Ladies Knight with Grandmaster Humpy Koneru [PODCAST]

GM Humpy Koneru, Photo Lennart Ootes

Podcast (ladies-knight): Apple Podcasts | Play in new window | Download | Subscribe by Email  Our April edition of Ladies Knight features Grandmaster Humpy Koneru, the 2020 Cairns Cup Champion and our May Chess Life Magazine cover star. She is the reigning World Women's Rapid Champion, and the second woman in history to break the 2600 barrier. She also defeated Judit Polgar's record as the youngest woman to achieve the title of Grandmaster, which was later eclipsed by Hou Yifan. Host Jennifer Shahade and Koneru talk about her brilliant first round victory in the Cairns Cup against Carissa Yip, how she came back from an early loss and how she once reached at a peak live rating of 2623, mostly playing in Open fields. They also talk about how Humpy Koneru met her husband, and Koneru's biggest accomplishment in the game so far. Play through Humpy's beautiful victory over Yip below:

[pgn] [Event "Cairns Cup"] [Site "St Louis, MO USA"] [Date "2020.02.07"] [White "Humpy Koneru"] [Black "Carissa Shiwen Yip"] [Result "1-0"] [ECO "E73"] [WhiteElo "2580"] [BlackElo "2412"] [PlyCount "79"] [EventDate "2020.02.06"] 1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. Nc3 Bg7 4. e4 d6 5. Be2 O-O 6. Be3 e5 7. d5 Na6 8. h4 Nc5 9. Qc2 c6 10. h5 cxd5 11. cxd5 Qa5 12. Bd2 Bd7 13. h6 Bh8 14. Nh3 Qc7 15. Ng5 Rac8 16. Qd1 a5 17. O-O Qd8 18. Rb1 Ne8 19. b3 f6 20. Ne6 Nxe6 21. dxe6 Bxe6 22. Bc4 Nc7 23. Nb5 Qd7 24. Nxc7 Bxc4 25. bxc4 Qxc7 26. Qb3 Qxc4 27. Bxa5 Qxb3 28. Rxb3 Rf7 29. Rfb1 Rb8 30. Bd2 f5 31. a4 fxe4 32. a5 Rbf8 33. Rxb7 Rxf2 34. Bb4 e3 35. Bxd6 Re8 36. Rb8 Rxb8 37. Rxb8+ Kf7 38. Rxh8 Rb2 39. Kf1 Ke6 40. Bc5 1-0 [/pgn]

Look for Tatev Abrahamyan's cover story on GM Humpy Koneru's win at the Cairns Cup in the upcoming May edition of Chess Life.  Ladies Knight features music by the artist Juga, who appeared on this podcast last month- find out more about her at https://www.jugamusica.com/