IMAGE: This is Koneru Humpy’s second World Rapid title after she had triumphed in the 2019 edition in Moscow. Photograph: FIDE/Michal Walusza
India’s Koneru Humpy won an epochal second World Rapid Chess Championship title, beating Irene Sukandar of Indonesia 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.
Later in the day, 18-year-old Volodar Murzin of Russia bagged the corresponding title in the men’s section.
Murzin is the the second-youngest FIDE World Rapid champion, after Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who claimed the title at 17.
The 37-year-old Humpy finished the tournament with 8.5 out of 11 points.
“I’m very excited and I feel very happy. In fact, I expected it to be a very tough day, like some sort of tie-break. But when I finished the game, I only got to know when the arbitrator told me, 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 a lot and I had very bad tournaments where I just ended up in last place. So, this came as a surprise,” she added.
Humpy’s achievement capped a sensational year for Indian chess after D Gukesh defeated China’s Ding Liren to emerge champion in the classical format World Championship recently in Singapore.
IMAGE: Russia’s Volodar Murzin is the second-youngest FIDE World Rapid champion. Photograph: FIDE/Lennart Ootes
In September, India won its first-ever gold medals in Open and Women’s categories in the Chess Olympiad in Budapest.
The seasoned Humpy admitted that she was not thinking about the title after her first-round defeat in New York.
“I think, after the first round loss, I was nowhere thinking about the title, but things turned out well, especially yesterday winning the four games in a row helped me,” she said.
However, Humpy faced some challenges off the board too as well because of the big time-gap between India and the USA.
“Yeah, off the board, it was very difficult for me because of the time difference. I was lacking sleep. Literally, I haven’t slept properly since coming here. So, it wasn’t easy to play restlessly, but I’m happy that I managed to do it,” she added.
Humpy has always excelled in the Rapid Worlds as she won a bronze medal in the 2012 edition of the event held in Moscow, while finished with a silver last year at Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
Humpy said her victory will now prompt other Indians to take up chess.
“I think it’s high time for India. We also have Gukesh as World champion and now I got the second world title in the rapid event. So, I think this will motivate a lot of youngsters to take up chess professionally,” she concluded.
18-year-old Russian Grandmaster 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.
Final Standings: Women: 1. K Humpy 8.5; 2-7: Wenjun Ju (Chn), Kateryna Lagno (Fid), Zhongyi Tan (Chn), D Harika (Ind), Alexandra Kosteniuk (Sui), Afruja Khadamova (Uzb) 8 each.
Result of Indians: Divya Deshmukh (7); Padmini Rout (6.5); R Vaishali (5.5); Vantika Agarwal, Priyanka Nuttaki, Sahiti Varshini 5 each.
Men: 1. Volodar Murzin (FID, 10); 2-3. Alexander Grishchuk, Ian Nepomniachtchi (Both Fid) 9.5 each.
Result of Indians: Arjun Erigaisi (9); R Praggnanandhaa (8.5); Aravindh Chithamabaram (8); V Pranav (7.5); Raunak Saadhwani (7); V Karthik (7); Sandipan Chanda (6.5) Harsha Bharthakoti (6.5); Diptayan Ghosh (6).
