The mother of all comebacks - Koneru Humpy!
If you are looking at an inspirational story in the world of chess, it is definitely Koneru Humpy's. After two years of break from competitive chess, she is back where she belongs - world no.2 with three huge titles in the last few months. It all began with the Skolkovo Women's Grand Prix, followed by the World Rapid Championship title and now finally the Cairns Cup 2020, which ended just a week ago. The Cairns Cup organized in the Saint Louis Chess Club in the United States was the strongest ever tournament held in the history of women's chess. With a rating average of 2510, the event had all the top players in the world. Humpy scored 6.0/9 and won the event half a point ahead of World Champion Ju Wenjun. After the event we caught up with Humpy to recap her performance.
When you are planning to make a comeback to chess after a long gap, there are two things which stop you:
1. The thought of giving up on the things that you are already doing, and
2. The fear of failure after making a comeback.
In both these aspects Humpy had so much to lose. She had to showcase tremendous bravery to sit at the board on 24th of October 2018 after a gap of nearly two years:
1. Going to tournaments means that she could no longer spend as much time as she would have liked with her two and a half year old daughter Ahana, and
2. Being a world class player, so many eyes were on her when she made a comeback. In her rustiness, she could have lost several games
And Humpy did lose quite a bit at the start! She didn't perform up to the mark at the Women's Olympiad 2018, was knocked out of the Women's World Championships 2018 in the second round itself. She also found that in the two years she had been off the chess board, the level of preparation had improved significantly. The best techniques and tools of preparation had also changed. But just like everything in her life, Humpy fought hard! She didn't give up, reinvented herself and the result is here for all of us to see. Within just a year, she has won a FIDE women's GP, World Rapid Championship 2019 and now the strongest ever tournament in the history of women's chess, the Cairns Cup 2020. How can one not be inspired by such an achiever!
Humpy on winning the Cairns Cup 2020
The Cairns Cup 2020 had the strongest ever rating average for a tournament in women's chess - 2510. Humpy prepared hard for this event by dedicating 15 days specially towards opening preparation. In the first round she faced the surprise element of the tournament Carissa Yip. The 16-year-old youngster from the USA showed everyone what a fighter she was by scoring 4.0/9 and beating the World Champion Ju Wenjun in penultimate round. "She is good at calculation and time management, but lacks experience in strategic play," says Humpy. In their individual encounter, Humpy managed to outplay her towards the end. The game was intense, but Carissa got too passive when she had to seek counterplay. Humpy was at her clinical best once she got the advantage.
In second round of the tournament Humpy succumbed to a loss against Mariya Muzychuk. It was a Petroff which looked quite equal, but Mariya managed to drum up play with some enterprising moves. The crucial position was reached after move 18.
Mariya Muzychuk vs Koneru Humpy
What was Humpy's mindset after the loss? "I was only hoping not to lose rating from this event! That being said, I was of course waiting for an opportunity to score." And Humpy did have to wait for two more games. She made use of both her white games to steady her boat with draws against Ju Wenjun and Kateryna Lagno. In the fifth round playing with the black pieces against Nana Dzagnidze, Humpy got her chance:
Dzagnidze vs Humpy, Round 5
Black had a powerful strike here in the form of Nxf2. It was not so easy to see that after Kxf2 Re4! Black is winning because not only is the knight on d4 pinned, but also Rg4 will attack the g3 pawn leading to a mating attack. The key point after Re4 being that Bh3 is met with Rd6! and the other rook joins in the attack via f6 or g6. Speaking about missing Nxf2 Humpy said,"Yes, I felt that Nxf2 was winning but I wasn't accurate in finding the right continuation. As I was a pawn up, I decided to continue with the material advantage." But this gave opportunity to Dzagnidze to fight for a draw.
"My assement was equal earlier. In fact instead of Qd4-d8, I was actually expecting Qd4-h8 preventing my king from penetrating. I completely missed that in the above position after Kh5 g4+! Kxg4 Qd1 I have nothing better than a draw."
Humpy's next opponent was Alexandra Kosteniuk. A fighting player who is known for her uncompromising chess. Humpy got just the kind of position that she would have liked.
Humpy drew her seventh round game against Irina Krush and in the eighth round had white pieces against Valentina Gunina. It was quite amazing that Gunina committed the same error that had been made by Anatoly Karpov against Humpy 14 years ago!
Humpy vs Gunina, round 8
Instead of Qc7-c6, Black usually plays Nc5 in such positions. But what is wrong with ..Qc6? Humpy already had this same exact position against Anatoly Karpov in 2006. She had found the winning idea of Qf3-h3 back then and she did so against Gunina as well! "I remembered the idea of Qf3 and Qh3, but did not recollect the whole Karpov game that I had played." The idea of Qf3 followed by Qh3 is so strong that Black's position simply disintegrates.
With this win Humpy shot into the lead. She was also helped by the fact that Ju Wenjun who was sharing the lead with her succumbed to a loss against Carissa Yip. In the final round Humpy was solid as ever against Harika and with 6.0/9 won the tournament by a margin of half point. With this she also moved to 2586 on the Elo rating list and became World no.2. When asked what becoming the world no.2 meant to her, Humpy is calm like always, "This achievement is nothing great. I am just back to what my ranking was before!"
Final rankings after round 9
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
| 1 | 2 | GM | Koneru Humpy | IND | 2580 | 6,0 | 0,0 | 4 | 2,5 |
| 2 | 10 | GM | Ju Wenjun | CHN | 2583 | 5,5 | 0,0 | 5 | 3,5 |
| 3 | 5 | GM | Kosteniuk Alexandra | RUS | 2504 | 5,0 | 1,0 | 4 | 1,5 |
| 4 | 1 | GM | Muzychuk Mariya | UKR | 2552 | 5,0 | 0,0 | 4 | 2,5 |
| 5 | 8 | GM | Harika Dronavalli | IND | 2518 | 4,5 | 0,5 | 5 | 3,0 |
| 6 | 3 | GM | Lagno Kateryna | RUS | 2552 | 4,5 | 0,5 | 4 | 2,0 |
| 7 | 6 | GM | Krush Irina | USA | 2422 | 4,0 | 1,0 | 5 | 3,0 |
| 8 | 9 | WGM | Yip Carissa | USA | 2412 | 4,0 | 1,0 | 5 | 2,0 |
| 9 | 4 | GM | Dzagnidze Nana | GEO | 2515 | 4,0 | 1,0 | 4 | 2,0 |
| 10 | 7 | GM | Gunina Valentina | RUS | 2461 | 2,5 | 0,0 | 5 | 1,5 |
"Playing at the Saint Louis Chess Club was an absolute pleasure", says Humpy. The event was very well organized." It's really a huge boost for women's chess that the Sinquefields and the Saint Louis Chess Club are thinking about women's chess in such a big way. For Humpy it couldn't have come at a better time. She is leading in the women's Grand Prix series and is on the cusp of entering the Candidates. It's clear that she is playing some of the best chess that she has played in her chess career. Even the great Vishy Anand took note of it.
Congrats to Koneru Humpy. An impressive performance! Seems like she is enjoying her chess and the moves flow easily!!
— Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) February 17, 2020
Humpy was quite thrilled to get these words from Vishy. "I am on cloud nine to get such a compliment from a legend."
