Koneru Humpy leads in Indian Championship

by ChessBase
4/8/2006 – Here's some exciting news: after five rounds of the very strong Indian championship, with many GMs and IMs, the only female player is in the lead. Not just in the lead, but with a 5/5 score. GM Koneru Humpy has just turned 19 and is the second strongest woman player in the world (after Judit Polgar). You would do well to watch the championship and this girl.

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Koneru Humpy leads in Indian Championship

The 43rd National 'A' Indian Men's Chess Championship 2006 is being held in the coastal city of Visakhapatnam from April 3rd to 17th, 2006. The total prize money is Rs 265,000, which translates to almost $6000.

The tournament is a category eight, with an average rating of 2442, with GMs Ganguly, Kunte, Sandipan, Ramesh, and many titled players participating. After five rounds the only female player in the "Men's" section, Koneru Humpy, is leading with a clean 5.0/5.0 score. Her nearest rivals are trailing a point and a half behind her.


The world's number two female player: Koneru Humpy

Standings after five rounds

1

Koneru,H

2537

5.0/5

2

Deepan,C

2428

3.5/5

3

Sundararajan,K

2495

3.5/5

4

Arun Prasad,S

2384

3.0/5

5

Ganguly,S

2579

3.0/5

6

Singh,DP

2395

3.0/5

7

Ramesh,R

2491

3.0/5

8

Roy Chowdhury,S

2393

2.5/5

9

Gupta,Ab

2434

2.5/5

10

Kunte,A

2551

2.5/5

11

Venkatesh,M

2438

2.5/4

12

Himanshu,Sh

2411

2.0/5

13

Sriram,J

2444

2.0/4

14

Sandipan,C

2522

2.0/4

15

Sivanandan,B

2452

2.0/4

16

Das,Ar

2402

1.5/5

17

Kamble,V

2403

1.5/5

18

Sharma,Di

2370

1.5/5

19

Thejkumar,M

2384

1.5/4

20

Girinath,P

2350

1.0/5

21

Ravi,L

2423

1.0/5

Koneru Humpy has just turned 19 and is the second-highest ranked female player (after Judit Polgar) in the FIDE rating lists. In May 2002 she set a new world record of becoming the youngest-ever woman to achieve the men's GM title. Humpy achieved it at the age of 15 years, 1 month and 27 days, beating Judit Polgar's record of 15 years, 4 months and 28 days. With that she enters the Chess Prodigies hall of fame.


Pictures from the family album

Note that this girl's first name is Humpy, her surname is Koneru. In her home state of Andhra Pradesh, and in many parts of South India the surname is written first. Her father Koneru Ashok, a chess player himself, derived the name from the word "Champion", with a vision that one day she would become the World Chess Champion. Subsequently, he has changed it to Humpy, to make it sound like a Russian name. Her family includes Sister Chandhrahasa, Grandparents K Purnachandra Rao and K Annapurna.

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