Koneru Humpy is an Indian chess grandmaster. Humpy is a runner-up of the Women’s World Chess Championship and the reigning two-time Women’s World Rapid Chess Champion. In 2002, she became the youngest woman ever to achieve the title of Grandmaster aged 15 years, 1 month, 27 days, a record only since surpassed by Hou Yifan. Humpy is a gold medalist at the Olympiad, Asian Games, and Asian Championship. She is also the first Indian female grandmaster.
In October 2007, Humpy became the second female player, after Judit Polgár, to exceed the 2600 Elo rating mark, being rated 2606.
Humpy won the Women’s World Rapid Chess Championship in 2019 and 2024.
Humpy won three gold medals at the World Youth Chess Championship: in 1997 (under-10 girls’ division), 1998 (under-12 girls) and 2000 (under-14 girls). In 1999, at the Asian Youth Chess Championship, held in Ahmedabad, she won the under-12 section, competing with the boys. In 2001 Humpy won the World Junior Girls Championship. In the following year’s edition, she tied for first place with Zhao Xue, but placed second on tiebreak. She became the eighth woman to earn the Grandmaster title in 2002, and the youngest to do so. She earned her first GM norm at the Hotel Lipa International in June 2001. Her second GM norm was at the 3rd Saturday GM tournament, which she won, in October 2001. She made her final GM norm in the Elekes Memorial, also tying for first place. Humpy competed with the boys in the 2004 World Junior Championship, which was won by Pentala Harikrishna and tied for fifth place, finishing tenth on countback with a score of 8.5/13 points.
Humpy won the British Women’s Championship in 2000 and in 2002. In 2003, she won the 10th Asian Women’s Individual Championship and the Indian Women’s Championship. In 2005, she won the North Urals Cup, a round-robin tournament held in Krasnoturyinsk, Russia featuring ten of the strongest female players in the world at the time.
She participated in the Women’s World Chess Championship for the first time in 2004 and since then, she has competed in every edition of the event held with the knockout format. Humpy reached the semifinals in 2004, 2008 and 2010.
In 2009, she tied for 1st–4th with Alexander Areshchenko, Magesh Panchanathan and Evgenij Miroshnichenko in the Mumbai Mayor Cup.
In 2009, Humpy accused the All India Chess Federation of preventing her from participating in the 37th Chess Olympiad in Turin. Her father Koneru Ashok, who was coaching her, was not allowed to travel with her for tournaments.
Humpy took part in the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix 2009–2011 and finished in overall second position, in turn qualifying as challenger for Women’s World Chess Championship 2011. Hou Yifan won the match, winning three games and drawing five. Humpy finished runner-up in the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix series also in the 2011–12, 2013–14, 2015–16 and 2019–21 editions.
She won the individual bronze at the Women’s World Team Chess Championship 2015 held in Chengdu, China. Team India finished fourth in the competition – a point behind China, which won the bronze medal.
In 2019, she became women’s World Rapid champion after coming back from a two-year maternity sabbatical.
In 2020, Humpy won the BBC Indian Sportswoman of the year award, following a public vote.
Humpy competed at the 2022 Chess Olympiad as part of the women’s India team, which achieved a bronze medal.
In 2023, Humpy was the runner up in the World Rapid championships.
In 2024, Humpy became the World Rapid champion for the second time in her career.
