Mumbai: The Indians have made their country proud of late in a number of sporting events in the English soil. Following a creditable second-place finish in the ICC Champions Trophy, the Indian men’s hockey team thumped Pakistan 7-1 in a Hockey World League Semi-final game and now, it’s the seven-year old Ahana Shah who has made the Indians proud by winning a bronze medal with a brilliant score of 4/5 in the day long U-7 Rapid Chess Tournament held at Kenilworth in the United Kingdom.
The Mumbai girl was the youngest as well as the only unrated participant with all the other boys and girls having an ecf rating as high as 36 and 42, which is equivalent to FIDE 1200. According to Warwickshire Chess rules, the players were all born in either 2009 or 2010 and the group was a mix of boys and girls.
The end of the fifth round saw three players tied at 4 points each. Ahana won the third position due to a better progressive score.
A student of the Dhirubhai Ambani International School in Mumbai, Ahana was the silver medallist at the U-6 Maharashtra State Schools competition. She also a bronze to her name at the U-6 category in a chess tournament in Singapore.
The chess prodigy has also won a lot of medals at the school level in inter-school swimming and inter-school art. Ahana, also carries within herself a passion for gymnastics and dance.
This young talent trains under the watchful eyes of world-class coaches at the South Mumbai Chess Academy (SMCA).