Humpy says women’s chess growing, draws parallels to success of women’s cricket

Koneru Humpy feels women’s chess could take a cue from women’s cricket. After making the inaugural ceremonial move of the second game of the fifth round of the Chess World Cup at Resort Rio in Goa, she pointed out how little support women’s cricket had earlier.

“People were even criticising the female cricketers,” said the World Rapid Chess Champion.

“Now they have won the World Cup, and people have started appreciating them, and they are getting recognition. I think it is the same case in women’s chess. It is also growing slowly.”

She said Goa was the right venue for the World Cup. “We have already seen players coming up from the southern part of India,” the World No. 6 said.

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“Tamil Nadu is the hub for chess in India now. We have several Grandmasters from Andhra as well as Maharashtra. Goa is a place where we have seen very few players coming up at the national or international level. I think it is a great opportunity for this region to see all these top players. That should inspire players from here to take up the sport professionally.”

Humpy hoped the two Indians in contention at the World Cup, Arjun Erigaisi and P. Harikrishna, would go far. “Hari and I had started at the same time,” she said. “And we have known each other for such a long period. And he has been working as a second and is into many things, so being successful as a player again is great, I think. And it is an inspiration to many players as well.”

Humpy, who lost the women’s World Cup final to Divya Deshmukh, is on a break from chess at the moment. Her next event will be the Global Chess League in Mumbai next month. After that, she will defend her World Rapid title in Doha.

Published on Nov 15, 2025