This title means loads to me, as I wasn’t thought-about amongst favourites, says Koneru Humpy about Girls’s World fast chess championship win

She was talking from a distance of some 13,000 km. However, you might really feel her pleasure. And Koneru Humpy will not be somebody who often will get excited simply by success.

Nevertheless it was no odd success she attained on Sunday (December 29, 2024) in New York. She received the ladies’s World fast chess championship after beginning out because the tenth seed, and on the age of 37.

“A few of my opponents had been half my age right here in New York,” Humpy tells The Hindu over the telephone shortly after profitable her second World Fast title (the primary was in 2019). “So this title means quite a bit to me. I used to be seeded tenth and wasn’t thought-about among the many favourites.”

Humpy, nevertheless, boarded the flight to New York along with her eyes set firmly on the title. “From my childhood, each time I play in a match, my goal has at all times been the primary prize, and the second and third locations don’t matter to me a lot,” says the 37-year-old from Vijayawada. “However right here, I used to be off to a nasty begin, dropping within the first spherical.”

What harm her most concerning the defeat to Amina Kairbekova of Kazakhstan was that she misplaced on time. “I used to be very disenchanted that day and couldn’t cease desirous about it until I went to mattress,” says Humpy. “That was as a result of I had labored actually exhausting on taking part in quick forward of this match.”

She had performed it by taking part in numerous video games on-line. “That was how I educated for this championship, as I used to be working alone,” she says. “After the opening day, my goal was to win three of my 4 video games on the second day and would have taken a draw within the different, however I received all 4.”

So she went into the ultimate day as a joint chief, and that was the case forward of the final spherical. She was one of many seven leaders, however she moved forward of the pack after defeating Indonesia’s Irene Sukandar.

“The sport was heading in the direction of a draw, however she blundered,” says Humpy. “So I used to be thus capable of win the match because the clear first.”

Final 12 months, she had misplaced out on the title within the tie-breaker to Anastasia Bodnaruk of Russia. “I had been taking part in rather well in that match,” she says. “I used to be disenchanted that I misplaced within the tie-breaks.”

Now, she is wanting ahead to doing effectively within the World blitz championship, which opens on Monday.