FIDE confers GM norm
on Koneru Humpy

Indian chess prodigy Koneru Humpy was conferred the Grandmaster title by the world chess body, FIDE, ahead of the second chess World Cup, to be played in Hyderabad, in October.

"The presidential board meeting of the FIDE, which met on September 8 in Kremlin, Moscow, found the her claim for the title genuine and conferred the GM norm on her," FIDE vice-president P T Ummer Koya informed news persons in Hyderabad on Thursday.

Koya said the governing body examined the ratings and categories of tournaments the 15-year-old played in to log the required three Grandmaster norms, required to get the men's Grandmaster norm, and found that they were right and genuine.

However, he was non-committal about the claim that Humpy is the youngest ever woman in the world to get a men's GM norm, surpassing the record of her idol Judith Polgar of Hungary.

"What I can only say at this stage is that Humpy is the youngest Grandmaster in the country. Regarding the world record, I have no comments to offer," he said.

Humpy's third GM norm in Hungary and her claim of being the youngest woman to acquire a full GM norm are shadowed in controversy with some quarters expressing doubts over the level and category of tournaments she played.