Andhra Pradesh - Guntur   

Guntur produces yet another prodigy

Ramesh Susarla

Youngest ever to qualify for National A Chess tourney

Ch. Mehar Chinna Reddy

GUNTUR: Guntur, which already boasts of a Woman Grand Master Dronavalli Harika, has produced yet another chess player, who could challenge grand masters in National B Chess and become the youngest player ever to qualify for the National A Chess Championship.

The 1995-born Ch. Mehar Chinna Reddy, with a current ELO rating of 2145 is in the big league into which several International Master norm holders also failed to enter from National B tournament organised recently at Dindigul. Playing blacks in his last game of the National B Chess Tournament he was able to overcome his rival G.B. Prakash, a GM norm holder and earn 9 points from 13 games.

Though he finished in the 20th position, he was among the 30 players selected for the All India National A Chess Championship to be organised at Chennai in November. He gets a chance to play Koneru Humpy and Dronavalli Harika at the championships. While four Women Grand Masters and Six Grand Masters are already selected by virtue of their ratings, Mehar Chinna Reddy joins them to try his luck to improve his ELO ratings.

“That tournament will be crucial for Chinna Reddy as he will have scope to improve his rating by a large margin and if he finishes among the top six, stands a chance to represent the country in international matches,” said his coach J. Malleswara Rao. A resident of Vijayawada, Malleswara Rao shifted to Guntur last year to coach this 13-year-old boy, who has forgotten his academics, but devotes more than 10 hours a day playing chess.

Sponsored by Ramki Foundation, Mehar was able to participate in the International Fide Rating Tournament at Sangli after winning the Asian Under 12 tournament. His victory in the A.P. State Championship and Fide Rating Tournament recently gave him enough rating points to participate in National B and give a morale booster.

With no airs of being the youngest qualifier for National A, Mehar is looking forward to playing in the Asian Juniors, World Youth Chess in October and Asian Youth Chess Championship in August before taking on the cream of the country’s players in the National A.

His coach, looks forward to putting Mehar in the big league so that he could begin playing the Chess Olympiad, Commonwealth Chess Tournament, and World Chess Tournament. “Getting a GM norm by year-end was his dream and which he can definitely fulfil by improving his rating considerably,” Malleswara Rao observed.

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