India’s Koneru Humpy won the World Rapid Chess Championship title for a historic second time by defeating Indonesia’s Irene Sukandar here on Sunday. Humpy had won the event in Georgia in 2019 and is the second player after India’s number one woman Xu Wenjun of China to win the title more than once.
Thirty-seven-year-old Humpy ended the tournament with a score of 8.5 out of a possible 11. After registering the victory, Humpy said, “I am very excited and I am very happy.” I expected it to be a very tough day, like some kind of tie-break. But after I finished the match, I found out when the arbiter told me and it was a stressful moment for me.
The Indian player, who plays with the black pieces, said, “It is quite unexpected because I have been struggling throughout the year and had very poor performances in many tournaments where I finished last. So it comes as a surprise to me.” Hampi’s achievement capped off a great year for Indian chess. Earlier, D Gukesh had recently become the champion by defeating Ding Liren of China in the Classical Format World Championship in Singapore.
In September, India had created history by winning gold medals in the open and women’s categories for the first time in the Chess Olympiad in Budapest. The experienced Humpy admitted that she was not thinking about the title after the first round defeat. “I think after the first round loss I was not thinking about the title but things went well, especially winning four games in a row yesterday helped me,” she said.
However, Humpy also faced some challenges outside the game due to the huge time difference between India and America. “Yes, across the board, it was very difficult for me because of the time difference,” he said. There was lack of sleep. I haven’t been able to sleep properly since coming here. So it was not easy to play but I am happy that I was successful in doing so.
Humpy has always excelled in the World Rapid Championships. In this competition, he won bronze medal in Moscow in 2012 and silver medal in Samarkand, Uzbekistan last year. Humpy said that his victory will now inspire other Indians to play chess. He said, “I think this is the right time for India. We have Gukesh as world champion and now I have got my second world title in the rapid competition. So I think it will inspire a lot of youngsters to play chess professionally.
Russia’s 18-year-old Volodar Murzin won the men’s title. Murzin is the second youngest FIDE World Rapid Champion after Nodyrbek Abdussaturov. Nodirbek won the title at the age of 17.
