The over-crowded corridors, staircases and the vacant space in front of the Icon Public School at Seetharampurm were proof of the fact that chess is extremely popular among school children.
K. Bhuvana Surya, a student of Tagore School in Machilipatnam, sat with her eyes fixed on the 64-square board, pondering over her next move. Aware of the touch-move rule, she avoided touching a piece on the board, lest she may have to move it. Her target was to capture her opponent’s piece.
The chess tournament conducted by The Hindu for schoolchildren at the Icon Public School attracted participation of 400 kids.
Following the Swiss league format, the participants were segregated in different categories based on their age groups.
Boys and girls competed in separate groups. Both the groups were further divided into under-15, under-13, under-11 and under-9 groups.
Results - boys
Among boys, in the under-15 group, Ranadheer B. bagged the first prize, Gowtham Krishna M came second and Sanjay P.N. secured the third position.
In the under-13 group, Sai Hrushikesh Simhadri came first, Venkata Sai Teja second and L.S. Karthikeya Durga Prasad third.
In the under-11 group, Mahendra Teja M bagged the first prize, Naveen Joel Ch. came second and Varshith N. third. In under-9 category, Imran Md. came first, Talla Nischal second and Naga Sai Sarthak came third.
Those who stood first got a cash prize of ₹1,000, second ₹700 and third ₹300 besides seven consolation prizes for boys and two for girls.
Results - girls
Among girls, Neeharika B. and Swetha Sri got the first and the second prizes in the under-15 group, Sathwika N. and Bhavya Charita emerged the first and second place winners in the under-13 category, Poojasri and Lakshmi in under-11 category and Sarvani Ch. and Sai Tapaswi came the first and the second respectively in the under-9 category.
Secretary and correspondent of Icon Public School Y. Pardhasaradhy gave awat prizes to the winners.
The event was held under the aegis of the Krishna District Chess Association. Srihari of the association was present while Phani Kumar was the chief arbitrator.
The event was sponsored by Thyrocare and Icon Public School was the venue sponsor.