It was a bright start that went haywire in the third game that Humpy lost and in the fourth game again she was made to defend for a long time before the draw was achieved. Yifan, on the other hand, showed that her skills are beyond her age. At 17, the world champion displayed remarkable acumen to come up triumphant in extreme complexities in the third game.
The Chinese has been a picture of confidence and her approach has been simple in this match to strike whenever the opportunity presented itself. To sum up the match thus far, Humpy was on the offensive but could not get any decisive foray in the first two games and her over-ambitious play in the third game did not come good. Even as there are six games to come, Humpy will be hoping for an early revival in her fortunes to get a chance to have a go at the title.
If the results are tied after 10 games, shorter duration games will be played to determine the winner in the 2,00,000 Euro championship.
For Humpy there is an added bonus as it will be a rare double for India with Anand already world champion since 2007. From the look of it, there is enough optimism in Humpy`s camp for the fifth game after the second rest day. It remains to be seen though how far it would translate in the games to come.