Youth Incorporated Magazine

Aakanksha Hagawane, the daughter of a vegetable seller made history when she won the girl’s under 16 World Youth Chess Championships in Russia recently. The teenager is also a gold medallist at the recently held U-16 Commonwealth Championships in Colombo.

At the World Youth Chess Championships, Aakanksha bagged a whooping nine points from 11 games and finished half a point above Mobina Alinasab from Iran and Polina Shivalova from Russia, who were her closest competitors.

Playing her last game, Aakanksha defeated Polish Alicja Sliwicka who played with white pieces. As she went into the 11^th and final round she was tied with Dutch Anna-Maja Kazarian. Kazarian however, lost to Mobina Alinasab, finishing fourth in the tournament.  Throughout the tournament, she played brilliantly, winning eight matches and losing only one and drawing two. She lost the seventh round to Shivalova who finished third.

In an official statement to the U-16 World Youth Chess Championship’s website, Aakanksha said that this was her first title of a world champion. She also said that she went into the tournament without any expectations and only tried to do her best at each round.  She trains with former national player Jayant Gokhale from Pune.

By winning the U-16 World Youth Chess Championships, Aakanksha has added her name to a list of high profile Indians including Viswanathan Anand, Koneru Humpy, Abhijeet Gupta and others who have also won world titles in junior competitions.

Aakanksha was the only Indian to win a medal at the Championships as her compatriot K Priyanka finished eighth overall.