LatestChess - Interviews - Interview with Grandmaster Koneru Humpy

Grandmaster Koneru Humpy holds the record for the youngest woman ever to become a Grandmaster, she achieved the GM title when she was 15 years, beating Judit Polgar's previous record by 3 months! She crossed 2600 ELO rating in October 2007 FIDE rating list, presently she is at number two in the world for women (behind Judit Polgar), breaking the record of 2577 set by Susan Polgar for the second highest ranked female player in Chess history.
In this interview with Konery Humpy, she tells us about her recent performances, her views on Indian women's Olympiad chess team, women-only chess events, importance of physical fitness. She also talks about the importance of encouragement and support from family, role of parents. She considers Hou Youifan of China as the best upcoming player who can possibly match with Judith Polgar...We hope our readers would enjoy reading the interview with interesting snaps and famous games of Grandmaster Koneru Humpy.

LatestChess:- Hello Humpy, We are glad to have you on LatestChess. Congratulations for crossing 2600+ ELO rating, you performed very well in European Team Championships and Asian indoor games as well. You must be very happy with your performances.
Koneru Humpy:- Thank you, I'm happy with my performance in European Club Cup. I scored 5.5 out of 6 games with a performance rating of 2800. However, I had mixed results in Asian Indoor Games. I知 not satisfied with my performance in rapid & classical. But, winning against Zhu Chen in the finals and taking Gold Medal in Blitz is satisfactory.

Winning against Zhu Chen in the finals and taking Gold in Blitz is satisfactory...

Indian team at Doha Asian Games : Sasikiran, Humpy, Harikrishna

LatestChess:- You almost got selected in the last years India men's chess team for Olympiad, this year if you qualify, would you prefer to play in men's team or considering your need for the women's team, you would play in women's team?
Koneru Humpy:- In case, I get a chance to play in men's team, I'd prefer to play in men's chess only. There is no point in expecting to win a medal in Women Olympiad unless we have players with 2500+ rating.

Its hard to win a medal in Olympiad unless we have players with 2500+ rating...

LatestChess:- According to a study done in London, women chess players play worse against their male counterparts. The survey suggests that Women feel inferior when they play chess against men. We are sure you wont agree with this survey, what are your views on this?
Koneru Humpy:- As you said, I definitely won't agree with this survey. Number of players in women's section is insignificant when compared to men. This number should increase, so that there will be more competition that will enable to strengthen women's chess. As you can observe, now there are more women players with rating around 2500. Earlier we barely had one or two players at that rating level. I'm sure, we can find more women players at 2600 level in future.

We can find more women players at 2600 level in future...