Humpy readying for Junior World tourney

By V.V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD, AUG. 6. Fourteen-year old Koneru Humpy is delighted as her `trusted mentor', the Bank of Baroda, has made the most decisive move - renew the annual sponsorship which comes approximately to more than Rs.12 lakhs.

For, the last one month has been of agonising suspense unsure what its next move should be. But, there is now relief at the news which brought cheers to the family members.

In an exclusive chat with The Hindu before leaving for the Junior World chess championship in Athens, Humpy, whose career graph is on the ascendancy after her European sojourn where she won the Lipa International tournament and also became only the second Indian Woman Grandmaster after Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi.

``The news of Bank of Baroda extending their assistnce could not have come at a more appropriate time as I and my daughter were scheduled to leave for Junior World championship the day after,'' says Koneru Ashok, father-cum-coach of Humpy. Definitely, the most famous father-daughter combination was kept guessing by the predictable procedural delay in renewing the deal which has really helped Humpy scale new heights in the last three years.

An official function is being organised by the Bank of Baroda in Visakhapatnam tomorrow evening to announce the continuance of the `bond' between Humpy and Bank of Baroda.

Coming back to the Junior World championship, Humpy said that this could well be the toughest in her career. ``As atleast 10 players with 2300-plus ELO rating and four to five Woman Grandmasters will be in the fray, the level of comptition should be very high,'' she said.

When questioned about her chances, Humpy made it clear that she wanted to win this event to enhance her growing stature in world of chess. ``Absolutely, there will be no pressure on me. For the simple reason that the winner of this title would get the WGM title. Since I had already achieved it, I will be relaxed with no hangovers,'' she said.

Commenting on her preparations, Humpy, ranked eighth in the Junior World rankings, said she made an exhaustive study of various novel openings and middle-games. ``Definitely, the focus was on my favourite players Judith Polgar and Gary Kasparov. I did find some interesting, new combinations in these two areas which should help me in a big way,'' she said.

Among the other Indians in fray will be S.Meenakshi, M.Kasturi and Nimmy George. By virtue of her WGM title and eighth rank, Humpy is likely to be seeded in the top 10.

The student of Chalapathi Residential School said that the coming Junior World championship could be termed as a transitional phase before taking the giant leap into the senior section.. ``In this context, a win in this championship should do a world of good to me,'' she added.

Apparently, she will not be getting any men's GM norm despite giving her best but that is not a deterrent to her ambition to be a champion. ``I never go into any tournament just for the sake of participation. Every effort is made to win the title,'' she said. Regarding competition, Humpy picked the Russians and the Chinese, though refusing to name any one of them, as the biggest challenge for the Indians. ``See, of late the level and the intensity of preparations are very high. So, no one can be taken for granted. Consistency spread over 15 days of this 13-round format played with digital clocks is the key to success,'' said Ashok.

One of the major problems for Humpy in her preparations was the lack of adequate space to feed more games as the chess book was already overloaded. That was primarily because the delay in hearing the final word from the sponsor. But, she continued to practise with her father, himself a National player who quit a lecturer's post to concentrate on coaching his daughter. ``To break the monotony, I used to play with my sister Charuhaasa and mother Padma,'' quipped the player with an ELO rating of 2387. For the record, she also got two IM norms and one Grandmster norm in men's section.

Perhaps, never in recent times, Humpy leaves the shores assured of all support on all fronts. She said her confidence level was on a high in taking on any opponent.

She is certainly not trying to be overconfident. And, that may not be good news for the opponents who know pretty well that in her mood, she makes a nonsense of the various theories and boardroom strategies. Not surprisingly, did the genius Viswanathan Anand, rates her very high indeed.

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