After clutch performances at Olympiad, Savitha Shri gears up for World Juniors in pursuit of Grandmaster title

Savitha Shri, in her Chess Olympiad debut, managed eight wins and two draws in ten appearances to help the women’s team win the bronze medal. | Photo Credit: FIDE

When Savitha Shri shook hands with Meri Arabidze after their final-round game at the Chess Olympiad, she had tears in her eyes. She had held the Georgian to a draw after six hours of play, but didn’t yet know the result would help India secure the women’s team bronze. She was upset she hadn’t won.

“I got emotional, and I got tears in my eyes,” Savitha told Sportstar. “I wasn’t aware that we got bronze.”

Captain Swayams Mishra came over to calm her down and explain that India would finish on the podium. Only then did she begin to relax.

The draw completed an unbeaten debut for the 19-year-old from Chennai: eight wins and two draws in 10 appearances, an individual gold in the reserve-board category and a team bronze. Yet, when asked which game had left her least satisfied, she chose the one that had helped secure the medal.

For much of the encounter, Savitha had been defending. Once Kazakhstan drew its final-round match, she began thinking about the possibility of silver if India could win. Her position initially offered little scope to try, but she recovered to an endgame in which she was a pawn ahead.

The engine’s assessment was equal, she said, but she felt she could have tested Arabidze for longer after the Georgian had let a winning position slip. Even after India secured bronze, Savitha wished she had pushed harder for a win.

That willingness to continue had already proved important twice in Samarkand. In the eighth round, her victory over Kazakhstan’s Elnaz Kaliakhmet offset R. Vaishali’s defeat and secured a 2-2 draw. Two rounds later, she beat China’s Zhai Mo to help India draw another match by the same score after Vantika Agrawal lost.

Against Kaliakhmet, Savitha knew that a draw on her board would mean defeat for India. She kept playing a position she considered equal, looking for a chance as the clocks ran down. Her opponent was left with seconds, while Savitha still had four or five minutes, enough, she recalled, to settle her nerves.

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Against China, she chose to break a repetition and continue. At the time, she believed Vantika could hold her position; a win on Savitha’s board would then give India the match. Vantika eventually lost, but Savitha’s decision to play on helped avert a team defeat.

The long games brought fatigue. Savitha said she had spent five or six hours at the board in several of the closing rounds, often becoming the last Indian player still in action. By the final day, she had grown accustomed to that responsibility.

She had not expected to play 10 of the tournament’s 11 rounds. Listed fifth in the squad, she was making her first over-the-board Olympiad appearance. Early advice from the captain and teammates was to concentrate on her games and avoid distractions, including social media. As the results accumulated, she sensed their confidence in her growing, particularly after the Kazakhstan match, and credited their support for helping her handle the pressure.

Her approach in difficult positions was to seek counterplay rather than simplify automatically. Complications could leave an opponent with more decisions to make, particularly under time pressure.

“I’m always searching for some counterplay and some kind of complications over the board,” she said. “Once the time gets down in the complicated positions, anything can happen.”

Her Olympiad performance followed a period when results, confidence and finances had all become concerns. Savitha won bronze at the Women’s World Rapid Championship in 2022, aged 15, but struggled to sustain that level of success.

At the 2023 Women’s World Rapid Championship, she finished 36th with 6.5 points from 11 rounds. In the girls’ event at the 2025 World Junior Championship, she was seeded ninth but finished 17th with seven points from 11 rounds, losing 10 rating points. Her classical rating was down to 2293 by June 2025.

The long games brought Savitha fatigue. She had spent five or six hours at the board in several of the closing rounds, often becoming the last Indian player still in action. By the final day, she had grown accustomed to that responsibility. | Photo Credit: VELANKANNI RAJ B

Born and brought up in Chennai, she began playing local tournaments alongside her brother when she was five. Her father, Baskar, had worked as an electrical technician in Singapore before returning to India to support her career. He initially funded her chess through his savings. When those ran out, the family struggled to meet the costs.

Crossing a classical rating of 2400 brought sponsorship and some stability. Savitha said that, during the subsequent period of uneven results, the cost of travelling abroad became difficult to manage again.

Savitha estimated that a single overseas trip could cost Rs. 4-5 lakh, in addition to coaching expenses. “Financially also, it was difficult for us to travel abroad and play tournaments,” she said. She played fewer tournaments and, for a period, worked on her chess largely by herself, using a laptop, courses and books. Her confidence had also suffered.

Her parents continued to encourage her through that period. “They would just keep rooting for me. And they made sure that I don’t get distracted or get into all these negativities,” she said. She also credits coach R.B. Ramesh, with whom she has worked since childhood, for his contribution to her development.

Savitha traces the return of her confidence to the Asian Women’s Individual Championship in June. In Ulaanbaatar, she finished level with Uzbekistan’s Afruza Khamdamova on 7.5 points from nine rounds and won the title on tiebreak, earning a place in the 2027 Women’s World Cup.

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The victory allowed her to put the earlier difficulties aside and focus on preparing for the Olympiad. She worked on openings and calculation, then found herself reaching familiar positions in Samarkand. After a period when she had continued studying without getting the results she wanted, she could see that work reflected in her games.

After earning the Woman Grandmaster (WGM) title in 2023 and the International Master (IM) title in 2025, she plans to play the World Juniors in November and more open tournaments next year as she pursues the Grandmaster title.

Published on Oct 02, 2026

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