Koneru Humpy beat Lei Tingjie of China to win the Women’s World Rapid Chess Championship in Moscow on December 28. Magnus Carlsen won the men’s title in the world rapid championship for the third time in his career.
Crux of the Matter
Alireza Firouzja bagged the silver medal while Hikaru Nakamura took bronze in the Men’s category.
Lei Tingjie bagged the Silver medal and Turkey’s Ekaterina Atalik won the bronze medal in the Women’s category.
This is a significant triumph for Humpy, who is more at ease in the classical format and was clearly trying to take her skills in the rapid format to a new level.
After winning the title she said, “Yes, honestly, I was expecting at the most a top-three finish as there was no time for the preparations too for this event. Worked a bit on the Openings and I am glad to have pulled it off.”
Humpy’s father-cum-coach Koneru Ashok advised her to play tactically in the rapid format unlike in the Classical format where positional play is the preferred objective.
She also won the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix series by picking 30 crucial ELO points to be world No. 3.
She is now leading the Grand Prix which is part of the cycle for the next World championship.
Curiopedia
Humpy Koneru is an Indian chess grandmaster and current World Rapid Chess Champion. In October 2007, she became the second female player, after Judit Polgár, to exceed the 2600 Elo rating mark, being rated 2606. In 2002, Koneru became the youngest woman ever to achieve the title of grandmaster at the age of 15 years, 1 month, 27 days, beating Judit Polgár’s previous mark by three months; this record was subsequently broken by Hou Yifan in 2008. She was awarded the Arjuna Award in 2003 and Padma Shri in 2007. More Info
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