Indian Sports Wrap, August 7: Velammal Vidyalaya wins gold at World Schools Team Championship

CHESS

Velammal Vidyalaya wins gold medal at World Schools Team Championship

Chennai’s Velammal Vidyalaya, the alma mater of the youngest reigning world champion D Gukesh and grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa, has added further laurels to its cap by winning the gold medal at the World Schools Team Championship in Virginia, USA.

The Velammal Vidyalaya, located in the Mogappair neighbourhood, has been a force behind the chess revolution in Chennai as it provides expert training to hundreds of budding chess players.

Velammal Vidyalaya, which has won the FIDE World School Teams Championship for five consecutive years in the past, follows the ‘7 to 17 programme’ which was introduced in schools by former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa in 2013.

Meanwhile, Kazakhstan’s National School of Physics and Mathematics won the silver medal as they had the same number of match points as The Harker School from the USA, but “edged them out on tiebreaks”.

The Harker School finished third ahead of Astana 2 RSPM.

Velammal Vidyalaya’s Pranav KP who played reserve on board five, along with Imangali Akhilbay (Kazakhstan NSPM) on board two and Edisa Berdibaeva (Kazakhstan NSPM) finished with perfect scores (eight out of eight).

In all, Velammal Vidyalaya finished their eight games with 16 points.

-PTI