THE KILLER
See that impish smile? Fall for it and she will cut you to shreds over a board with 64 black and white squares that others call a chess board and she calls a battle zone. You see, Koneru Humpy is an IM -- -- the youngest among Asian women. International chess arbiter I. Muralidhar Naidu expects her to "become a woman Grandmaster in two years and then begin the climb to the summit". The summit? World number one, can't you imagine?

"We will do it step by step," says the Class VII student from Guntur. She trains with her father and coach Koneru Ashok, who quit his job as a chemistry lecturer to be with her. Their synergy helped her win the world under-10 championship at Cannes in 1997, the under-12 in 1998 at Oropesa Del Mar, a resort town in Spain. She worked hard for an encore in the under-14 group, again at the beach resort but failed. Unfazed she hones her skills for hours every day, learning to concentrate and kill better. "The only weakness at this stage is the lack of a more experienced coach," explains Naidu. "But they are realistic and Ashok plans to limit his role to that of a manager." Step by step.