Pia Cramling

Pia Ann Rosa-Della Cramling (born 23 April 1963) is a Swedish chess grandmaster who in 1992 became the fifth woman to earn this title from FIDE. 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 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.

Career

Cramling and Judit Polgar (who chose not to play in women's events) are the only women to have earned the grandmaster title before 2000 who have never won the Women's World Champion crown. Cramling said 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 and 1996 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 and 2015. These latter results qualified her to play in the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 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 in 2003 and 2010. In 2006, she won the Accentus Ladies Tournament in Biel.