City boys Dev & aditya felicitated by President Pranab Mukherjee

Mumbai-born Dev Shah (8) and Aditya Mittal can truly be called wonder kids of chess. Dev, a former World Schools Chess champion and Aditya, an ex-Under-7 National Champion couldn’t have asked for a better gift on the eve of the Children’s Day when they were awarded with the National Child Award for Exceptional Achievements in chess from President Pranab Mukherjee in New Delhi. Apart from Dev and Aditya, 28 kids were honoured by Mukherjee at the Rashtrapati Bhavan today.

Dev, a student of Dhirubhai International School is a boy with many firsts. He is the first boy from Mumbai to win the World Schools Chess title (Brazil, 2014) and a silver medal in the FIDE World Youth & Cadets Chess Championship (Greece, 2015). A trainee of South Mumbai Chess Academy (SMCA), he is also the youngest Indian to be a rated player. Dev practices rigorously under his coach DV Ganesh who has high hopes in his student and is optimistic of making him the youngest Grandmaster from India.

Aditya, a student of Vigyor International School is an exceptionally talented kid and has many records to his credit. He already has a rating of 2040 elo points which puts him amongst the highest rated chess players in the world.