Pune: Humpy vs Harika Ends in a Quiet Draw as Zhu Jiner Maintains Lead at FIDE Women’s Grand Prix

Pune, 18th April 2025: The touted high -profile encounter between two of India’s stalwarts Koneru Humpy and Dronavalli Harika ended in a draw quickly, without much fanfare. Overnight sole leader Zhu Jiner offered some dour defence to wriggle out of a lost looking position and salvage a draw against Nurgyul Salimova in the 5th round of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2024-25 being played at Amanora The Fern. Vaishali Rameshbabu after a not so good start got her act together to defeat IM Munguntuul in a scintillating game which incidentally was the only decisive game of the day. Divya Deshmukh also had to stay content with a draw after a hard fought game against Polina Shuvalova.

Going into the only rest day tomorrow, Jiner continued to be the sole leader with 4 points and trailing half a point behind her are Humpy and Divya with 3.5 points each. Harika, Polina and Vaishali follow behind with 2.5 points each.

Vaishali and Munguntuul battled it out in a Kings Indian Attack. Vishali was in an aggressive mode and started targetting her opponent’s King by steam rolling her King-side pawns. After the exchange of queen’s, it was an engrossing battle between the knights, bishops and rooks in an open board. On the 40th board, Munguntuul erred with a knight move and Vaishali was quick to capitalise and steer the game to a victory after 52 moves.

“After the 40th turn, I started smelling victory. We are playing against strong players everyday and a rest day is welcome” said Vaishali after the game.

The Humpy versus Harika encounter is an English Opening was sort of a teaser with both players adopting a cautious approach and signing peace when barely out of the Opening stages. With the rest day scheduled tomorrow, understandably both were averse to taking any chances, the game lasting just 19 moves. Incidentally Humpy had defeated Harika in the first round of the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix at Monaco in February this year after more than eight years of drawn encounters.

Both Humpy and Harika have been India’s top two women players for almost 2 decades and Humpy later simply summed “It was quite a solid position and didn’t feel like pressing further”
The first moves of the fifth round were made by G Shreedhar SP (CID) and GM Abhijit Kunte, the Captain of the Gold winning Olympiad Women’s Team.

Divya and Polina matched steps in a Queen’s Gambit Declined game and a draw was sealed on the 72nd turn in a stalemate position.
The Alina versus Salome encounter in a Sicilian Defence lasted 41 moves.
In an Indian Defence-London system game between Nurgyul and Jiner, the position was evenly balanced till the first time control of 40 moves. On the 44th turn Jiner blundered with a knight move on the centre of the board and Nurgyul immediately sacrificed her queen for a knight and bishop to be in the driver’s seat. She however missed the route to victory and settled for a draw after 71 moves. A dejected Nurgyul quipped “These things do happen”.

Results of Round 5
IM Kashlinskaya Alina (1) drew IM Melia Salome (1.5)
IM Salimova Nurgyul (2) drew GM Zhu Jiner (4)
GM Vaishali Rameshbabu ( 2.5) bt IM Munguntuul Batkhuyag (2)
GM Koneru Humpy (3.5) drew GM Dronavalli Harika (2.5)
IM IM Shuvalova Polina (2.5) drew IM Divya Deshmukh (3.5)