Koneru Humpy becomes second woman to win World Rapid Chess title twice

Koneru Humpy arrived at the Women’s World Rapid Chess in New York with a baggage of poor results, starting with 2022 Olympiad where the top-seeded Indian women had to settle for a bronze. She finished second-last in Norway classical event this June and last in Tata Rapid meet in Nov. She was also not a part of Team India that tasted unprecedented golden success in September’s Olympiad.

But Humpy, 37, made a remarkable turnaround by winning the Rapid crown on Saturday with 8.5 points in 11 rounds where an eight-player tie at the top looked possible. She had won the same title in 2019, and becomes only the second woman ever after China’s Ju Wenjun to clinch it twice.

The 37-year-old’s win once again underlined that class is permanent. And maturity counts more in women’s chess rather than young age.

“I was playing badly and losing badly. So I started questioning myself and I was feeling quite low,” Humpy told Chessbase India . “But I thought I should give this tournament a try and I am happy that it worked out.

“After a lot of failures in the past tournaments, it is not easy to psychologically fight back and compete. But somewhere inside I had that determination to prove myself and achieve.”

Despite the self-questioning and thoughts of quitting, there were other factors that went in her favour. Besides winning the gold in World Rapid in 2019, she had won the silver and bronze in this event in 2022 and 2012. That helped her regain strength to try once again.

And of course, her dad K Ashok, who not only played a pivotal role in Humpy becoming India’s first woman GM at 15 but continues to inspire her. “Apart from chess, he doesn’t talk about anything,” said Humpy with a smile. “I might miss practice or take a day off from chess. But staying up late my dad will be in front of the computer – enjoying playing and watching chess. And he tells me which chess videos to follow. I think that atmosphere probably made me stay focused on the game.”

Even Humpy’s sevenyear-old daughter Aahana was casually asking why her mother was not winning or getting a medal recently. “She will enjoy this victory a lot,” said a beaming Humpy, adding that she has not spoken to her daughter after landing in New York for the last three-four days. “But I will speak to her tomorrow.”

Humpy’s success was possible when her lastround opponent Irene Sukandar lost an almost drawn rook and pawns endgame with a series of mistakes. “It reached a point where I could not improve my position. It is a simple draw technique. But the nervous moment played a role. My opponent was low on time and played wrong moves.”

Except in the first round where she lost on time, Humpy said she did well to convert her advantageous positions in the tournament. “I was in trouble against Vantika Agrawal and Nino Batsiashvili (in R6 and R8, respectively). But when there was time pressure, I was able to trick them (and won). That mattered a lot.”

Humpy said she did not work on her openings before this tournament but played a lot of games online to help her practically.

ERIGAISI FINISHES FIFTH

Had Arjun Erigaisi won the Open World Rapid title played concurrently, he would have sealed the 2026 Candidates spot as the leader of the FIDE Circuit points. But he finished fifth with nine points. He defeated former champion Nodirbek Abdusattorov but could only draw his last two rounds against Dominguez and Alireza Firouzja.

Arjun will get more chances to win the Candidates spot till the end of next year via rating, top-3 finish at the knockout World Cup or through next year’s FIDE Circuit points.

Russia’s 59th seed Volodar Murzin extended the script of young boys winning world crowns. The 18-year-old won the Open world rapid title with 10 points in 13 rounds. Rated Elo 2588, he gave a rating performance of 2881. He scored stunning wins over Caruna, Hikaru Nakamura, Jan Duda and R
Praggnanandhaa.

New York will host two-day World Blitz championship in both sections.


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