Humpy Wins Kaupthing Open
By Vijay Kumar

Differdange,Luxembourg 15th July 2007.Indian Grandmaster Koneru Humpy Crushed German Grandmaster Sebastia Siebrecht in the Final round Open to lift the coveted Ist Prize and 3000 Euros Prize Money with it in the Final Round of the Differdange Open Chess Championship which concluded on Saturday at Woiwer Sports Centre..


Differdange, a sleepy township south west of Luxembourg, known as the city of Steel, organized its first ever International Chess meet to mark 100 years of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg’s third largest Township Differdange and 75 years of Chess Club Le Cavalier.

Altogether 177 chess players from all over the world graced the championship, played as an Open Meet. A number of Grandmasters like Koneru Humpy, Antoaneta Stefanova, Vadim Malakatko, Petr Velicka, Viktor Erdos Tigran Gharamian, Kritz Leonid, Inna Goponenko and the oldest Grandmaster from Czech Republic, Vlastimil Jansa, were there to compete for the 3000 Euro first prize.

The Championship which started on 7th July was played on round robin having 9 rounds. The Belgian Grandmaster Vadim Malakhatko was the top seed followed by Koneru Humpy on the second place.

Humpy started the championship with 2 draws but than came back and beat her opponents in the next three games to take her tally to 4.5 points.
With 4.5 points she became the sole leader of the championship.
However in the fifth round she had a tough fight with Vadim Malakhatko and despite having black pieces could survive a defeat and drew the game with the Top Seed .

Next two games Grandmasters Petr Velicka and Tigran Gharmanian ended in draws.

At the end of the 8th Round There were as many as 6 players who staked their claim for the Trophy and after a strong tussle Koneru Humpy was able to beat Sebastia Siebrecht in the Final round .

Playing with White She opened with d4 and her opponent Siebrecht replied with Nf6 and after some moves the game was fought on Benani Defense lines. Right from the beginning Humpy kept control of the Board. She knew it than a draw would deprive her the title and hence she went all out to win the game. Luckily for her on the 22nd move her opponent committed a mistake by playing Re8 and she capitalized the mistake and gained material superiority. By the time Siebrecht realized his mistake the game has slipped from his hand and in a graceful manner he accepted defeat.

A jubilant Humpy spoke to Vijay Kumar immediately after her victory.

“ I won the tournament with 7 points from 9 games. Today I played Benani Defense with white pieces and from the starting onwards I was very confident about the position. In the middle game my opponent made a mistake by playing Re8 which was a mistake and I immediately played Nf5 and tactically gained superiority and finally I won the game” “ I am very happy . It was very important for me to won the trophy and this is a good way to reach 2600 Elo Points. Right now I could go to 2597 and I hope in Abu Dhabhi I will try my best to cross 2600” Humpy added


This Indian Girl has been exceptional. At the age of 20 Koneru Humpy is the second-highest ranked female player (after Judit Polgar) in the latest FIDE rating lists.

In 2002 she set a world record by becoming the youngest-ever woman to earn the men's GM title, at the age of 15 years, 1 month and 27 days. Now she has won the Kaupthing Open, which pushes her rating to almost 2600. she is definitely destined to become the second female Super-GM in history.