Chess first, school only for exams

Like any other girl of her age, Mahalakshmi M loves going to school and playing with friends. Given her demanding schedule, she can’t be a regular at school although she’s enrolled in one. In fact, she goes to school only to appear for the final exams at the end of the year. So what keeps the girl, only 14, so frantically preoccupied?

It’s her passion for chess. Mahalakshmi dedicates a minimum of 10 hours learning and practising it. She’s nursing an ambition of doing a Viswanathan Anand. She wants to be a world champion.

Mahalakshmi is one of the top players in the 29th national sub-junior girls chess championship held in Valia College, Andheri. She is a class nine student and has already travelled the world. “I’ve two bronze medals in world championships in Georgia (2006) and Greece (2010). I practice 10 hours a day. My school has supported me throughout. I mark my attendance and go to practise. That’s the only way we’ll do well at the higher stages,” she says.

She may not be signing the attendance rolls, but she’s serious about a career too. She wants to be an engineer, though chess will always be her priority.

In states such as Tamil Nadu and Andhra Pradesh, many aspiring players like Mahalakshmi are completely into the sport.
“These children have devoted their lives to chess,” says the tournament’s chief arbitrator RR Vasudevan, also from Chennai.

“It’s not that they neglect their studies. Schools provide them facilities in the form of trainers and coaches. Some chess students get the services of grandmasters who teach them at home. Others are trained at academies that are like an open library. The government, too, extends support to these youngsters.”

C Natrajan, a coach from Chennai, says his city has some of the best chess residential academies. “Players learn and live chess there. Their studies are not affected because the game makes them sharper. Subjects like math, history, science are in a way connected to the sport. You learn languages while travelling for chess tournaments. It’s a fact that chess players score 90 per cent or above even in tough engineering exams,” he says.

Sixth round results
WFM Monnisha GK (TN) 4.5 drew with Ashwini U (TN) 4.5; Aarthi G (TN) 4.5 lost to Sandya M (TN) 4; Varshini V (TN) 4 lost to WFM Srija Seshadri (TN) 4; WCM Sawant Riya (Goa) drew with Vaishali R (TN) 4; Sunyasakta Satpathy (Ori) 4 beat Shweta Priyadarshini (UP) 4; Pranali S Dhar (Mah) 3.5 beat Dharani Sree R (TN) 3.5; Shvetha (TN) 3.5 beat Meenu Priya Se (TN) 3.5; Saranya Y (TN) 3.5 drew with Samaraki Mohanty (Ori) 3.5; Divya Garg (Mah) 3.5 drew with Gangamma BN (Kar) 3; WFM Mahalakshmi M (TN) 3 beat Angira Choudhuri (WB) 3