Top seed Koneru Humpy marched into the pre-quarter-finals while Alexandra Kosteniuk and Alisa Galliamova of were knocked out on a disastrous day for seasoned campaigners at the World Women's Chess Championship in Elista (Kalmykia) in Russia on Tuesday.
Humpy advanced with an easy and effective draw against International Master Peng Zhaoqin of The Netherlands in the second game of the second round at the City Chess Complex.
But the ambitions of last World Championship finalist Kosteniuk were dealt a crucial blow after she was shown the exit door by Viktorija Cmilyte of Lithuania.
Second seed Galliamova met with similar fate as she bowed out following back to back defeats at the hands of Maia Lomineishvili of Georgia.
Humpy managed to keep her feet firmly on ground with some fine defensive chess that saw her through.
"Winning the first game made all the difference," said Humpy after the game. "She was under pressure to win to level scores and I just had to keep my position intact."
The middle arising out of a Queen's gambit declined gave only a miniscule advantage to Peng who played white and the Dutch maintained it right till the very end.
However, as is often the case, a slight advantage is hardly ever decisive in games between strong players.
The exchanges at regular intervals kept Humpy in the game and eventually an end game with bishops of opposite colour was reached that just required precise pawn exchanges.
Results (round 2 - with overall scores): Peng Zhaoqin (Ned) drew with Koneru Humpy 0.5-1.5; Alisa Galliamova (Rus) lost to Maia Lomineishvili (Geo) 0-2; Marie Sebag (Fra) lost to Maia Chiburdanidze (Geo) 0-2; Svetlana Matveeva (Rus) drew with Natasa Bojkovic (Scg) 1.5-0.5; Ekaterina Polovnikova (Rus) beat Kateryna Lahno (Ukr) 1-1, goes to tie-break; Pia Cramling (Swe) beat Lilit Mkrtchian (Arm) 1.5-0.5; Tatjana Vasilevich (Ukr) drew with Antoaneta Stefanova (Bul) 1-1, goes to tie-break; Zhao Xue (Chn) drew with Elisabeth Paehtz (Ger) 1-1, goes to tie-break; Elina Danielian (Arm) drew with Xu Yuhua (Chn) 0.5-1.5; Natalia Zhukova (Ukr) lost to Nadezhda Kosintseva (Rus) 1-1, goes to tie-break; Viktorija Cmilyte (Ltu) drew with Alexendra Kosteniuk (Rus) 1.5-0.5; Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (Rus) beat Olga Alexandrova (Ukr) 1.5-0.5; Ketino Kachiani-G. (Ger) beat Irina Krush (USA) 1.5-0.5; Jana Jackova (Cze) drew with Corina-Isabela Peptan (Rom) 1.5-0.5; Iweta Radziewicz (Pol) drew with Nana Dzagnidze (Geo) 0.5-1.5; Tatina Kosintseva (Rus) beat Hoang Thanh Trang (Vie) 1.5-0.5.
