Why Sharvaanica, a nine-year-old chess prodigy, is one to track on the 64 squares
Promise 2025: As a new year begins, there is bound to be fresh hope for India’s upcoming young athletes. From a pre-teen chess player to an early teen cricketer, we take a look at who can make their mark in the coming years.
Vishnu Prasanna, the man who shaped the youngest world champion in hory, Gukesh, has spent the last few years chiselling away on the mind of another young prodigy who he spotted at the age of six at a selection trial. She goes the name of Sharvaanica AS and hails from Udayarpalayam, a small town from Tamil Nadu’s Ariyalur drict.Currently a Woman Candidate Master, the nine-year-old is already the world no 3 for girls aged 10 and below. She’s also ranked no 2 in India among boys and girls in the U10 category, being the only girl in the top 5.
The year 2024 saw her rocket up the ratings l: at the start of 2024, she was rated 1404 in the classical format. She ends 2024 rated 2030.
Sharvaanica is one of India’s most promising chess prodigies. (PHOTO: Sharvaanica Instagram)
Vishnu, who has been coaching Sharvaanica since 2021 at the Hatsun Chess Academy in Tiruthangal near Sivakasi, says that even when she was just six years old, she showed signs of her talent that were simply impossible to ignore. That’s why she was one of the first nine kids to be picked Vishnu in the first batch at the chess academy where the youngsters live and breathe chess, training from 9 am to 6 pm for 24 days each month. There are also sessions in the morning to work on mindset, and physical activity sessions in the evenings.
And while Sharvaanica is still too young to live full-time at the chess academy’s hostel, she’s already very serious about the sport.
“Sharvaanica was the only kid who was under 7 in that batch of nine kids we picked from a selection trial. Not to mention that she was the only girl in that group. I just intuitively felt that something was special about her. I could see the talent right there. There was a certain sense of chess already at that age that was clear for me,” Vishnu told The Indian Express.
Sharvaanica’s results were immediate. She won the U7 Nationals winning all 11 of her games. She then won the U7 Asian Schools event, where she swept everything in classical, rapid and blitz sections.
Earlier this year in April, Sharvaanica claimed the U-10 girls title in the Rapid event (besides ending second in the U-10 girls category at the Blitz event) at the FIDE World Rapid & Blitz Cadet Chess Championship.
And judging how fast her star is rising, this is only the start for the nine-year-old girl from a small rural town in Tamil Nadu.
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