"Parents Look After My Daughter": Koneru Humpy On Family's Role In Her Historic Women's Rapid Chess World Title Win

Grandmaster Koneru Humpy capped 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 here 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.

“I'm very excited and happy. In fact, I expected it to be a very tough day, like some sort of tie-break. But when I finished the game, the arbitrator told me (about winning), and it was a tense moment for me,” said Humpy, who began with black pieces, after her victory.

“So, this is quite unexpected because the whole year I have been struggling and I had very bad tournaments where I just ended up in last place. So, this came as a surprise,” she added.

Ju Wenjun of China finished second as the tie-break was resolved while Kateryna Lagno of Russia ended third. Harika, who had eight points, had to be content with a fifth-place finish.

Humpy credited her family for the success.

“I think it was possible because of the support from my family. My husband and my parents…they support me a lot. My parents look after my daughter when I travel.

“It's not easy