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Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi

Full name Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi
Country India
Born 25 March 1979
Title International Master
Woman Grandmaster
Peak rating 2485 (October 2005)

Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi (born 25 March 1979) is an Indian chess player who holds the FIDE titles of International Master and Woman Grandmaster, the first female player in her country to achieve these titles. She has won more medals than any other player for India in the Chess Olympiads. She has won almost all national age group titles, including the senior title.

Personal life

Growing up in Madras she learned the game from her father. She is married to Indian Grandmaster Sriram Jha. Her sisters S. Meenakshi (born 1981, WGM) and S. Bhanupriya are also chess players.

Career

Her first tournament was the Tal Chess Open in 1986. Both in 1988 as in 1989 she won the Indian championship in the U10 category. Also in the U12 category she won twice.

In the Zone tournament in Madras (1995) she finished second. She won the Asian Zone tournament in 1997 in Teheran, and also in 1999 in Mumbai. In 1996 in Kolkata she became female master Commonwealth. The Indian Chess Championship for Women was won by her in 1995 (Madras), 1996 (Kolkata), 1999 (Kozhikode), 2000 (Mumbai), 2001 (New Delhi) and 2002 (Lakhnau). She took part in the Chess Olympiad with the Indian Women team in 1998. At the 34th Chess Olympiad in 2000 in Istanbul she received a silver medal for her performance at board 1, which she repeated in Bled 2002. In 2007 she won the Leonardo di Bona-Memorial in Cutro (Crotone).

In 1996 she became Women International Master. Since 2001 she is Women Grandmaster (WGM), which makes her the first Indian female grandmaster. She also has the general title International Master (IM), because of her results at the Chess Olympiad 2000. She was the first female Indian player to become IM. In 2006 in Kalamaria she attained a general GM norm, and also in 2007 for her victory in Cutro.

In July 2005 she played in the Biel Accentus Ladies Tournament, where she came second with 6½ points, which was the same score as to Almira Skripchenko who beat Vijayalakshmi in the tie-break.

In Germany she took part in the LGA-open in 2006 in Nürnberg and in 2006/2007 she played for the Brackweder SC in the NRW competition.

Awards and recognition

In 2001 the Indian government gave her the Arjuna Award.

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