Victory eludes Humpy

Remember Sanjeev Kumar in Shatranj Ke Khilari where he forgets administration of his kingdom for the love of the game. In olden times, it is believed that the kings used people and animals in flesh and blood as pieces. Even in ancient times, Pandava Prince Dharmaraj lost his kingdom and wife Draupadi in a game of dice. Chess is basically a game played between two players on a square-checkered board with 64 squares arranged in an eight-by-eight grid. One player plays with white pieces, while the other is given black. The player with the white pieces makes the first move.

At the beginning of the game, each player has 16 pieces: one king, one queen, two rooks, two knights, two bishops, and eight pawns, each piece moving differently. The main aim of the game is to checkmate the opponent’s king by threatening to capture it. Apart from checkmate, the game can be decided when the opponent quits on his own, or it ends in a draw. The game divided into three phases is firstly called the beginning of the game, and then comes the middle game and lastly, the final phase when queens are of the board.

This year all eyes were on Grandmaster Koneru Humpy to clinch the Women’s world Champion title when she clashed with defending champion Yifan Hou in Tirana, Albania in November. Humpy settled for a draw in the must-win eighth-round game as Yifan Hou scored 5.5 against Humpy’s 2.5. An out of form Humpy could not use her white pieces well in the eighth game which was another Queen’s gambit declined to end up second in the Euros 200,000 championship.

The 17-year-old Chinese Yifan Hou had won the last championship in a knockout format. But this year she proved that she was a better player with three victories and five draws. Was it an overconfident Humpy or exhausted Humpy who lost to the teenager. Kudos to Yifan, for moving deftly in the game even after being pushed to the wall. Humpy realized that victory was not on her side even though she gained a slender lead in the eighth game. Once Humpy knew that she could not spring back, she agreed to a draw in mere 29 moves.

Agreed that Humpy was a far superior player than Yifan, Mark Crowther said that the Chinese had a better and tougher preparation at the beginning of the year, with a big support from the Chinese Chess Federation. Once the teenager had a huge score against her, two match wins in the FIDE knock out format it was clear that Yifan would triumph, Crowther said. 

According to Crowther, Humpy was weighed down by the Chinese having an upper hand as in the last three years the teen had scored two wins in shorter matches. Humpy failed to take it beyond the opening level despite being slightly advantageous in games 1, 2 and 8. However, Grand Master Abhijit Kunte coming in support of the Indian said that though Humpy in the first two games got the position she wanted, she could not make much headway. This is not the end of the world for Humpy, Kunte said, adding that she is just in her 20s and can always make a comeback as she has a rich experience.
To take on Yifan Hou, Humpy tied with Elina Danielian of Armenia in the 11-round event and with better points won the FIDE Women Grand Prix at Doha in the first week of March. At Doha, Humpy scored two crucial wins, against Lilit Mkrtchian of Armenia in the penultimate round and then defeated Zhu Chen of Qatar to dismiss the Armenian. Both of them had scored eight points each.

Currently one step away from the top position, Humpy born at Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh, on March 31, 1987, received the GM title when she was only 15 years. Even before she crossed her teens, the chess wizard added three more World Titles - under 10, 12, 14 to break the current world champion Judit Polgar’s record. The first Indian woman to win a GM, Humpy clinched the World Junior championship in 2001 and went down in the second round of the Women’s World Chess Championship in 2006.

Proudly christened Humpy by her father Ashok, the wizard received her initial training from her father and on spotting her talent, he gave up his full time employment as a lecturer to groom her.

Today, chess is very popular and many young children are taking to the game with the belief that it needs thinking power and sharpens the brain. Around six million people play the game across the globe at homes, clubs, online, computers and in tournaments. Even newspapers and magazines carry chess columns. Another Indian doing the country proud is Vishwanathan Anand.

Awards & Honors
• Asia’s youngest International Woman Master, 1999
• World under-14 championship, 2001, Castellan, Spain
• India’s youngest Woman GM, 2001
• World junior championship, 2001, Athens
• World’s youngest Women Grandmaster to achieve full Grandmaster status
• Bestowed Arjuna Award in 2003
• Awarded the Padma Shri in 2007
• Conferred Raja Lakshmi Award in 2008