India, Dec. 28 -- Koneru Humpy has been the flag-bearer of Indian women's chess for two decades and on Sunday almost crowned herself the FIDE Women's World Rapid champion for a third time, by defending the title in Doha, Qatar.

However, it was heartbreak for the 38-year-old grandmaster as a final round draw pushed her to the bronze medal, after Humpy was tied on 8.5 points with Aleksandra Goryachkina of Russia and Zhu Jiner of China at the end of the 11 rounds in the Swiss format tournament.

All three had six wins and five draws in an unbeaten campaign until then. As per FIDE rules to rank players with the same score - Buchholz Cut 1, Buchholz and Average Rapid Rating of the opponents - Humpy had scores of 69, 74 and 2335, while Zhu (72...