Sleepless, winless but finally fearless: Koneru Humpy describes her World title rollercoaster | Chess News

A Rapid world champion in 2019, Koneru Humpy had contemplated retiring before she went on to pick the 2024 title at Wall Street in New York on Saturday.
She battled despairing results before turning it around right when it mattered. Humpy told PTI it had been a tough leadup. “In 2019, I was quite ambitious, waiting to win my first title. But this time it was different because since the start of the year, I didn’t do well in any of the tournaments. In fact, I was placed last in the last two tournaments. In reality, I was in a low state, I even thought to myself if I deserved to continue playing or not, whether it was time to retire,” she was quoted as saying right after emerging the champion.
The 37-year-old Humpy finished the tournament with 8.5 out of 11 points, and became only second woman since China’s Ju Wenjun to clinch the title more than once.
“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,” she said.
“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
She played with black and Saud the title was nowhere on her mind, though she was prepared to fight till the end despite the first round loss. “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 was quoted.
The mother of one 7, Saif she had been sleep-starved due to jet lag but pulled through. “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 [without enough rest], but I’m happy that I managed to do it,” she added.
Humpy who has been well supported her parents and husband, through an always tricky straddling of motherhood and career, said things were looking swell for India. “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 said.

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