“An absolutely fantastic year for Indian chess!”: Anand Mahindra hails Koneru Hampi’s historic win of world rapid chess title

Indian grandmaster Koneru Hampi was crowned Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE or International Chess Federation) women’s world rapid champion in New York on the evening of December 28.

Anand Mahindra, the industry’s prolific social media presence, took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to celebrate Hampi Koneru winning her second World Rapid Chess Championship title. Writing on X, Mahindra praised Koneru and called her an “Indian queen”.

In his congratulatory message, Mahindra wrote: “An Indian queen rules the board. Thank you Koneru Hampi for making us so proud. And for providing a fitting and winning conclusion to what has been a very remarkable year for Indian chess!”

Hamby claimed the title for the second time, and this is the fourth time she has finished in the top three at the prestigious event. She last held the title in 2019.

The 37-year-old defeated Indonesian Irene Sukandar with the black pieces in the final round of the tournament, finishing 8.5/11 to take the title. Hamby also became the second player in history to win multiple World Rapid Women’s titles, after China’s Gu Wenjun.

“I’m very excited and feeling very happy. In fact, I was expecting it to be a very tough day, like some kind of tie-break. But when I finished the match, I didn’t know until the referee told me, and it was a tense moment for me,” Hamby told PTI. After her victory.

“So, this is completely unexpected because I struggled a lot all year and had very bad tournaments and ended up last. So this came as a surprise,” she added.

Hampi’s achievement capped an exciting year for Indian chess after De Gokisch beat China’s Ding Liren to become champion at the recently held classical format world championship in Singapore. In September, India won its first ever gold medal in the open and women’s categories at the Chess Olympiad in Budapest.

Hampi said her win will now push other Indians to take up chess.

“I think it’s time for India. We also have Jokesh as a world champion and now she has a second world title in the rapid event. So, I think this will motivate a lot of youngsters to take up chess professionally,” he said.