Ariyalur girl Sharvaanica scripts history, becomes youngest-ever Women’s Candidate Master

CHENNAI: Sharvaanica from Ariyalur, the 100 per cent girl of Indian chess, has certainly lived up to her billing by becoming the youngest-ever Women’s Candidate Master (WCM), as confirmed by FIDE on Tuesday.

Hailing from Ariyalur, she has achieved unprecedented success in just over three years of learning chess from her elder sister during the COVID lockdown. Since then, she has travelled the world, winning almost every tournament she has participated in.

Currently, she is the reigning under-10 world rapid champion and holds the national record for scoring 11/11 points in the under-7 nationals held in Gujarat in 2022. She also holds the distinction of being the second girl in the world to surpass 1,915 Elo points in the under-9 category.

“We are really happy and proud today. Sharva should have got this title back in January, but we made some wrong choices regarding which tournaments to play,” her mother Anburoja told DT Next.

Sharvaanica is currently training at the Hatsun Academy under the guidance of GM Vishnu Prasanna, who is also the coach of World Chess Championship contender D Gukesh. Earlier this month, Sharvaanica had the opportunity to meet the Grand Master during a special event organised by Velammal School. The video of their interaction has been making rounds on social media, garnering a lot of attention.

Sharvaanica also won the gold medal in the U-10 girls’ category at the Commonwealth Chess Championship in Malaysia. If she can maintain her form and continue winning tournaments, she could soon become the youngest Women’s Grandmaster from Tamil Nadu.