Humpy beats Judit Polgar by three months

by ChessBase
5/31/2002 – Koneru Humpy, whom we introduced in our India Chess Diary recently, has become the youngest female player in the history of chess to achieve a male grandmaster title. Humpy (that's her first name) achieved her final norm at the Elekes Memorial GM tournament at the age of 15 years, one month and 27 days, breaking Judit Polgar's previous record by three months. More

ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024 ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024

It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.

More...

Humpy breaks the GM record

Koneru Humpy has setup a new world record of becoming the youngest-ever women to achieve the men's GM title. Humpy has done it at the age of 15 years, 1 month and 27 days, beating Judith Polgar's record of 15 years, 4 months and 28 days. With that she enters the Chess Prodigies hall of fame.

Note that this girl's first name is Humpy, her surname is Koneru. In her home state of Andhra Pradesh, and in many parts of South India the surname is written first (in Austria too, by the way). Her father Koneru Ashok, a chess player himself, derived the name from the word "Champion", with a vision that one day she would become the World Chess Champion. Subsequently, he has changed it to Humpy, to sound it as a Russian name. Her family includes Sister Chandhrahasa, Grand Parents K Purnachandra Rao and K Annapurna.


Humpy (right) with her mother Latha

Here are the updated statistics for GM titles so far:

Player Final GM norm at
Bobby Fischer 15 years, 6 months, 1 day
Judit Polgar 15 years, 4 months, 28 days
Koneru Humpy 15 years, 1 month, 27 days
Peter Leko 14 years, 4 months, 22 days
Etienne Bacrot 14 years, 2 months, 0 days
Ruslan Ponomaryov 14 years, 0 months, 17 days
Teimour Radjabov 14 years, 0 months, 14 days
Bu Xiangzhi 13 years, 10 months, 13 days

Humpy is also the first Indian woman to achieve the men's GM title. To get the men's GM title a player has to have an Elo rating of 2500+. The present Elo rating of Humpy is 2486. With the recent performances her rating is expected to go upto 2500+. The next rating list will be released on July 2002.

Humpy made her first GM norm (at the age of 14 years and 84 days) during the summer of 2001 in Hungary at the Hotel Lipa International Category VII tournament in Szentgotthárd. In the 3rd Saturday GM Tournament (Oct 2001) held at Belgrade (Yugoslavia) Humpy grabbed both the title and the second GM norm (at the age of 14 years and 213 days). She made her third GM norm at the Elekes Memorial Grandmaster chess tournament (May 2002) held at Budapest

Eight women have achieved the male GM title so far:

Player Country Born on GM
Gaprindashvili, Nona USSR - Georgia 3rd May 1941 1978
Chiburdanidze, Maia USSR - Georgia 17th January 1961 1984
Polgar, Susan Hungary 19th April 1969 1991
Polgar, Judit Hungary 23rd July 1976 1991
Cramling, Pia Sweden 23rd April 1963 1992
Xie Jun China 30th October 1970 1994
Zhu Chen China 16th March 1976 2001
Antoaneta Stefanova Bulgaria 19th April 1979 2001

Links


Reports about chess: tournaments, championships, portraits, interviews, World Championships, product launches and more.

Discuss

Rules for reader comments

 
 

Not registered yet? Register