Prime Minister inspires seven-year old World School Chess Champion
Seven-year-old chess prodigy Vaka Lakshmi Pragnika from Surat, Gujarat, was conferred the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar at a ceremony held in New Delhi on 26th December. The award was presented by the President of India, Droupadi Murmu, in recognition of her exceptional achievements in the field of sports. Vaka Lakshmi Pragnika brought international recognition to India by winning the Under-7 Girls title at the 2025 FIDE World Schools Chess Championship in Serbia, where she scored a perfect 9 out of 9 points. This feat is considered historic as it marks the first time a player has achieved a flawless score at the World Schools Chess Championship. Pragnika’s mother Praveena, when asked about Pragnika’s meeting with Prime Minister by the Times of India revealed, “Initially, she was a little nervous. She said she wants to be the best chess player in the world when she grows up, and in reply, PM Modi sir inspired her. It was a historic moment for all of us.” Pragnika is presently busy participating in the Under-9 chess tournament in Guwahati. Pragnika was admitted to a chess coaching centre in Surat as her parents tried to keep both the sisters engaged. During the COVID-19 Pragnika and her sister started learning online chess under the guidance of Vickey Chauhan. Coach also had a huge appreciation for his student as he stated, “Pragmika’s strength is her temperament. She is courageous, rough, and tough. While playing, a chess player needs these ingredients the most.”
World’s youngest rated chess prodigy from Madhya Pradesh practices even at midnight!
At a time when kids of his age practice A for apple and B for ball, three-year-old Sarwagya Singh Kushwaha practices murmuring C for checkmate! When Sarwagya plays chess, he thumps his pieces on the squares and slaps the clock with a particular menace, which shows that he tries to put his opponent in utmost uneasiness. However, the reality is that this three-year-old prodigy from Sagar, Madhya Pradesh, needs to stand on a chair or sit on three chairs stacked one on top of the other just to reach the other end of the chessboard. At the age of three years, seven months and 20 days, Sarwagya is now the world’s youngest rated player in chess history. Kushwaha is still in nursery school but holds a rapid rating of 1,572. Recently, he dethroned Kolkata’s Anish Sarkar, who, in November last year, had become the youngest rated player in history at the age of three years, eight months and 19 days. Having picked up the sport last year when he was two-and-a-half years old, Sarwagya’s everyday routine includes four to five hours of chess, one hour of which is spent at a chess training centre in Sagar, while the rest is spent on playing online games and learning tactics via videos. “We pushed him into chess last year because we noticed his mind was like a scrubber, which learns things quickly. In a week of being taught chess, he could name all the pieces accurately,” says his father Siddharth. He added, “Kushwaha loves the sport a lot. If you wake him up in the middle of the night and ask him to play, he will for hours without a break. But what separates him from other kids his age is his patience to sit on the board and not get restless.” “When his parents first approached me to train him last year, he looked like a very normal kid. But soon, his capability to play the game well started to shine,” says his coach Nitin Chaurasiya. “You ask him anything, and there’s no hesitation in answering. He can also hold his own on the board against older kids. You can see his guts when he plays,” says Chaurasiya.
India’s Divya Deshmukh Felicitated with Rs 3 Crore Award after Historic Chess World Cup Win
Maharashtra Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis on Saturday honoured newly-crowned FIDE Women’s Chess World Cup champion Divya Deshmukh with a public felicitation ceremony in Nagpur, awarding her a cash prize of Rs 3 crore (£280,000) for her remarkable achievement. Deshmukh, 19, became the youngest player to win the Women’s World Cup title, clinching victory in a nail-biting tie-breaker against fellow Indian Grandmaster Koneru Humpy on 28 July in Batumi, Georgia. The triumph not only secured her the prestigious World Cup crown but also earned her the title of Grandmaster. Addressing the gathering, Mr Fadnavis expressed his pride, saying, “As a citizen of India, as the Chief Minister of Maharashtra, and as a son of Nagpur, I am immensely proud that a girl from our city has made the country shine on the global stage.” He added that the felicitation was aimed at inspiring young children across India to pursue excellence in sports. Visibly moved, Deshmukh thanked the Chief Minister, the Maharashtra government, and the Maharashtra Chess Association for their continued support. “This is a very special moment for me. I’m so happy I could, in some small way, become a part of children’s motivation and inspiration,” she said. Sport Minister Manikrao Kokate, also present at the event, reaffirmed the government’s commitment to strengthening sports infrastructure and nurturing talent across Maharashtra. Deshmukh, a native of Nagpur, has been hailed across the country for her resilience and composure during the tournament, especially in the high-pressure finale against the seasoned Koneru. Her victory marks a significant milestone for Indian chess, further underlining the nation’s growing prominence on the international chess stage.
