Koneru Humpy – public and private

Humpy's comeback to chess began with victories in two stages of the Women's Grand Prix, as well as in the newly established Cairns Cup in February this year. She is now the second strongest active player in the world, and the favourite to take one of the places in the Candidates. Sasha Kosteniuk is currently third in the Grand Prix standings, but she has already completed the series and she will likely be overtaken by one of the next few contenders. So the decision of who will make it eventually into the Candidates will be battled out between Nansa Dzagnidze, Katerina Lagno, both the Muzychuk sisters, Harika Dronavalli and Alina Kashlinskaya. However, it is unclear who that will be. When the last stage, which was supposed to be held in Sardinia/Italy between 2nd and 15th of May, is going to be happening, nobody knows.

Current standings of the Grand Prix Series 2019 - 2020 before the final event:

To understand the above table correctly one has to take out Ju Wenjun, as she will be challenging the winner of the candidates tournament, and Aleksandra Goryashkina, who is already qualified as the runner-up of the World Championship match.

I have already mentioned Koneru’s triumph in the Cairns Cup, one of the two last big and memorable women chess events before the crisis, and I feel like dedicating the remaining part of the article to this great chess event. Somehow, in this time of uncertainty even the events that took place a couple of months ago seem like something from “good old times” that should be saved, documented and passed to future generations as precious memories.

The Cairns Cup is named after Rex Sinquefields Wife, Dr. Jeanne Cairns Sinquefield, who was the initiator and supporter of this exclusive event, and was first staged in 2019.

The first tournament, which was won by Valentina Gunina, was quite notable and successful, but the second one, staged in the first half of February, turned out even stronger and was the strongest women’s round robin tournaments of North America, reaching an average rating of above 2500 and roughly equal to the average rating of the Grand Prix stages.

One of the decisive moments for the eventual outcome of this tournament was Humpy’s win in a seemingly safe and drawish endgame against the former Women’s World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk.

Even after the loss Alexandra still kept excellent chances to join the lead and force a tiebreak match until the very last round, where she was outplayed by the reigning world champion Ju Wenjun.

As you probably know, in our replay board above there are a large number of functions you can use to really understand the game and the analysis. Recently we published a comprehensive tutorial plus video instructions which tells you about all the powerful features and buttons that make the ChessBase's replay one of the best replay experiences around. One big advantage is that you can start an engine (fan icon) that will help you to analyse. You can get multiple lines of analysis by clicking the + button to the right of the engine analysis window. The "!" key, incidentally, shows you the threat in any position, which is incredibly useful in the case of unclear moves.

There is one more thing you can do. It is a lot of fun, but also a serious challenge: Click on the rook icon below the notation window. This will allow you the play the above position against Fritz, at your level of playing strength (e.g. "Club Player"), right here on the news page. Note that your analysis, in which you can delete, move or promote lines, is stored in the notation as new variations. In the end you will find the game with your analysis in the cloud. So nothing is ever lost.

Another great victory by Humpy Koneru over 2019 Cairns Cup winner Valentian Gunina is exclusively commentated by Humpy herself:

Humpy Koneru is a chess grandmaster from India, who in 2002, Koneru became the youngest woman ever to achieve the title (not WGM but IGM!) at the age of 15 years, 1 month, 27 days. With that she Judit Polgár's previous mark by three months. In 2007 she reached an Elo rating of 2606, the second female player, after Judit, to exceed 2600 (Chinese GM Hou Yifan was the third a year later). She is the current Women's World Rapid Chess Champion, a title she won in Moscow 2019.

A word to her name: "Koneru" is the family name of her parents, "Humpy" her given name – originally it was "Hampi", taken from the word "Champion." In the state of Andra Pradesh, as in the West, women get the surname of the husband. In this case that would be "Dasari". "But nowadays," Humpy told me, "we are also turning modern. Many professionals and working women are sticking on with their maiden family name. In official matters I mostly give my name as "Dasari Humpy", but for the chess public it will remain as Koneru Humpy. Her family and close friends call her "Humpy", the Prime Minister would call her "Mrs Humpy". A headline like "Koneru wins again" is jarring: her father won? Here's an article by Frederic Friedel on how names work.

In August 2014 Humpy married Anvesh Dasari, who studied electrical engineering in Purdue University, USA, and has been working in his father's company, Efftronics, as vice president, for the past ten years. The couple has one daughter, Ahana, now two years and ten months.

The family lives in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. Humpy tells us: "My daughter and I have been staying home for three months now, due to the covid pandemic. The situation in India is very bad, as every day around 10,000 people are infected. My husband has to go to the office to manage business."

Locked down at home, cooking in her kitchen. Humpy has thankfully sent us her favorite Andhra fish curry recipe.

Nellore Chepala Pulusu

Tangy Andhra style fish curry in tamarind sauce

6 tablespoon gingely (sesame) oil
1/4 teaspoon mustard seeds
1/4 teaspoon cumin seeds
1/4 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
3 dried red chillies
5 sprigs curry leaves
8 cloves minced garlic
4 green chillies
15–20 shallots (small onions)
Big lemon size tamarind
6 very ripe tomatoes
1 teaspoon turmeric powder
2 teaspoons red chilli powder
3 teaspoons coriander powder (dhania)
1.5 teaspoon salt
500 grams fresh water fish with bones

For the spice powder

1/2 teaspoon fenugreek seeds
1 teaspoon mustard seeds
2 teaspoon cumin seeds
1 teaspoon coriander seeds
1 teaspoon black pepper

Instructions

• Heat 6-8 tablespoons of gingely (sesame) oil in a pan. Be generous with the oil. Add the mustard seeds, cumin seeds, fenugreek seeds, dried red chillies and curry leaves. Lots of curry leaves (I used about five sprigs). Fry until the curry leaves are crisp.
• Add in the finely minced garlic, chopped green chillies and finely chopped shallots (small onions). Add green chillies according to your taste. Fry until they are light brown. The oil will bubble up if you are using gingely oil – that's fine.
• Soak a big lemon size tamarind in two cups of water. Let it soak for 20 minutes. Make a pulp by squeezing the tamarind well. Strain the pulp to get rid of the seeds. Set aside.
• Puree six tomatoes in a blender. Set aside.
• Add in the tomato puree and the tamarind pulp. Add in a teaspoon of turmeric powder, two teaspoons of red chilli powder and three teaspoons of coriander powder (dhania). Add in the salt. Add two more cups of water.
• Simmer the gravy for 30 minutes covered on a low flame stirring every five minutes. After 30 minutes the oil would start to float on top. That is a sure sign that the gravy has been cooked.
• Add in the fish pieces and let it cook for 7-8 minutes on low flame. Fresh water fish works well for this recipe.
• When the fish is cooking, let's make a spice powder for the curry. Heat a heavy pan and dry roast fenugreek seeds, cumin seeds, coriander seeds, mustard seeds and black pepper on a low flame for five minutes. Low flame is key. Do not rush. Dry roast until everything starts to pop and starts to brown. Remove from heat and cool on a plate. Once the mixture is cooled, grind to a very fine powder.
• Add the powder to the pan. Simmer for a minute. Remove off heat and serve hot with rice.

Guess who's going to try this recipe, as soon as I can get my hands on some fresh fish. If you do the same, please tell me how it tasted. Incidentally, if you are in Europe you can get all Indian condiments in highest quality here. If you are in a large city in the UK or USA go to the corner store run by family Patel.

How to exchange pieces

Learn to master the right exchange! Let the German WGM Elisabeth Pähtz show you how to gain a strategic winning position by exchanging pieces of equal value or to safely convert material advantage into a win.