in 1982 Cramling and
Judit Polgar (who chose not to play in women's events) are the only women to have earned the grandmaster title before 2000 who have never won the
Women's World Champion crown. Cramling said that the World Championship is a team effort and more prominent chess nations are able to give their players better support in important events. Nevertheless, Cramling has been in reasonably close contention for the crown on four occasions (all in different decades). In the
1986 and
1996 Candidates cycle she came in fourth and third, respectively. Since the Women's World Championship has been held with the knockout format, she reached the semifinals in
2008 and
2015. These latter results qualified her to play in the
FIDE Women's Grand Prix series in
2009–11 and
2015–16, respectively. She has had greater success in Europe, where she won the Women's
European Individual Chess Championship in 2003 and 2010. In 2006, she won the Accentus Ladies Tournament in
Biel. In team competitions, Cramling represented Sweden in the
Chess Olympiad in both the open and women's events,
European Team Chess Championship in both open and women's sections, Telechess Olympiad and Nordic Cup. In the
Women's Chess Olympiad, she has won the individual gold medal as the best player on board 1 (according to the rating performance) in 1984, 1988 and 2022. In the
European Club Cup for Women, Cramling has won the team gold medal in 2007, 2008, 2010, 2012, 2013 and 2016 playing for team Cercle d'Echecs
Monte Carlo. Cramling earned the
International Master (IM) title in 1983 and the
Grandmaster (GM) title in 1992. She defeated
Raymond Keene in the tournament where she earned her first IM
norm. She earned her three GM norms in
Italy in 1989, in
Las Palmas in 1990, and
Bern in 1992. == Personal life ==