The Grandmaster: Koneru Humpy

The Grandmaster: Koneru Humpy

The Spirit Athletics team is so excited to travel (virtually) more than 8,000 miles to find the chess grandmaster, Koneru Humpy, in India. Humpy is an Indian chess player who is the current women’s World Rapid Chess champion and 2020 BBC Indian Sportswoman of the year. Humpy was born in Andra Pradesh, India to the parents Ashok and Latha Koneru. Her father, who is a chess player himself, identified the potential of chess in her and started coaching her at the very young age of 6. And the rest is history now. Humpy won three gold medals at the World Youth Chess Championship before she turned 14 years old. In 2002, she became the youngest woman chess grandmaster at the age of 15 years and 57 days. In March 2020, she won the Cairns Cup in the United States of America by scoring 2,502 points. The Republic of India honored Humpy with the Padma Shri, the fourth-highest civilian award and Arjuna Award, the highest sports performace award. Humpy started breaking the gender barriers in chess by competing and winning against men in the open competitions. Humpy is now the mother of a four-year-old daughter. She said after receiving her BBC ISWOTY award, “A female player should never think about quitting her game. Marriage and motherhood are just part of our life and they should not change the course of our lives.” Well done, grandmaster!