Isha Sharma becomes Karnataka's first and India's 27th Woman Grandmaster
Isha Sharma became India's 27th Woman Grandmaster at IM RR SahArt in Subotica, Serbia on 14th November 2025. She scored her final norm at that event last week. The first WIM of Karnataka, also became the state's first WGM. She earned her first IM and WGM-norm at Slovakia Open Piestany in July 2022. A little over a year later, she scored her second WGM-norm at 4th S M le Roi Mohammed VI Crown 2023 in Casablanca, Morocco. Two years and almost three months later, she earned her final WGM-norm. Her better half is IM Sharan Rao with whom she got married a few months ago. Thus, Karnataka's strongest chess couple got stronger. Her journey towards the next title - IM, continues. Photo: Shahid Ahmed
Karnataka's first WIM becomes the very first WGM too
Isha Sharma showcased her strength when she scored her first IM and WGM-norm at the very same event by beating the legendary GM Michal Krasenkow. A few months ago, she got married to her good friend, IM Sharan Rao, making them the strongest chess couple of Karnataka. They both are the head coaches of Rao's Chess Corner where they not only teach various students, hone budding talents but also organize various rating tournaments in all three formats regularly. They all have been reported on our website.
First WGM and IM-norm: Slovakia Open Piestany 2022
Isha Sharma scored her maiden WGM and IM-norm at Slovakia Open Piestany 2022 in Piestany, Slovakia. It was definitely a fantastic event for her as she scored two norms in one strong tournament. She scored 5/9, performed at 2453 and gained 48.8 Elo rating points in the process. She defeated GM Michal Krasenkow (POL), IM Martin Neugebauer (SVK) and drew against then IM Vignir Vatnar Stefansson (ISL).
Krasenkow - Isha, Round 3
If you check 11...Nxe4! with a computer, the tireless machine will tell you that White is okay after 12.Nxe4. However, Isha (2236) was playing against a legendary GM Michal Krasenkow (2569). So that was a brave decision of her and what followed next is just a fantastic play 12...f5 13.Neg5 h6 14.Ne6 Bxe6 15.dxe6 f4 16.Bc1 Qxe6 17.Nd2 e4 18.f3 e3 If a book is written on pawn power after the game was played over three years ago, this game should definitely make it. This game definitely foreshadowed that Isha was going to have a great tournament after starting the event with a win against an IM and then this was her bounce back after a second round loss. No wonder she scored her maiden IM and WGM-norm at this event.
Second WGM-norm: 4th S M le Roi Mohammed VI Crown 2023
A little over a year later, Isha Sharma secured her second WGM-norm at 4th S M le Roi Mohammed VI Crown 2023 in Casablanca, Morocco. She drew against GM Renato R Quintiliano Pinto (BRA), GM Jean-Pierre Le Roux (FRA), IM Shawn Rodrigue-Lemieux (CAN) and IM Jason Liang (USA), performed at 2429 to earn her second WGM-norm, scoring 4.5/9 and gained 55.4 Elo rating points.
Jacques - Isha, Round 9
Isha first blundered 38...Bxe4?? FM Jacques Elbilia (MAR, 2370) missed his opportunity to arrive at a winning pawn endgame 39.Rxe5+ fxe5 40.Kxe4+-. Instead, he played 39.fxe4 Kd6 40.Rxe5 fxe5+ 41.Kc4 h5 42.b4?? White blundered and Isha seized her chance a4-+ now Black is winning the pawn ending. The win ensured Isha her second WGM-norm.
Third WGM-norm: IM RR SahArt Subotica
A little more than two years and three months later, Isha scored her final WGM-norm at IM RR SahArt Subotica in Subotica, Serbia. She defeated GM Borko Lajthajm (SRB), GM Sinisa Drazic and drew against GM Nikola Sedlak (SRB), performed at 2416, finished third overall and also added 53 Elo rating points.
Speaking with ChessBase India, Isha shared - "I had different coaches who were part of my journey for the WGM title — Visweswaran sir from Chennai, GM Gopal anna from Kerala, and GM Enamul Hossain sir from Bangladesh. For my last norm, my husband IM Sharan Rao was my second helping in the tournament."
The 26 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), Savitha Shri B (2023) and Sarayu Velpula (2025).
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