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Pia Cramling

Pia Cramling is one of Sweden's greatest chess players of all time. In January 1984 she was the highest-rated woman player in the world, and in 1992 she became the fifth woman in the world and the first Swedish woman to receive the grandmaster title. She has won the European Women's Championship twice.

Pia Cramling
Photo: Lars OA Hedlund, 2015. CC BY-SA 4.0. Cropped and toned.
  • BornApril 23, 1963, Stockholm
  • CountrySweden
  • TitleGrandmaster 1992
  • Highest rating2550 (October 2008)
    FIDE's official lists (from July 1971)

The road to the top

Cramling was born in Stockholm in 1963. She played her first Women's Chess Olympiad at 15, in 1978. On FIDE's list of January 1984 she was the highest-rated woman in the world, and in July of that year she shared first place with Susan Polgar.

Main results

Cramling's own results. At the Chess Olympiad, medals go both to the teams and to the best player on each board.
YearEventResultWhere
1984Women's Chess OlympiadGold on board 1
10½ of 13 points		Thessaloniki
1986Women's Candidates tournament4th placeMalmö
1988Women's Chess OlympiadGold on board 1
12½ of 14 points		Thessaloniki
1994Women's Candidates tournament3rd placeTilburg
2003European Women's ChampionshipWinner
2008Women's World Championship, knockoutSemifinalNalchik
2010European Women's ChampionshipWinner
2015Women's World Championship, knockoutSemifinalSochi
2022Women's Chess OlympiadGold on board 1Chennai

Olympiad gold

Cramling has won the gold medal on first board at the Women's Chess Olympiad three times: in Thessaloniki in 1984 and 1988, and in Chennai in 2022, at the age of 59. She has also played four Olympiads in the open section.

Close to the title

Cramling has come close to a title match several times. She finished fourth in the Candidates tournament in Malmö in 1986 and third in Tilburg in 1994. When the title was later decided in knockout tournaments, she reached the semifinals in 2008 and 2015.

In 2008 she beat the future world champion Tan Zhongyi in the second round, and in the semifinal she lost to Alexandra Kosteniuk, who went on to win the title. She won the European Women's Championship in 2003 and 2010.

Sources

  • Wikipedia: Pia Cramling
  • Store norske leksikon: Pia Cramling
  • Chess.com: Pia Cramling
  • OlimpBase: Cramling's Chess Olympiads, FIDE's lists of 1984, and the knockouts of 2008 and 2015
  • Mark Weeks: the Candidates tournaments of 1986 and 1994
  • FIDE: Cramling's profile and rating history

The facts on this page come from the sources above, checked against each other. Where the sources disagree, only what they agree on is given.

Updated November 8, 2026