning for White but, to everyone's surprise, Ju failed to convert:
This moment basically decided the tournament. Humpy kept her sole lead, and having the white pieces in the last-round game versus Ju was obviously pleased. The Indian GM comfortably held the draw and scored her first big success since returning to competitive chess at the 2018 Olympiad after a two-year break due to motherhood.
2019 Skolkovo Women Grand Prix | Final Standings
| # | Fed | Name | Rtg | Perf | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 0 | 1 | 2 | Pts | SB |
| 1 | Koneru,Humpy | 2560 | 2677 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 8.0/11 | |||
| 2 | Goryachkina,Aleksandra | 2564 | 2639 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 7.5/11 | 37.25 | ||
| 3 | Ju,Wenjun | 2576 | 2638 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 7.5/11 | 36.75 | ||
| 4 | Lagno,Kateryna | 2545 | 2572 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 1 | 6.5/11 | |||
| 5 | Paehtz,Elisabeth | 2479 | 2546 | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 6.0/11 | 31.25 | ||
| 6 | Gunina,Valentina | 2502 | 2544 | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 6.0/11 | 29.5 | ||
| 7 | Harika,Dronavalli | 2503 | 2481 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 1 | ½ | 1 | 5.0/11 | |||
| 8 | Kosteniuk,Alexandra | 2495 | 2450 | ½ | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | 1 | ½ | 0 | 1 | 4.5/11 | 21.75 | ||
| 9 | Kashlinskaya,Alina | 2487 | 2450 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | ½ | 1 | 1 | 4.5/11 | 20.5 | ||
| 10 | Sebag,Marie | 2450 | 2420 | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 0 | 4.0/11 | 23.5 | ||
| 11 | Stefanova,Antoaneta | 2491 | 2417 | 0 | 0 | ½ | 0 | ½ | ½ | ½ | 1 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 4.0/11 | 20 | ||
| 12 | Cramling,Pia | 2487 | 2302 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | ½ | ½ | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | ½ | 2.5/11 |
Games rounds 9-11 for replay:
Previous report:
Peter Doggers joined a chess club a month before turning 15 and still plays for it. He used to be an active tournament player and holds two IM norms. Peter has a Master of Arts degree in Dutch Language & Literature. He briefly worked at New in Chess, then as a Dutch teacher and then in a project for improving safety and security in Amsterdam schools. Between 2007 and 2013 Peter was running ChessVibes, a major source for chess news and videos acquired by Chess.com in October 2013. As our Director News & Events, Peter writes many of our news reports. In the summer of 2022, The Guardian’s Leonard Barden described him as “widely regarded as the world’s best chess journalist.”
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