CHENNAI: In Chennai, every school has a sports culture. St Bede’s, Vidya Mandir, Don Bosco and Santhome schools are known to be cricket-centric and have strong teams that play in the TNCA inter-school tournaments. Meanwhile, MCTM School in Pursawalkam used to have a good presence in basketball. Lady Andal and Chettinad Vidyashram are known to have produced high-ranking swimmers. Likewise, Velammal Group of Schools has made a mark by promoting chess and creating Grandmasters (GM).
Velammal Nexus, which has the strongest chess team in the country, has made it to the final of the World Online School Chess Tournament to be played in November in Dubai along with the World Championship match of Magnus Carlsen. The final will be an over-the-board event. Velammal team consists of the likes of GM R Praggnanandhaa, GM Gukesh, GM Leon Mendonca and promising players like Pranav, Ajay Karthikeyan, Rakshitta, Rindhya, Savitha. “I am very happy to play for my school and help it reach the finals. I am currently in class 11. My school supports me by granting me leave to practice chess and play tournaments. We have a very good team,’’ said Praggnanandhaa who is the fourth-youngest player to bag the GM title in the world.
The rising star made an impressive debut in the New in Chess Classic (fifth leg of Champions Chess Tour) by scoring 7/15 in a strong field, a few months back, comprising the cream of players in world chess. He scored victories over Sergei Karjakin and Teimour Radjabov, besides drawing with world champion Magnus Carlsen which were the bright spots in the tournament. For him, the world school chess is just another tournament. “It will be a normal preparation process like any other tournament.
During the semifinals stage online, the tough teams were a school from Mongolia and Dhirubhai Ambani School from India. The format was six-team round-robin. So we played five matches and won all of them. Good rapport among players and teamwork helped us win all the games,’’ said Praggnanandhaa. Leon is another promising GM in the team. He has been coached by Russian great Vladimir Kramnik and became a GM recently at 14 years, 9 months and 17 days and is the second GM with Goan roots. A lot of hard work and sacrifice has gone into this unique achievement by the youngster.
“It feels great to be in the world school team final. Velammal School has been extremely flexible with regards to attendance, annual fees and examinations. This has helped me concentrate on the game. Our school team has no coach as such for the event but only manager Velavan Subbiah. Each one of us in the team has been preparing individually,’’ said the class 10 student. Velammal School is the top seed among the schools in the final and has very good chances of bagging the title.
The final will see players from 10 schools from the world in action. Since the event will be during the Dubai Expo, along with the World Championship, players will get good exposure as the event will be covered live on various streaming platforms. “Our chances (of winning the title) are extremely good. We have been playing online chess continuously for the last year or so. So all of us are in touch with the game. Apart from us, nine other top schools will take part in the finals. Till the semifinals, the format was all rapid games with 20 minutes plus 10 seconds increment. The final is an OTB event and it will be different from online, but we are prepared for it,’’ said Leon.
At the event
Since the event will be during the Dubai Expo, along with the World Championship, players will get good exposure as the event will be covered live on various streaming platforms.