MSSA inter-school chess tournament: Kids make right moves as MSSA chess begins with record entries

Participants at the MSSA chess meet in Chembur. Pic/Anurag Ahire

The MSSA's 43rd inter-school chess tournament got underway at St Sebastian High School, Chembur, on Thursday with a record number of participants - 3,037 players from 100-plus schools. Some of the kids were overwhelmed at seeing the huge gathering.

"I feel nervous. It will be tough to win the tournament given there are so many players, but it's good to have competition," Raj Nimbalkar, 10, a player from The Scholar High School, told mid-day.

"Till yesterday, I was confident I will do well, but this morning, after seeing so many players here, I'm stunned. I hope I can win," said Jeet Singh, 11, of Fatima High School.

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Interestingly, working parents, who came to cheer their kids, were offered classrooms by MSSA, where they could access their laptops for office work. "It's sweet to see so many children take part. It may instil fear in some young participants, but it will also boost the confidence of many others," said Santosh Nimbalkar, a father of one of the participants.

Rashmi Gupta, another parent, added, "This is a great experience for our kids. There may be pressure, but this is also a good learning for them."
MSSA chess secretary Sebastian Rodrigues was a happy man: "It's nice to see so much talent in our city. India's Chess Olympiad success has clearly rubbed off on all these kids."

Meanwhile, Nirvaan Shah of Don Bosco International School won first place in the boys U-12 category, while Divit Bhowmick of Bombay Scottish (Mahim) finished second and Gaurang Bhandari of Bombay Scottish (Powai) was third. Nikita Sandeep of AVM (Bandra) won the U-8 girls cetagory with Manva Parkar of Oxford Public School (Kandivli) runner-up and Yaashi Doshi of Sri Ravishankar Vidya Mandir finishing third.