Sarayu Velpula becomes the 26th Woman Grandmaster of India
Sarayu Velpula became India's 26th Woman Grandmaster at First League of Central Serbia. She scored her final norm at that event last month. The former National Under-13 Girls champion, scored her first WIM, WGM and IM-norms, all three at the same event in Pontevedra Masters 2023 in July. The girl from Warangal, Telangana, crossed 2300 in the September 2023 FIDE Rating list as she got a published rating of 2386. A little less than two years after scoring her first WGM-norm, Sarayu earned her second norm at 100th Paris IdF Masters in July 2025. Her journey continues as she joins the Indian team at the FIDE World Women's Team Championship 2025 starting today in Linares, Spain. Photo: Shahid Ahmed
Two WGM-norms in a little less than three months
Sarayu Velpula's first norm will always be special. She earned her WIM, WGM and IM-norms - all three at the same event. It is a rare and remarkable. She has a peak rating of 2443. It means that she is just two IM-norms away from becoming India's next International Master.
First WIM, WGM and IM-norm: Pontevedra Masters 2023
Sarayu Velpula's maiden WGM-norm at Pontevedra Masters 2023 in Pontevedra, Spain will always be special. Not only she scored one norm but three - IM, WGM and WIM-norm altogether. She scored 6.5/9, performed at 2575 and gained 213.6 Elo rating points in the process. Despite missing the first round, she started her tournament with a win over GM David Larino Nieto (ESP), IM Vyom Vidyarthi (USA), IM Andre Ventura Sousa (POR), drew against IM Lennis Martinez Ramirez (CUB) and IM Roberto Carlos Gomez Ledo (CUB). Her stellar performance also earned her a second place finish overall which shows how incredible her performance was.
Sarayu - Vyom, Round 6
Sarayu Velpula (1845) decided against recapturing the knight at d4. Instead, she continued her attack on the kingside 16.f6! Qd8 17.Qxd4 slowed down the attack a bit. 17.Rhf1 is what the computer recommends for a quicker finish. 17...Nxf6 18.exf6 Qxf6 19.Qxf6 gxf6 20.g4 b4 21.axb4 and White went on to win the game.
Second WGM-norm: 100th Paris IdF Masters 2025
Nearly two years later, Sarayu Velpula secured her second WGM-norm at 100th Paris IdF Masters 2025. She defeated IM Kashish Manoj Jain, drew with GM Andrei Shchekachev (FRA), IM Aradhya Garg, IM Michal Luch (POL) and IM Alexis Tahay (FRA), performed at 2400 to earn her second WGM-norm, scoring 5/9 and gained 13.6 Elo rating points.
Kashish - Sarayu, Round 2
26...Rd3! is a nice move. 27.cxd3?? ends things in a hurry Nxd3-+. 27.Ne3 Rd4 28.Nxg4 a4 29.h6 b3 30.hxg7 Kxg7?? 31.Nh2?? Nd3-+ and Black won the game in the next few moves.
Third WGM-norm: Central Serbian First League 2025
A little less than three months later, Sarayu scored her final WGM-norm at Central Serbian First League 2025. She was playing for ČAST I SLAVA (Honor and Glory) – Pirot team. She defeated GM Misa Pap (SRB), IM Sanjin Culum (BIH), IM Dragan Kojovic (SRB) and IM Gojko Vucinic (SRB).
Sarayu - Misa, Round 9
37.Bf2?? is actually a blunder as 37...Qxh3+! 38.gxh3 Bc6+ 39.Kh2 Rg2+ 40.Kh1 Rxf2+ and Black wins the game. Instead, GM Misa Pap (SRB, 2471) missed this combination and opted for 37...Qh5?? 38.Qxd3+- and White went on to win the game in the next few moves.
Sarayu's trainer, IM N Krishna Teja shared with us - Sarayu is there with us at Velocity Chess Academy for the last three years. She is very hardworking and have a lot of patience. Specially, her parents' support without pressurising her, helped her to achieve this. She could have become an IM a year ago but because of lack of financial support she couldn't play Europe trips. Special thanks to Pravaha foundation for supporting Sarayu’s journey from March 2025 so that she is able to play Europe tournaments and became a WGM. Soon we are expecting her to get her IM title. She already has an IM-norm.
The 25 Indian woman who became Woman Grandmasters - Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi (2001), Koneru Humpy (2001), Aarthie Ramaswamy (2003), Nisha Mohota (2003), Harika Dronavalli (2004), Subbaraman Meenakshi (2004), Swati Ghate (2004), Tania Sachdev (2005). Eesha Karavade (2005), Padmini Rout (2007), Mary Ann Gomes (2008), Soumya Swaminathan (2008), Kruttika Nadig (2009), Kiran Manisha Mohanty (2010), Bhakti Kulkarni (2012), R Vaishali (2018), Srija Seshadri (2019), Nandhidhaa P V (2020), Pratyusha Bodda (2020), Varshini V (2020), Divya Deshmukh (2021), Vantika Agrawal (2021), Priyanka Nutakki (2022), Rakshitta Ravi (2023) and Savitha Shri B (2023).
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Sarayu Velpula gets the YouTube Membership fund for the month of January 2022
@ 26/05/2022 by Sagar Shah (en) |