Koneru Humpy defeated Irene Sukandar of Indonesia on Sunday to win the FIDE Women’s World Rapid Chess title, capping an incredible year for Indian chess.
Koneru Humpy, who recently won the World Rapid Chess Championship for the second time, will be aiming for a grand double when the FIDE World Blitz Championship begins on Tuesday. Humpy capped a fantastic year for Indian chess on Sunday, defeating Indonesia’s Irene Sukandar to become the FIDE Women’s World Rapid Chess champion. The Indian had won the event in Georgia in 2019 and became only the second player, after Ju Wenjun of China, to win it again on Sunday.
The Blitz championship has the same prize money as the Rapid championship, therefore there is a chance to win another USD 60,000 (about Rs 50 lakhs) cash in addition to the title.
The big Indian contingent is preparing for the competition, which will feature 13 rounds in the ‘Open’ category and 11 in the women’s section.
Another Indian, Dronavalli Harika, is a strong force in Blitz, but fans will be hoping for better performances from R Vaishali and Divya Deshmukh, who failed to impress in the Rapid event. In the ‘Open’ section, Magnus Carlsen, who was disqualified from the Rapid event due to a dress code issue, begins as the clear favourite.
However, India’s R Praggnanandhaa and Arjun Erigaisi, France’s Alireza Froujza, and Uzbekistan’s Nodirbek Abdusattorov all have the potential to challenge the Norwegian.
Erigaisi, who missed out on the Rapid championship, which was won by Russia’s 18-year-old Volodar Murzin, now have to fight for a spot in the 2026 Candidates competition.
