The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh News : Can anything get smaller than this?

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Monday, Apr 21, 2008
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh

Can anything get smaller than this?

S. Ramu

An engineering student claims to have designed a 4x4 mm chess board and miniscule chess pieces

Photo: SINGAM VENKATA RAMANA

Small wonder: The miniature chessboard made by Poloju Narasimha Chary. –

YADAGIRIPALLY (NALGONDA DT.): A first year B.Tech student of this village in Miryalaguda mandal is all set to break a record with the tiniest chessboard and chess pieces he has made.

“While a Vizag man had prepared 26 mm chessboard to find a place in the Guinness Book of World Records, I’ve prepared a 4 by 4 mm board and tiniest chess pieces to beat him,” Poloju Narasimha Chary alias Chakri, a 19-year-old lad, told The Hindu on Sunday.

The size of pawns, rook, knight, bishop, queen and king is well below half millimetre. Of course we have to use a magnifying lens to have a glance of the “bujji chess board and pieces.”

“It took seven days for me to make the 64 squares (eight rows and eight columns) and pieces. I have to manufacture them for the second time as the first set was blown away by a small wind while exhibiting it for my friends,” Chakri, an orphan, said.

His uncle Sripada Brahma Chary, a school teacher, has been taking care of Chakri, who is studying Computer Science at the Nagarjuna Institute of Technology and Science in Miryalaguda.

The soft-spoken student with a lot of fire in his belly works as an electric mechanic, cycle mechanic and a tutor to beat penury.

What prompted him to design the chessboard? “After watching a tiny chess board made by a man in a television show, I thought I too should give a try. My villagers and friends are floored by my achievement,” Chakri said with a bit of pride. He has already sent the nomination for Limca Book of Records and planning to send a proposal to the Guinness Book of World Records shortly.

A Vijayawada-based microbiology student went on record claiming that she was preparing a chessboard in the tiniest space of 0.2 cm. However, it is not clear whether she is also making chess pieces along with the board to claim for the world record. “I’ve a chessboard in a space of 1.8 mm,” Chakri said.

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