Humpy elated at rare feat
V.V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD: For 20-year-old Koneru Humpy, becoming a super Grandmaster is a high point of her career which should only spur her in future.

She became the second woman after Judith Polgar to do so in women’s section.

Speaking to The Hindu on her return from the Dubai international tournament, the former World junior champion said that after a shaky start where she won just 2.5 points from the first five rounds, she never thought of achieving any thing special.

“Especially after the loss to Tejas Bakre I was terribly disappointed. But later things moved dramatically in my favour and a win over top seed GM Miroshnichenko Evgenij of Ukraine helped me in winning those crucial ELO points which gave me this rare privilege,” Humpy, the first Indian woman to achieve this feat, said.

How significant is this achievement in the long-term perspective of her career? “Now obviously, it is difficult to sustain this high-level of rating. I have to be consistently brilliant. If you consider the fact that after V. Anand and K. Sasikiran, I am the only other Indian to achieve this feat, you can understand the pressure on me,” she said.

“Honestly, I never thought I would become a Super GM in the Dubai event itself and I dedicate this to my parents — Ashok and Lata,” she said.

Here is the full story.

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