Rucha Pujari

Early years

Rucha was born in Kolhapur, Maharashtra. She took interest in the game of chess at the age of six and learnt the first moves from her elder brother. Her talent for this game was recognized when she won her first national championship at the age of seven. She showed remarkable success in her early years and later on chose the field of chess as her career.

World events

Pujari has represented India in four World Youth Chess Championships (2005: U-12 girls category held in France, 2009: U-16 girls category held in Antalya-Turkey, 2010: U-16 girls category held in Greece, 2012: U-18 girls category held in Slovenia).

She also represented India in one of the major global chess event World Junior Chess Championship twice which were held in Kocaeli, Turkey in 2013 and Pune, India in 2014.

Asian events

Pujari played her first Asian event when she was nine years old. She represented India in the Asian Youth U-10 Girls Championship which was held in Calicut in the year 2003, where she won a silver medal. Next year she went on to win gold medal in the same event, which was held in Singapore. Along with her individual medal, India also won team gold medal in that event and Pujari claimed the title of Woman FIDE Master (WFM). In 2005, Asian Youth Chess Championship was held in New Delhi, where Pujari secured 7th position in U-12 girls category.

In the year 2009, she achieved silver medal in Asian Youth U-16 Girls Championship which was held in New Delhi. Next year she secured bronze medal in the same event, which was held in Beijing, China. Team India won the gold medal in that event.

Her most notable achievement is winning the Asian Youth U-18 Girls Chess Championship which was held in Philippines in the year 2011. In 2012, she secured 6th rank in Asian Youth U-18 Girls Chess Championship held in Sri Lanka. In total, Pujari has represented India in seven Asian Youth Chess Championships in different categories, winning two gold, two silver and one bronze medal.

In 2012, Pujari was qualified to play in Asian Junior Girls Chess Championship which was held at Tashkent, Uzbekistan. She performed well, but was defeated in the final game, leaving her with a bronze medal. She achieved her second Woman International Master norm in that tournament. She also secured another bronze medal in the Asian Junior Girls Blitz Chess Championship, which was organised after the classic event. In 2013, she represented India in Asian Junior Girls Chess Championship held in Sharjah, UAE where she secured 7th position.

Commonwealth events

Rucha has participated in four Commonwealth Chess Championships, in which she has achieved one gold, two silver and one bronze medal in different categories (2003– Mumbai Silver in U-10 girls, 2004– Mumbai Bronze in U-12 girls, 2006– Mumbai Gold in U-12 girls, 2010– New Delhi Silver in U-16 girls category).

She also participated in Commonwealth U-16 Championship which was held in Singapore in the year 2009, where she secured fifth position.

National events

Pujari played her first National Championship tournament in the year 2001. She participated in the National U-7 Girls Championship which was held at Chennai, and went on to win the tournament claiming her first national title.

In 2008, Pujari won a silver medal in the National Sub-Junior Chess Championship held in Mangalore. The next year she went on to become the National Sub-Junior Chess Champion in Mumbai.

In August 2010, when aged sixteen, Pujari won one of the biggest tournaments in India – The National Women Challengers Chess Championship held in Guwahati.

In the National Junior Chess Championship held in Goa in 2011, Pujari won the runners-up trophy. One of Pujari's notable achievements came in 2012 when she participated in 27th National Junior Girls Chess Championship held in Ajmer, Rajasthan. Seeded fourth, she scored 9/11 and became the champion, thus claiming her fourth national title so far. Next year in National Junior Girls Championship held at Lucknow, she again scored 9 points out of possible 11, but this time tied for the first place. She was declared runner-up on tie break. Pujari has also participated in National School Championships. In 2007, her team secured the gold medal in the U-14 girls category, in a tournament held at Tirupati. In Feb 2009, the School Nationals were held in Guntur, where her team won a silver medal in the U-17 girls category.

Apart from these, Pujari also took part in National Women's Team Championship which was held in Hyderabad in 2013. Her team PSPB won the bronze medal, while she was awarded a silver medal for her individual performance on the top board.

Other major tournaments

Pujari has represented India in several international tournaments such as Villa De Sort Open Championship (2009, Spain), Ciutat de Balaguer Championship (2009, Spain), Villa De Benasque Championship (2009, Spain), Moscow Open A Tournament (2013, Russia), 2nd Grand Europe Open (2013, Bulgaria) among few. She claimed her third international norm in Aeroflot Open (B) 2017 at Moscow, Russia and earned the title of Woman International Master.

She has won the Nutan Buddhibal Mandal's Women Open FIDE Rating Tournament, held in Sangli, six times (2008, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015). Along with this she also claimed the NBM - Sangli's Men Open Rating Tournament in May 2015 and was the first ever female to do so.

Pujari has twice participated in the Maharashtra Chess League, which is held in Pune. In 2013, she played for the team Ahmednagar Checkers, which went on to secure third place in the tournament. In 2014, Pujari was part of the team Jalgaon Battlers, which eventually went on to win the second edition of the League.

Other activities: Chess promotion and Writing

Pujari actively takes part in promoting chess through talks, events and short coaching sessions. She has played and demonstrated several simultaneous chess matches during various events. She played a promotional simultaneous chess exhibition in May 2014 organized by Bank of Maharashtra wherein thirty eight players entered the event to compete. She won thirty six games while two games ended in a draw.

Since January 2014, Pujari is also writing weekly sports column in Marathi newspaper Maharashtra Times describing the life of a sportsperson.

She is a prominent writer for popular chess blog and website ChessAce and also maintains her personal blog RuChess. She is also an author for a book titled Beautiful Puzzles.