‘Didn’t expect to win’, Koneru Humpy

Braving all odds 37yearold Koneru Humpy stood on the podium for the third time in the World Rapid Chess Championship She won the World Rapid title for the first time in 2019 at Georgia and was runnerup last year She lost one drew three and won seven matches in the 11round competition to emerge champion and thus became the second player in the world after Chinarsquos Ju Wenjun to win the Rapid World title for the second time in New York on SundayTough competitionThe Indian Grandmaster defeated Irene Sukandar of Indonesia to finish at the top with 85 points out of 11 ldquoIt is very special In fact I didnrsquot expect to win it because the competition was too high Today morning I felt that it could go to a tiebreaker But things turned out in my favour as none of the other competitors won their final rounds That cleared the path for me and incidentally I was aware of winning the title after I finished the gamersquorsquo said a delighted HumpyAlso ReadSteve OrsquoKeefe Donrsquot think India will be batting for a drawSpeaking from New York Humpy felt this title is a big relief as she struggled coming into this tournament ldquoAfter Candidates I struggled a lot I even ended up in last place in the previous two tournaments I was very low at the start of this tournament There were thoughts of whether it is time to quit the game I had to struggle to win this world title I was 10th seed in this competition This is one of my memorable victoriesrdquo Humpy explainedStressing on how she hates losing the Vijayawadabased GM said she was determined to win this tournament ldquoI hate losing and never wanted to end up as a loser I always wanted to win and become the No 1 player I think that motivated me despite my poor runup to this tournament It is not easy to win a world title when you are 37 and also a mother of a sevenyearold It is quite a challenge because there is fierce competition around There are many young chess players who can beat any player in the world In shorter time control you need to have a lot of energy Irsquom happy that I made itrdquo she saidShe recalled being a little younger when she won her first Rapid World title win in 2019 ldquoI was a little younger then when I won my first world title Now with youngsters coming up I at 37 cannot be sharp like them Considering the age factor sometimes things donrsquot fall your way But I think I overcame all these hurdlesrdquo Humpy remarkedHumpy who has an ELO rating of 2431 in World Rapid ranking revealed that she had no regrets of missing the Olympiad where the Indian women and menrsquos teams made history by winning gold for the first time ldquoI had personal reasons to quit the tournament I think my focus is more as an individual playerrdquoAn emotional Humpy said she misses her daughter Ahana a lot whenever she goes out to play tournaments ldquoShe knows that I am a chess player and I travel around a lot for tournaments Now she keeps asking me about the placings like how I finished in the tournaments or whether I won a medal or not I havenrsquot spoken with her yet as it is too early the interview was done at 7 am IST My parents take care of my daughter Of course whenever I have long tournaments she misses me a lot and falls sick Now I play a limited number of tournaments I donrsquot play two or three tournaments at a stretchrsquorsquoBoom in Indian chessHumpy is glad about the allround success in Indiarsquos chess like the Indian team winning the Olympiad gold and D Gukesh clinching the classical world title She said ldquoIt is a great moment for India as we won gold in Olympiads and Gukesh won the World title The boom in Indian chess is going in a positive way that has made the country proudrsquorsquo Humpyrsquos next tournament is World Blitz which starts in two daysrsquo time at the same venue