Humpy Walks Untrodden Chess Path

Sitting at adjacent tables, two players corner most of the attention at the Dubai Chess and Culture Club. It’s the final round of the Dubai Open Chess Championships and the sizeable crowd is glued to the boards as the two Grandmasters (GMs) ponder their next move.

There are GMs aplenty in the huge hall, but these two are special, because they are Women Grandmasters (WGMs) who have ratings high enough to feature in the list of men’s GMs.

It needs a different kind of psychology when you play more than one game against a single player, and that’s what I haven’t done at all. Koneru Humpy

Georgia’s Maia Chiburdanidze has been a women’s world champion from 1978-91, while India’s Koneru Humpy is trying to follow in her footsteps and is currently second in the world behind Hungarian Judit Polgar who is ranked 13th among GMs.

It’s not been a good tournament for Humpy, however, finishing with six points from nine rounds. And she is aware she has lost valuable points in the process.

“It’s my opening that has caused me problems and I really need to do something about it,” said the 20-year-old, who became the youngest women ever to be a GM, when she achieved the feat at the age of 15 years, one month and 27 days, three months before Judit became one.

Humpy’s disappointment here follows the one at the World Championships, where she lost in the second round. “I realised that my inexperience in the knock-out format resulted in my second-round elimination.

"We don’t have a single knock-out tournament in India as all of them are in the Swiss League format. It needs an altogether different kind of psychology when you play more than one game against a single player, and that’s what I haven’t done at all,” she said.

Next up is the European Club Cup, where she will be playing for Monaco in what will again be a Swiss format, something that continues to remain a worry.

Board Look

• Humpy was initially pronounced as Hampi, but her father K. Ashok, who also coaches her, wanted a more Russian-sounding name and so the name was changed.
• In 2001, she won the World Junior Girls’ Chess Championship.
• She became the youngest woman to be a Grandmaster
  in 2002.