Koneru Humpy (born 31 March 1987) is an Indian

chess Chess is a board game for two players. It is an abstract strategy game that involves Perfect information, no hidden information and no elements of game of chance, chance. It is played on a square chessboard, board consisting of 64 squares arran ...

grandmaster. Humpy is a runner-up of the

Women's World Chess Championship The Women's World Chess Championship is a chess match played to determine the Women's World Chess Champion. It has been administered by FIDE since its inception in 1927, unlike the absolute World Chess Championship, which only came under FIDE's ...

and the reigning two-time Women's World Rapid Chess Champion. In 2002, she became the youngest female player--and the first

India India, officially the Republic of India, is a country in South Asia. It is the List of countries and dependencies by area, seventh-largest country by area; the List of countries by population (United Nations), most populous country since ...

n female player--to achieve the title of Grandmaster, aged 15 years, 1 month, 27 days, a record only since surpassed by

Hou Yifan Hou Yifan ( ; born 27 February 1994) is a Chinese chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster, three-time Women's World Chess Champion and professor at Peking University. She is the second highest Elo rating system, rated female player of all time.

. Humpy is a gold medalist at the

Olympiad An olympiad (, ''Olympiás'') is a period of four years, particularly those associated with the Ancient Olympic Games, ancient and Olympic Games, modern Olympic Games. Although the ancient Olympics were established during Archaic Greece, Greece ...

Asian Games The Asian Games, also known as Asiad, is a continental multi-sport event held every four years for athletes of Asia. The Games were regulated by Asian Games Federation from the 1951 Asian Games, first Games in New Delhi, India in 1951, until ...

, and

Asian Championship An Asian Championship is a top level international sports competition between Asian athletes or sports teams representing their respective countries or professional sports clubs. List of championships (Summer Olympic Sports) ;Aquatics and wate ...

. In October 2007, she became the second female player, after

Judit Polgár Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian Grandmaster (chess), chess grandmaster, widely regarded as the Strong (chess), strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years ...

, to exceed the 2600

Elo rating The Elo rating system is a method for calculating the relative skill levels of players in zero-sum games such as chess or esports. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American chess master and physics professor. The Elo system wa ...

mark, being rated 2606. Humpy won the Women's World Rapid Chess Championship in

2019 This was the year in which the first known human case of COVID-19 was documented, preceding COVID-19 pandemic, the pandemic which was declared by the World Health Organization the following year. Up to that point, 2019 had been described as ...

and

2024 The year saw the list of ongoing armed conflicts, continuation of major armed conflicts, including the Russian invasion of Ukraine, the Myanmar civil war (2021–present), Myanmar civil war, the Sudanese civil war (2023–present), Sudane ...

Career

Humpy won three gold medals at the

World Youth Chess Championship The World Youth Chess Championship is a FIDE-organized worldwide chess competition for boys and girls under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18. History Twelve world champions are crowned every year. Since 2015 (OR 2016), the event has been s ...

: in 1997 (under-10 girls' division), 1998 (under-12 girls) and 2000 (under-14 girls). In 1999, at the Asian Youth Chess Championship, held in

Ahmedabad Ahmedabad ( ), also spelled Amdavad (), is the most populous city in the Indian state of Gujarat. It is the administrative headquarters of the Ahmedabad district and the seat of the Gujarat High Court. Ahmedabad's population of 5,570,585 ...

, she won the under-12 section, competing with the boys. In 2001, Humpy won the

World Junior Girls Championship The World Junior Girls Golf Championship () is an annual world amateur team golf championship for women under 18 organized in Canada. History The inaugural event was held in 2014. Medalists who have gone on to win on the LPGA Tour include Brooke ...

. In the following year's edition, she tied for first place with

Zhao Xue Zhao Xue (; born 6 April 1985) is a Chinese chess player. She is the 24th Chinese person to achieve the title of Grandmaster. Zhao was a member of the gold medal-winning Chinese team at the Women's Chess Olympiad in 2002, 2004 and 2016, and a ...

, but placed second on tiebreak. She became the eighth woman to earn the Grandmaster title in 2002, and the first Indian female player and the youngest female player to do so. She earned her first GM norm at the Hotel Lipa International in June 2001. Her second GM norm was at the 3rd Saturday GM tournament, which she won, in October 2001. She made her final GM norm in the Elekes Memorial, also tying for first place. Humpy competed with the boys in the 2004 World Junior Championship, which was won by

Pentala Harikrishna Pentala Harikrishna (born 10 May 1986) is an Indian chess Grandmaster (chess), grandmaster. He achieved a peak world ranking of 10 in November 2016, and a peak Elo rating system, Elo rating of 2770 in December 2016. On 17 August 2001, he bec ...

and tied for fifth place, finishing tenth on countback with a score of 8.5/13 points. Humpy won the British Women's Championship in 2000 and in 2002. In 2003, she won the 10th Asian Women's Individual Championship and the Indian Women's Championship. In 2005, she won the North Urals Cup, a

round-robin tournament A round-robin tournament or all-play-all tournament is a competition format in which each contestant meets every other participant, usually in turn.''Webster's Third New International Dictionary of the English Language, Unabridged'' (1971, G. & ...

held in

Krasnoturyinsk Krasnoturyinsk () is a town in Sverdlovsk Oblast, Russia, located on the Turya River ( Ob's basin), north of Yekaterinburg. Population: History It was one of the copper mining settlements established in 1758 on the Turya River. At the time, ...

, Russia featuring ten of the strongest female players in the world at the time. She participated in the

for the first time in

2004 2004 was designated as an International Year of Rice by the United Nations, and the International Year to Commemorate the Struggle Against Slavery and Its Abolition (by UNESCO). Events January * January 3 – Flash Airlines Flight 60 ...

and since then, she has competed in every edition of the event held with the knockout format. Humpy reached the semifinals in 2004,

2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...

and

2010 The year saw a multitude of natural and environmental disasters such as the 2010 Haiti earthquake, the Deepwater Horizon oil spill, and the 2010 Chile earthquake. The 2009 swine flu pandemic, swine flu pandemic which began the previous year ...

. In 2009, she tied for 1st–4th with

Alexander Areshchenko Alexander Areshchenko (; born June 15, 1986) is a Ukrainian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster in 2002. He has competed in the FIDE World Cup in 2005, 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2021. Career In 2000, Areshchenko won the Under 14 ...

, Magesh Panchanathan and Evgenij Miroshnichenko in the

Mumbai Mumbai ( ; ), also known as Bombay ( ; its official name until 1995), is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra. Mumbai is the financial capital and the most populous city proper of India with an estimated population of 12 ...

Mayor Cup. In 2009, Humpy accused the

All India Chess Federation The All India Chess Federation is the administrative body for the game of chess in India. Founded in 1951, the association is affiliated to the Asian Chess Federation and the International Chess Federation. Nitin Narang is the president of th ...

of preventing her from participating in the

37th Chess Olympiad The 37th Chess Olympiad (), organized by FIDE and comprising an openAlthough commonly referred to as the ''men's division'', this section is open to both male and female players. and a women's tournament, as well as several other events designed ...

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. Her father Koneru Ashok, who was coaching her, was not allowed to travel with her for tournaments. Humpy took part in the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2009–2011 and finished in overall second position, in turn qualifying as challenger for Women's World Chess Championship 2011. Hou Yifan won the match, winning three games and drawing five. She finished runner-up in the FIDE Women's Grand Prix series also in the 2011–12, 2013–14, 2015–16 and 2019–21 editions. She won the individual bronze at the Women's

World Team Chess Championship The World Team Chess Championship is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of 10 countries whose chess federations dominate their continent. It is played every two years. In chess, this tournament and the Chess Olympiads ...

2015 held in

Chengdu Chengdu; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ; Chinese postal romanization, previously Romanization of Chinese, romanized as Chengtu. is the capital city of the Chinese province of Sichuan. With a ...

, China. Team India finished fourth in the competition – a point behind China, which won the bronze medal. In 2019, she became women's World Rapid champion after coming back from a two-year maternity sabbatical. In 2020, Humpy won the BBC Indian Sportswoman of the year award, following a public vote. She also competed at the 2022 Chess Olympiad as part of the women's India team, which achieved a bronze medal. In 2023, Humpy was the runner up in the World Rapid championships. In 2024, she became the World Rapid champion for the second time in her career.

Personal life

Koneru Humpy was born in

Gudivada Gudivada is a city in Krishna district of the Indian state of Andhra Pradesh. It is a municipality and the headquarters of Gudivada mandal in Gudivada revenue division. It is one of the cities in the state to be a part of Andhra Pradesh Cap ...

Andhra Pradesh Andhra Pradesh (ISO 15919, ISO: , , AP) is a States and union territories of India, state on the East Coast of India, east coast of southern India. It is the List of states and union territories of India by area, seventh-largest state and th ...

, on 31 March 1987. She was originally named "Hampi" by her parents, Koneru Ashok and Koneru Latha, who derived the name from the word "champion". Her father later changed the spelling to Humpy, to more closely resemble a Russian-sounding name. She was coached in chess at a young age by her father Ashok after he discovered her talent when she suggested a move as played out by a game from '' The Chess Informator''. It was 1993, and Humpy was six-years-old then. In the same year, she won the

Vijayawada Vijayawada ( ), formerly known by its colonial name Bezawada, is the second largest city and a major commercial hub in the Andhra Pradesh state of India. The city forms an integral part of the Andhra Pradesh Capital Region and is situated on th ...

city and

Krishna district Krishna district is a district in the Coastal Andhra region in Indian state of Andhra Pradesh, with Machilipatnam as its administrative headquarters. It is surrounded on the East by Bay of Bengal, West by Guntur district, Guntur, Bapatla distric ...

under-eight championships. She won the State-level championships in 1994 and 1995 and qualified for the national under-eight championship for girls in

Madurai Madurai ( , , ), formerly known as Madura, is a major city in the States and union territories of India, Indian state of Tamil Nadu. It is the cultural capital of Tamil Nadu and the administrative headquarters of Madurai District, which is ...

in 1995, where she finished fourth. From that year, her father started coaching her exclusively. She would then go on to win the national under-10 championship for girls in 1996 in

, which led to a qualification for the 1997 World Under-10 Girls Chess Championship at

Cannes Cannes (, ; , ; ) is a city located on the French Riviera. It is a communes of France, commune located in the Alpes-Maritimes departments of France, department, and host city of the annual Cannes Film Festival, Midem, and Cannes Lions Internatio ...

, France, which she would go on to win. In August 2014, Humpy married Dasari Anvesh. They have a daughter together named Ahana (b. 2017). Since 2016, Humpy has been working with

Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited The Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC) is an Indian Public Sector Undertakings in India, central public sector undertaking which is the largest government-owned oil and gas explorer and producer in the country. It accounts for aroun ...

(ONGC).

FIDE Women's Grand Prix Titles

Achievements

* 1999: Asia's youngest Woman International Master (WIM) * 2001: India's youngest Woman Grandmaster (WGM) * 2012: Bronze at Women's

World Rapid Chess Championship The World Rapid Chess Championship is a chess tournament held to determine the world champion in chess played under fast chess, rapid time controls. Prior to 2012, FIDE gave such recognition to a limited number of tournaments, with non-FIDE reco ...

* 2019: Skolkovo Women's Grand Prix 2019–20 * 2019: Monaco Women's Grand Prix 2019–20 * 2019: Women's

* 2020: Gold at

Cairns Cup The Cairns Cup is an annual round robin chess tournament, founded in 2019, for the leading women's chess players held in St. Louis, Missouri in the United States. The tournament was named after St Louis Chess Club co-founder and World Chess Hall o ...

* 2020: Silver at Speed Chess Championship * 2020: Gold at

FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020 The FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020 was an online chess tournament organised by the FIDE, Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) and hosted by Chess.com. It was held between 24 July and 30 August. The event was organised after the 44th C ...

* 2021: Bronze at

FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2021 The FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2021 was the second FIDE Online Chess Olympiad, an annual online chess tournament organised by the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) since 2020, following the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was v ...

* 2022: Bronze at

44th Chess Olympiad The 44th Chess Olympiad was an international team chess event organised by the FIDE, International Chess Federation (FIDE) in Chennai, India, from 28 July to 10 August 2022. It consisted of two main tournaments—an Open event, enabling partic ...

* 2022: Gaprindashvili Cup Team Winner at

* 2022: Silver at Women's

World Blitz Chess Championship 2022 The 2022 World Blitz Chess Championship was the 2nd edition of the annual chess tournament held by FIDE to determine the world champion in chess played under blitz time controls. Since 2012, FIDE has held the World World Rapid Chess Championship ...

* 2023: Silver at Global Chess League Global Chess League * 2023: Silver at Women's Tata Steel India Chess Tournament Blitz * 2024: Silver at Women's Candidates Tournament Women's Candidates Tournament 2024 * 2024: Winner of the

Awards

* 2003:

Arjuna Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards given for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjun ...

* 2007:

Padma Shri The Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī'', lit. 'Lotus Honour'), also spelled Padma Shree, is the fourth-highest Indian honours system, civilian award of the Republic of India, after the Bharat Ratna, the Padma Vibhushan and the Padma Bhushan. In ...

* 2021:

BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year The BBC (British Broadcasting Corporation) Indian Sportswoman of the Year Award (abbreviated as BBC ISWOTY) is an initiative first announced in December 2019 by BBC Hindi to celebrate and honour sportswomen from India who have excelled in their c ...

* 2021: Sportstar Aces Sportswoman of the Decade (Individual non-Olympic Sports) * 2022: Player of the Chess Tournament at PSPB Inter-unit Chess and Bridge Tournament (Mumbai)

References

External links

* * * (1997–2000)
Interview with GM Humpy Humpy by LastChess.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Koneru, Humpy 1987 births Living people People from Krishna district Sportswomen from Andhra Pradesh Sportswomen from Vijayawada, India Indian female chess players Chess Grandmasters Female chess grandmasters World Youth Chess Champions World Junior Chess Champions Chess Olympiad competitors Asian Games medalists in chess Asian Games gold medalists for India Asian Games silver medalists for India Chess players at the 2006 Asian Games Chess players at the 2022 Asian Games 21st-century Indian chess players Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games Medalists at the 2022 Asian Games Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports Recipients of the Arjuna Award