Here's all you need to know about the life and career of the 38-year-old Indian chess player, Tania Sachdev, who broke into the news after she slammed the Delhi government due to lack of support.
Tania Sachdev is a renowned professional chess player from India, who is a chess grandmaster and an Olympiad gold medalist. The 38-year-old chess player broke into the news headlines after she slammed the Delhi government for not recognising her efforts and providing adequate facilities to chess players. Tania dropped a tweet criticising the state government for not encouraging chess players by celebrating them. She also tagged Aam Aadmi Party (AAP), Delhi's Chief Minister, Atishi Marlena, and Arvind Kejriwal.
In her tweet, Tania Sachdev mentioned that she has played for India as a professional chess player since 2008. She also shared that in 2022, she returned from the Chess Olympiad with a historic team bronze medal and an individual medal. In 2024, she clinched the historic Chess Olympiad gold for India; even to this date, the state government has not acknowledged her.
Tania Sachdev's tweet spread like wildfire on the internet, and many chess players have supported her brave decision to call out the concerned authorities for their negligence. After her tweet went viral on social media, Delhi's Chief Minister, Atishi Marlena, reacted to Tania's fiery tweet. Delhi CM replied to the chess Olympiad gold medalist, saying they've always supported their athletes, especially in their schools.
However, Atishi Marlena told Tania Sachdev that she would love to meet her to understand what more can be done to uplift the chess players. The politician has told Tania to visit her office for a meeting to hear her suggestions and thoughts.
Tania Sachdev was born on August 20, 1986, in Delhi. At the age of six, she started playing chess. As a child chess player, she won multiple titles, including under-12 champion, Asian under-14 girls' champion, bronze medalist at the 1998 World Youth Chess Championships, and Asian Junior Girls Championship winner. In the following years, she became the eighth Indian player ever to be awarded the Woman Grandmaster title.
Tania Sachdev won the National Women's Premier Chess Championship in 2006 and 2007. She also won the Women's Asian Chess Championship in Tehran. She won the International Master in 2008 and Woman Grandmaster in 2005. Courtesy of all these awards and titles, she was bestowed with the Arjuna Award in 2009. Apart from being an exceptional chess player, she is also quite good at chess commentary and can be spotted in the commentary box at so many major events.
Every now and then, Tania Sachdev posts stunning pictures of herself from her commentary assignments on Instagram. The chess player is also renowned for her fashion quotient and is considered one of the most stunning sportspersons in India. She has a massive fan following of 251K followers on Instagram and also owns a YouTube channel with 100K subscribers.
Tania Sachdev's relationship status has always been a mystery as she never shared anything about her personal life in the public portals. According to a 2014 report in The Times Of India, Tania married a Delhi-based architect, Viraj Kataria, on November 4, 2014, in an intimate wedding ceremony in Chattarpur. However, she hasn't posted a single picture with Viraj for some years now, and as per reports, the couple has reportedly given divorce to each other. Although there is no concrete confirmation about Tania and Viraj's divorce, numerous Reddit posts speculate that they're no longer together.
Tania Sachdev's divorce rumours got serious when she started playing chess online with popular comedian, Samay Raina. For the unversed, Samay is a chess enthusiast with an impressive rating of 1621 at rapid chess on chess.com. As per speculations, chess is the reason behind the beginning of their friendship, which soon reportedly turned a bit romantic.
Their dating reports started making rounds on the internet after the duo was spotted hanging out together and appearing in a series of live streams having fun. As of now, it is not known whether Samay and Tania are still in a romantic relationship. That's it for now, and we hope Tania continues to raise her voice for chess players in India.
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