Unlike most girls her age, Mahalakshmi Mugunthakumar (14) doesn’t hang out with friends, watch movies or play outdoor games. She is content spending time honing her skills in the mind game of chess, which has won her an impressive string of national and international titles.

Recently (April), this class X student of Velammal Matriculation Higher Secondary School, Chennai, hit the headlines in the local press when she was conferred the Young Achiever award of the Rotary Club of Madras for bagging the under-14 World Youth Chess Championship held in Maribor, Slovenia last winter.  To her great delight the award was presented by five-time world chess champion Grandmaster (GM) Viswanathan Anand. While felicit-ating Mahalakshmi, Anand named her the first awardee of the Rotary Club of Madras-Viswanathan Anand Chess Scholarship instituted in 2010 which will finance her coaching, travel and entry fee for chess play-offs in India and abroad.

The youngest of four daughters of P. Mugunthakumar who runs a plastics business and homemaker Geetha, Mahalakshmi took to the chessboard at age five by merely observing her elder sister Jagadambal — a former national player — playing and being coached to play the game. Putting her learning-by-observation to quick use in 2004, she won the Under-7 state championship. In quick succession she checkmated her opponents at the National Youth Chess Championship (U-8), Aurangabad in 2005; won a bronze in the World Youth Chess Championship (U-8), Georgia in 2006; a gold medal in the Asian Youth Chess Championship (U-10) held in Iran in 2008 and a bronze in the World Youth Chess Championship (U-12) in Greece.

Driven and completely committed to attaining excellence in this sharp mind game, Mahalakshmi averages seven hours of daily practice. “I am very grateful to the Rotary Club of Madras and ONGC for their support. I also owe my success to my coach, GM R.B. Ramesh, for giving me individual attention. My school has been fully supportive and has even sponsored some of my foreign trips, and my paren-ts have always encouraged my passion for the game,” she enthuses.

Despite the pressures of competitive chess, Mahalakshmi is an academic topper and adeptly balances her studies and chess practice. “Now my sights are set on the national, Asian and World championships in my age category, and acquiring a GM title. I haven’t decided on a career choice because right now I intend  to scale greater heights as a chess player,” says this young achiever.

Way to go, Sister!

Hemalatha Raghupathi (Chennai)