Grandmaster Koneru Humpy annexed the North Urals Cup Women's chess tournament at Krasnoturinsk in Russia.

Top seed Humpy played out an easy draw with Woman Grandmaster Natalia Zhukova of Ukraine to score 6 points out of a possible 9 to claim the honours.

The Indian was a half point ahead of Chinese former World Women's cup champion Xu Yuhua and Russian glam girl Alexandra Kosteniuk, who both tied for second on 5.5 points each.

Humpy was the only player to go undefeated in the 10-player double round-robin event that featured the cream of women's chess.

The strength of the event could be gauged by the simple fact that reigning World Women champion Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria finished in a tie for the last place.

Humpy just needed to score three victories besides six draws in the tournament that was enough for her victory. The victims who fell against the Hyderabad-based were the Russian trio of Alisa Galliamova and Nadezhda Kosintseva and her sister Tatiana.

Result final round: Koneru Humpy (Ind) drew with Natalia Zhokova (Ukr); Maia Chiburdanidze (Geo) drew with Xu Yuhua (Chn); Alexandra Kosteniuk (Rus) beat Ekaterina Kovalevskaya (Rus); Nadezhda Kosintseva (Rus) beat Antoaneta Stefanova (Bul); Tatiana Kosintseva (Rus) beat Alisa Galliamova (Rus).

Final Standings: 1. Humpy 6; 2-3. Xu Yuhua, Kosteniuk 5.5 each; 4. N Kosintseva 5; 5-6. T Kosintseva, Galliamova 4.5 each; 7-8. Chiburdanidze, Kovalevskaya 4 each; 9-10. Zhukova, Stefanova 3 each.