FIDE Women’s Grand Prix: Humpy, Harika lead Indian challenge against world’s elite in Pune
The opening move of the fifth leg of FIDE Women’s Grand Prix chess will be made at the posh Amanora-The Fern hotel in Pune on Monday.
Ten of the world’s leading players are competing in the Pune leg of the Grand Prix, a qualifying event for the Candidates tournament that will determine the challenger for the world championship.
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India’s four best players – Koneru Humpy, Dronavalli Harika, R. Vaishali and Divya Deshmukh – are all competing in the tournament. Zhu Jiner (China), Polina Shuvalova (Russia), Alina Kashlinskaya (Poland), Nurgyul Salimova (Bulgaria), Batkhuyag Munguntuul (Mongolia) and Salome Melia (Georgia) complete the line-up.
The Grand Prix series features 20 players, with each player participating in three of the six events, played across the world. The top two will make it to the Candidates. Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina is leading the Grand Prix table with 308 points.
The pairing for the first round:
Batkhuyag v Salome;
Zhu v Harika;
Kashlinskaya v Shuvalova;
Salimova v Divya;
Vaishali v Humpy.