Karnataka girl Charvi is World Chess Champion in U-8 category; Kerala boy Safin bags bronze in open category

The World Cadets Chess Championships, known as World Chess Youth Championship till 2015, is organised by the International Chess Federation (FIDE) annually.

Since 2015, the events for U-8, U-10 and U-12 is known as World Cadets Chess Championships, while the U-14, U-16 and U-18 is called World Youth Chess Championships.

While the tournament’s history dates back to 1976, the U-8 event was started in 2006.

Reactions to the win

“This is a really good achievement. She played really well. Charvi has a bright future and this is also a good thing for the country,” said Bharat Singh Chauhan, chairman of the FIDE Advisory Board and deputy president of Asian Chess Federation.
“I am sure she will do good in the next month Asian Chess Championship as well,” he told South First.

“This is a really proud moment for the country and Karnataka. On 29 September, we are meeting with the Union Sports Minister Anurag Thakur and he may announce some reward for her,” Karnataka State Chess Association President and All India Chess Federation Vice President DP Anantha told South First.

Charvi’s spectacular run

Charvi, who lives in Bengaluru, was ranked fifth initially by the FIDE in the 83-girl line-up.

However, the 2022 national champion won nine out of the 11 rounds she played at the tournament.

The only defeat that came for the eight-year-old was in the eighth round at the hands of Kazakhstan’s Sholpanbek Zhansaya.

After the play of six rounds till 22 September, Charvi was the joint leader with England’s Sivanandan Bodhana with their game against each other ending in a draw.

However, things became tough for Charvi after her unexpected loss in round eight.

She trailed the English player from the rounds eight to 10 and finally caught up with her with a victory in the final round.

She managed to come on top owing to better tie-breaks.

Bodhana, who finished second with a score of 9.5 as well, did not lose a single game.

Meanwhile, Poland’s Lila Rzadkowska (8.5) finished third.

We have breaking news coming in from Batumi, Georgia – Charvi Anilkumar has become the U-8 girls World Champion! The whizz-kid from Karnataka scored an outstanding 9.5/11 to clinch the gold medal. A big congratulations to Charvi, her family, and her coach IM Shivananda BS. pic.twitter.com/gGGwtT8UFM

— ChessBase India (@ChessbaseIndia) September 27, 2022

Making classy moves

The first world title for Charvi comes at a time when she has been making rapid strides in the Indian chess circuit with several titles under her belt.

In June this year, she won the FIDE-rated U15 State Open Category Championship in the Mysuru district of Karnataka.

This came after the Class 3 student emerged victorious in the U-8 and U-10 categories of the National Championships held earlier this year in Vijayawada and Jammu, respectively.

Being the only girl participant among 158 boys, Charvi secured fourth place in the open category of the National School U-9 chess tournament held in the capital of Odisha, Bhubaneswar in May this year.

During the pandemic, the student of the Capitol Public School in Hegde Nagar of Bengaluru won several online tournaments.

She clinched gold at the National Schools Online U-7 girls chess championship and bagged silver at the Western Asian online youth U-8 championship, and Asian U-7 chess championship.

Charvi now has her eyes set on the Asian Youth Chess Championships in the U-8 category, scheduled next month in Indonesia.

Safin’s achievement

Safin finished third in a lineup of 151 participants with a total score of nine points.

The eight-year-old, who hails from Kollam district in Kerala, ended up a half point behind France’s Marc Llari and Russian Sav Shoogdzhiev, who finished first and second respectively after the tie-breaks.

Congratulations to Safin Safarullakhan for adding Under-8 Open Bronze Medal to the Indian Medal tally at World Cadet Championship at Batumi, Georgia @DrSK_AICF @Bharatchess64 @IndiaSports @Media_SAI @ianuragthakur @PMOIndia @narendramodi @rashtrapatibhvn pic.twitter.com/lPdoM9qibE

— All India Chess Federation (@aicfchess) September 27, 2022