Pia Cramling
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Pia Ann Rosa-Della Cramling (born 23 April 1963) is a Swedish
chess grandmaster Grandmaster (GM) is a title awarded to chess players by the world chess organization FIDE. Apart from World Champion, Grandmaster is the highest title a chess player can attain. Once achieved, the title is held for life, though exceptionally the t ...
. Since the early 1980s, she has been one of the strongest female players in the world as well as the highest-rated woman in the
FIDE World Rankings The International Chess Federation (FIDE) governs international chess competition. Each month, FIDE publishes the lists "Top 100 Players", "Top 100 Women", "Top 100 Juniors" and "Top 100 Girls" and rankings of countries according to the average r ...
on three occasions. She was the number-one-rated woman in the January 1984 rating list and the joint number-one-rated woman in the January 1983 and July 1984 lists. In 1992, she became the fifth woman to earn the
FIDE The International Chess Federation or World Chess Federation, commonly referred to by its French acronym FIDE ( , ), is an international organization based in Switzerland that connects the various national chess federations and acts as the Spor ...
title of Grandmaster (GM).


Career

Cramling is, aside from Judit Polgar (who chose not to play in women's events), the only woman to have earned the grandmaster title before 2000 who has never won the Women's World Champion crown. According to Cramling, one explanation for this is that the World Championship is a team effort and more prominent chess nations are able to give their players better support in important events. Nevertheless, Cramling has been in reasonably close contention for the crown on four occasions (all in different decades). In the
1986 The year 1986 was designated as the International Year of Peace by the United Nations. Events January * January 1 ** Aruba gains increased autonomy from the Netherlands by separating from the Netherlands Antilles. ** Spain and Portugal en ...
and
1996 1996 was designated as: * International Year for the Eradication of Poverty Events January * January 8 – A Zairean cargo plane crashes into a crowded market in the center of the capital city of the Democratic Republic of the Congo ...
Candidates cycle she came in fourth and third, respectively. Since the Women's World Championship has been held with the knockout format, she reached the semifinals in
2008 2008 was designated as: *International Year of Languages *International Year of Planet Earth *International Year of the Potato *International Year of Sanitation The Great Recession, a worldwide recession which began in 2007, continued throu ...
and
2015 2015 was designated by the United Nations as: * International Year of Light * International Year of Soil __TOC__ Events January * January 1 – Lithuania officially adopts the euro as its currency, replacing the litas, and becomes ...
. These latter results qualified her to play in the
FIDE Women's Grand Prix The FIDE Women's Grand Prix is a biennial series of chess tournaments, organized by FIDE. Results Hou Yifan has won all three Grand Prix she has played. Koneru Humpy has been the perennial runner-up, coming second in each of the first five Grand ...
series in 2009–11 and 2015–16, respectively. She has had greater success in Europe, where she won the Women's
European Individual Chess Championship The European Individual Chess Championship is a chess tournament organised by the European Chess Union. It was established in 2000 and has since then taken place on a yearly basis. Apart from determining the European champions (open and women's) ...
in 2003 and 2010. In 2006, she won the Accentus Ladies Tournament in
Biel Biel/Bienne (official bilingual wording; German language, German: ''Biel'' ; French language, French: ''Bienne'' ; Bernese German, locally ; ; ; ) is a bilingual city in the canton of Bern in Switzerland. With over 55,000 residents, it is the ...
. In team competitions, Cramling represented Sweden in the
Chess Olympiad The Chess Olympiad is a biennial chess tournament in which teams representing nations of the world compete. FIDE organises the tournament and selects the host nation. Amidst the COVID-19 pandemic, FIDE held an Online Chess Olympiad in FIDE Onli ...
in both the open and women's events,
European Team Chess Championship The European Team Championship (often abbreviated in texts and games databases as ''ETC'') is an international team chess event, eligible for the participation of European nations whose chess federations are located in zones 1.1 to 1.9. This more ...
in both open and women's sections, Telechess Olympiad and Nordic Cup. 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 ...
, she has won the individual gold medal as the best player on board 1 (according to the rating performance) in 1984, 1988 and 2022. In the European Club Cup for Women, Cramling has won the team gold medal in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2016 playing for team Cercle d'Echecs
Monte Carlo Monte Carlo ( ; ; or colloquially ; , ; ) is an official administrative area of Monaco, specifically the Ward (country subdivision), ward of Monte Carlo/Spélugues, where the Monte Carlo Casino is located. Informally, the name also refers to ...
. Cramling earned the
International Master 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 and ...
(IM) title in 1983 and the Grandmaster (GM) title in 1992. She defeated
Raymond Keene Raymond Dennis Keene (born 29 January 1948) is an English chess grandmaster, a FIDE International Arbiter, a chess organiser, and a journalist and author. He won the British Chess Championship in 1971 and was the first player from England t ...
in the tournament where she earned her first IM
norm Norm, the Norm or NORM may refer to: In academic disciplines * Normativity, phenomenon of designating things as good or bad * Norm (geology), an estimate of the idealised mineral content of a rock * Norm (philosophy), a standard in normative e ...
. She earned her three GM norms in
Italy Italy, officially the Italian Republic, is a country in Southern Europe, Southern and Western Europe, Western Europe. It consists of Italian Peninsula, a peninsula that extends into the Mediterranean Sea, with the Alps on its northern land b ...
in 1989, in
Las Palmas Las Palmas (, ; ), officially Las Palmas de Gran Canaria, is a Spanish city and capital of Gran Canaria, in the Canary Islands, in the Atlantic Ocean. It is the capital city of the Canary Islands (jointly with Santa Cruz de Tenerife) and the m ...
in 1990, and
Bern Bern (), or Berne (), ; ; ; . is the ''de facto'' Capital city, capital of Switzerland, referred to as the "federal city".; ; ; . According to the Swiss constitution, the Swiss Confederation intentionally has no "capital", but Bern has gov ...
in 1992.


Personal life

Cramling is
married Marriage, also called matrimony or wedlock, is a culturally and often legally recognised union between people called spouses. It establishes rights and obligations between them, as well as between them and their children (if any), and b ...
to the
Spanish Spanish might refer to: * Items from or related to Spain: **Spaniards are a nation and ethnic group indigenous to Spain **Spanish language, spoken in Spain and many countries in the Americas **Spanish cuisine **Spanish history **Spanish culture ...
grandmaster
Juan Manuel Bellón López Juan Manuel Bellón López (born 8 May 1950) is a Spanish chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (1978). He is a five-time Spanish Chess Champion (1969, 1971, 1974, 1977, 1982), Chess Olympiad individual silver medal winner (1978) ...
. The two met in
Zürich Zurich (; ) is the list of cities in Switzerland, largest city in Switzerland and the capital of the canton of Zurich. It is in north-central Switzerland, at the northwestern tip of Lake Zurich. , the municipality had 448,664 inhabitants. The ...
, in 1984, and married four years later; since Cramling's promotion to grandmaster in 1992, they became the first chess couple who both hold the highest title in chess. Bellón and Cramling lived in Spain for a number of years, but later moved back to Sweden. Their daughter, Anna Cramling Bellón, is a
Woman FIDE Master 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 and ...
and a chess
YouTuber A YouTuber is a content creator and social media influencer who uploads or creates videos on the online video-sharing website YouTube, typically posting to their personal YouTube channel. The term was first used in the English language in 2006 ...
and
Twitch Twitch may refer to: Biology * Muscle contraction ** Convulsion, rapid and repeated muscle contraction and relaxation ** Fasciculation, a small, local, involuntary muscle contraction ** Myoclonic twitch, a jerk usually caused by sudden muscle c ...
streamer. At the 42nd and 44th Chess Olympiad, mother and daughter both played for Sweden, Pia being team captain on board 1 and Anna playing on board 542nd Olympiad Baku 2016 Women
chess-results.com and 3, respectively.


References


External links

* * * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Cramling, Pia 1963 births Chess Grandmasters Chess Olympiad competitors European Chess Champions Female chess grandmasters Living people Chess players from Stockholm Swedish chess players Swedish expatriates in Spain Swedish female chess players 20th-century Swedish sportswomen