Koneru Humpy has done for Indian women’s chess what Sania Mirza has done for Indian women’s tennis and Saina Nehwal for Indian women’s badminton. Humpy’s stirring exploits at the international level have brought more women into the game. And she keeps raising the bar higher and higher. Consistency has been her middle name. By winning the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix recently in Istanbul she has added another feather to her cap. Securing 8.5 points from 11 rounds, Humpy triumphed in a strong women’s tournament featuring the likes of world championship finalist Hou Yifan, former world champions Antoaneta Stefanova and Maia Chiburdanidze, apart from strong players like Pia Cramling and Zhao Xue.
This victory will help Humpy gain valuable Grand Prix points. The winner of the women’s Grand Prix series (six tournaments concluding by 2010) will challenge the women’s world champion in a 10-game match in 2011 for the world title. Having won the first leg, Humpy will be looking to perform consistently in the GP series to get a shot at the world title.
At the start of the final round it was a three-way race for first place between leaders Humpy, Hou and Zhao. While Humpy defeated Frenchwoman Marie Sebag; Hou could manage only a draw against Shen Yang and Zhao lost to Elina Danielian. This helped India’s No1 women’s player win by half a point in what looked to be Hou’s tournament at one point. Humpy’s spurt at the end (3.5 points out of a possible 4) proved decisive.
“It was one of my best victories. This triumph will help me in my pursuit of the world title,” said a delighted Humpy, who rates her victories over Danielian, Stefanova and Chiburdanidze as the best in the tournament. Humpy outplayed Ciburdanidze and Daneilian positionally, besides converting a better position against Stefanova into victory with precise moves.
Humpy, who is a deputy manager (HR, Hyderabad) in the Oil and Natural Gas Commission (ONGC), came up with another impressive performance recently, winning the inter-petroleum individual title, upstaging India No 3 Krishnan Sasikiran and No 4 Surya Shekhar Ganguly in the process. She is currently ranked No 5 among Indians, including men, after Viswanathan Anand, P Harikrishna, Sasikiran and Ganguly.
Humpy, who is the second highest-ever ranked women’s player in the history of chess after Judit Polgar, also experimented with new openings with the black pieces in Istanbul, which is a prerequisite for evolution as a player. With 2612 rating points, though she is pegged at No 2 in the FIDE list behind Judit Polgar, Humpy is effectively the top player in the women’s game because the Hungarian doesn’t play in the women’s circuit.
Humpy, who will be playing in the Mumbai Mayors Cup (April 30 to May 10) next, aims to play more in the men’s circuit, and thereby improve her rating to 2650. She has also received an invitation for a closed category 16 event in Spain in June. When queried which part of her game she needs to improve, Humpy had this to say: “I need to improve my tactical skills and widen my opening repertoire.” Humpy, who admires Anand and Judit among chess players, is happy the way women’s chess has progressed in India, adding: “It has improved a lot. More women are competing now which is good for Indian chess.” While not playing tournaments, Humpy works seven hours at home on different aspects of the game. Of course, during tournaments, her ‘working’ hours are even more, she says with a smile.
guiding hand
The gamble of Humpy’s father, Ashok Koneru, to resign from his job as a lecturer with the idea of helping his daughter become a world-class chess player has, in hindsight, proved to be the right decision. Ashok spotted genuine talent in Humpy and took a bold decision. The rest, as they say is, history. Ashok is coach, friend, philosopher and guide to his daughter.
“He has always been very supportive. He studies my opponents’ games and helps me in selecting which opening to play, besides giving me ideas on how to play against specific opponents,” is how Humpy sums up her father’s role.
For his years of toil and contribution in Humpy reaching dizzy heights, the Indian government conferred the Dronacharya award on Ashok in 2007.
meteoric rise
From winning the national U-8 title in 1995 to becoming the top active women’s player in the world, it has been one success after another for the amiable Humpy. She has a phenomenal record in age-group tournaments, winning the world U-10, U-12 and U-14 titles. Humpy followed up by these achievements by winning the world junior title in 2001 in Athens at the age of 14. In the process, she became the second Indian after Anand to win a world junior crown. Humpy then broke Judit Polgar’s record by becoming the youngest woman to become a GM at the age of 15 in 2002. She held this record till 2008, when Hou broke it.
Other high points of Humpy’s career include her winning two gold medals for India (individual and team event) in the Doha Asian Games in 2006, and coming first in a strong open tournament in Kaupthing, Luxembourg, in 2007 — a feat which helped her cross the 2600-mark.
Earlier in her career, Humpy benefited from the exposure she received while playing the Chalapathi International Grandmaster Chess Tournament at Guntur in 2000, which had highly-rated GMs like Andrey Shariyazdanov, Ildar Ibragimov and Leonid Yurtaev. Humpy was then a student at the Chalapathy Residency School, who sponsored the event. She performed above her rating and scored her first victory over a GM by shocking Pravin Thipsay. She also once had the opportunity to interact with world champion Viswanathan Anand, who invited some of the best juniors in India to train with him for a short camp in Chennai. To keep herself fit, Humpy works out in the gym for an hour every day and unwinds by listening to music.
The only thing missing in her CV is the women’s world title. She had a good shot at the title in 2008 but lost a nerve-racking blitz tiebreaker to Hou in the semifinals of the world championship in Nalchik. The way she is progressing, Humpy has a good chance of winning the world title sooner rather than later.
Father factor
Humpy’s father and coach Ashok Koneru is delighted with his daughter’s victory in the FIDE Women’s GP in Istanbul. Excerpts from an interview...
On Humpy’s win in Istanbul
It is was one of her best victories. Her victories over former world champions Maia Chiburdanidze and Antaoneta Stefanova were excellent. In some of the games, she played like a player with a rating of 2700.
On where she needs to improve
Her middlegame and endgame.
On future goals
I want to focus on Humpy till she becomes world champion. After that, my chief aim will be to produce more Humpys.
On receiving the Dronacharya award
I’m very happy to win the award. It puts more responsibility on me.
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