Odisha Woman Fide Master (WFM) Saina Salonika clinched the Woman International Master (WIM) title by securing her third and final norm in a series of three IM Mix Tournaments, which concluded in Novi Sad, Serbia today. This was communicated by father of Saina and Senior Aministrative Officer, Ganeswar Jena.

For WIM title one has to secure three WIM norms in three different tournaments and cross International Rating of 2200. Saina got her first WIM norm in the Goa International GM tournament in June 2019 and the 2nd WIM norm in Orbis IM Round Robin Tournament, held in Paracin, Serbia in December 2019.

She was unable to play for last two and half years due to the Covid -19 pandemic. She has already crossed the international rating of 2200 earlier as her highest rating was 2206. Before the tournament the rating of Saina was 2184 and she gained 24 rating points in the tournament making her rating 2208.

Saina has bagged 20 international medals till date, including 13 gold medals in the World Youth Chess Championship, Commonwealth Chess Championship, Asian Youth Chess Championship and ASEAN Chess Championship. She achieved her bigges success by becoming the World U-10 Girls Champion at All Ain, UAE in 2013. She also bagged two gold and one silver in Commonwealth Chess Championship and three gold in Asian Youth Chess Championship earlier.

Saina is now pursuing BA (Political Science Hons) in Miranda House College of Delhi University. She passed her CBSE Grade-X and Grade-XII exam from KIIT International School, scoring 97.4 percent in both the exams in 2019 and 2021 respectively.
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PHOTO: Saina Salonika poses with her WIM title document in Novi Sad, Serbia on 4 June 2022.