Koneru Humpy Secures Second World Rapid Chess Crown; Volodar Murzin Triumphs in Open Division

Indian chess grandmaster Koneru Humpy capped off an outstanding year for Indian chess by capturing her second FIDE World Rapid Championship title in New York. Humpy clinched victory in the final round against Indonesia’s Irene Sukandar, finishing with 8.5/11 points. This makes her only the second player to win multiple women’s rapid titles after China’s Ju Wenjun.

Meanwhile, in a stunning upset, 18-year-old Russian Volodar Murzin emerged victorious in the open section. Murzin defeated several top players including Fabiano Caruana and Hikaru Nakamura en route to the title. He becomes the second youngest open rapid champion in history.

India’s Arjun Erigaisi finished a strong 5th place in the open section with 9/13 points. However, this result was not quite enough to overtake Caruana in the 2024 FIDE circuit standings and qualify for the Candidates tournament.

Humpy’s victory adds to India’s chess accomplishments in 2024, which include team gold medals at the Chess Olympiad and D Gukesh becoming classical world champion. The blitz portion of the championships will conclude the event over the next two days.