Grand Master Koneru Humpy won the 2024 FIDE World Rapid Championship title on Sunday to cap off an exceptional year for Indian Chess where the country established itself as a dominating force in the game. (More Chess News)
Humpy, who had won the tournament in 2019 as well, defeated Irene Sukandar of Indonesia in New York to become just the second player in chess history to have become the rapid world champion more than once.
Before the Indian veteran achieved the historic milestone, China's Ju Wenjun was alone in the list of players with multiple world rapid championship titles.
The 37-year-old Humpy finished the tournament with 8.5 out of 11 points. She had finished second in the last edition of the competition when it took place in Uzbekistan's Samarkand.
Humpy had claimed a bronze in the 2012 world rapid championship that was held in Russian capital Moscow before winning the tournament in 2019 in Georgia.
"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 after her triumph.
In the open section, Russia's 18-year-old Volodar Murzin emerged as the champion. 59th seed Murzin had defeated India's R Praggnanandhaa in the penultimate round to become the sole leader of the competition.
Murzin is now the second youngest FIDE World Rapid Champion, after Uzbekistan's Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who claimed the title at 17.
Humpy's title ends the greatest year for Indian chess. India won the open and women's section gold medals at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest before D Gukesh defeated Ding Liren in Singapore to become the youngest world champion in the history of the game.
