By IANS,
Moscow : Top seed, India’s Koneru Humpy, suffered a shock defeat in the opening round of the Category 19 North Urals Cup chess tournament Sunday. Humpy, rated 2622, lost to Bulgarian Stefanova Antoaneta rated way below at 2550, but is the second seed in the tournament.
World No. 2 Humpy, who won this same tournament in 2005, was playing with white but was unable to face the onslaught from Antoaneta in the only match that provided a result. The other three games were drawn. The Humpy-Antoaneta game was in the anti-Meran variation and lasted 46 moves.
In the other games, Pia Cramling drew with Anna Muzychuk in a 45-move Dutch game, Natalya Pogonina split the point with Anna Ushenina in 33 moves from a Caro-Kann opening and Xu Yuha was held to a draw by Marie Sebag in a long 70-move game from a Sicilian Rossolimo.
In the second round Humpy will have black pieces against Sebag.