Olga Girya

Girya in 2012
Full name	Olga Alexandrovna Girya
Country	Russia
Born	June 4, 1991 Langepas, Russian SFSR, Soviet Union
Title	Woman Grandmaster (2009)
Peak rating	2493 (July 2014)

Olga Alexandrovna Girya (Russian: Ольга Александровна Гиря; born 4 June 1991 in Langepas) is a Russian chess player who holds the title of Woman Grandmaster.

Career

Girya took silver in the World Under 16 Girls Championship in 2007. In 2008, she placed second in the European Under 18 Girls Championship and third in the same division of the World Youth Championship. In 2009, Girya won both European and World U18 Girls Championships. She was the Russian Junior Girls Champion in 2010. She was the runner up at the World Junior Chess Championship (Girls) both in 2010 and 2011.

She competed in the Women's World Chess Championship 2012: after defeating Iweta Rajlich in the first round, she was eliminated by Marie Sebag.

Girya played in four tournaments of the FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2013-14. In the fourth stage, held in Khanty-Mansiysk, she placed second, behind Hou Yifan, and achieved a Grandmaster norm.

In February 2014, she won the Moscow Open B, reserved to female players.

In June 2014, she won the Women's Russian Championship Higher League, therefore qualifying for the Superfinal. In the latter she placed fourth.

In November 2014 she won the Women's Russian Cup, a knockout competition, defeating in the final Anastasia Bodnaruk.

Girya participated in the Women's World Chess Championship 2015: she knocked out Ekaterina Atalik in the first round, but was eliminated in the second one by Valentina Gunina.

In March 2015, she was the top scoring female player with 6.5/11 in the Vladimir Petrov Memorial, a rapid tournament held in Jurmala.

Team competitions

Girya made her debut in the national women's team at the 39th Chess Olympiad (Women) playing on the second board for Russia B team.

In 2012 she took part in the 8th China-Russia Match in Saint Petersburg, held with the Scheveningen system. She scored 2/5 in the classical part of the match.

In 2013 she helped the Russian team to win bronze in the Women's World Team Chess Championship, winning also the individual gold on fifth board, and silver in the Women's European Team Chess Championship.

At the 41st Chess Olympiad (Women) she played on fourth board for the Russian team that took gold.

In April 2015, she took part in the Women's World Team Championship and won team bronze and individual gold on fifth board, scoring 6.5/7, the best overall performance of the event. In July 2015 she played in the 9th Russia-China Match in Ningbo, scoring 4/10 in the blitz match and 2/5 in the classical encounter.