U-8 World champ targets youngest GM crown
HYDERABAD: Even as the whole country is glued to the battle between D Gukesh and Ding Liren in Singapore, eight-year-old Divith Reddy garnered attention by winning the world U-8 chess title in Montesilvano, Italy, on Tuesday.
The eight-year-old prodigy, who impressed Gukesh and Arjun Erigaisi with his talent as a six-year-old, returned home on Thursday and was yet to realise the magnitude of his achievement.
"He doesn't understand what he has done. He is crazy about chess. We have been preparing him for this tournament for the past two years," Divith's father Mahesh Reddy told TOI.
When asked how he felt being a world champion, all Divith could muster was: "I love playing chess. It makes me very happy."
The manner and speed at which he solved puzzles stunned his parents and made them take up chess. A good one year was spent on chess after Class I. "He used to spend 10 to 12 hours daily on training. When he competed in the U-8 nationals in Vijayawada as a six-year-old, we understood that he needed to train a lot. We enrolled him in online coaching with a Visakhapatnam-based coach Rama Krishna Polavarapu," said Mahesh.
The triumph in Italy did not surprise the parents as Divith had already won a gold at the World championship in rapid and blitz events in Albania this April. Two months later he finished fifth at the U-8 World Cup in Georgia.
The little genius now wants to become the youngest Grandmaster in the world. "As of now we are not thinking about the future. We will focus on training and our long-term aim is to help Divith become the youngest GM in the world," Mahesh said.
Abhinav Mishra of the USA is the youngest GM at 12 years, 4 months, and 25 days. Divith has a FIDE rating of 1784 points currently.
A class II student of 21K School - an online school - Divith spends six to eight hours training and playing chess online. Mahesh and his wife Sindhuja Palla - software engineers - are determined to back their son. They believe Divith is destined for bigger things.
