Prodigy chess player aims for continental win
SANDTON – Ten-year-old Sanjana Ramlall is raising funds to make her dream of becoming a pro chess player a reality.
Ten-year-old Sanjana Ramlall is raising funds to achieve her dream of representing South Africa at the African Youth Chess Championship in Namibia in December this year.
The young prodigy was first introduced to the game at her school, Crawford College when she joined the school chess team when she was eight.
“Initially Sanjana was chosen as a reserve player for the school team for the inter-schools tournament which is held annually. She was then selected to play for the school team and was part of the team that won first place that year,” said her father, Rakesh Ramlall.
Following a few smaller tournament wins, the school coaches encouraged her parents to enter her into more competitions. Sanjana went on to play and win the Johannesburg Metro event. She was later selected to represent the Johannesburg Metro C U10 at the South African Junior Chess Championships after only having played chess for five months – the team went on to place second.
Her parents then entered her into a wildcard event where the top 10 players in the event would qualify to participate in the South African Junior Chess Closed Championship in addition to 20 other players who were selected based on rating and other performance measures.
“She did well and placed 9th in the wildcard event thus earning a spot at the SA Junior Closed Tournament where she finished in the top 10 and earned Chess SA colours,” he added.
A year later, Sanjana has qualified to represent South Africa at the African Youth Chess Championship. “It is a dream come true to represent South Africa at the AYCC. It took a lot of hard work and I always believe you should never give up,” Sanjana said.
“Our intention is to raise funds for Sanjana to ensure that she gets to Namibia and represents South Africa where her dream of being the best U10 girl in Africa will hopefully become a reality,” Ramlall concluded.
Details: Back-a-Buddy https://tinyurl.com/y58ms4sm
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