Gukesh, Pragg's Alma Mater Vellamal Vidyalaya Wins Gold At FIDE World Schools Team Championship
Velammal Vidyalaya, Chennai, won gold at the 2025 FIDE World Schools Team Chess Championship in Virginia, scoring a perfect 16 points. The school is known for chess prodigies.
Velammal Vidyalaya, the Chennai-based school that nurtured chess prodigies like reigning World Champion D Gukesh and Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa, has added another feather to its cap by winning the gold medal at the 2025 FIDE World Schools Team Chess Championship in Alexandria, Virginia, USA.
The Mogappair-based institution, long hailed as the heartbeat of Chennai's chess revolution, dominated the eight-round tournament to finish with a perfect score—16 points from eight matches—cementing its reputation as a global chess powerhouse.
'After eight exciting rounds, the 2025 World Schools Team Championship wrapped up today in Alexandria, Virginia," announced FIDE, the international chess federation, in a press release on Thursday.
Velammal's team turned in a flawless performance, with all players contributing to the gold-winning campaign.
'Rising above the rest with a perfect score, Velammal MHS School from India claimed the gold medal, winning all eight of their matches," FIDE said.
'They also have a champion like Anand to look up to," said S Velavan, the school's chess coordinator, in a previous interview with PTI. 'Since most children here have a genuine interest in chess, we don't need to push them. They combine their academics and chess extremely well. In fact, chess-playing students tend to excel in academics too," he added.
The school follows the '7 to 17' programme—an initiative introduced in 2013 by former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa—to train young chess players intensively from early childhood through their teenage years.
This systematic approach has paid rich dividends. The school had previously won the FIDE World Schools Team Championship five years in a row and continues to serve as a model for chess education in India.
'Velammal MHS is no stranger to success… so it came as little surprise when the team entered the final round with the top spot already secured," FIDE noted.
(with PTI inputs)
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