Pia Cramling

Pia Cramling

13th ECC, Kallithea, 2008
Country Sweden
Born 23 April 1963
Stockholm, Sweden
Title Grandmaster
FIDE rating 2505 (May 2015)
(No. 12 ranked woman in the November 2012 FIDE World Rankings)
Peak rating 2550 (October 2008)

Pia Cramling (born 23 April 1963 in Stockholm, Sweden) is a Swedish chess grandmaster (GM). Since the early 1980s, she has been one of the strongest female players in the world. She has been ranked No. 1 woman in the FIDE World Rankings on three occasions (January 1984, July 1984 and January 1985).[1] [2] [3] In October 2007, well into her forties, she still held the third highest rating among all females.[4] Cramling regularly plays on the Swedish open team in the Chess Olympiads, one of only three women to do so. In 1992, she became the third female to earn the (FIDE) GM title through conventional tournament play (sixth woman overall).

Competing for International titles

Cramling is beside Judit Polgar (who elected to not play in women events) the only woman who earned her GM title before 2000 who has never won the Women's World Champion crown. According to herself, one explanation for this is that the World Championship is a team effort and that more prominent chess nations are able to give their players better support in important events.[5] Nevertheless, Cramling has been in reasonably close contention for the crown on four occasions (all in different decades). In the 1986 and 1996 Candidates cycle she came in fourth and third respectively, while she reached the semi finals of both the 2008 and 2015 Championships. She's had greater succes in Europe where she's won the women's European Individual Chess Championship in 2003 and 2010.[6]

Personal life

Cramling, married to the Spanish grandmaster Juan Manuel Bellón López,[7] lived in Spain for a number of years but recently moved back to Sweden. Together they share one daughter, Anna Cramling Bellon, who is also a promising chess player. Leading up to the FIDE March 2015 world rating list she gained 210 ELO points and broke into the girls under 14 top 50.[8]

References

  1. ↑ "FIDE Rating List January 1984". FIDE. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  2. ↑ "FIDE Rating List July 1984". FIDE. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  3. ↑ "FIDE Rating List January 1985". FIDE. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  4. ↑ "FIDE 50 Women October 2007". FIDE. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  5. ↑ "Nära toppen i Naltjik" (PDF). Tidskrift för Schack. 1 July 2008. Retrieved 28 March 2015.
  6. ↑ "Rijeka: Nepomniachtchi, Cramling European champions". ChessBase. 18 March 2010. Retrieved 18 March 2010.
  7. ↑ ChessBase.com - Chess News - Kateryna and Robert – pour la vie à jamais unis...
  8. ↑ "Mar 2015: FIDE Standard rating list (txt-format)". FIDE. Retrieved 29 March 2015.

External links