The new chess kid on the block

Hyderabad: The third edition of NITHM below 1400 Fide-rated chess tournament-2018 that concluded here late Sunday night was yet another opportunity for the emerging talent of Kheerthi Ganta to prove her mastery over making the winning moves. And she achieved them with aplomb.

In a tournament that featured some bigger and more notable names, she exemplified technical finesse, thanks to her dexterity that she paraded with gay abandon.

For her consistently impressive performances, she was declared the best in the Under-11 category, which was a reward for the seven points she aggregated from nine rounds of which she won five and drew the remaining. Her flair also ensured that she did not lose to any of her nine opponents. The showing swelled her rating by a whopping 31 points, which is likely to take her overall tally to 1,453 rating points by March.

This is not bad showing for a player who took to the game at the ripe old age of eight, more as a recreational hobby before choosing it as a career option. Chess may have happened by choice but she has shown natural flair for the mind-game that saw her flourish in district, State and national level tournaments, straightaway.

According to Ramaraju Narahari from RACE Academy, under whose tutelage she is honing her skills presently, ‘Kheerthi is naturally gifted. She has been a good student in that she has the keenness to learn and improvise her moves.

I am sure that with more competitive exposures, particularly in open tournaments where she gets pitted against experienced players, she can further fine-tune her game.’ The sixth standard student of Pragathi Central School in Pragathi Nagar is blessed with another talent.

Endowed with excellent memory powers right from being a toddler, Kheerthi amazed her teachers and elders while reciting capitals of almost all countries and periodic tables besides the spontaneity with which calculates the day of any given date irrespective of the year. Impressed by such public demonstrations, she was conferred with the ‘Srujanaputri’ title by Telugu State Book of Records when she was barely six years of age.

On her part, Kheerthi acknowledges, ‘I am blessed that apart from the encouragement I get from my parents, I receive constant support from the management and teachers at Pragathi Central School. I wish to constantly give my best so that I can live up to their expectations. I realise that the path ahead will get tougher but I feel blessed to have such well-wishers and Ramaraju Sir, whose tactical and motivational pep talks hold me in good stead when I am caught in critical positions on the board.’

As she endeavours to maintain her composure and justify the billing, the March 16, 2007 born Kheerthi Ganta can surely look up to the exploits of her role-model, Judith Polgar, for motivating herself.