Young Kush bags gold in U-9 national chess championship

Candidate Master Kush Bhagat won the gold medal in the Boys’ Under-9 category of the recently concluded seventh All India National School Chess Championship in Bhubaneswar at KIIT campus.

The Mumbai lad, a student of American School of Bombay and a trainee at the South Mumbai Chess Academy (SMCA) showed why he is highly rated, as he competed against senior players, and scored 7.5 points in the nine rounds format to lift his maiden Under-9 National schools title.

The talented Kush, with a 1392 rating points and Andhra Pradesh’s Tanish Sai Kavuru, with an identical 1392 rating points, finished with the same number of 7.5 points, but the upcoming Mumbai chess prodigy was declared winner of the gold medal on better progressive scores.

Meanwhile, there was more to cheer for the Mumbai camp, as WCM Suhaani Lohia of Dhirubai Ambani School won the silver medal in the Girls’ Under-9 category. Suhaani was tied with Karnataka’s WCM Shefali A.N., both on 7.5 points, but had to settle for second place.

There was more success for the Mumbai team as talented teenager Anugraha Jaisingh of Campion School, who has an international rating of 1664, bagged the Silver medal in the Boys’ Under-17 event. The youngster put up a great show to win his maiden silver medal in the competition. Both Suhaani and Anugraha are also trainees at SMCA.

"It is definitely a great beginning to the New Year and we would make it a memorable one, winning many more medals for Mumbai and Maharashtra as well as India," said renowned coach FIDE Master Balaji Guttula, who is also the chief coach of the SMCA.

A total number of 710 players (boys and girls) from different schools across 25 states in the country participated in 12 different age categories from Under -7 to Under-17.