Monaco GP Round 1: Humpy gets the better of Harika
GM Koneru Humpy made a winning start against GM Harika Dronavalli in Round 1 of FIDE Monaco GP. This is their first decisive result in a Classical rated in over 8.5 years. Harika's mistake in the rook and minor piece endgame proved costly for her against the reigning World Rapid Women's Champion. IM Batkhuyag Munguntuul (MGL) seized her opportunity against former Women's World Champion - GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI). GM Kateryna Lagno defeated the winner of the previous leg, GM Aleksandra Goryachkina. The latter incorrectly captured a pawn in the rook endgame which turned things in her opponent's favor. IM Sarasadat Khademalsharieh (ESP) missed an opportunity to push for a win against IM Bibisara Assaubayeva (KAZ). Round 2 starts today from 3 p.m. local time, 7:30 p.m. IST. Photo: FIDE / Niki Riga
Batkhuyag stuns Kosteniuk, Lagno beats Goryachkina
"Last year I had a very bad (streak of) Classical tournaments. So I lost my rating heavily, so I am not thinking too much about the results but I just want to improve my rating." - Koneru Humpy on coming to this GP after becoming World Rapid Women's champion in December 2024. "This is the strongest cycle and also we have a lot of mixed kind of players because of the number of events like earlier it used to be four but now it's six. So there was a lot of flexibility. In every tournament, we would be meeting different opponents as well apart from the old players. So it's quite interesting and a strong tournament." - Humpy on the present GP cycle.
Harika - Humpy: 0-1
The last decisive Classical rated between GM Harika Dronavalli (2489) and GM Koneru Humpy (2523) occurred over 8.5 years ago in Chengdu GP back in 2016. Now both Humpy and Harika have scored two wins against each other in Classical battles.
Humpy mentioned in the post-game interview that White should played 9.dxe5 dxe5 10.Qe2 which is quite a standard position. She did not like White's 9.Rg1 as she had a lot of flexibility with the pawn structure once she took 9...exd4. She even had plans like c5, d5 in some positions. She went with e5, c6 stopping Nd5 ideas 10.Qxd4 Qd7 11.Be3 e5 12.Qc4 c6 13.0-0-0 Qf7 14.Qf7+ Kxf7 15.f4 the position is more or less equal after 15.f4.
Humpy felt that White should have retreated her bishop back to e3 instead of allowing it to be exchanged 18.Ne2 g6 19.c4 Nxf4 20.Nxf4+
White needed to go 57.Ng5+ Kf5 58.Nf7 Re8 59.Rf2+ and Humpy wasn't sure if there is something or not. However, she was happy to see 57.Nf6?? on the board as it was winning for her. 57...Rh8 58.Nd5 Bxe5 59.a4 h4 60.Nxb6 h3 and Black went on to win the game.
Lagno - Goryachkina
Instead of taking the f6-pawn directly, GM Aleksandra Goryachkina (2546) needed to play 39...Re1 first to defend her h6-pawn tactically. 40.Kg4 Kxf6 41.Rxh6+ Kg7 would have been fine for Black. The game continued 39...Kxf6? 40.Rxh6+ Kg7? 41.Rh4 Re3 42.Rc4 and GM Kateryna Lagno (2515) won the game in another dozen moves.
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GP Standings
IM Bibisara Assaubayeva (KAZ) is currently leading with 182.5 points, followed by IM Stavroula Tsolakidou (GRE) 149.17. They have played both GP events held so far. GM Koneru Humpy has played one and GM Harika Dronavalli will play her first GP event of the season.
Prizes
Total prize fund is €80000. The top three prizes are €18000, €13000 and €10500 each. The top three GP points are - 130, 105 and 85. For more details, check out the regulations below.
Schedule
Round 1 starts on 18th February 2025 at 3 p.m. local time, 7:30 p.m. IST. The tournament will go on till 27th February 2025. Sole rest day is on Sunday 23rd February.
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Round 1 results
| Bo. | No. | FED | Rtg | White | Result | Black | FED | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 1 | FID | 2515 | GM | Kateryna Lagno | 1 - 0 | GM | Aleksandra Goryachkina | FID | 2546 | 10 | |||
| 2 | 2 | KAZ | 2492 | IM | Bibisara Assaubayeva | ½ - ½ | IM | Sarasadat Khademalsharieh | ESP | 2458 | 9 | |||
| 3 | 3 | IND | 2489 | GM | Harika Dronavalli | 0 - 1 | GM | Humpy Koneru | IND | 2523 | 8 | |||
| 4 | 4 | GER | 2427 | GM | Elisabeth Paehtz | ½ - ½ | GM | Zhongyi Tan | CHN | 2561 | 7 | |||
| 5 | 5 | MGL | 2331 | IM | Batkhuyag Munguntuul | 1 - 0 | GM | Alexandra Kosteniuk | SUI | 2484 | 6 |
Standings after Round 1
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | K | rtg+/- | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 8 | GM | Humpy Koneru | IND | 2523 | 1 | 1 | 0,00 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 4,5 | |
| 2 | 1 | GM | Kateryna Lagno | FID | 2515 | 1 | 0 | 0,00 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 5,4 | |
| 5 | IM | Batkhuyag Munguntuul | MGL | 2331 | 1 | 0 | 0,00 | 1 | 0 | 10 | 7 | ||
| 4 | 7 | GM | Zhongyi Tan | CHN | 2561 | 0,5 | 1 | 0,25 | 0 | 0 | 10 | -1,8 | |
| 9 | IM | Sarasadat Khademalsharieh | ESP | 2458 | 0,5 | 1 | 0,25 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 0,5 | ||
| 6 | 2 | IM | Bibisara Assaubayeva | KAZ | 2492 | 0,5 | 0 | 0,25 | 0 | 0 | 10 | -0,5 | |
| 4 | GM | Elisabeth Paehtz | GER | 2427 | 0,5 | 0 | 0,25 | 0 | 0 | 10 | 1,8 | ||
| 8 | 6 | GM | Alexandra Kosteniuk | SUI | 2484 | 0 | 1 | 0,00 | 0 | 0 | 10 | -7 | |
| 10 | GM | Aleksandra Goryachkina | FID | 2546 | 0 | 1 | 0,00 | 0 | 0 | 10 | -5,4 | ||
| 10 | 3 | GM | Harika Dronavalli | IND | 2489 | 0 | 0 | 0,00 | 0 | 0 | 10 | -4,5 |
Round 2 pairings
| Bo. | No. | FED | Rtg | White | Result | Black | FED | Rtg | No. | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 10 | FID | 2546 | GM | Aleksandra Goryachkina | GM | Alexandra Kosteniuk | SUI | 2484 | 6 | ||||
| 2 | 7 | CHN | 2561 | GM | Zhongyi Tan | IM | Batkhuyag Munguntuul | MGL | 2331 | 5 | ||||
| 3 | 8 | IND | 2523 | GM | Humpy Koneru | GM | Elisabeth Paehtz | GER | 2427 | 4 | ||||
| 4 | 9 | ESP | 2458 | IM | Sarasadat Khademalsharieh | GM | Harika Dronavalli | IND | 2489 | 3 | ||||
| 5 | 1 | FID | 2515 | GM | Kateryna Lagno | IM | Bibisara Assaubayeva | KAZ | 2492 | 2 |
