Koneru Humpy

Koneru Humpy (born 31 March 1987) is an Indian chess 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's previous record by three months (this record was subsequently broken by Hou Yifan in 2008). Humpy is the first Indian female grandmaster.

In October 2007, Humpy became the second female player, after Polgár, to exceed the 2600 Elo rating mark, being rated 2606.

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 ever female Grandmaster in 2002. 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 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 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.

In 2009, she tied for 1st–4th with Alexander Areshchenko, Magesh Panchanathan and Evgenij Miroshnichenko in the Mumbai Mayor Cup.

In 2009, Humpy accused the All India Chess Federation of preventing her from participating in the 37th Chess Olympiad in Turin. 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. 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 2015 held in Chengdu, 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 competed at the 2022 Chess Olympiad as part of the women's India team, which achieved a bronze medal.

Personal life
Koneru Humpy was born in Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh, 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, Humpy 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 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 Mumbai, which led to a qualification for the 1997 World Under-10 Girls Chess Championship at Cannes, 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).

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

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)