Who became the first Indian woman to earn the title of chess Grandmaster?

The correct answer is B, Karnam Malleswari. She won the bronze medal in the sixty-nine kilogram class in weightlifting at the Sydney Olympics in 2000, the first Olympic medal by an Indian woman in any sport. Option A is wrong, although P. T. Usha came closest before her: at Los Angeles in 1984 she finished fourth in the four hundred metres hurdles, losing the bronze by one hundredth of a second. Option C is wrong because Mary Kom's Olympic bronze in boxing came at London in 2012, twelve years after Malleswari. Option D is wrong because Mirabai Chanu won her weightlifting silver at Tokyo in 2020; she is India's second woman weightlifting medallist, not the first. The pairing to remember is weightlifting with Sydney 2000 for the first, and weightlifting with Tokyo 2020 for the next.

The correct answer is B, Bachendri Pal, who reached the summit on 23 May 1984 with an Indian expedition and was honoured with the Padma Shri and later the Padma Bhushan. Option A is wrong because Santosh Yadav came later and is remembered for climbing Everest twice, in 1992 and 1993, the first woman in the world to do so. Option C is wrong because Premlata Agarwal, who climbed in 2011, is known as the oldest Indian woman to summit Everest at the time of her climb. Option D is wrong because Arunima Sinha, who climbed in 2013, is celebrated as the first woman amputee to summit Everest. All four names belong to the same story, so attach each to its own first: Pal the first Indian woman, Yadav the first twice, Agarwal the oldest and Sinha the first amputee.

The correct answer is C, 400 metres hurdles. P. T. Usha finished fourth in that final at Los Angeles in 1984, behind the bronze medallist by one hundredth of a second, the narrowest miss by any Indian athlete at the Olympic Games. Option A is wrong because she was a sprinter over two hundred metres early in her career but her Olympic near miss was not in that event. Option B is wrong because the flat four hundred metres is the event in which Kamaljit Sandhu had won the Asian Games gold in 1970, and it is a common swap in question papers. Option D is wrong because the long jump belongs to Anju Bobby George, who won India's first world championship medal in athletics in 2003. Keep the detail that makes the question: hurdles, 1984, fourth place by a hundredth of a second.

The correct answer is A, long jump in 2003. Anju Bobby George won the bronze in the long jump at the World Athletics Championships in Paris in 2003, the first medal won by any Indian, man or woman, at those championships. Option B is wrong because she competed in the long jump, not the triple jump, although she began in the triple jump early in her career. Option C is wrong because the year is 2003; in 2005 she won the World Athletics Final, which is a different competition and often used as a distractor. Option D is wrong on both counts, since the event was the long jump and no Indian won a medal at the 2001 championships. Pair this with the Asian Games and Commonwealth Games medals she also won, and remember that her husband Robert Bobby George was her coach.

The correct answer is C, Sakshi Malik, who won the bronze in the fifty-eight kilogram freestyle category at the Rio de Janeiro Olympics in 2016, coming back from behind in the last seconds of her bout. Option A is wrong, although Geeta Phogat holds two other firsts: she was the first Indian woman wrestler to win a Commonwealth Games gold, at Delhi in 2010, and the first to qualify for the Olympic Games, in 2012. Option B is wrong because Vinesh Phogat is a Commonwealth and Asian Games gold medallist and a world championship medallist, but the Olympic first belongs to Sakshi Malik. Option D is wrong because Babita Kumari is a Commonwealth Games gold medallist without an Olympic medal. The safe rule is that for wrestling the Olympic first is Malik and the Commonwealth first is Geeta Phogat.