'Absurd tiebreaker rule': FIDE slammed after Koneru Humpy denied shot at World Rapid title despite finishing with joint lead

Veteran Indian Grandmaster Koneru Humpy finished the 2025 World Rapid Championship at the top alongside China's Zhu Jiner and Russia's Aleksandra Goryachkina. However, the Indian was not allowed in the title-deciding play-offs while the other two got to play against each other to decide the winner.

Humpy's bid to become the only the second women to retain the rapid title after China’s Ju Wenjun thus failed and the Indian had to settle for bronze despite an unbeaten campaign where she was as good as anyone.

However, the 38-year-old had a chance to seal the crown in her last game where her miss proved to be costly.

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World Rapid Championship: Humpy's heartbreak

Humpy, the winner of rapid championship in 2019 and 2024, was dominating the competition right from the start. Ahead of her final game, she was the frontrunner to win the title as the other two toppers, Zhu and Goryachkina, had both drawn their respective last-round matches. A win for Humpy would have helped him retain the title.

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Up agianst an 18-year-old Savitha Shri B, Humpy was on her way to title but one questionable bishop move in the endgame was enough for the teenager to claw her way back and eke out a draw.

With the rules in place, Humpy knew a draw would force her to settle with a bronze.

Why Humpy was denied entry in play-off?

Humpy, Zhu and Goryachkina all finished with 8.5 points in 11 rounds but the tie-break rules were such that Humpy did not get a chance to fight for the title.

Interestingly, if the same situation had emerged in the open section, all the toppers would have played the play-offs. Magnus Carlsen's brilliance meant that the issue did not arise in the open category and he won the title outright.

However, in the women's section, rules were different. Only two players tied for first could go on to play the tiebreaks for the championship. The completed tiebreak buccholz variable was used to rank differentiate between the joint-top three players and Humpy came up third on that. Thus, the tiebreak play-offs were only held between Goryachkina and Zhu where the Russian came out on top to win the title.

However, the disparity between the open and women's section was noted by the fans who were not happy with the rules of FIDE.