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 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. 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. In October 2007, she became the second female player, after Judit Polgár, to exceed the 2600 Elo rating mark, being rated 2606. Humpy won the Women's World Rapid Chess Championship in 2019 and 2024.

Career

Humpy won three gold medals at the World Youth Chess Championship: 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, she won the under-12 section, competing with the boys. In 2001, Humpy won the World Junior Girls Championship. In the following year's edition, she tied for first place with Zhao Xue, 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 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, Russia featuring ten of the strongest female players in the world at the time. She participated in the Women's World Chess Championship 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 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, 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 of preventing her from participating in the 37th Chess Olympiad in

Turin Turin ( , ; ; , then ) is a city and an important business and cultural centre in northern Italy. It is the capital city of Piedmont and of the Metropolitan City of Turin, and was the first Italian capital from 1861 to 1865. The city is main ...

. 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 2015 held in

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, 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,

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 city and Krishna district 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 (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 * 2019: Skolkovo Women's Grand Prix 2019–20 * 2019: Monaco Women's Grand Prix 2019–20 * 2019: Women's World Rapid Chess Championship * 2020: Gold at Cairns Cup * 2020: Silver at Speed Chess Championship * 2020: Gold at FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2020 * 2021: Bronze at FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2021 * 2022: Bronze at 44th Chess Olympiad * 2022: Gaprindashvili Cup Team Winner at 44th Chess Olympiad * 2022: Silver at Women's World Blitz Chess Championship 2022 * 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 World Rapid Chess Championship

Awards

* 2003: Arjuna Award * 2007: Padma Shri * 2021: BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year * 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