Humpy cruises to quarterfinals; Harika loses to Kostenuik

Continuing with her winning ways, Indian Grandmaster Koneru Humpy cruised into the quarterfinals of the World Women's Chess Championship after defeating Russian GM Alisa Galliamova in the second game of the third round here today.
Having taken the lead of a full point coming into the return game, Humpy just needed a draw in the second game to proceed further in the championship, but the Indian did not take things likely and scored what turned out to be her sixth win in a row.
The other Indian in the fry, Dronavalli Harika suffered a setback as she lost her return game against Alexandra Kosteniuk with white pieces. Harika's fate in the championship now hangs in balance as she needs to take part in the tiebreak games to determine the winner.

Apart from Kosteniuk, Natalija Pogonina of Russia also made a comeback by winning the second game after losing the first. Up against Marie Sebag of France, Pogonina leveled the scores by winning with white pieces to force the tiebreaker.
Humpy is the only one maintaining an-all win record and the top ranked Indian has not played a single tiebreaker here. Playing black against Galliamova, Humpy did not deter from entering complications even though she just needed a half point.
It was a surprising opening choice by Galliamova as she went for a symmetrical structure from a Queen pawn opening and went for the risky hanging pawns structure while looking to complicate matters.