New Delhi, Jan 17 A fire within and the desire to excel on the circuit once again spurred Korenu Humpy to return to chess for what she described as her "third innings" and go on to reclaim the Women's World Rapid Championship in New York around two weeks back.
Humpy won her second World Rapid title in the last week of 2024, capturing the title again following her first triumph in 2019, by finishing ahead of Ju Wenjun of China. She had won the silver medal in the 2023 edition.
"You can say this is my third innings (in chess) because I had taken a break after my daughter was born and then again after COVID when I didn't play very actively in online chess for more than a year. For the last one year, I have been struggling a lot as a player," she told IANS.
"There were times when I seriously wanted to quit professional chess. But somewhere inside me, there is a fire that I still wanted to achieve more. Probably that fire spurred me to win this World title once again," said Humpy, thanking her family for its support without which it would not have been possible for her to win.
She said that though she won the title in 2019, it was not recognised. In contrast, this time the federation recognised her achievement and invited her along with Gukesh to Delhi felicitated her and awarded her a cash prize.
"Prime Minister Modi ji has been very supportive and very encouraging. I met him with my family and I feel very motivated after speaking with him and I wish to win more laurels for the country," said Humpy.
About her meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the 37-year-old Humpy said the PM noted that she had won the World Rapid title for the second time, which is very difficult.
"He mentioned how he promoted chess in Gujarat when he was the chief minister. He mentioned that he had the chess board printed on the school bags to promote the game," she said. They also discussed the times of Garry Kasparov and also her future chess tournaments.
"It feels good to see how passionate he is in supporting the sportspersons in the country," said Humpy, who further added that this year she will be playing the Grand Prix series and Norway Chess.
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