Priyanka Nutakki is the 23rd Indian Woman Grand Master (WGM) who has won many national and international chess competitions.
Wiki/Biography
Priyanka Nutakki was born on Saturday, 1 June 2002 (age 20 years; as of 2022) in Kanuru, Vijaywada, Andhra Pradesh. Her zodiac sign is Gemini. She started playing chess at the age of 7 during the summer vacations when she was in the 2nd class. She quickly learned the game and won a district-level event. Her parents noticed her natural talent and got her enrolled in the Mustabada Chess Educational Academy at Vijaywada. She studied at Delhi Public School in Vijaywada. She started learning under the renowned coach Bobba Veerabhadra Rao aka V.R. Bobba. She then trained under the coach Rama Raju in Hyderabad. In 2018, she started training under the senior coach G. Murali Krishna in Ponnur in the Guntur district of Andhra Pradesh. Later, she trained under the coach GM Swayam Mishra and GM Farrukh Amonatov. For her graduation, she opted for a Bachelor of Commerce degree.
Priyanka Nutakki (right) training with her coach V. R. Bobba during her childhood
Priyanka Nutakki with her coach GM Swayam Mishra
Physical Appearance
Height (approx.): 5′ 1″
Weight (approx.): 50 kg
Hair Colour: Black
Eye Colour: Black
Family
Parents & Siblings
Her father’s name is N. Radhakrishna, and her mother’s name is Durga Devi. She has a sister Sindhu Nutakki.
Priyanka Nutakki’s father N. Radhakrishna and mother Durga Devi
Relationships/Affairs
She is single.
Career
She started playing chess in various district and state-level tournaments. She won the National Under-9 Girls Chess Championship in 2011, National Under-11 Girls Chess Championship in 2013, and the 29th National Under-13 Girls Chess Championship in 2015. She emerged as the winner in the Under-10 age group in the Asian Youth Chess Championship for girls in 2012. Later, that same year, she again came out as the winner in the Under-10 age group in the World Youth Chess Championship for girls.
Priyanka Nutakki with the trophy after winning under-10 category in World Youth Chess Championship 2012
She participated in the World Youth Girl Under- 14 championship in 2016 and in the 20th Dubai Open in 2018. She won the Riga Technical University Open tournament – A in the girls category. In 2019, she crossed the 2300 rating criteria in the International Chess Federation (FIDE) rating. She scored her first Woman Grand Master norm in the Rilton Cup 2018-2019. During the COVID-19 Pandemic, most of the tournaments were canceled. In 2020, she won the Susan Polgar Foundation Girls’ Invitational Online Championship 2020. She completed her second WGM norm and first International Master (IM) norm in the 7th Sunway Sitges International Open in 2021. She completed the third and final WGM norm in the MPL 47th National Women Chess Championship in 2022. On 2 March 2022, she became a Woman Grandmaster. She won the Under-20 category of the Commonwealth Chess Championship in 2022. In November 2022, she qualified for the FIDE Knockout World Cup 2023.
Priyanka Nutakki (extreme left) after winning the Under-20 category in the Commonwealth Chess Championship – 2022
Facts/Trivia
- When she won the Asian Under -12 Girls Rapid Chess Championship in 2014, she was awarded a laptop by her school.
- She is the 23rd Indian Woman Grandmaster.
- She was expelled from the 2022 FIDE World Junior Chess Championship held in Italy after wireless headphones were found in her jacket pocket. She was cleared of any wrongdoing; however, had to quit the tournament midway.
- Her favorite chess book is My Great Predecessors by Gary Kasparov.
- She likes to play Badminton and Table Tennis.
- Special Chief Secretary to Andhra Pradesh government, Dr. Rajat Bhargava, awarded Priyanka on 22 March 2022 after she became the 23rd Indian Woman Grand Master.
Dr.Rajat Bhargava awarding Priyanka Nuttaki (right) after she became 23rd Indian Woman Grand Master
- She was focused mainly on her education; however, she started playing chess after her parents insisted she take up a co-curricular activity during the summer vacations.
- She did not take the game of chess seriously until she won the World Youth Chess Championship for girls in 2012.
