Hyderabad: Grand Master Koneru Humpy stumbled when it mattered the most losing her semi-final match 0.5-1.5 to defending champion Xu Yuhua of China in the World Cup chess tournament on Friday.

Yuhua will take on Stefanova Antoneta of Bulgaria, who defeated Svetlana Mateeva of Russia 2-0 in the other semi-final, in the title-clash on Saturday in a repeat of the last edition's final.

Earlier, defending champion Viswanathan Anand drew his second game with Alexy Dreev of Russia and the two will now play the tie-break games later in the evening on Friday.

Humpy, who drew her first game on Thursday, could not match the counter play of the reigning champion who pooled her resources well while cashing on some weak moves to win the game in 57 moves.

"I committed some mistakes and lost the game," a crestfallen Humpy said after the match. Humpy admitted that her opponent unleashed a very strong counter attack and she crumbled under pressure after losing material.

Yuhua marshalled her pieces with mastery and took advantage of the three hanging pawns of Humpy by combining her forces well. The Chinese virtually won the game once Humpy blundered in the 21st move by shifting her bishop to a weak square.

"I played a technically superior game and won," Yuhua said.

PTI