Grand Master Koneru Humpy of ONGC, Vijayawada was awarded the prestigious Padmashree Award on the Republic Day this year. The All India Chess Federation and the chess players congratulate her on her latest achievement and pray that she wins more laurels for our country.

The March 31 1987 born Humpy was born to National B player Koneru Ashok in a chess playing family. She won the world Under-10 girls title first ten years back at Cannes and there has been no turning back for this hard working player.

Humpy herself was surprised to receive this award this year. She was in the news recently when she won the Asian Women Gold for rapid chess and the Asian Combined Team Gold for classical chess. Two gold medals in the last one month resulted in the Parliament congratulating her for her achievement in the Doha Asian Games.

She had previously won the Arjuna Award given exclusively to the best sportpersons. Humpy has a long way to go and more achievements are in the offing from this talented girl who is for the last few years the No.2 ranked player in the Women's World.

Strange it may seem, the No.1 Judit Polgar and No.2 Humpy have never played each other. Judit is still good but her not accepting to play women's events is a serious blow to women's chess. Humpy is playing a match against another youthful grandmaster, Deepan Chakkaravarthy of Indian Oil early next month at Visakhapatnam. A Humpy v Polgar match would perhaps sell well in India.