The nine-year-old clinched the title of World Champion in the Under-8 category at the 2022 World Cadets Chess Championship.
Charvi Anilkumar (left) playing a tournament in 2023. (Supplied)
Chess prodigy Charvi Anilkumar from Karnataka has been selected for the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar, 2024. President Droupadi Murmu will confer the award on her on 22 January.
“Since it is the highest civilian award for children, we feel very happy and honoured to receive this award from the President. We will all be attending the ceremony and are also happy to be part of the Republic Day parade. This award will also encourage Charvi to work more and bring laurels to India,” Anilkumar, Charvi’s father’s told South First.
Nine-year-old Charvi became the World Champion in the Under-8 category at the 2022 World Cadets Chess Championship in Georgia. This month, Charvi became the highest-rated girl player globally, born in or after 2013.
It means that she is the only female player under 11 of age to surpass the 1900 ELO mark, a measure devised by physicist and Hungarian-American chess player Arpad Elo, and standardised by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) to determine chess player ratings.
Started in 1979, the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar is the highest civilian honour for children in India. The award ceremony usually takes place a week before Republic Day.
Former President Ram Nath Kovind conferring the PM Rashtriya Bal Puruskar. (Supplied)
It was formerly called the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievement and is awarded annually by the Ministry of Women and Child Development.
The award is presented across two categories: Bal Shakti Puraskar and Bal Kalyan Puraskar.
Bal Shakti Puraskar is awarded to citizens under the age of 18 for extraordinary achievement in the fields of sports, innovation, scholastic achievements, social service, arts and culture, and bravery.
Bal Kalyan Puraskar is presented to individuals or organisations that have made exceptional contributions to child development, child protection, or child welfare.
Who is Charvi Anilkumar?
Charvi is currently a fourth-grader at Capitol Public School at Hegde Nagar, Bengaluru. She travels to Chennai for training under RB Ramesh, who also mentors R Praggnanandhaa and other chess prodigies.
Following her triumph at the World Cadet Championship in October 2022, Charvi continued her winning streak, securing five gold medals and one silver in the Under-8 category at the Asian Youth Chess Championship in Bali, Indonesia. Her stellar performances earned her the title of Woman Candidate Master (WCM) from FIDE.
She then clinched her third major chess title at the Commonwealth Youth Chess Championship in Sri Lanka in October 2022.
Charvi Anilkumar won the U-8 World Chess Cadets Championship. (Charvi Anilkumar/Twitter)
Charvi, who at the beginning of 2023 had a rating of 1272, expressed her ambition to reach the 2200 or 2300 ELO mark by 2024-end.
“Charvi is a very promising child, especially among girls, where we see fewer number of players compared to boys. She plays fearlessly even against International Masters and Grandmasters with a mindset to win. She wants to not just compete but win, especially against men,” Mishra Swayams, India’s 62nd Grandmaster, who also trains Charvi, told South First earlier.
Beyond the chessboard, Charvi is interested in reading short stories and swimming. “I also do yoga, jogging, and some meditation every morning for one hour,” Charvi said.
Charvi’s parents are software engineers. While her father Anilkumar works in a Bengaluru-based IT company, her mother Akhila left her job last March to provide full-time support to Charvi and accompany her to chess tournaments.
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