<p>India&rsquo;s <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/sports/other-sports/article/d-gukesh-koneru-humpy-to-lead-indian-challenge-at-chess-world-cup-23299971" target="_blank" rel="none noopener"><strong>Koneru Humpy</strong></a> bagged an epochal second World Rapid Chess Championship title, beating Irene Sukandar of Indonesia on Sunday.</p>
<p>Humpy had won the event back in 2019 at Georgia and the Indian No 1 is only the second player after China&rsquo;s Ju Wenjun to clinch the title more than once.</p>
<p>The 37-year-old Humpy finished the tournament with 8.5 out of 11 points.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I&rsquo;m very excited and I feel very happy. In fact, I expected it to be a very tough day, like some sort of tie-break. But when I finished the game, I only got to know when the arbitrator told me, and it was a tense moment for me,&rdquo; said Humpy, who began with black pieces, after her victory.</p>
<p>&ldquo;So, this is quite unexpected because the whole year I have been struggling a lot and I had very bad tournaments where I just ended up in last place. So, this came as a surprise,&rdquo; she added.</p>
<p>Humpy&rsquo;s achievement capped a sensational year for Indian chess after <a href="https://www.mid-day.com/entertainment/regional-indian-cinema-news/article/rajinikanth-invites-world-chess-champion-d-gukesh-at-his-home-gifts-23454129" target="_blank" rel="none noopener"><strong>D Gukesh</strong></a> defeated China&rsquo;s Ding Liren to emerge champion in the classical format World Championship recently in Singapore. In September, India had won its first-ever gold medals in Open and Women's categories in the Chess Olympiad in Budapest.</p>
<p>The seasoned Humpy admitted that she was not thinking about the title after her first-round defeat.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I think, after the first round loss, I was nowhere thinking about the title, but things turned out well, especially yesterday winning the four games in a row helped me,&rdquo; she said.</p>
<blockquote class="twitter-tweet">
<p dir="ltr" lang="en">♟️India's Koneru Humpy wins her 2nd women&rsquo;s title, beating Indonesia's Irene Sukander in the World Rapid and Blitz Championship held in New York.<a href="https://twitter.com/humpy_koneru?ref_src=twsrc-Etfw">@humpy_koneru</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/FIDE_chess?ref_src=twsrc-Etfw">@FIDE_chess</a> <a href="https://twitter.com/hashtag/RapidBlitz?src=hash&amp;ref_src=twsrc-Etfw">#RapidBlitz</a> <a href="https://t.co/k9CXHwiRdi">pic.twitter.com/k9CXHwiRdi</a></p>
&mdash; All India Radio News (@airnewsalerts) <a href="https://twitter.com/airnewsalerts/status/1873256051715523036?ref_src=twsrc-Etfw">December 29, 2024</a></blockquote>
<p>
<script src="https://platform.twitter.com/widgets.js" async="" charset="utf-8"></script>
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<p>However, Humpy faced some challenges off the board too as well because of the big time-gap between India and the USA.</p>
<p>&ldquo;Yeah, off the board, it was very difficult for me because of the time difference. I was lacking sleep. Literally, I haven't slept properly since coming here. So, it wasn't easy to play restlessly, but I'm happy that I managed to do it,&rdquo; she added.</p>
<p>Humpy has always excelled in the Rapid worlds as she had won a bronze medal in the 2012 edition of the event held in Moscow, while finished with a silver last year at Samarkand, Uzbekistan.</p>
<p>Humpy said her victory will now prompt other Indians to take up chess.</p>
<p>&ldquo;I think it's high time for India. We also have Gukesh as world champion and now I got the second world title in the rapid event. So, I think this will motivate a lot of youngsters to take up chess professionally,&rdquo; she concluded.</p>
<p>Murzin wins men&rsquo;s title ================= Later, the 18-year-old Volodar Murzin of Russia bagged the corresponding title in the men's section.</p>
<p>Murzin is the the second-youngest FIDE World Rapid Champion, after Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who claimed the title at 17.</p>
<p><em><strong>(With agency inputs)</strong></em></p><p>
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Humpy bagged an epochal second World Rapid Chess Championship title, beating Irene Sukandar of Indonesia on Sunday

India's Koneru Humpy becomes Rapid chess world champion for a second time

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India's Koneru Humpy becomes Rapid chess world champion for a second time

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