Padmini Rout

Padmini Rout (born 5 January 1994) is an Indian chess player.

She holds the titles of International Master (IM) and Woman Grandmaster (WGM).

Born in Barambagarh, Odisha, Padmini started playing chess at the age of 9 (2003) because of her father Dr. Ashok Kumar Rout's passion for the game.

She did her schooling from D.A.V. Public School, Chandrasekharpur and graduated in Commerce from BJB College in Bhubaneswar.

On 28 Jan 2024, Padmini married Jaikishin Mankani in Bhubaneswar.

In 2005 Rout won her first national title, under-11 girls at Nagpur.

In 2006, she was both the Indian under-13 girls champion and the Asian under-12 girls champion.

Rout was honoured with the Biju Patnaik Sports Award for the year 2007 and the Ekalavya Award in 2009.

Rout won the U14 girls' section of both Asian and World Youth Chess Championships in 2008.

The following year she finished first in the Asian Junior (Under-20) Girls Championship.

In 2010, she won the Indian junior (U19) girls championship and took the bronze medal at both Asian and World Junior Girls Championships.

In the Asian Individual Women's Championship 2011 she tied for 2nd–6th places and won it in 2018.

She has won the National Women's Premier Championship five times, consecutively from 2014 to 2017 and again in 2023, and was the Asian women's champion in 2018.

Rout won the Indian Women's Championship in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017.

She won an individual gold medal playing on the reserve board at the 2014 Women's Chess Olympiad in Tromsø, Norway.

In 2015, she also became the Commonwealth women's champion.

Rout played for the Indian national team at Women's Chess Olympiad, Women's World Team Chess Championship and Women's Asian Team Chess Championship.

She has been part of the Indian women's team in the subsequent Chess Olympiads in 2016 at Baku, Azerbaijan and 2018 at Batumi, Georgia.

She was part of the second Indian women's team at the Chess Olympiad 2022 in Chennai, India, playing at the second board.

The team finished as eight.