National schools chess: Mumbai kids bag one gold, 2 silvers

Chess champs Kush Bhagat, Anugraha Jaisingh and Suhaani Lohia

Candidate Master Kush Bhagat of Mumbai added another feather to his hat, by winning the gold medal in the boys' U-9 category of the recently concluded 7th All India National Schools chess championship at Bhubaneswar's KIIT campus. The American School of Bombay student and a trainee at the South Mumbai Chess Academy (SMCA) competed against senior players and scored 7.5 points in the nine-round format to lift his maiden U-9 National schools title.

Kush, with 1392 rating points, and Andhra Pradesh's Tanish Sai Kavuru, also with 1392 rating points, finished with the same points, 7.5, but the former was declared winner of the gold medal on better progressive scores. Among the girls, Dhirubai Ambani School's WCM Suhaani Lohia won the silver medal in the U-9 category. She was tied with Karnataka's WCM Shefali AN on 7.5 points. There was more success for the Mumbai team as talented teenager Anugraha Jaisingh of Campion School, who has an international rating of 1664, also bagged a silver medal, in the boys' U-17 event. A total 710 players from different schools across 25 states in the country participated across 12 different age categories from U-7 to U-17.

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