Another gold for India in chess: Chennai’s Velammal wins 2025 World Schools Team Championship

For the Chennai-based team, WFM Keerti Shree Reddy (rating of 1910) was India’s board 1 player followed by IM Aswath S (2369), FM Daakshin Arun (2021), IM Ilamparthi A (2358) and FM Pranav KP (2090). While Keerti just played three games in the first three rounds as board 1 for Velammal, international master Ilamparthi was the star for the Indian team, playing in all eight rounds, winning seven and drawing one. from the fourth round onwards, he played as board 1 for India. The other IM in the team, Aswath, had three draws and a defeat after playing in all eight rounds.

This latest title for a team representing India comes as India’s takeover of the sport is taking shape. barely 10 days ago, two Indians — Divya Deshmukh and Koneru Humpy were fighting it out in the final of the FIDE Women’s World Cup, which the teenager from Nagpur won. The current world champion, Gukesh, is also from India. At last year’s Chess Olympiad, the Indian teams had a clean sweep of both titles on offer, besides four players including Gukesh and Divya winning individual golds as well.

A press release from the global governing body of chess, FIDE, noted that things were much closer in the race for second place. Heading into the last round, seven teams were still in contention for silver. Things were much tighter in the battle for second place. Kazakhstan’s National School of Physics and Mathematics ultimately clinched the silver medal, finishing on the same number of match points as The Harker School (USA), but edging them out on tiebreaks. The Harker School took a well-deserved third place, just ahead of Astana 2 RSPM who narrowly missed the podium.

Top 10 rankings at World Schools Team Championship

#1: Velammal MHS School (India)

#2: National School of Physics and Mathematics (Kazakhstan)

#3: The Harker School (USA)

#4: Astana 2 RSPM (Kazakhstan)

#5: University High School (USA)

#6: Royal College, Colombo (Sri Lanka)

#7: Lyceum “Photon” of Gyumri (Armenia)

#8: Seed Educational Complex (Kazakhstan)

#9: Wisdom (Uzbekistan)

#10: Hampton (England)

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