IMRout Padmini

Padmini Rout was born in Barambagarh, Odisha, and began chess at nine, encouraged by her father, Ashok Kumar Rout. She won her first Indian youth title in the girls' under-eleven section at Nagpur in 2005. The following year brought an Indian under-thirteen title and Asian under-twelve gold. In 2008, she won both the Asian and world girls' under-fourteen championships. She became Asian junior girls' champion in 2009 and won bronze at the World Junior Girls Championship in 2010. FIDE recorded her Woman Grandmaster title in 2010 and International Master title in 2015. She won four consecutive Indian women's championships from 2014 to 2017 and a fifth in 2023. Her other senior titles include the Commonwealth women's championship in 2015 and Asian women's championship in 2018. At the 2014 Olympiad in Tromsø, she won individual gold on the reserve board. She attended DAV Public School in Chandrasekharpur and later graduated in commerce from BJB College, Bhubaneswar. Odisha recognized her achievements with the Biju Patnaik Sports Award and the Ekalavya Award.