Batumi: Woman Grandmaster Divya Deshmukh and the country’s first woman to become a GM, Koneru Humpy made it to the last-16 of the FIDE Women’s World Cup in contrasting fashion here.
Divya, a point ahead, needed a draw which she got against Teodora Injac of Serbia, while Humpy had to work hard to oust Kulon Klaudia of Poland.
With two Indians sealing their spots in the last-16, the other three in the competition -- D Harika, Vantika Agrawal and R. Vaishali -- too can make the grade but it all depends on how they perform in the tiebreaker.
Grandmaster Harika played back-to-back draws with Tsolakidou Stavroula of Greece to keep herself in contention for the pre-quarterfinals, while Vantika’s first-round victory celebrations over Kateryna Lagno of Russia were put on hold as the Indian lost the return game to make the scorecard level.
While Vantika, Harika and Vaishali have an uphill task in the first set of tie-break games, they can still make it to the round of 16.
Indian Grandmasters D Harika and R Vaishali also made it to the pre-quarterfinals after getting the better of Tsolakidou Stavroula of Greece and American Carissa Yip respectively in the tie-breaker of the Women’s
Chess Cup.