Daijiworld Media Network - Mangaluru

Mangaluru, Jan 8: Six-year-old chess prodigy Shriyana Mallya has made her hometown Mangaluru proud by winning the gold medal in the under-7 girls category in National Schools Chess Championship held at Nagpur from January 5 to 7.

She scored 8 points in 9 rounds and claimed the gold with a clear point lead.

With this performance, she has qualified to represent India in the World and Asian school chess championships to be held at Romania and China respectively.

Daughter of Sandeep and Nandini Mallya, Shriyana is studying in the first standard at Lourdes Central School. She is being trained in chess at Derik's Chess School (DCS).

In 2016, playing her first under-7 girls chess championship in Mandya, Shriyana delivered a strong performance to bag runner-up position and had qualified for the nationals. In nationals, she finished a credible 15th. Again playing state school championship of 2017 edition, she proved too strong for her group by clinching the title with an unbeaten performance. Within a very short time, Shriyana has proved herself at the nationals again and has bright prospects of bringing international medals.

Another DCS talent, Aatish Shetty of Lourdes Central School also gave credible performance, but just fell short by tie break points and had to be content for the 5th position with 7 points in 9 rounds in under-11 boys category.