“Golden Era For Indian Chess”: Koneru Humpy After Scripting History

Grandmaster Koneru Humpy capped off a wonderful year for Indian chess, defeating Irene Sukandar of Indonesia to emerge the FIDE Women’s World Rapid Chess champion in New York on Sunday. Humpy had won the event back in 2019 at Georgia and the Indian No. 1 is only the second player after China’s Ju Wenjun to clinch the title more than once. Humpy’s achievement laced a sensational year for the chess fraternity after D Gukesh defeated China’s Ding Liren to emerge champion in the classical format World Championship recently in Singapore. In September, India had also won its first-ever gold medals in Open and Women’s categories in the Chess Olympiad in Budapest.

The Indian, who started the tournament with a first-round defeat, was the lone winner in the 11th and final round, helping her to top the tables with 8.5 points, half a point clear of six others including compatriot D Harika.

“It was indeed a very happy moment for me because this is my second world title, and I think it’s a golden era for Indian chess having two world champions in the same year. Definitely, this will, motivate lot of youngsters to become professionals,” said Koneru while speaking to NDTV in an exclusive interview.

Meanwhile in the open section, young 18-year-old Russian Grandmaster Volodar Murzin won the gold medal ahead of a star studded field showing tremendous nerves.

The defining point for Murzin was his penultimate round game against R Praggnanandhaa wherein the latter had a winning position that slipped out through a one-move blunder.

Turning the tables quickly, Murzin shot into sole lead after the 12th and penultimate round and then defended a slightly worse endgame to seal the victory with 10 points in all.

It was an all-Russian show in the open section as Alexander Grischuk finished second while the third place went to former world championship challenger Ian Nepomniachtchi who both ended with 9.5 points.

Arjun Erigaisi scored 9 points and tied for the fourth spot with five others while Praggnanandhaa ended on 8.5 points. Among other Indians, Aravindh Chithambaram was the next best performer on 8 points.

(With agency inputs)