Koneru Humpy Wins World Rapid Chess Championship 2024 (x.com/FIDE_chess)

New York, US: India’s Koneru Humpy won prestigious World Rapid Chess Championship 2024 held in Wall Street, New York on Sunday. She defeated Irene Sukandar of Indonesia in Round 11, with garnering 8.5 out of 1 1 points. The victory is “very special,” Humpy remarked. She said, the win gives her  “boost to fight and to again work on chess.”

Humpy’s victory adds to India’s outstanding chess achievement this year following D Gukesh‘s victory in the World Championship in Singapore. “It’s high time for India – we have Gukesh as the World Champion and now I got the second world title in the Rapid event,” she said.

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This marks the 37-year-old’s second World Rapid title after attaining the spot in 2019 in Moscow. She is only the second player after China’s Ju Wenjun to win the title more than once.

“I feel very happy for winning for the second time. In fact, I didn’t expect it at all because I lost my first-round game and I never imagined that I could finish the tournament as a World Champion,” Humpy said.

👏 Congratulations to 🇮🇳 Humpy Koneru, the 2024 FIDE Women’s World Rapid Champion! 🏆#RapidBlitz #WomenInChess pic.twitter.com/CCg3nrtZAV

— International Chess Federation (@FIDE_chess) December 28, 2024

The Rapid Worlds has always been Humpy’s forte as she had clinched a bronze medal in the 2012 edition of the event held in Moscow and secured a silver medal last year at Samarkand, Uzbekistan.

“The future of chess is with rapid and blitz… Rapid and blitz are more spectacular and it’s more enjoyable for spectators. The duration of the tournament is short so I think this is the future,” Humpy said.

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Meanwhile, the 18-year-old Volodar Murzin of Russia bagged the corresponding title in the men’s section.  He became second-youngest FIDE World Rapid Champion, after Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who won the title at 17.