<p>New York: India’s Koneru Humpy bagged an epochal second World Rapid Chess Championship title, beating Irene Sukandar of Indonesia here on Sunday.</p><p>Humpy had won the event back in 2019 at Georgia and the Indian No 1 is only the second player after China’s Ju Wenjun to clinch the title more than once.</p><p>The 37-year-old Humpy finished the tournament with 8.5 out of 11 points.</p><p>“I’m very excited and I feel very happy. In fact, I expected it to be a very tough day, like some sort of tie-break. But when I finished the game, I only got to know when the arbitrator told me, and it was a tense moment for me,” said Humpy, who began with black pieces, after her victory.</p><p>“So, this is quite unexpected because the whole year I have been struggling a lot and I had very bad tournaments where I just ended up in last place. So, this came as a surprise,” she added.</p><p>Humpy’s achievement capped a sensational year for Indian chess after D Gukesh defeated China’s Ding Liren to emerge champion in the classical format World Championship recently in Singapore. In September, India had won its first-ever gold medals in Open and Women's categories in the Chess Olympiad in Budapest.</p>.Magnus Carlsen disqualified from top chess meet for violating dress code.<p>The seasoned Humpy admitted that she was not thinking about the title after her first-round defeat here.</p><p>“I think, after the first round loss, I was nowhere thinking about the title, but things turned out well, especially yesterday winning the four games in a row helped me,” she said.</p><p>However, Humpy faced some challenges off the board too as well because of the big time-gap between India and the USA.</p><p>“Yeah, off the board, it was very difficult for me because of the time difference. I was lacking sleep. Literally, I haven't slept properly since coming here. So, it wasn't easy to play restlessly, but I'm happy that I managed to do it,” she added.</p><p>Humpy has always excelled in the Rapid worlds as she had won a bronze medal in the 2012 edition of the event held in Moscow, while finished with a silver last year at Samarkand, Uzbekistan.</p><p>Humpy said her victory will now prompt other Indians to take up chess.</p><p>“I think it's high time for India. We also have Gukesh as world champion and now I got the second world title in the rapid event. So, I think this will motivate a lot of youngsters to take up chess professionally,” she concluded.</p>.<p><strong>Murzin wins men’s title</strong></p><p>Later, the 18-year-old Volodar Murzin of Russia bagged the corresponding title in the men's section.</p><p>Murzin is the the second-youngest FIDE World Rapid Champion, after Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who claimed the title at 17.</p>
<p>New York: India’s Koneru Humpy bagged an epochal second World Rapid Chess Championship title, beating Irene Sukandar of Indonesia here on Sunday.</p><p>Humpy had won the event back in 2019 at Georgia and the Indian No 1 is only the second player after China’s Ju Wenjun to clinch the title more than once.</p><p>The 37-year-old Humpy finished the tournament with 8.5 out of 11 points.</p><p>“I’m very excited and I feel very happy. In fact, I expected it to be a very tough day, like some sort of tie-break. But when I finished the game, I only got to know when the arbitrator told me, and it was a tense moment for me,” said Humpy, who began with black pieces, after her victory.</p><p>“So, this is quite unexpected because the whole year I have been struggling a lot and I had very bad tournaments where I just ended up in last place. So, this came as a surprise,” she added.</p><p>Humpy’s achievement capped a sensational year for Indian chess after D Gukesh defeated China’s Ding Liren to emerge champion in the classical format World Championship recently in Singapore. In September, India had won its first-ever gold medals in Open and Women's categories in the Chess Olympiad in Budapest.</p>.Magnus Carlsen disqualified from top chess meet for violating dress code.<p>The seasoned Humpy admitted that she was not thinking about the title after her first-round defeat here.</p><p>“I think, after the first round loss, I was nowhere thinking about the title, but things turned out well, especially yesterday winning the four games in a row helped me,” she said.</p><p>However, Humpy faced some challenges off the board too as well because of the big time-gap between India and the USA.</p><p>“Yeah, off the board, it was very difficult for me because of the time difference. I was lacking sleep. Literally, I haven't slept properly since coming here. So, it wasn't easy to play restlessly, but I'm happy that I managed to do it,” she added.</p><p>Humpy has always excelled in the Rapid worlds as she had won a bronze medal in the 2012 edition of the event held in Moscow, while finished with a silver last year at Samarkand, Uzbekistan.</p><p>Humpy said her victory will now prompt other Indians to take up chess.</p><p>“I think it's high time for India. We also have Gukesh as world champion and now I got the second world title in the rapid event. So, I think this will motivate a lot of youngsters to take up chess professionally,” she concluded.</p>.<p><strong>Murzin wins men’s title</strong></p><p>Later, the 18-year-old Volodar Murzin of Russia bagged the corresponding title in the men's section.</p><p>Murzin is the the second-youngest FIDE World Rapid Champion, after Nodirbek Abdusattorov, who claimed the title at 17.</p>