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

2 days ago 8

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Indian players representing Velammal MHS School pose at the Closing Ceremony of the 2025 World Schools Team Championship. (PHOTO: FIDE via Michal Walusza)

India’s Velammal MHS School claimed the gold medal at the 2025 World Schools Team Championship in Alexandria, Virginia after winning all eight of their matches. Some of India’s top chess players have studied at the Velammal educational institutions. This includes current world champion Gukesh Dommaraju and top players like Praggnanandhaa, Vaishali Rameshbabu, Leon Luke Mendonca among many others.

So dominant was Velammal at the event, that it entered the final round of the eight-round tournament already guaranteed the top spot and the title.

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.