Mumbai : Suhaani Lohia, Mumbai’s new young chess queen, is upbeat and high on confidence as she sets off to Tashkent, Uzbekistan to participate in the Asian Youth Chess Championship starting from Saturday, April 1 to April 9. She will be representing India in the Under-8 category and will compete in a strong field of over 40 contenders.
However, the 7-year-old Suhaani, a student of Dhirubhai Ambani School, who became the first Women Candidate Master from the city believes that she will have a great tournament and confident to return with flying colours. “Overall, I am happy to be representing my country and aim to make India proud. I am excited to be playing in this tournament and at the same time a little bit nervous. But, I am going to give it my best shot and hope to enjoy every match,” said a confident Suhaani, who has an ELO rating of 1120 points.
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Previous achievements:
Silver Medal (runner-up): National Schools Championship, Nagpur – January, 2016.
Bronze Medal (3rd place): National Chess Championship, Pondicherry, September 2016.
Bronze Medal (3rd place): Asian Schools Championship (Under-7 category), Tehran, Iran, July 2016.
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Suhaani, who trains with the South Mumbai Chess Academy (SMCA) under renowned coach Balaji Guttula, has been practicing daily for 3 to 4 hours.
Coach Guttula is satisfied with her preparations but did not want to make any prediction about her chances in the tournament. He also pointed out that her strengths have been her patience, focus and commitment.
Sheer curiosity and inquisitiveness while watching her elder brother participate in chess tournaments sparked her interests in the sport.
Her mother Sheetal explains that Suhaani from a very tender age would accompany her with elder brother Siddhant, also a chess player for tournaments across the country and she would always try to find out what was going on inside the tournament hall. “She would keep peeping through the glass widows or panels to find out what her brother was doing and gradually she began to understand what was going on and soon developed an interest towards the game and she has already started doing well,” said Suhaani’s mother Sheetal.
Suhaani earned the Women Candidate Master norm following her bronze-winning effort in the Under-7 category of the Asian Schools Chess Championship, in Tehran, Iran last July. It will now depend on whether Suhaani can make the right moves, which would ensure her a medal in Tashkent and fulfill her hopes to make the country proud.
