‘Judit, Yifan is the exception’: Hampi urges women to compete in more ‘open’ competitions

Pune: India’s highest-ranked female chess player Koneru Humpy has said that apart from China’s Zhu Jin’er, she does not think any female chess player has the potential to reach Elo level 2600 and break into the top 100 in the public world rankings.Hampi, who will compete in the Norwegian Chess Classic in Oslo on May 25, told The Times of India in Vijayawada, “I don’t think there will be a big breakthrough for women when we have separate tournaments for women and men. Playing in the same circle of players won’t help.”

“Unless women start playing consistently in open tournaments, there’s not going to be any good opportunity to improve. And you need to work your way up by playing in these open tournaments. I did this for a while before priorities changed. Judit Polgar and Hou Yifan are exceptions,” she added.Although defending women’s world champion Ju Wenjun reached her highest Elo rating of 2604 in March 2017, her current Elo rating is 2559. Her challenger R Vaishali has a rating of 2496.The 39-year-old Humpy, the first Indian woman to hold the GM title, was one of the favorites for the Candidates Championship to be held in Cyprus in March-April but withdrew due to security concerns due to the uncertainty posed by the war in West Asia. “More importantly, when I compete, I should love the sport. When I travel somewhere, I shouldn’t feel like I’m putting my family or my loved ones through stress,” Hampy said. “I don’t regret not competing in that competition because I exited in a completely different situation.” Hampy said it took her some time to make the decision simply because it directly affected qualification for the world championships. But she felt it was wrong to withdraw quietly without explaining her feelings – an indirect indication that FIDE was insensitive to her withdrawal and that player safety should be the top priority.Hampi prefers to call the chess boom in the country the “Tamil Nadu boom” and believes more players should come from other states. She chose not to comment too much on World Champion D Gukesh or Vaishali’s loss in the women’s championship qualifiers.Humpy said: “I don’t want to comment on any other players or any other situation because I have been through a lot of things too. When I encountered difficulties, I saw the silence of the world. Maybe, sometimes, silence is better.”