Humpy Koneru is quietly having an excellent performance in Gibraltar. She simply plays good and solid chess. Her performance after 9 rounds is just around 2700.
Below is her latest game against super GM Gata Kamsky:
[Event “Gibraltar”]
[Date “2010.02.03”]
[Round “9”]
[White “Koneru, H.”]
[Black “Kamsky, G.”]
[Result “1/2-1/2”]
[ECO “D11”]
[WhiteElo “2614”]
[BlackElo “2693”]
1. d4 d5 2. c4 c6 3. e3 Nf6 4. Nf3 g6 5. Nc3 Bg7 6. Be2 O-O 7. O-O e6 8. Qc2 Nbd7 9. b3 Re8 10. Bb2 a6 11. e4 Nxe4 12. Nxe4 dxe4 13. Qxe4 c5 14. Rad1 Qc7 15. Qb1 cxd4 16. Nxd4 Nc5 17. Nc2 a5 18. Bxg7 Kxg7 19. Ne3 b6 20. Bf3 Ra7 21. a3 a4 22. Qb2+ f6 23. b4 Nb3 24. Rfe1 e5 25. Bd5 Bd7 26. Rd3 Qc8 27. c5 bxc5 28. Bxb3 axb3 29. Rxb3 c4 30. Rc3 Bb5 31. Qc1 Rc7 32. Nd5 Ra7 33. a4 Bxa4 34. Nb6 Qb8 35. Nxa4 Rxa4 36. Rxc4 Re7 37. Qc3 1/2-1/2
Click here to replay the game.
Here are Humpy’s opponents after 9 rounds:
| 1 | 10 | 84 | WIM Schoene, Maria | GER | 2251 | b | 1 | |||||||||
| 2 | 10 | 45 | IM Vernay, Clovis | FRA | 2442 | w | ½ | |||||||||
| 3 | 15 | 51 | WGM Karavade, Eesha | IND | 2405 | b | 1 | |||||||||
| 4 | 8 | 31 | GM Hoffmann, Michael | GER | 2508 | w | 1 | |||||||||
| 5 | 2 | 4 | GM Adams, Michael | ENG | 2694 | b | 0 | |||||||||
| 6 | 11 | 43 | IM Krush, Irina | USA | 2455 | w | 1 | |||||||||
| 7 | 10 | 28 | GM Guliyev, Namig | AZE | 2516 | b | 1 | |||||||||
| 8 | 1 | 2 | GM Movsesian, Sergei | SVK | 2708 | w | ½ | |||||||||
| 9 | 5 | 5 | GM Kamsky, Gata | USA | 2693 | w | ½ |
I like her style over others. Talk is cheap.
Go Humpy!
Yes, but if you want to promote chess beyond existing fans, don’t you need a bit of “fanfare, promotional gimmicks and marketing hype”?
And she’s beautiful too.
Why doesn’t Koneru play Ne3xc4?
For example:
31. Ne3xc4 Bb5xc4 32. Qb2–c1 Qc8–a6 33. Rc3xc4 Qa6xa3 34. Rc4–c7+ Kg7–g8 35. Qc1xa3 Ra7xa3
John