Meet Pragnika Vaka, 7 Year Old Girl who became World Chess Champion -

April 3, 2025

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Meet Pragnika Vaka, 7 Year Old Girl who became World Chess Champion

India have become land of Chess, where several Grandmasters are getting churned out every year and credit should be given to all the stakeholders who have worked hard behind the scenes to make this entity extremely popular.

The Policies implemented by All India Chess Federation, should be credited for bring robust changes in the chess ecosystem.

Here in this article we will share another redemption story in Chess which will indicate why She will go on to become some big players in Chess.

Gujarat’s Pragnika Vaka, was recently crowned World Champion in Under-7 Category and that feat came in 2025 FIDE World School Championships held in Banja, Serbia held on March 20^th-28^th 2025 respectively.

The best part about this victory as she became first player from India to score 9 points in all 9 games they have played across all age categories.

22 school students participated from India in the recently concluded 2025 FIDE World Championships where she won gold and two players went on to clinch silver medal.

Bijesh Devi clinched and Om Esh Gottumukala clinched silver medal in U-7 and U-11 Open respectively.

The credit for Pragnika Success should be given to her family as father explained her journey while talking to distinct media outlets where he said “Pragnika learned the nuances of Chess while witnessing her elder sister Varenya and her elder sister is already an established player but the fact which surprised me the most in her 1.5 years of Chess Career she became World Champion clearly indicating she had a bright future”

However he added “I was confident that my daughter would certainly win some medal, as 5 country players including the likes of- Uzbekistan, Serbia, Kazakhastan, Turkey and India were competing. She was already confident that she won medal after she bagged 8^th round by defeating fellow Indian Compatroit Shreyanshi Jain “

On how he taught his daughter to handle pressure to which he said “I used to take my daughters to Mumbai every Sunday to make them play Open Tournaments against Boys which helped them to handle pressure effectively”.