rivastava played five rounds of chess blindfolded from start to finish to create new records. S

All- Round Toppers

Raghav SrivastavawT elve-year-old chess prodigy Raghav infrastructure developer), and all the Srivastava set five new records for the grandmasters and all the members present Limca Book of Records on Saturday here…thank you. My inspiration is (chess-

in Andhra Pradesh's Nizamabad. player) Viswanathan Anand and (former President of India) Abdul Kalam. My aim is

Srivastava played five rounds of chess to become a world champion and scientist,” blindfolded from start to finish to create new said Srivastava.records. Each round had different difficulty levels. Gathered grandmasters were all

praise for the 12-year-old's In the first round, a panel prodigious memory.comprising three Grandmasters, Pravin “Well, definitely this is a record of a Thipsay, Sriram Jha and S. kind. During such a record in such an Vijayalakshmi, a referee, V V age, I think he is extremely talented R Murthy, and the assistant in his memory. All I would like to Editor of Limca Book of say, that I would like to see him on Records, Amreen Toor, chessboard, playing chess for India selected one of 24 short-listed because that way we can see another games, which had been Viswanathan Anand in the making played by world champions, such as because he has an amazing memory,” said Viswanathan Anand, Paul Morphy, Garry Vijaya Lakshmi Subbaraman, chess Kasparov, Anatoly Karpov and Alexander grandmaster.Alekhine.

Records are not new for the sixth-grader as Srivastava played all the moves of the he entered the Guinness Book of World selected game by memory, from beginning Records in 2005 for spelling correctly 50 toend. words backwards in two minutes and 40 Round three saw the blindfolded chess secondswhizard, who has an ELO grade of T h e s t u d y , 1622, play the conducted by same games in

A b e r d e e n reverse from start

University staff, to finish, while in found that youngsters who started round four, Srivastava played against an playing chess became mentally opponent who called out his moves, verbally.

In the final round, Srivastava played out both sharper and their behaviour also his and his opponent's moves in reverse. improved in comparison to those who “I am very happy and thankful to Limca did not.World Records and GMR (Indian "The big question is why this is

.

RAGHAV SRIVASTAVA

At first look, Raghav Srivathsav comes “Raghav’s first public performance came at across as just another bespectacled school- the age of three-and-a-half. It was surprising going kid with a penchant for books and initially. But with this marvelous talent and online games. An insight will reveal much mental ability, I thought it was best for him to more.This 12-year-old is a Guinness and start playing chess,” said Shyam Sundar.Limca World “Raghav had the record holder highest IQ for his rapid rating in the skill of world in 2004 spelling — 122 points. words He even stood backward. What is more surprising is that fifth at district-level chess without any Raghav is a genius at playing chess blindfold. coaching or practice,” Sundar goes on about He also boasts of an impressive ELO rating his son.— 1622. With no chess background as such, Raghav Raghav has quite a few feathers in his cap seems to be the inspiration for his younger namely a silver medal at the Asian School sibling — Vathsalya, who is also a chess Chess Championship in Colombo (Sri Lanka) player.in 2008 and a bronze medal at the state-level “Because of both our children, we also have chess championship at Thadepalligudem in developed a keen interest for the game,” Andhra Pradesh. Sundar said, adding, “However, Raghav He also went on to defeat higher-rated plays it with a difference.”players at an international Fide-rated tournament in Palghat, Kerala.Raghav also represented India in the Asian Chess Championship in Vietnam in 2008. He has also been awarded the “Child Prodigy” in 2007, National Junior Excellency Award, Samaikya Bharat Gaurav Satkar Award, Balaratna Award and Ugadi Puraskaaram.Come April 24 and Raghav will once again showcase his skills with a unique feat of making five Limca World Records in Hyderabad.“I am happy to represent my country and I hope to do well,” said Raghav, who is a Class VI student at Glendale Academy.While many see him as a future chess champion, Raghav is more keen on following the footsteps of his idol — Viswanathan Anand. “Anand is my favourite chess player and I try to pick up a lot from him,” said the young lad.Since the age of three, Raghav has surprised many with his miraculous feats. His parents, Shyam Sundar and Krishna Veni were the first to spot his ability when he picked words from conversations and started to spell them backwards.

ecords are not new for the sixth-grader as he entered the Guinness Book of World Records in 2005 for spelling correctly 50 words backwards in two minutes R

and 40 seconds.

happening," The Scotsman quoted c l a s s e s .Dod Forrest, of the university's School o f E d u c a t i o n , a s s a y i n g . "We noticed that being interested and

enthusiastic about chess led to a "We looked at reading skills before welcome modification in behavior they play chess and afterwards, and it elsewhere," Forrest said.improves significantly, but we don't f u l l y u n d e r s t a n d i t .

"The social aspect could be just as important as the development of the cognitive process chess playing demands. Playing in tournaments leads to travelling about a bit and getting involved in a wider section of society, building contacts and c o n f i d e n c e , " F o r r e s t a d d e d .

In the year long study, the researchers studied children from two primary schools in Aberdeen where free school m e a l s a r e t h e n o r m .

It was found that disruptive pupils would volunteer to help out in after-school chess classes and that spilled over into improved behavior in other

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