The Andhra Pradesh Chess Association, in association with Hotel Grand of the GRT group, felicitated Dhanumuri Jishitha, who won the World Youth Chess Championship in under-14 category, at a function held in the hotel here on Monday. A native of Ballipadu village in West Godavari district, Ms. Jishitha was undergoing training under N.V.S. Ramaraju of Ramaraju Academy of Chess Education at Hyderabad and won the championship held between September 16 and 26 at Uruguay. The 13-year-old player wanted to become the grandmaster and was seeking support from the government.
Congratulating Ms. Jishitha on her recent achievement, president of the Andhra Pradesh Chess Association Y.D. Rama Rao said that at present four grandmasters were representing Andhra Pradesh and wished the girl to follow the suit in the days to come. “We have grandmasters Koneru Humpy, Dronavalli Harika, Pentela Harikrishna and Lalith Babu representing the State. I wish to see Ms. Jishitha in the list and request the government to support her to take part in more and more international events,” he said, adding that his family would present cash prize of Rs. 1 lakh to those who become grandmasters from the State. “We have presented the prize to Mr. Lalith Babu in 2015,” he recalled.
General Manager of the hotel Rajoo Rangarajan expressed happiness over the success of the girl and lauded the initiative taken up by the association to felicitate the world champion. “We are very happy to take part in these celebrations,” he said.