Humpy wins 1st gold for India at Doha

She beats Kazakhstan's Aketayeva in the final game, reports Ajai Masand.

On Monday, as India’s top woman chess player, world no 2 Koneru Humpy, was decimating Dana Aketayeva of Kazakhstan to win the country’s first gold in Doha, there was a feeling that her mom, sitting in the quiet, absolutely pin-drop silent room, was under greater pressure than her ward.

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"When I watch her play, I feel the pressure more than her," said Latha. "But it’s a great feeling watching your child play so well."

The said 'child', indeed, played exceptionally well on Monday. In the morning, she beat Irine Kharisma Sukandar of Indonesia in the seventh round and then Mahri Geldyyeva of Turkmenistan in the eighth, moving on with renewed vigour.

"The match against the Indonesian girl was very easy for me," said the Vijayawada girl who, at 19, really seems to have mastered her emotions and added Anatoly Karpov’s scalp to her collection recently.

“Beating Karpov gave me the enthusiasm to give it my all for the Asian Games gold. Since this is the first time that chess has been introduced at the Games, I have trained very hard as this is a completely different format,” she said.

“There were some tough competitions, like the one against the Qatari world No 1, but I am happy I overcame all odds,” Humpy added.

Humpy, though, is upset that little is being done for the game back home. “It’s OK for me because I have the support of the ONGC but what about those who don’t have sponsorship?” she asked.

“The government only pays for the official tournaments which are not more than three in a year, but there are at least seven unofficial tournaments in a year,” said the junior world number one whose current ELO rating is 2545.

“For the last 10 years, there have been no invitational tournaments in the country where top players from around the world could compete,” she complained.

At the Games, her popularity has been growing with each round. Even as Indian tennis players Karan Rastogi and Rohan Bopanna played their singles matches against the Chinese Taipei just a stone’s throw away, quite a few walked to the chess hall to see how the Indians were doing.

There were Humpy, Krishnan Sasikiran and P Harikrishna, all aiming for gold. It was Humpy, finally, who stood apart with her fine show.