Humpys chance to set record straight
Manisha Mohite
India have been having its best moments in chess for the last one month with Abhijeet Gupta and Harika Dronavalli winning the World junior and World junior Girls title respectively and the under-16 team winning the World Youth Olympiad.
With the Women’s World Chess Championship set to commence on Friday at Nalchik in Russia, all eyes will be on Koneru Humpy and if the Hyderabadi can pull it off this time, then India would be in possession of all the important World titles as Viswananthan Anand is the reigning World Champion.
Apart from Humpy, the other Indians in action are Harika Dronavalli, Tania Sachdev and Nisha Mohota.
Humpy starts as the highest rated player in fray though she is seeded second after reigning champion Yuhua Xu. Humpy, who is only the second woman in the history of the game to cross the 2600 ELO mark after Judit Polgar is the hot favourite in terms of rating.
The Indian has had terrific results in Open section but strangely has not done so well in the Women’s section. In the last edition, she had started as the top seed but was eliminated in the second round.
The path to the title however is not easy as the event is a knock-out one with five rounds to be played to enter the final.
Tough contenderFormer World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria is another tough contender for the title. She won the North Ural Cup with effortless ease and has also been posting good results in Open sections.
China’s 14-year-old sensation Yifan Hou is another dangerous player who has sprinted her way to the become the fourth highest rated woman player in the World. At the last edition she had reached the third round and this time around she is much stronger.
In fact the Chinese have been dominating this event right from the time Xie Jun won it in 1991, Susan Polgar and Stefanova having a brief reign in between.
Russia who once ruled women’s chess hardly find themselves without a strong contender.
Warm up
The Indians, apart from Mohota are pitted against lower ranked opponents in the first round. The 17-year-old Harika, fresh from her triumph in the World juniors would have warmed up sufficiently and if she can maintain her form, that would be an added bonus for India.
Tania is the reigning national champion and the 22-year-old has also won the Asian women’s title while 29-year-old Nisha Mohota has maximum international exposure. Tania has been in good nick for the past two years and it would be interesting to watch how she and Nisha fare here.
Unpredictable results and shocking ousters have always been a hallmark of the knock-out event which requires immense mental toughness along with playing skills.
Margin of error is very limited in this format were a single defeat will dent your prospects badly as comeback possibilities are remote.
This tournament has seen many good players making early exits time and again. Will Humpy be lucky this time?
Source: http://www.deccanherald.com
I don’t think she can win this year. I think Yifan Hou will win.
With this format, anyone except maybe the players rated under 2000 can win.
They might as well flip coins.
Then why don’t you participate and prove that ANYONE can win?
The one who plays the best chess AT THAT MOMENT will win. Thats how it always is, in ANY tournament or match.
“Then why don’t you participate and prove that ANYONE can win?”
1. I’m rated under 2000.
2. I’m not female and couldn’t compete even if I were rated 2900.
I was speaking of the players actually in the event, not some non-master who would of course lose every game to these players.
“The one who plays the best chess AT THAT MOMENT will win. Thats how it always is, in ANY tournament or match.”
Long matches or round-robin tourneys aren’t over in a moment, and thus aren’t won in a moment.
Humpy is overrated.
Her strenght is about 2550.
Is Ivanchuk better than Kramnik, Morozevich and all other participants in recent Tal memorial?
Can you give a straight YES or NO answer to this question?
I think not. He was better AT THAT TIME, thats why he won. If they would play now or in 3 weeks, the results would probably be completely different.
It’s the same with Women World Championship – the player who will be best in next three weeks will win. It is ALWAYS like that the one who is best AT THAT TIME wins the tournament (regardless of the format).
“Is Ivanchuk better than Kramnik, Morozevich and all other participants in recent Tal memorial?
Can you give a straight YES or NO answer to this question?”
Who do I look like, Arpad Elo?
“I think not. He was better AT THAT TIME, thats why he won. If they would play now or in 3 weeks, the results would probably be completely different.
It’s the same with Women World Championship – the player who will be best in next three weeks will win. It is ALWAYS like that the one who is best AT THAT TIME wins the tournament (regardless of the format).”
I’m saying most of the field could possibly win in Nalchik.
If this was a full round-robin, or extended matches, fewer than half-a-dozen players would stand even an outside chance.
Remember Khalifman’s “World Championship”? He was ranked 44th at the time. No way he wins under the setup under which Fischer or Spassky or Karpov won. Not surprisingly, biographies and game collections of Fischer and Spassky and Karpov have been written, but not about Khalifman.
But you still can’t deny the fact that Khalifman was better than all others IN THAT TOURNAMENT AT THAT SPECIFIC TIME.
He won deservingly.
“But you still can’t deny the fact that Khalifman was better than all others IN THAT TOURNAMENT AT THAT SPECIFIC TIME.
He won deservingly.”
Think what you like.
There’s a reason “My 60 Memorable Games” still sells but nobody’s clamoring to buy Khalifman game collections, even though FIDE says he won as many world titles as Fischer.
There are world titles and there are world titles.
Are you stupid or what?
I’m not arguing and comparing one tournament or match with another, I’m just saying that the best man/woman (the one who is playing best AT THAT MOMENT) will win.
Get it?
Who was the best player between 1985 and 2005? The answer is clearly Kasparov. But was he best at ANY GIVEN TIME? No, otherwise he would win any tournament and match he played.
Was Khalifman the best player of the year 1999. Hell no, but he was the best from those 100 that played the 1999 FIDE WCC AT THAT TIME. Had it been played one month later or one month earlier, somebody else might won it.
Would Fischer win if the match was played one month earlier? the answer is: NOBODY knows!
It’s always the one who is best AT THAT TIME that wins.
Get it what I’m talking about?
“It’s always the one who is best AT THAT TIME that wins.”
Why don’t you stop reciting this mantra and offer some proof of it?
Without resorting to virtual shouting.
Maybe in another thread, since this one is about to scroll off my screen and I won’t be visiting it any more.
Proof???
So if you play a game of chess (or whatever) and you happen to lose, you then claim that you are better than your opponent???
You lost because he was better – you already know – AT THAT TIME. When you play another time, you might win, because you were better – here it goes again – AT THAT TIME.
Phelps won 8 gold medals because he was best AT THAT TIME. If he had to swimm today, he probably wouldn’t win all 8 races.