Defending champion Koneru Humpy failed to live up to her bill, finishing sixth with 7.5 points in the women’s section of the FIDE World Rapid Chess Championship 2021 here.
In the open event, young Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh scored nine points and finished ninth, just half a point behind champion Nodirbek Abdusatorov (9.5) of Uzbekistan.
Gukesh pulled off a resounding 10th round win over veteran Israeli player Boris Gelfand and then went on to win the next round late Tuesday night over Georgia’s Jobava Badur.
He drew his last two games against eventual winners Abdusatorov and Alexander Grishuk.
Humpy, who started the final day of the rapid event with a draw against Alexandra Kosteniuk, also shared points in their later matches against Bulgaria’s Antoneta Stefanova and Azerbaijan’s Gulnar Mamadova.
R Vaishali was the next best Indian player in the women’s category, finishing 14th with seven points, followed by Vantika Agarwal (6 points, 38th), and Padmini Raut (5.5, 49th).
Kosteniuk did not lose a single game, taking seven wins (6 consecutive in the first six rounds) and finishing with nine points for four draws in 11 rounds.
In the open section, Mitrabha Guha, who recently became Grandmaster, finished 15th with 8.5 points. Vidit S Gujrathi (7.5 points) finished 45th, while Harish Bharatkoti, who had a good start, finished 60th with 7 points.
Here the highest-ranked Indian veteran P Harikrishna finished 99th with 6.5 points.
The victory of 17-year-old Abdusatorov ended the reign of world champion and No. 1 player Magnus Carlsen. He dismissed Ian Nepomniachtchi in the tie-break.
Four players – Abdusatorov, Nepomniachtchi, Carlson and Fabiano Caruana of the USA – finished with 9.5 points each and the first two played a tie-break.
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