Mumbai boy Dev Shah, now a World Schools Chess champion

The youngest Indian to become a rated chess player, seven-year-old Dev Shah, has become the world champion in the Under-7 category in the World Schools Chess Championships that concluded at Juiz de Fora in Brazil on December 4.

Having tajen to the game from the age of three, Dev, a trainee of South Mumbai Chess Academy and student of Dhrubhai Ambani School, was among three boys in a tournament that saw participants from 27 countries who scored the highest score -- 7.5 points out of 9 -- to tie with Ochirbat Lkhahvajamts of Mongolia and Sindarov Islombek of Uzbekistan. The Mumbai boy was ruled the victor on account of a better aggregate score. With this championship win, he also qualified to hold the title of Candidate Master awarded by world chess body FIDE, with a current international Rating of 1448, the release added.