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Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa's alma mater wins gold at FIDE World Schools Team Championship
Students of the Velammal MHS School, Chennai, pose with their gold medals at the 2025 FIDE World Schools Team Championship in Alexandria, USA. Image credit: FIDE
It's not just Grandmasters D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa and his sister R Vaishali who are keeping the Indian flag flying high in the world of chess – their alma mater too is making the country proud by emerging victorious in a global event. Chennai's Velammal MHS School, after all, won gold at the World Schools Team Championship that took place in the USA and concluded on Wednesday, 6 August.
Dominant Velammal miles ahead of other schools
Velammal MHS School, located in Chennai's Mogappair and also counts GM Leon Luke Mendonca among its former students, enjoyed a dominant run in the tournament that took place in Alexandria, Virginia in which they were guaranteed the top spot and the title before the last of the eight rounds even got underway.
Velammal finished No 1 with 16 points from eight rounds while the next three finished with 12 points each – with Kazakhstan's National School of Physics and Mathematics and USA's The Harker School winning silver and gold respectively after the tie-breaks.
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International Master Ilamparthi A was the star performer for Velammal, winning seven games and drawing just one after playing all eight rounds. He even took over as Board 1 for his school after Woman FIDE Master Keerti Shree Reddy played the first three rounds. Pranav KP, who played on Board 4, was another key performer as he won six and drew one after featuring in all rounds except the second.
Exciting World School Teams Championship comes to an end. Over 50 teams from all over the world came to USA, and that was a real celebration of school chess. Kudos to the Velammal school from Chennai for taking the gold medals - but this event had many more winners. Look at the… pic.twitter.com/bObiBur27P — Emilchess (@EmilSutovsky) August 7, 2025
Velammal MHS School has been a key contributor to Chennai's rich legacy when it comes to chess by providing training to hundreds of budding chess players. It follows the '7 to 17 programme' which had been introduced in schools by former Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in 2013.
The development comes days after Divya Deshmukh defeated Koneru Humpy in a historic all-Indian final at the FIDE Women's World Cup in Batumi Georiga, with both players confirming their place in next year's Candidates Tournament.
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