Coimbatore corporation's Smart Chess programme produces its first FIDE-rated player
Coimbatore: A Class VII student of the corporation's SRP Ammaniammal Girls Higher Secondary School in RS Puram, became the first-ever international chess federation (FIDE)-rated chess player from the city corporation's schools.
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Sreenidhi S, was trained through the chess programme run by the Coimbatore corporation.
Sreenidhi delivered an outstanding performance in the 37th Tamil Nadu State Under-13 Open and Girls FIDE Rated Chess Championship 2025, held from May 21 to 25 at Md Sadak Polytechnic College, Keelakarai, Ramanathapuram.
Competing against a strong field of FIDE-rated players, Sreenidhi scored 5.5 out of 9 points with a performance rating of 1501, meeting the international rating criteria.
She debuted on the June 2025 FIDE rating list with a Standard ELO of 1598 and a Rapid rating of 1465.
This achievement is the result of the Smart Chess training programme initiated by the Coimbatore corporation in partnership with Chess Bishop StartUp and powered by the AI-based learning platform Sigaram64, in February this year.
"I practice for two hours every day. I'm happy with my performance. Batch-wise training is given to selected students in corporation schools through the chess training programme, and it helped me improve my game.
My school has also been very supportive," Sreenidhi said.
SA Suryakumar, founder and CEO of Chess Bishop StartUp, said, "We conducted two months of structured online training during school hours, for over 150 students from corporation schools. Additionally, 30 hours of focused, high-intensity coaching was provided to bright students identified through performance metrics. Tournament preparation sessions, including detailed game analysis, were conducted to equip students for real competition environments.
This has significantly contributed to their improved performance," he added.
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