Eight-year-old Advay Dhoot from Mumbai, participated in chess tournaments in the European circuit, in Germany and France and came out with strong performances, making him one of the top junior chess contenders from India. Advay entered the top four in India as the World Chess Federation (FIDE) released the new players rating list recently.
The chess prodigy started playing at the young age of 4 and since then, has participated in and won matches at countless Indian and international tournaments. The third standard student of the Dhirubhai Ambani School is one of the youngest rated chess players across the world and is currently atop the rankings in Maharashtra with an Outstanding Elo rating 1337.
The German tournament, which was held in Heidleberg, saw participation from 174 chess players representing 7 countries. Advay managed wins against players rated over 1400+ and the biggest win for him there proved to be in his surprise win against Bauer Laura Sophie, ranked 1385, who is Germany’s second-ranked junior player. He continued with the stunning performance at the French tournament, held at La Bresse, and scored 4.5 points out of 9 rounds in the 41st edition of the tournament. Another show of excellence at an international tournament was when Advay represented his school at Lichess Lugano in September 2021 and finished in the top quartile in an open category with no age limit.
His coach, Guttula Balaji said, “His love for the game will take him far ahead in this chess world. He has made us proud by turning himself into one of the strongest players among his peers already and I see a lot of success in store for him in the future.”
The Mumbaikar made good use of the pandemic, using all his free time to practice and learn advanced concepts. He also started participating in online tournaments at the state, national and global level and managed to hone his skills through participation in 50+ online tournaments in 18 months.
Advay will be participating in a few national tournaments in the coming year from January to April. In September, he will be traveling to Georgia to participate in the World School Championship.
