Harika Dronavalli

Harika Dronavalli (born 12 January 1991) is an Indian chess player who holds the FIDE title of Grandmaster (GM).

Harika was born to Ramesh and Swarna Dronavalli on 12 January 1991 in Guntur where she attended Sri Venkateswara Bala Kuteer school Her father works as a deputy executive engineer at a Panchayat Raj subdivision in Mangalagiri.

She started playing chess at a very young age and won a medal in the under-9 national championship.

She followed it up with a silver medal in the world youth chess championship for under-10 girls.

She subsequently became a student of coach NVS Ramaraju who refined her game.

She became the second Indian woman to become a grandmaster, after Koneru Humpy.

Harika was honored with the Arjuna Award for the year 2007–08 by the government of India.

She has won three bronze medals in the Women's World Chess Championship, in 2012, 2015 and 2017.

In 2016, she won the FIDE Women's Grand Prix event at Chengdu, China and rose up from world no. 11 to world no. 5 in FIDE women's ranking.

She married Hyderabad-based Karteek Chandra in August 2018.

Her elder sister, Anusha, married Telugu film director K. S. Ravindra.

In 2019, she was awarded the Padma Shri for her contributions towards the field of sports.