American chess grandmaster and men’s world No. 3 Hikaru Nakamura lauded Koneru Humpy for winning the FIDE Women’s World Rapid title and praised the “Indian chess model” for “supporting their players”.
“Humpy is a player who’s been 2600 (ELO rating) for many, many years, I think, for a long time. She was probably the clear number three behind Ju Wenjun and Hou Yifan (both from China). So, it’s great to see her playing so well. I think it’s fantastic,” Nakamura said on Youtube channel Take Take Take.
“Of course, the Indians will be celebrating once again, like they have a lot recently.
“I think that it’s really great to see. When you look at chess, I think the Indian model right now is very clearly the best.”
India’s year in chess became even better on Dec 29 when Humpy won a historic second world title in rapid chess in New York.
The 37-year-old, who previously won the title in 2019 in Georgia, joined Ju as the only players to secure multiple championships in this format.
Last month, India’s Gukesh Dommaraju beat China’s Ding Liren to win the classical format World Championship in Singapore. And, earlier last year, India’s men and women teams swept the Olympiad titles.
Nakamura said sponsorship has done wonders to the Indian chess players.
“You have all these players who have serious support behind them,” he said. “You have Arjun (Erigaisi, Indian men’s No. 1), for example, whose sponsorship is public with Quantbox. I think he’s getting US$300,000 ($408,000) a year sponsorship.
“I know Pragg (Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa), Vidit (Gujrathi), Gukesh, all of them have very serious sponsorships.
“When you’re in that situation and whether it’s the chess federation or even the local governments that are taking care of you, it’s very easy to play chess for the love of the game and to focus on it versus a situation where, unfortunately, many, many players who make it into the Grand Chess Tour, they’re simply trying to earn a living.
“The future is very bright for India and the fact that they take care of their players speaks volumes about why they’re doing so well in chess as a whole.”
Humpy told the Hindustan Times that her win “came as a surprise”. She said: “This is quite unexpected because the whole year I have been struggling, and I had very bad tournaments where I just ended up in last place.”
Throughout her career, Humpy has demonstrated consistent excellence in Rapid championships, securing a bronze medal at the 2012 Moscow event and a silver medal last year in Samarkand, Uzbekistan.
The Indian No. 1 accumulated 8.5 points from 11 rounds to secure her victory.
Humpy also shared how support from her family helped her continue playing the sport and excel.
“I think it was possible because of the support from my family,” she said. “My husband and my parents…they support me a lot. My parents look after my daughter when I travel.
“It’s not easy to become a world champion at 37. It’s quite difficult when you get older to keep that motivation and stay sharp when required. I’m glad that I made it.”
In the men’s category, Russia’s Volodar Murzin, aged 18, claimed the championship.
Murzin’s victory places him as the second-youngest FIDE World Rapid Champion, following Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who won at age 17.
