Koneru Humpy wins World Rapid Chess Championship, Anand Mahindra has special message for the Grandmaster

Indian Chess Grandmaster Koneru Humpy won an epochal second World Rapid Chess Championship title, beating Irene Sukandar of Indonesia on Sunday.

She had won the event back in 2019 at Georgia. The top ranked Indian 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.



"I'm very excited and I feel very happy. In fact, I expected it to be a very tough day, like some sort of tie-break. But when I finished the game, I only got to know when the arbitrator told me, and it was a tense moment for me," said Humpy, who began with black pieces, after her victory.

"So, this is quite unexpected because the whole year I have been struggling a lot and I had very bad tournaments where I just ended up in last place. So, this came as a surprise," she added.

Humpy's achievement finished 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.

Anand Mahindra's message for Kuneru Humpy

Industrialist Anand Mahindra had a special message for the Grandmaster on social media platform X.

“An Indian Queen rules the board. Thank you Koneru Humpy for making us so proud. And for providing a winning and fitting finale to what has been an absolutely brilliant year for Indian chess!” the business mogul wrote. He concluded his post with clapping and Indian flag emoticons.

Social media reactions

People posted congratulatory and praiseful posts on Anand Mahindra’s share. An individual wrote, “Congratulations. well done keep going Humpy madam.” Another posted, “Congratulations. Well done.” A third reacted with folded hands emoticons.

“So, this is quite unexpected because the whole year I have been struggling a lot and I had very bad tournaments where I just ended up in last place. So, this came as a surprise,” she added.