Thirty two years old, Koneru Humpy, on December 28, 2019, became the first Indian after Viswanathan Anand to win a senior world championship when she won the World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championships in Moscow.
Humpy beat China’s Lei Tingjie in a winner-take-all Armageddon decider. She got four minutes playing black pieces while her opponent, who had an extra minute and needed victory with white to take the title.
Humpy forced the draw while holding a slight advantage to seal the title.
About Koneru Humpy
Koneru Humpy from Vijayawada won three age-group crowns in the late 1990s — girls’ U-10, U-12 and U-14 — and was just 15 when she got the Grandmaster tag, joining the elite of world chess.
In 2007, when she breached the 2,600 mark in the elo ratings (points that denote a player’s strength) Humpy was only the second woman player to achieve that level after Judit Polgar.
