The Cramling chess family powering Sweden’s hopes

For Juan Manuel Bellon Lopez, Pia Cramling and Anna Cramling, the trip from Sweden to India for the 44th edition of the Chess Olympiad must have felt like a family excursion. Pia and daughter Anna are in the Swedish women’s team while Lopez—Pia’s husband—is the team captain.

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It’s a family with abundant talent on the 64 squares, though Pia perhaps holds the bragging rights here. The 59-year-old became only the fifth woman player to achieve the Grandmaster title, in February 1992. The former women’s world No 1 won the individual gold medal in her category as the best player on board one in the 1984 and 1988 Olympiads.

Bellon too has many accomplishments. Originally from Spain, the 72-year-old is taking part in his 18th Olympiad—12 as a player and six as a non-playing captain. He represented Spain 16 times before moving to represent Sweden—he made the switch in 2017 due to differences with the Spanish chess federation—in the last two Olympiads.

“It is fantastic that my family plays together. I know the openings my wife and daughter play. It is easier for me to prepare them of course,” Bellon said.

Anna and Pia have been teammates for Sweden since the 2016 Olympiad when Anna made her first appearance.

“Family is obviously helping me out with preparation and stuff. It just feels good to be on the same team as my mom. Just seeing her play feels in a way very familiar. That makes me feel a little bit more at home as well,” said Anna.

Does their family dynamic come into the equation? “I would say we are like teammates. But she is still my mother,” Anna chuckled. “She is not getting mad at me or something. She is just happy that we are playing together. I don’t feel any pressure from her or anything like that.”

The 20-year-old Anna is not letting her family legacy in the game alter her priorities. She is an active streamer on Twitch and YouTube with 354K subscribers across the two platforms.

“I see streaming as my main career. It’s fun to play chess competitively now because I can mix both. But I do see streaming and making content as my main career,” she said, very clear about her priority.

“We just want her to be involved in the chess world, whether as a player or streamer. It doesn’t matter whether she is very good or not in chess,” said Bellon.

For Anna, the freedom to follow her path was instrumental in gravitating towards chess.

“I actually didn’t like chess when I was younger. Because my parents were so involved with it, I wanted to do something else. But as I got older, I started appreciating chess more. But I started enjoying it more on my own and not because of them. That’s why I have been able to keep playing chess for so long,” said Anna.

Regardless of what the Sweden team manages in this tournament, the exultation of victory or despair of defeat will be shared by the Bellon-Cramling family.

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