India’s chess prodigies are becoming ever younger. The latest diva of this testing mindsport is Surat-based Pragnika Vaka Lakshmi, who celebrated her seventh birthday last February. Pragnika was crowned Under-7 Girls’ World Champion at the recently staged World School Chess Championship 2025 in Serbia. She dominated the final against Kazakhstan’s Alnura Shinbayeva, winning nine points in nine games for which she was declared champion even before the final game.
The only Under-7 chess player to be awarded a FIDE rating of 1437 in the classical chess format last November, Pragnika trains in the Swami Vivekanand Non-Residential Center of Excellence Scheme for Chess 2024-25 of the Sports Authority of Gujarat (SAG).
The youngest child of Ramanadh Vaka, a superintendent in the state’s Central GST and Customs Department, and former IT professional Praveena, this tiny champ is a class II student of the city’s Top-10 ranked SD Jain Modern School. “Unlike other children her age, she learned by watching her elder sister Varenya play and independently practicing for hours together. Recognising her passion for the game early, we decided to enroll her in the Bishop Brigade Chess Academy, Surat,” recalls mother Praveena.
Since then, the precocious whiz follows a weekly regimen of participating in open chess camps and investing 28 hours of rigorous practice per week under the watchful eye of coach Rohan Julka. Keen to compete, Pragnika won her first tournament at age five in a district-level chess tournament staged in 2023, followed by one in 2024, which qualified her to compete for Gujarat state. That very year, she won the Gujarat State Chess Interschool championship held in Ahmedabad scoring an impressive five points from as many games. Since then, winning has become a habit.
In July 2024, she won the Gujarat State Chess Championship staged in Ahmedabad. Six months on, she was adjudged India #3 at the National School Chess Championship 2025 held in Peddapuram (Andhra Pradesh).
In recent months, a growing number of Indian chess prodigies including D. Gukesh, R. Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi have been hitting headlines around the world.
Make room for one more!
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