Koneru Humpy Clinches Historic Women's Rapid Chess World Title

Grandmaster Koneru Humpy capped a wonderful year for Indian chess, defeating Irene Sukandar of Indonesia to emerge the FIDE Women's World Rapid Chess champion here on Sunday.

- Agencies

NEW YORK: Grandmaster Koneru Humpy capped a wonderful year for Indian chess, defeating Irene Sukandar of Indonesia to emerge the FIDE Women's World Rapid Chess champion here on Sunday.

Humpy had won the event back in 2019 at Georgia and the Indian No. 1 is only the second player after China's Ju Wenjun to clinch the title more than once. Humpy's achievement laced a sensational year for the chess fraternity after D Gukesh defeated China's Ding Liren to emerge champion in the classical format World Championship recently in Singapore. In September, India had also won its first-ever gold medals in Open and Women's categories in the Chess Olympiad in Budapest.

The Indian, who started the tournament here with a first-round defeat, was the lone winner in the 11th and final round, helping her to top the tables with 8.5 points, half a point clear of six others including compatriot D Harika.