By IANS,
Nalchik (Russia) : Koneru Humpy established herself as the hot favourite with a sweeping 2-0 win over China’s Shen Yang in the quarter finals to cruise into the semi-finals of the Women’s World Championship.
In the semi-finals, Humpy will clash with another Chinese youngster, Hou Yifan, who at 14 is considered very talented.
The second semi-final will feature Alexandra Kosteniuk of Russia and Sweden’s veteran Pia Cramling.
Humpy, rated 2622, and the second highest rated women’s player in history, Monday defeated Shen comfortably and comprehensively. The Shen-Humpy game was in the Semi-slav and the Indian outplayed her Chinese rival, who is rated almost 200 points below her. The Indian cruised to a win in 31 moves.
In the other games, Russian GM Alexandra Kosteniuk eliminated Anna Ushenina of Ukraine while 14-year-old Hou Yifan knocked out Lilit Mkrtchian of Armenia and GM Pia Cramling of Sweden defeated GM Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria. They all won 1.5-0.5 with none of the matches going into the tie-breaker.
The top four seeds are all in the semi-finals now.
The Women’s World Championship 2008 will end Sep 18 and has a prize fund of $450,000.
Moves of Koneru-Shen Yang game:
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.e3 Nf6 4.Nf3 Bg4 5.cxd5 Bxf3 6.Qxf3 cxd5 7.Nc3 Nc6 8.Bd3 e6 9.0-0 Bd6 10.Bd2 0-0 11.Qh3 Rc8 12.Rac1 g6 13.f4 a6 14.g4 Kh8 15.Kh1 Rg8 16.Be1 Be7 17.Bg3 h5 18.f5 Nxg4 19.fxg6 fxg6 20.Rf7 Rg7 21.Bxg6 Rxg6 22.Qxh5+ Rh6 23.Qxg4 Qg8 24.Qf4 Bg5 25.Qf3 Rh7 26.Rxh7+ Qxh7 27.Nxd5 exd5 28.Be5+ Kg8 29.Rg1 Nxe5 30.Rxg5+ Ng6 31.Qxd5+ 1-0.