Hubbry Logo
search
logo
2178475

Koneru Humpy

logo
Community Hub0 Subscribers
Write something...
Be the first to start a discussion here.
Be the first to start a discussion here.
See all
Koneru Humpy

Koneru Humpy (born 31 March 1987) is an Indian chess grandmaster. Koneru is a runner-up of the Women's World Chess Championship and the reigning two-time Women's World Rapid Chess Champion. In 2002, she became the youngest female player—and the first Indian female player—to achieve the title of Grandmaster, aged 15 years, 1 month, 27 days, a record only since surpassed by Hou Yifan. Koneru is a gold medallist at the Olympiad, Asian Games, and Asian Championship.

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

Koneru won the Women's World Rapid Chess Championship in 2019 and 2024.

Koneru Humpy was born in a Telugu family on 31 March 1987 in Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh. 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 Koneru was six years old. In the same year, she 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, Koneru married Dasari Anvesh. They had a daughter in 2017. Since 2016, Koneru has been working with Oil and Natural Gas Corporation Limited (ONGC).

Koneru 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 woman to earn the Grandmaster title in 2002, and the first Indian female player and the youngest female player to do so. She earned her first GM norm at the Hotel Lipa International in June 2001. Her second GM norm was at the 3rd Saturday GM tournament, which she won, in October 2001. She made her final GM norm in the Elekes Memorial, also tying for first place. 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.

Koneru 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.

See all
User Avatar
No comments yet.