Year 2024 has given another crown to Indian Chess. Indian Chess Grand Master and Telugu player Koneru Humpy clinched her second World Rapid Chess Championship title by defeating Irene Sukandar from Indonesia in the New York tournament on Sunday.
Humpy's success marked a remarkable year for Indian chess after Dommaraju Gukesh triumphed over China's Ding Liren to claim victory in the classical format World Championship recently held in Singapore.
Recently, Gukesh became the FIDE World Champion. Now, Humpy (37) became the winner of the FIDE World Rapid Championship. Humpy, who won the World Rapid title for the first time in 2019, was stood in third place in 2012 and runner-up in 2023. Humpy has earned the honour of being a grandmaster that has been in the top-3 four times in the World Rapid Championships.
At the age of 37 years, Koneru Humpy is seeded 10 in the tournament. No one considered her as a favourite in the title race. But she was roughed up in the rapid round. She was in joint-top position before the start of the final round, achieved a stunning victory in the final round. She won the title by making moves with the black pieces against Indonesian Grandmaster Irin Sukandar.
Humpy topped the table with 8.5 points and won the title. Chinese Grandmaster Zhu Wenjun (8), Lagno (8), Tan (8), Dronavalli Harika (8), Afroza (8), and Alexandra (8) finished in the top-7 with a difference of 0.5 points. In the open category, Russian Grandmaster Volodar Margin (18) emerged victorious. Arjun Erigeshi settled for fifth place.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi and many celebrities and popular leaders congratulated Koneru Humpy for becoming the rapid champion in the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship. They posted on social media saying that Humpy's victory is a matter of pride for the country.
