All posts tagged: How Harika Dronavalli managed motherhood during Chess Olympiad

Harika Dronavalli: From planning her 2-year-old’s birthday party to realising a long-held dream of Chess Olympiad gold | Chess News

Grandmaster Harika Dronavalli was seated on dias in the middle of the felicitation function for the gold-medal winning chess Olympiad teams, when she heard her two-year-old daughter Hanvika call out for her from the audience. Not wanting to disturb the flow of her teammate Divya Deshmukh, who was speaking at that point, Harika gestured to her grandmother, Sudeshna Devi, 77, to distract Hanvika but it didn’t work. And so Harika got off the stage, carried her daughter in her arms and walked towards the end of the packed hall during the felicitation organised by the All India Chess Federation . Harika has been away from her daughter for over three weeks, helping India win a historic double-gold in Budapest – Open and Women’s event – at the Chess Olympiad. The 33-year-old veteran, who played the top board for the women’s team, said she wasn’t worried how Hanvika would cope because she got the best possible care: her sister, mother, and grandmother forming the support system back home in Guntur. The 33-year-old veteran, who played the …