Candidates 2024: Koneru Humpy beats Nurgyul Salimova; Vaishali gets better off Goryachkina in round 11

India’s Koneru Humpy got the better of Bulgaria’s Nurgyul Salimova in the round 11 of the FIDE Candidates 2024 tournament in Toronto, Canada on Thursday.

Playing with white, Humpy outplayed her opponent to register her second win of the tournament.

Humpy was a pawn up by the 17th move in the Slav Defence game, putting her opponent on the back foot right from the start.

Salimova sacked another pawn under time pressure. She fought an already lost battle for the next 50 moves and eventually resigned after playing a marathon six-hour, 90-move game.

HIGHLIGHTS | FIDE CANDIDATES 2024 ROUND 11

Humpy moved to joint third position with 5.5 points after this win.

In the other women’s game, it was R. Vaishali who made her presence felt after beating Russia’s Aleksandra Goryachkina with white pieces.

R. Vaishali beat Aleksandra Goryachkina in the 11th round of Candidates 2024.
| Photo Credit:
FIDE/Maria Emelianova

After losing four back-to-back games, Vaishali traded bows with her second win in succession after beating Salimova in the round 10.

Goryachkina denied Vaishali’s attempt to draw the game by three-fold repetition early on in the game and played a very complex Alapin Sicilian Defense.

However, it was the Russian who made the last error in a game that saw both players making mistakes.

Vaishali moved to seventh with 4.5 points.