Humpy in pursuit of a dream

By V.V. Subrahmanyam

HYDERABAD, NOV. 28. For a change, the All India Chess Federation (AICF), which failed to get India's second Woman Grandmaster, Koneru Humpy, a special entry for the on-going Moscow World championship, has invited her to play in the Calicut Grandmasters championship to be held from December 16 as part of its the silver jubilee celebrations.

Interestingly, Mr. Ummer Koya, the AICF secretary, has also promised that she would be in the field for the World Cup knock- out championship to be held, in all probability, in Hyderabad.

Meanwhile, Humpy is embarking on yet another trip to Hungary in her pursuit to become the first Indian women to become a Grandmaster in the men's section too by playing in the First Saturday International Grandmasters chess tournament to be held in Budapest from December 1 to 14.

Speaking to The Hindu the 14-year-old said that she hoped to come back after fulfilling her first objective. ``In the last two tournaments in Budapest and Belgrade (which she won), I lost a couple of games from the winning position. This time around, I will not repeat the same mistakes,'' Humpy said. ``My preparations too were different this time as I made an exhaustive study of different lines of opening and will try to come up with some novelties.''

The World Junior champion also reiterated that these tournaments were the stepping stones for her ultimate dream-to become the World women's champion within the next four years.

As part of that plans, her father-cum-coach, Koneru Ashok, said they were planning to play against higher rated players, who, however, are yet to be identified.

``Definitely, there is no immediate thought of hiring a foreign coach for her,'' he asserted.

The ninth-standard student of Chalapathi Residential School (Guntur) says that the coming Budapest tournament, most likely a Category 9 or 10, will be one of the toughest in her career- similar to the Chalapathi Grandmasters tournament in Guntur couple of years ago.

The line-up for the First Saturday tournament is: GM Ziatko (Yugoslavia), GM Zoltan Varga (Hungary), GM Jozsef Horvath (Hungary), IM Attila Czebe (Hungary), WGM Koneru Humpy (India), IM Andreas Schenk (Germany), IM Gergely Antal (Hungary), IM Ferenc Berkes (Hungary), IM Adam Horvath (Hungary), IM Tejas Barke (India), IM Sang Cao (Hungary) and IM Reuben Felgaer (Argentina).

Humpy, with a current ELO rating of 2484 (which will be 2511 by January when FIDE releases the next ratings), says her first target is to get the GM title in the men's section and then reach the ELO rating of 2600-plus.

``After that I will try to play in some Grandmaster tournaments like the Lausanne Young Masters held last year where the youngest Grandmasters, world junior champions and the best rated youngsters (boys and girls) were in the fray.

The little sister

Interestingly, Humpy might soon have a very shrewd competitor back home, as her younger sister, Chandrahasa, is taking rapid strides in the game. After winning the State under-18 championship recently, Chandrahasa won the State under-14 rapid title, but skipped the Punjab Nationals in this category because of inconvenience.

``I think she has a long way to go. But she is very competitive and a lot depends on how much hard work she puts in,'' was the modest world champion's observation.

This chess family is also hoping that the relevant papers of the house site identified by them at Vijayawada would be handed over very soon so that they can plan their future in a better way. Same is the case with Koneru Ashok's proposal for setting up a full-fledged residential Chess Academy in Vijayawada. ``We are awaiting the Government response. If it gives necessary support, what I am planning is to identify 10 promising youngsters in the age group of eight to 12 and give them scientific coaching, besides education. If there is good response and the strength reaches 40, then we can have tie-up with any nearby school. There is a lot of talent around and all that is required is planning and systematic training,'' Ashok pointed out.

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