Twenty-one-year-old Trisha Kanyamarala became the first Irish woman to be awarded the title of woman grandmaster (WGM) in chess, following her high standard of play at the London Chess Classic recently.
The achievement marked the pinnacle of a six-year journey for Kanyamarala, who previously became Ireland’s first woman international master in 2020, aged just 14.
Speaking about the achievement, she said: “I was incredibly happy and relieved when I met the requirements. The tournament was competitive, with many grandmasters and international masters playing, but from very early on, I felt confident in my play.”
Gaining a woman grandmaster title (or “norm”) involves reaching a chess rating of 2,300, while also achieving a performance rating of 2,400 across three officially recognised tournaments. To put this in context, a casual chess player might be rated between 800 and 1,000, while the world’s number one player, Magnus Carlsen, boasts a rating of 2,840.
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Kanyamarala had been close to snagging her WGM title on previous occasions but, following several poor performances, she had all but given up on the idea.
“I had no expectations of the norm when I went into this tournament. I just wanted to give my best. Previously, I’d played a tournament in Poland, which went terribly. So coming to London, I hadn’t much hope.
“But I started well. I beat an English grandmaster named Peter Wells in my second round. At that point, I started thinking I could attempt to get the norm. But it can be difficult when these thoughts start entering your head. It will sometimes happen that, when chess players have a good performance, we let ourselves get distracted by thoughts of norms and titles. So I had to really shut all that down and focus solely on the games. In my eighth round, I drew against a Ukrainian international master, and that was enough for me to reach WGM.”
She shared her joy with her brother, Tarun Kanyamarala (21), himself a former Irish chess champion and the youngest Irish person to achieve the title of international master.
For the siblings, chess is a family affair. Their father, who taught them to play, moved to Ireland from India in the early 2000s. The family spent time in both countries before eventually settling in Portlaoise.
“I started playing chess when I was seven or eight years old. My dad taught me and brother at the same time. I wasn’t that interested, initially. I understood the basics, but it didn’t fascinate me. I preferred other activities. I really loved Irish dancing – it was my favorite thing before discovering chess.
“But every day after school, my dad and my brother would sit down to play. I would see them and feel left out. They would also go to a chess club, and I would tag along. For weeks, I would go there, not play, and feel bored. So eventually I started playing and grew to love it.”
A chess prodigy, Kanyamarala put aside all else (including Irish dancing) to focus on the game. The daily work of a professional player involves practising for “around five or six hours a day”. As a teenager, chess eclipsed other aspects of her life, and she emphasises her gratitude for how her alma mater, Portlaoise College, gave her time off to compete in international tournaments.
Having completed her Leaving Cert in 2023, she opted to pursue chess as a career rather than going into higher education. “I loved it so much that I wanted to be in a place where I got to play it all the time,” she says. “It’s the main thing for me.” As well as competing in tournaments, Kanyamarala and her brother Tarun founded their own business, Irish Chess Technology, which is dedicated to promoting the game in Ireland.
In many ways, it’s a smart time to choose chess as a career. The game has had a global surge in popularity following the success of The Queen’s Gambit and the advent of online streaming. Chess also features in Sally Rooney’s latest book, Intermezzo. An entire industry has been built around chess in recent years, with popular online players reaping substantial financial returns for their videos and live streams. Its popularity is such that the world number two-ranked player, Hikaru Nakamura, recently suggested that competitive tournaments rank lower on his list of priorities than streaming.
“I follow a lot of these streamers myself,” says Kanyamarala. “It’s great to see what they’re doing, because it makes the game popular. I’ve never tried it, but I want to explore that area as well. My brother and I have a YouTube channel, Anytime Chess, where we upload our videos and offer analysis. I think we would be interested in making more chess content in the future.”
Above all, though, Kanyamarala is determined to promote Ireland as a competitive chess nation. At the time of writing, Ireland sits 60th on the FIDE (governing chess body’s) World Federation Rankings. She hopes that building a chess infrastructure in the country can improve that.
“I would love to see Ireland becoming a competitive chess country,” she says. “There is a growing chess culture here, you see it in the school clubs and in the weekend tournaments, but it’s maybe not as strong as in other European countries. I’d like to contribute anything that helps it grow.”
Similarly, she hopes to encourage more women to play.
“When I was younger, there weren’t many girls who played chess. Nowadays, every girl knows about it. It’s become cool, in some ways. You see more girls and women playing at schools, which is great, but not as many at tournaments, so there’s still a gap there to be improved.”
It’s worth noting that the woman grandmaster title was only introduced in 1976; the threshold for achieving it is slightly lower than grandmaster, but this is because it was designed specifically to encourage more women to play competitively. For many women, including Kanyamarala, becoming a WGM is a step towards future ambitions. Asked about her long-term goals, she says she aspires to be ranked among the top 100 female chess players in the world (currently, she sits at 164th).
For now, though, she plans to keep competing in international tournaments. She speaks appreciatively about the fact that chess has allowed her to travel the world, “from Mexico to Japan”. In September, she’ll travel to Samarkand, Uzbekistan, as part of a team representing Ireland at the 2026 Chess Olympiad.
“That’s the major one for us,” she says. “The Olympiad only happens once every two years, and it’s going to be a really strong tournament. Every Olympiad, Ireland keeps improving its rank, so we’re looking forward to seeing what we can achieve this year.”
