Mumbai boy bags silver in national school chess

Aarav Lakhani, a 6-year-old boy from MCET (Juhu) has played his way to the commendable top-3 positions in the under-7 open category of the National Schools chess tournament that concluded recently in Nagpur. A total of 700 kids participated from across the country.

This second grade student trains at SMCA (Juhu). He also boasts of a commendable memory and swift calculations that gives him an edge over his competition. Lakhani is not only a junior chess champion, but also a wiz kid. He secured 98? in the mental maths exam that was recently conducted by Ignited Minds and has also won a gold medal in the Maths Olympiad Exam, conducted by the National Science Foundation.

An vvid reader, Lakhani says his ambition is to become better than the three best legends that the world has ever seen in chess — Bobby Fischer, Magnus Carlsen and Vishwanathan Anand.

"Lakhani has the capability to inspire the next generation to take up chess, his potential and intelligence is awe-inspiring, and we are confident that with the right push he will have no obstacles in fulfilling his dream", says Veeresh Tammireddy, Lakhani's coach.

The next step for Lakhani will be officially representing India in the Asian schools & world schools competitions to be held later this year.