Tania Sachdev (born 20 August 1986) is an Indian

chess Chess is a board game for two players, called White and Black, each controlling an army of chess pieces in their color, with the objective to checkmate the opponent's king. It is sometimes called international chess or Western chess to disti ...

player, who holds the

FIDE titles FIDE titles are awarded by the international chess governing body FIDE (''Fédération Internationale des Échecs'') for outstanding performance. The highest such title is Grandmaster (GM). Titles generally require a combination of Elo rating an ...

of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM). She is a two-time Indian women's chess champion in 2006 and 2007, one-time Asian women's chess champion in 2007 and three-time and current Commonwealth Women's Chess Champion in 2016, 2018 and 2019. She is also a chess presenter and commentator.

Early years

Born in

Delhi Delhi, officially the National Capital Territory (NCT) of Delhi, is a city and a union territory of India containing New Delhi, the capital of India. Straddling the Yamuna river, primarily its western or right bank, Delhi shares borders w ...

, Sachdev was introduced to the game by her mother, Anju, at the age of 6. Her parents provided her with professional training. She achieved her first international title when she was eight. She was coached by K.C. Joshi during her early years. As a child, Tania Sachdev won multiple events. Her career successes are under-12 Indian champion, Asian U14 girls' champion in 2000 and bronze medalist at the 1998

World Youth Chess Championship The World Youth Chess Championship is a FIDE-organized worldwide chess competition for boys and girls under the age of 8, 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18. Twelve world champions are crowned every year. Since 2015, the event has been split into "World Cade ...

s in the Girls U12 division. In 2002, she won the Asian Junior Girls Championship in

Marawila Marawila is a town in Puttalam District, North Western Province, Sri Lanka. It is located on the A3 highway, which connects Negombo and Chilaw. The town is located away from Negombo Negombo (, ) is a major city in Sri Lanka, situated on the w ...

National and international acclaim

In 2005, Sachdev became the eighth Indian player to be awarded the Woman Grandmaster title. She won India's National Women's Premier Chess Championship in 2006 and 2007. In 2007, she also won the Women's

Asian Chess Championship The Asian Chess Championship is a chess tournament open to all players from Asian chess federations ( FIDE zones from 3.1 to 3.7). It's held with the Swiss system and consists in two divisions, Open and Women's, the latter of which is reserved to f ...

with 6½ points out of nine rounds in

Tehran Tehran (; fa, تهران ) is the largest city in Tehran Province and the capital of Iran. With a population of around 9 million in the city and around 16 million in the larger metropolitan area of Greater Tehran, Tehran is the most popul ...

. She was conferred with the

Arjuna Award The Arjuna Award, officially known as Arjuna Awards for Outstanding Performance in Sports and Games, is the second-highest sporting honour of India, the highest being the Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award. The award is named after Arjuna, one ...

in 2009. In 2016, Sachdev won the best woman's prize at the

Reykjavik Open The Reykjavik Open is an annual chess tournament that takes place in the capital city of Iceland. It was held every two years up to 2008, currently it runs annually. The first edition was held in 1964 and was won by Mikhail Tal with a score of 12.5 ...

and won the

Commonwealth A commonwealth is a traditional English term for a political community founded for the common good. Historically, it has been synonymous with "republic". The noun "commonwealth", meaning "public welfare, general good or advantage", dates from the ...

women's champion title in

Kalutara Kalutara ( si, කළුතර, ta, களுத்துறை) or Kalutota is a major city in Kalutara District, Western Province, Sri Lanka. It is also the administrative capital of Kalutara District. It is located approximately south o ...

. She has played for the Indian national team in the

Women's Chess Olympiad The Women's Chess Olympiad is an event held by FIDE (the International Chess Federation) since 1957 (every two years since 1972), where national women's teams compete at chess for gold, silver and bronze medals. Since 1976 the Women's Chess Olympia ...

s since 2008, the Women's

World Team Chess Championship The World Team Chess Championship is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of 10 countries whose chess federations dominate their continent. It is played every two years. In chess, this tournament and the Chess Olympiads ...

in 2009 and 2011, the Women's Asian Team Chess Championship since 2003, the

2006 Asian Games 6 (six) is the natural number following 5 and preceding 7. It is a composite number and the smallest perfect number. In mathematics Six is the smallest positive integer which is neither a square number nor a prime number; it is the second small ...

, and the 2009 Asian Indoor Games. Sachdev won the individual bronze medal for board 3 at the 2012 Women's Chess Olympiad in

Istanbul Istanbul ( , ; tr, İstanbul ), formerly known as Constantinople ( grc-gre, Κωνσταντινούπολις; la, Constantinopolis), is the List of largest cities and towns in Turkey, largest city in Turkey, serving as the country's economic, ...

, four team silver medals (in 2008, 2009, 2012, and 2014) and four individual ones (three silver and one bronze) at the Women's Asian Team Championship. In 2015, Sachdev won a silver medal in the Asian Continental Women's Rapid Chess Championship. Sachdev has presented a Fritztrainer Strategy DVD for Chessbase and was a member of the official commentary team for the 2013 (Chennai) World Championship Match between

Magnus Carlsen Sven Magnus Øen Carlsen (born 30 November 1990) is a Norwegian chess grandmaster who is the reigning five-time World Chess Champion. He is also a three-time World Rapid Chess Champion and five-time World Blitz Chess Champion. Carlsen has h ...

and

Viswanathan Anand Viswanathan "Vishy" Anand (born 11 December 1969) is an Indian chess grandmaster and a former five-time World Chess Champion. He became the first grandmaster from India in 1988, and is one of the few players to have surpassed an Elo rating of ...

. In July 2019, Sachdev won Commonwealth women's championship and defended her title.

Personal life

Sachdev completed her schooling at Modern School in Vasant Vihar in Delhi and did her graduation at

Sri Venkateswara College Sri Venkateswara College is a constituent college of the University of Delhi established in 1961 in New Delhi, India. It is managed by Tirumala Tirupati Devasthanams & UGC and awards degrees under the purview of the University of Delhi. The co ...

. She is sponsored by

Red Bull Red Bull is a brand of energy drinks of Austria, Austrian company Red Bull GmbH. With 38% market share, it is the most popular energy drink brand as of 2019. Since its launch in 1987, more than 100 billion cans of Red Bull have been sold worldwid ...

. She married Delhi-based architect Viraj Kataria in November 2014.

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Sachdev, Tania 1986 births Living people Chess International Masters Chess woman grandmasters Indian female chess players Chess Olympiad competitors Chess players at the 2010 Asian Games Sportswomen from Delhi 21st-century Indian women 21st-century Indian people Asian Games competitors for India Recipients of the Arjuna Award Modern School (New Delhi) alumni