Harika scores maiden GP win, Humpy 2nd

PUNE: Grandmaster D Harika of India has won her maiden Fide Women's GP title in Chengdu, China, on Thursday. With K Humpy finishing second, it makes a rare one-two for India in the women's GP series.
Harika, 25, and Humpy, 29, both tallied seven points in 11 rounds. But the standings on official site states that Harika has edged ahead on tiebreak.
According to Fide regulations for each GP event "All prizes and GP ranking points are shared equally, in cases of any tied positions."
It means the prize fund of 18,250 euros (10k for the first and 8,250 for the second spot) will be shared equally by world No.10 Harika and No. 3 Humpy. Even the GP points (total 290 points for the top two spots) will be shared equally.
Harika had three wins in 11 games as against Humpy's five. But Harika had remained undefeated in the event and had also scored a win over Humpy in the seventh round.
The last-round games of the meet involving Humpy and Harika were well fought. Harika could not break the defence of WGM Olga Girya of Russia despite having extra pawns in the opposite-coloured bishop ending. And Humpy scored a thrilling win with white pieces against former Fide knockout champions Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria.
Harika had defeated Humpy, IM Lela Javakhishvili (Gerogia) and WGM Tan Zhongyi (China) in the meet. Humpy scored wins over GMs Stefanova, Zhao Xue (China), reigning knockout champion Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine) and WGMs Olgaand Tan.
The winner of the women's GP series will play for the World title in 2017 against the winner of 64-player Fide knockout meet to be played later this year.
No woman player is in the top-100 of Fide's open rating list after the retirement of Judit Polgar.China's Hou Yifan, the undisputed Women's World Champion, has pulled out of the Fide cycle citing lack of logic in the structure. The women's world No. 1 is currently playing a 10-player Hainan Danzhou super tournament in China against male rivals.
The all GM field there is ridiculously strong: Ian Nepomniachtchi, Wang Yue, Bu Xiangzhi, Yu Yangyi, P Harikrishna, Wang Hao, Peter Leko, Ding Liren and Vassily Ivanchuk.