Koneru Humpy (born 31 March 1987) is an Indian

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

player best known for winning the FIDE Women's rapid chess championship in 2019. In 2002, she became the youngest woman ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster (GM) at the age of 15 years, 1 month, 27 days, beating

Judit Polgár Judit Polgár (born 23 July 1976) is a Hungarian chess grandmaster, generally considered the strongest female chess player of all time. In 1991, Polgár achieved the title of Grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 4 months, at the time the yo ...

's previous record by three months (this record was subsequently broken by

Hou Yifan Hou Yifan ( ; born 27 February 1994) is a Chinese chess grandmaster, four-time Women's World Chess Champion and the second highest rated female player of all time.

in 2008). In October 2007, Humpy became the second female player, after Polgár, 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. It is named after its creator Arpad Elo, a Hungarian-American physics professor. The Elo system was invented as an improved ch ...

mark, being rated 2606.

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. Twelve world champions are crowned every year. Since 2015, the event has been split into "World Cade ...

: 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 ( ; Gujarati: 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 (per t ...

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

World Junior Girls Championship The World Junior Girls Championship (french: Championnat Mondial Junior Féminin) is an annual world amateur team golf championship for women under 18 organized in Canada. The inaugural event was held in 2014. Format The competition is open to fem ...

. 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 ...

, but placed second on tiebreak. She became the eighth ever female Grandmaster in 2002. 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. He became the youngest grandmaster from India after attaining the title in 2001, a record now held by Gukesh D. He was Commonwealth Champion in 2001, World Junior ...

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-go-away-tournament) is a competition Competition is a rivalry where two or more parties strive for a common goal which cannot be shared: where one's gain is the other's loss (an example of which is a zero ...

held in

Krasnoturyinsk Krasnoturyinsk (russian: Краснотурьи́нск) 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 i ...

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

Women's World Chess Championship The Women's World Chess Championship (WWCC) is played to determine the world champion in women's chess. Like the World Chess Championship, it is administered by FIDE. Unlike with most sports recognized by the International Olympic Committee, wher ...

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

2008 File:2008 Events Collage.png, From left, clockwise: Lehman Brothers went bankrupt following the Subprime mortgage crisis; Cyclone Nargis killed more than 138,000 in Myanmar; A scene from the opening ceremony of the 2008 Summer Olympics in Beijing; ...

and

2010 File:2010 Events Collage New.png, From top left, clockwise: The 2010 Chile earthquake was one of the strongest recorded in history; The Eruption of Eyjafjallajökull in Iceland disrupts air travel in Europe; A scene from the opening ceremony of ...

. In 2009, she tied for 1st–4th with

Alexander Areshchenko Alexander Areshchenko ( uk, Олександр Арещенко, Oleksandr 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 ...

, Magesh Panchanathan and

Evgenij Miroshnichenko Evgenij Miroshnichenko (born December 28, 1978) is a Ukrainian chess player. He was awarded the title of Grandmaster by FIDE in 2002. Miroshnichenko won the Ukrainian Chess Championship in 2003 and 2008. Also in 2003 he tied for 1st–3rd with ...

in the

Mumbai Mumbai (, ; also known as Bombay — the official name until 1995) is the capital city of the Indian state of Maharashtra and the ''de facto'' financial centre of India. According to the United Nations, as of 2018, Mumbai is the second- ...

Mayor Cup. In 2009, Humpy accused the

All India Chess Federation The All India Chess Federation (AICF) is central administrative body for the game of chess in India. Founded in 1951, the federation is affiliated to Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE), the world body for chess. The AICF has produce ...

of preventing her from participating in the

37th Chess Olympiad The 37th Chess Olympiad ( it, Le 37° Olimpiadi degli scacchi), 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 we ...

Turin Turin ( , Piedmontese language, Piedmontese: ; it, Torino ) 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 ...

. Her father Humpy 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 The Women's World Chess Championship 2011 was the 35th of its kind. It was organised by FIDE and was played in a match format between the defending champion and a challenger, determined via the FIDE Grand Prix series. On 8 August 2011 the match ...

. Hou Yifan won the match, winning three games and drawing five. Humpy 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 (, ; Simplified Chinese characters, simplified Chinese: 成都; pinyin: ''Chéngdū''; Sichuanese dialects, Sichuanese pronunciation: , Standard Chinese pronunciation: ), Chinese postal romanization, alternatively Romanization of Chi ...

, 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. Humpy is representing India at 2022 Chess Olympiad which is being held in Mahabalipuram, Tamilnadu.

Personal life

She was originally named "Hampi" by her parents (Koneru Ashok and Latha Ashok) who derived the name from the word "champion". Her father later changed the spelling to Humpy, to more closely resemble a Russian-sounding name. In August 2014 she married Dasari Anvesh. Currently she is working with ONGC Ltd. She gave birth to a baby daughter who is named Ahana in 2017.

Awards and achievements

* 1999: Asia's youngest Woman International Master (WIM) * 2001: India's youngest Woman Grandmaster (WGM) * 2003:

Arjuna Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards 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 Arjuna, one ...

* 2007:

Padma Shri Padma Shri (IAST: ''padma śrī''), 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. Instituted on 2 January 1954, ...

* 2019: Skolkovo Women's Grand Prix 2019–20 * 2019: Monaco Women's Grand Prix 2019–20 * 2019: 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 rapid time controls. Prior to 2012, FIDE gave such recognition to a limited number of tournaments, with non-FIDE recognized tourn ...

* 2020: Cairns Cup * 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 Ch ...

* 2021: BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year * 2021: Bronze at FIDE Online Chess Olympiad 2021 * 2022: Bronze at 44th Chess Olympiad * 2022: Gaprindashvili Cup Team Winner at 44th Chess Olympiad

References

External links

* * * (1997–2000)
Interview with GM Humpy Humpy by LastChess.com
* {{DEFAULTSORT:Koneru, Humpy 1987 births Living people 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 Chess players at the 2006 Asian Games Medalists at the 2006 Asian Games People from Krishna district Recipients of the Padma Shri in sports Recipients of the Arjuna Award Sportspeople from Vijayawada Sportswomen from Andhra Pradesh Sportswomen from Vijayawada, India 21st-century Indian women 20th-century Indian women People from Andhra Pradesh People from Vijayawada Women from Andhra Pradesh Sportspeople from Andhra Pradesh

Career

Personal life

Awards and achievements

See also

References

External links