Need more chess events for women in India, says GM Koneru Humpy

India’s former World Rapid Chess Champion Koneru Humpy on Thursday highlighted the need to organise more chess events for women in the country to ensure a greater pool of players.

The 36-year-old Indian Grandmaster added that lack of adequate financial support is among the challengers that chess players face, in order to compete on the big stage.

“If I take India’s case, I still feel that compared to the boys, the number of women players is quite less. There needs to be more tournaments for women in India, especially for young girls,” Humpy was quoted as saying in a press release.

Humpy, who won the individual and mixed team gold medals at the 2006 Asian Games, said players must be provided with proper training once their talent is unearthed.

“Once they find the talent, they should pick them up and train them. Training plays an important role in growing the pool of talented players in any sport. Probably we need to work in the direction to increase the number of women players. Once that happens, probably the talent will come up slowly,” Humpy said.