75 years of independence, 75 iconic moments from Indian sports: No 5 - 2019 Koneru Humpy wins World Rapid Chess title

India will complete 75 years of Independence this year. Here is a series acknowledging 75 great sporting achievements by Indian athletes. Sportstar will present one iconic sporting achievement each day, leading up to August 15, 2022.

Koneru Humpy wins World Rapid Chess title

December 26-28, 2019: Koneru Humpy returned from a two-year sabbatical to become the women’s world rapid chess champion.

In Moscow, Koneru Humpy finally won a World title in senior chess. She was expected to win one long ago, given her talent, single-mindedness and the ability to work hard.

Newly-crowned World rapid champion Koneru Humpy offers her commiserations to Lei Tingjie after their title-deciding match in 2019.   -  Flickr.com/FIDE

Her triumph at the women’s World rapid championship is the biggest achievement by an Indian after Viswanathan Anand’s many World titles. It makes India one among the few countries to have produced both male and female World rapid champions.

Last year, she received the Sportswoman of the Decade award at the Sportstar Aces Awards in 2021.

“Today is a very memorable moment for me, receiving the Sportswoman of the Decade award. This is very memorable because my association with Sportstar started quite early, when I was just around 10 years old.

Humpy had won the Sportstar Young Achievers Award in 1997 and was also awarded the Sportswoman of the Decade last year (File Photo)   -  GETTY IMAGES

I won the world youth championships in 1997 and that is when I was given the Sportstar Young Achievers Award, and it motivated me a lot to win many more laurels for the country. The next year, I won the world under-12 youth championships and received one more Young Achievers Award from Sportstar," she said.

(Excerpts from an article published in The Hindu in 2019)