Humpy earns second GM norm

Koneru Humpy earned her second men's Grandmaster's norm with a draw in the ninth round in the Third Saturday Grandmasters chess tournament, in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.

The junior world chess champion became first Indian woman to achieve the prestigious norm with a draw against GM Goran Kosanovic of Yugoslavia after 10 moves.

Humpy collected her norm at the end of the ninth round in the 11-round tournament.

She now needs one more GM norm to join in the elite list of WGMs who have become open GMs like Judit Polgar, Zsuzsa Polgar of Hungary, Jun Xie, Zhu Chen of China and Maia Chiburdanidze of Georgia.

Despite draws in the eight and ninth rounds, Humpy still leads the tournament with 7 points followed by Stojanovic Mihajlo of Yugoslavia (6.5) , Lopez Martinez of Spain (5.5).

She meets Prelevic Dusko of Yugoslavia in 10th round and Todorov Ognjan of Bulgaria in last and final round.

The tournament is a Category-7 GM tournament, where average Elo rating of the tournament is 2415 with 11 rounds.

Twelve players from four countries -- India, Spain, Bulgaria and Yugoslavia -- are participating.

Ninth game:
1. Nf3 c5 2. g3 Nc6 3. d4 cxd4 4. Nxd4 g6 5. Bg2 Bg7 6. Nb3 Nf6 7. c4 d6 8. Nc3 O-O 9. O-O Nd7 10. Nd5 1/2-1/2
Eighth game:
1. Nf3 Nf6 2. d4 e6 3. Bf4 c5 4. e3 Qb6 5. Nc3 Nc6 6. Be2 Be7 1/2-1/2

Source: (www.koneruhumpy.com).

Other reports:
Seventh round: Humpy in sight of second GM norm
Sixth round: Humpy splits point in 6th round, still in lead
Fifth round: Humpy takes commanding lead
Fourth round: Humpy outplays Dragutin Sahovic
Third round: Humpy regains lead
Second round: Humpy draws, shares lead
First round report: Humpy starts on winning note

Also read:
Humpy wins First Saturday title

Koneru Humpy secures highest ELO rating
Humpy on a high