Chennai: India’s Soundarya Pradhan bagged the Silver Medal in the World Junior Individual Chess championship for the blind and visually impaired that concluded here at Mineral Hote, Malinowy Raj, Solec-Zdroj Poland.
Czajkowski Adam (7.5) narrowly clinched the gold medal and Eichstaedt Mirko (6.5) got the bronze medal. Soundarya Pradhan who had a slow start in the tournament when he was stunned by a defeat in the second round by a fellow Indian Aryan Joshi, however, kept his cool throughout the tournament.
When he required a victory in the last three rounds to a win the medal, he pulled up his game to the next level and won the last three rounds which included defeating the leader and the second seed Eichstaedt Mirko (ELO Rating 2190) which is about 400 ELO points more than Soundarya.
Soundarya Pradhan is a totally blind chess player who is also good in academics, having secured the admission in the National Institute of Technology (NIT) in Jamshedpur.
The other Indian player, Aryan Joshi, finished the tournament at 6th position in the end. The silver medal of Soundarya pradhan is the 12th medal won by a visually impaired Indian player in a short span of time.
The other medals include winning the Asian Championship title two times, a bronze medal at world junior championship and an individual Gold medal in the team championship.