Humpy Koneru

Humpy Koneru (Telugu : కోనేరు హంపీ) (born 31 March 1987 in Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh) is a chess grandmaster from India. Her October 2007 FIDE Elo rating was 2606, placing her at number two in the world for women (behind Judit Polgar), breaking the record of 2577 set by Susan Polgar for the second-highest ranked female player in Chess history and becoming the second female player ever, after Judit Polgar, to cross the 2600 elo mark.[1] [2] Humpy was originally named Hampi (after the ancient city) by her parents but her father later changed it to Humpy, a more Russian-sounding name. She writes her family name (Koneru) before her given name[citation needed], as is the convention with Telugu speaking people. Humpy held the record from 2002 to 2008 for the youngest woman ever to become a grandmaster (not merely a Woman Grandmaster), which she achieved in 15 years, 1 month, 27 days, beating Judit Polgar's previous record by 3 months.[3] However she later lost this record to Hou Yifan. In 2001 she won the World Junior Girls Chess Championship. In 2006 she participated in the Women's World Chess Championship, but was eliminated in the second round.[4] In the Women's World Chess Championship 2008 she made it to the semi-finals, but was beaten by Hou Yifan.