IMAGE: Velammal Vidyalaya, which has won the FIDE World School Teams Championship for five consecutive years in the past, follows the ‘7 to 17 programme’ which was introduced in schools by former Tamil Nadu chief minister J Jayalalithaa in 2013. Photograph: FIDE/X
Chennai’s Velammal Vidyalaya, the alma mater of the youngest reigning World champion D Gukesh and Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa, won the gold medal at the World Schools Team Chess Championship in Virginia, United States.
The Velammal Vidyalaya, located in the Mogappair neighbourhood, has been lauded as the force behind the chess revolution in Chennai as it provides expert training to hundreds of budding chess players.
“After eight exciting rounds, the 2025 World Schools Team Championship wrapped up today in Alexandria, Virginia,” global chess governing body FIDE announced in a press release on Thursday.
Velammal Vidyalaya’s Pranav KP, who played reserve on board five, along with Imangali Akhilbay (Kazakhstan NSPM) on board two and Edisa Berdibaeva (Kazakhstan NSPM) finished with perfect scores (eight out of eight).
In all, Velammal Vidyalaya ended their eight games with 16 points.
“Rising above the rest with a perfect score, Velammal MHS School from India claimed the gold medal, winning all eight of their matches,” the FIDE stated.
FIDE said the triumph for Velammal School adds another chapter to India’s “growing collection” of titles in chess.
“With India continuing to make waves across all levels and formats of chess, this victory adds yet another title to the country’s growing collection,” it said.
“Velammal MHS is no stranger to success — former students include Grandmasters R. Praggnanandhaa and Leon Mendonca. So it came as little surprise when the team entered the final round with the top spot already secured,” FIDE added.
The Velammal School has produced several Grandmasters over the years including SP Sethuraman, Mendonca, K Priyadharshan, B Adhiban, Vishnu Prasanna, Visakh NR, Vignesh NR, M Karthikeyan, C Aravindh, Karthik Venkataraman, V Pranav, S Bharath, Arjun Kalyan, P Karthikeyan and N Srinath.
Among the Women Grandmasters from the school are R Vaishali, a Grandmaster and sister of Praggnanandhaa, Varshini S, R Rakshitta and B Savitha Shri.
“They also have a champion like Anand to look up to,” the school’s chess co-coordinator S Velavan had told PTI in December last year.
“Since most of the children coming here have a genuine interest in chess, we don’t have to push them. They combine studies and chess well, and, in fact, the students who play chess have done even better in their studies,” he added.
Velammal Vidyalaya, which won the FIDE World School Teams Championship for five consecutive years in the past, follows the ‘7 to 17 programme’ which was introduced by former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in 2013.
Meanwhile, Kazakhstan’s National School of Physics and Mathematics won the silver medal as they had the same number of match points as The Harker School from the USA, but “edged them out on tie-breaks”.
The Harker School finished third ahead of Astana 2 RSPM.
