K. Humpy salvaged a draw in the fourth game in 58 moves against Chinese champion Hou Yifan in their 10-game Women's World chess championship match at Tirana, Albania, on Friday.
Going into the second rest day on Saturday, Yifan leads 2.5-1.5. The player who first reaches the magic score of 5.5 points will be the winner.
Playing white, Yifan emerged slightly better from the opening lines of Ruy Lopez. Once the queens were off the board, Humpy had better defensive options after choosing not to castle.
In this positional warfare, Yifan exploited the weakness of Humpy's queenside pawns. Her rooks and the lone knight enjoyed more space-advantage and Humpy had to find the right continuation to keep stay safe.
Unlike the third game which Humpy lost after poorly managing her time, she had more time on her clock on this day. Yifan did manage to create a passed pawn on the queenside but Humpy's rook and knight minimised Yifan's advantage by winning a kingside pawn.
Eventually, after further exchange of pawns, Yifan was left with an extra pawn on the kingside but it was not enough to force a win.
