Gold Standard: Visually Impaired Chess Player Soundarya Does Odisha Proud Again

Bhubaneswar: Soundarya Kumar Pradhan has made Odisha proud again.

The visually impaired chess player struck gold for India on the second board at the 9th IBCA World Team Championship for the Blind & Visually Impaired in North Macedonia’s Ohrid.

The 22-year-old from Nuapada won the National chess championship for visually challenged two months ago in Pune, dethroning six-time champion Kishan Gangolli. That gave Soundarya a berth in the Indian team for the World Teams.

He had won the World junior silver medal in Poland in 2018

Soundarya, who did his B.Tech from NIT Jamshedpur and has secured a job placement, had won silver in the World Junior meet at Poland in 2018, but the National title had eluded him.

His inspiration is elder brother Prachurya, who is also totally visually impaired and an international chess player. A CA Final student, Prachurya is a silver-medallist in the Asian Para championship.