Indian Grandmaster Dronavalli Harika won Bronze medal along with Grandmaster Pia Cramling of Sweden and pocketed 20000 US dollars in the World Women’s chess championships held at Sochi, Russia. Harika lost to Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine in the semifinals. The championship title was won by Mariya Muzychuk, who defeated Natalija Pogonina of Russia by 2.5 to 1.5 points in the four-game final. Muzychuk bagged 60000 US dollars and Pogonina pocketed 30000 US dollars.

Dronavalli Harika will play in the World Women Team Chess Championship in China in less than two weeks where Humpy will also join the Indian team.

Tidbits

1. Chess was invented in India. It is believed to originate out of India during the Gupta empire.
2. Chess is called the game of kings, because the game was played only by royal people for centuries.
3. On June 9, 1970, the first chess game was played between space and earth by the Soyez-9 crew. The game ended in a draw.
4. The current World Chess Champion is Magnus Carlsen of Norway. He defeated Viswanathan Anand for two consecutive years (2013 and 2014).
5. The Fédération Internationale des Échecs is the World Chess Federation. It is usually referred as FIDE.
6. FIDE’s headquarters in in Athens, Greece. The motto of FIDE is “We are one People“.