Indian Grandmaster Koneru Hampi was crowned the Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE or International Chess Federation) Women's World Rapid Champion on December 28 evening in New York.
Industrial and prolific social media presence Anand Mahindra took to X (formerly known as Twitter) to celebrate Hampi Koneru winning his second World Rapid Chess Championship title. Writing in X, Mahindra hailed Koneru as an “Indian queen”.
In his congratulatory message, Mahindra wrote, “An Indian queen rules the board. Thank you Koneru Hampi for making us so proud. For giving a triumphant and fitting finale to what has been a phenomenal year for Indian chess!”
Hampi claimed the title for the second time and this is the fourth time she has finished in the top three of the prestigious event. She last won the crown in 2019.
The 37-year-old defeated Indonesia's Irene Sukandar in the final round of the tournament with a score of 8.5/11 to claim the title. After China's Ju Wenjun, Humpy became only the second player in history to win multiple women's world sprint titles.
“I am very happy and I feel very happy. In fact, I expected it to be a very difficult day, like some sort of bond. But when I finished the match, I only knew when the umpire told me, it was a tense moment for me,” Hampi told PTI after his win.
“So, this is a bit unexpected, because all year I struggled a lot and I had very bad tournaments where I finished last. So this was a surprise.” She added.
Hampi's victory capped a sensational year for Indian chess after D Gukesh was crowned champion after defeating China's Ding Liran at the World Classical Championship in Singapore recently. India had won its first gold medals in the Open and Women's categories at the Chess Olympiad held in Budapest in September.
Hampi said her win will now inspire other Indians to take up chess.
“I think it's a good time for India. We also have Gukesh who is the world champion and now I got my second world title in sprint. So I think this will inspire many young people to take up chess professionally,” she concluded.