Chess player Koneru Humpy has won the BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year award for 2020, following a public vote. The 33-year-old beat sprinter Dutee Chand, airgun shooter Manu Bhaker, wrestler Vinesh Phogat and India hockey captain Rani Rampal to the award.
Humpy is the World Rapid Chess champion having won the title in December 2019 after a two-year maternity break. In 2020, she won the Cairns Cup, an elite-level tournament for the top female players.
She said: "Being an indoor game, chess doesn't get as much attention as sports like cricket gets in India. But with this award, I hope the game will draw people's attention." She added: "I won over the years because of my willpower and confidence. A female player should never think about quitting her game. Marriage and motherhood are just a part of our life and they should not change the course of our lives."
Born in the southern state of Andhra Pradesh, Kuneru was identified as a chess prodigy at an early age by her father. She lived up to the reputation by becoming the youngest female grandmaster, aged 15, in 2002 - the record was broken by China's Hou Yifan in 2008. She received the Arjuna Award, one of India's top sporting honours, in 2003, and India's fourth-highest civilian award, Padma Shri, in 2007.
The BBC Indian Sportswoman of the Year initiative was launched in 2019 to celebrate female achievements in sport and highlight the issues and challenges faced by women and girls in India.
Former long jumper Anju Bobby George was given the Lifetime Achievement award for her contribution to Indian sport. She remains the only athlete to win a World Championship athletics medal for her country.
In the run up to the event a 'Sports Hackathon' was held, with the aim of adding more information about Indian sportswomen to Wikipedia in Indian languages. The project focused on athletes about whom there was minimal or no information available on the online encyclopaedia.
More than 300 entries of 50 Indian sportswomen were added into the site in collaboration with 300 journalism students in 13 universities across India.
