Who became the first Indian Grandmaster to win the Women's World Rapid Chess Championship?

Koneru Humpy won the FIDE Women's World Rapid Chess Championship in December 2019 in Moscow, Russia, defeating China's Lei Tingjie in an Armageddon tie-break game. She became the first Indian to win this title. She won the title again in December 2024 in New York.

More about Koneru Humpy:

She was born on 31 March 1987 in Gudivada, Andhra Pradesh, and was trained by her father, Koneru Ashok.

In 2002, at the age of 15 years and 1 month, she became the youngest woman ever to earn the Grandmaster title at that time, breaking Judit Polgar's record. She was India's first woman Grandmaster.

She reached a FIDE rating of 2623 in 2009, the second-highest rating ever achieved by a woman player after Judit Polgar.

She won the World Junior Girls' Championship in 2001 and has won many medals at the Chess Olympiad.

She received the Arjuna Award (2003) and the Padma Shri (2007).

Other major Indian chess achievements:

• Viswanathan Anand became India's first Grandmaster in 1988 and was World Champion five times (2000, 2007, 2008, 2010 and 2012).
• Gukesh became the youngest undisputed World Champion in December 2024, at the age of 18.
• India won gold in both the open and women's sections of the 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest in 2024.
• In 2025, Divya Deshmukh won the FIDE Women's World Cup, defeating Koneru Humpy in the final, and became a Grandmaster.

Other Indian women Grandmasters include Harika Dronavalli (2011), R. Vaishali (2023), and Divya Deshmukh (2025).

Why not the other options?

• ✗Harika Dronavalli is India's second woman Grandmaster and has won bronze medals at the Women's World Championship.
• ✗Tania Sachdev is an International Master and Woman Grandmaster, and a well-known commentator.

Vaishali Rameshbabu became India's third woman Grandmaster in 2023; she is the sister of R. Praggnanandhaa.