CHENNAI: The Velammal Vidyalaya at Mogappair in the western suburbs of the city slipped into a celebratory mood on Thursday evening, as D Gukesh, now the most famous name in the school muster, scripted history, becoming the youngest ever chess world champion.
Gukesh outwitted Ding Liren 7.5-6.5 to unseat the Chinese from the highest seat in world chess.
It’s the shiniest moment in the long history of the Velammal Institutions, the catalysing force behind the chess revolution in the city.
While Gukesh and R Praggnanandhaa remain the brightest prodigies, the school offers expert training to hundreds of budding chess players.
Chess has always been a part of the city’s culture and the decision to make chess a part of the curriculum has really helped it to boom.
“Of course, they also have a champion like Anand to look up to,” S Velavan, the chess co-coordinator at Velammal, said.
”Since most of the children coming here have a genuine interest in chess, we don’t have to push them. They combine studies and chess well, and, in fact, the students who play chess have done even better in their studies,” Velavan added.
What he refers to here is the ‘7 to 17 programme’ introduced in schools by former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in 2013, coinciding with that year’s World Chess Championship between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen which was held in the city.
Their dedicated approach has produced matching results too as Velammal Institutions won the World School Chess championship for five successive years and both Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa were part of their squad in 2021.
It’s not surprising then to see that several Grandmasters have come out of this school since 2005 — SP Sethuraman, Leon Mendonca, K Priyadharshan, B Adhiban, Vishnu Prasanna, Visakh NR, Vignesh NR, M Karthikeyan, C Aravindh, Karthik Venkataraman, V Pranav, S Bharath, Arjun Kalyan, P Karthikeyan, N Srinath.
Prominent women GMs from the school are Varshini S, daughter of Velavan, Vaishali R, sister of Praggnanandhaa, R Rakshitta, B Savitha Shri.
