India’s Koneru Humpy grabs historic World Rapid Chess Championship title beating Irene Sukandar

Public Lokpal
December 29, 2024

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India’s Koneru Humpy grabs historic World Rapid Chess Championship title beating Irene Sukandar

New Delhi: India’s Koneru Humpy bagged an epochal second World Rapid Chess Championship title, beating Irene Sukandar of Indonesia 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.

The 37-year-old Humpy finished the tournament with 8.5 out of 11 points.

Humpy’s achievement capped a sensational year for Indian chess after D Gukesh defeated China’s Ding Liren to emerge champion in the classical format World Championship recently in Singapore. In September, India had won its first-ever gold medals in Open and Women's categories in the Chess Olympiad in Budapest.

The seasoned Humpy admitted that she was not thinking about the title after her first-round defeat here.

Later, the 18-year-old Volodar Murzin of Russia bagged the corresponding title in the men's section.

Murzin is the the second-youngest FIDE World Rapid Champion, after Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who claimed the title at 17.

PTI