PTI

New Delhi, Jun 17: Koneru Humpy, world's top-ranking Grandmaster behind Judith Polgar in women's category, has decided to give the chess Olympiad a miss to be staged this November in Dresden, Germany, despite being given her maiden opportunity to play for the men's team.

The 21-year-old queen of 64 squares, who had been spearheading Indian challenge in women's section, was keen to represent the country in the open section, but when selected to be a part of the men's team this year, she preferred to play in her promised FIDE events and earn some ELO rating points.

"It was a difficult choice but I'll have to skip it. I had already confirmed some competition in Europe - European Club Cup in Greece and Cap de Agde in France - eight months before. Dates of these tournaments have now been postponed to late October and the Olympiad is in November," Humpy told PTI.

The youngest woman ever to become a Grandmaster by beating Polgar's record by 3 months, Humpy's ratings have been on the rise and she was selected to play in the men's team in Olympiad by virtue of being among the top-five GMs of the country.

She crossed ELO 2600 mark in October 2007 and will be ELO 2622 when the next rating list is issued by the International Chess Federation (FIDE).

For Humpy, who has toppled Anatoly Karpov twice in rapid games, the opportunity to play on the same board as Karpov and Bacrot in a competition for players of the calibre of ELO 2700 was hard to resist.