Harika Dronavalli Biography 
Harika Dronavalli is an Indian chess grandmaster from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. She has won three bronze medals in the Women's World Chess Championship, in the years - 2012, 2015 and 2017. She is a recipient of the prestigious Arjuna Award for the year 2007–08. For her contributions towards the field of sports, she has been awarded with Padma Shri in 2019. She was at position 5 in FIDE women’s ranking soon after she won the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix event at Chengdu, China. She is only the second female player after Humpy Koneru to become a grandmaster. Bronze Medal at the Women's World Chess Championship 2017 is one of her major wins in the recent times.
Harika Dronavalli was born on 12 January 1991 in Gorantla, Guntur, Andhra Pradesh. Her father works as a deputy executive engineer at a Panchayat Raj subdivision in Mangalagiri. Since young she was interested in chess. She won a medal in under-9 national championship. It was her first major win during the early phase of her career. She won a silver at world youth chess championship for under-10 girls in year 2000. To pursue a career in the field of chess, she later approached her coach NVS Ramaraju, who played a major role in grooming her career.
From there on, she won numerous titles and rewards throughout her professional career. Padma Shri and Arjuna Award are among the major honours she received from Government of India. She won silver medal at World Youth Chess Championship U-12 Girls, held at Spain. She won her first international gold medal in 2002, when she won Asian U-18 Girls Chess Championship and Asian Under-12 Girls Chess Championship titles. She won a silver medal at Commonwealth Women Chess Championship, Mumbai in 2003.
Published: January 28, 2019
Updated: January 28, 2019
