Humpy Koneru (Photo from FIDE)
Indian grandmaster Humpy Koneru leads the challenge at the Monaco FIDE Women’s Grand Prix, from December 2-15 at the Yacht Club de Monaco.
The world number three ranked player is the current leader of the Grand Prix series, having won the opening leg in Skolkovo.
Monaco is the second leg of the four tournament Series of the World Championship Qualifying 2019-2021 cycle.
The competition features a 12-participant closed tournament with most of the strongest female players in the world.
Koneru, the highest-rated participant in Monaco, was accorded grandmaster status when she was only 15 in 2002, the youngest to achieve the rank then.
The Doha Asian Games gold medalist only returned to competitive chess earlier this year after taking a two-year sabbatical. Koneru, is one of the two Indian players in the tournament, the other being Harika Dronavalli.
She was unbeaten enroute to her win in Skolkovo and would be looking to maintain the momentum to qualify for the Candidates tournament in 2021.
Only the top two players who score the most number of cumulative points in the Series qualify to the Candidates Tournament. The next two legs of the Grand Prix would be in Lausanne in March next year while the final leg in Sardinia (May).
Aleksandra Goryachkina, the two-time world junior U20 champion, is also in the fray. The Russian is currently second in the points standings together with reigning world champion Ju Wenjun of China, who is giving Monaco a miss.
Attracting a strong field, Monaco will also see the presence of two former world champions in Alexandra Kosteniuk from Russia and Maryia Muzychuk from Ukraine.
Maryia’s elder sister is also in the fray as would be chess living legend Pia Cramling of Sweden.
At the 1984 super-tournament in Biel, Pia not only stood up to all the male players, she even managed to defeat Viktor Korchnoi in 30 moves. Korchnoi was oone of the world’s strongest grandmasters at that time. After the tournament, she became the first woman to surpass Cramling’s rating list of 2400 , overtaking even the then world champion Maia Chiburdanidze.
The Swede was already one of the best players in the world when none of her Monaco opponents were even born.
List of participants:
1.- Humpy Koneru
2.- Alexandra Goryachkina
3.- Kateryna Lagno
4.- Elisabeth Paehtz
5.- Valentina Gunina
6.- Harika Dronavalli
7.- Alexandra Kosteniuk
8.- Pia Cramling
9.- Anna Muzychuk
10.- Mariya Muzychuk
11.- Nana Dzaganidze
12.- Xue Zhao
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