Koneru Humpy wins Cairns Cup 2020
Second title in two months
World Rapid Champion Koneru Humpyi won the second title within two months. She captured the Cairns Cup in St. Louis, US on Sunday. Humpy played a draw with compatriot Harika Dronavalli in the ninth and final rounds. He received five rating points with this win. With this, she rose to the second position in the world rankings. World champion Ju Wenjun finished second with 5.5 points. Russia’s Alexandra Kosteniuk (5 points) was third.
After this victory, Humpy said that the tournament was tough. In such a situation, “I am very happy to win here. This has boosted my confidence and I managed to prove that becoming a World Rapid Champion was not a coincidence”. After Koneru was declared the winner, she was awarded a cash prize of 45 thousand dollars.
Koneru Humpy India’s first female world champion in chess
Humpy became the World Rapid Champion in Moscow in December last year. She then defeated 22-year-old Lei Tingjie of China. She is India’s first female world champion in chess. In that match, Humpy won 7 of the 12 rounds of the rapid event.
Second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to win Rapid World Title
Recently two Indian players made it to the top-10 of the women’s category of rankings released by FIDE, a global institution of chess. Humpy was third with 2580 points. But she has reached second place by winning the Cairns Cup. India’s Harika is at number 9 with 2518 ratings. Humpy is the second Indian after Viswanathan Anand to win the Rapid World Title. Anand became the champion in 2017.
