Mumbai, November 4: Top seed AFM Mysha Perwez opened with a comfortable win as most of the leading seeds made a winning start in the SBI Life Maharashtra State Schools Chess Championship 2026, which began at Rustomjee Cambridge International School, Dahisar (West), on Wednesday.
The first phase of the championship, organised by Indian Chess School, has drawn 417 players across six FIDE-rated categories: Under-7, Under-11 and Under-15, each with an Open and a Girls section. The seven-round event runs until November 6. International Arbiter P. B. Bhilare is the chief arbiter.
Mysha begins as favourite
Mysha (rated 1991) of C. P. Goenka International School beat Ananya Jaydeep Dhamal of Fr. Agnel Multipurpose School in the Under-15 Girls section. She arrived as tournament favourite after winning two gold medals and a silver at the recent Commonwealth Chess Championship.
Second seed Pranitha Bhava (1655) of Dr. Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan Vidyalaya and third seed Khanak Paharia (1588) of Narayana E-Techno School also won their first-round games.
Under-15 Open seeds on track
In the Under-15 Open section, top seed Samvid Pasbola (1912) of Hiranandani Foundation International School beat Pavit Kaushal Patwa. Second seed Vihaan Anupam Agrawal (1858) of Narayana Olympiad School got the better of Shantanu Kulkarni, and fourth seed AFM Rayan Merchant (1822) of C. N. M. School, Vile Parle, also won.
Seeds in the younger age groups
The Under-11 Open field is led by Laksh Mihir Dighe (1643) of the host school, Hitansh Kunal Gohil (1632) of SVKM J. V. Parekh International School and AFM Dhruv Srivastava (1630) of Podar International School.
Tvesha Ashish Jain (1697) of Greenlawns High School heads the Under-11 Girls section, ahead of Aashvi Ankit Agarwal (1634) of Gundecha Education Academy and Aaratrika Parab (1559) of Vibgyor Rise.
In the Under-7 Open, Ivaan Dubey (1545) of Brainiacs International School is the top seed, followed by Aksh Shrivastava (1513) of Delhi Public School, Nerul, and Reyansh Harish Chaudhari (1487) of BVM, Nagpur. The Under-7 Girls section is led by Liyaa Krishnan (1558) of Kanakia International School, Tanishka Bhandari (1477) of SVKM J. V. Parekh International School and Roonvi Navin Randive (1439) of SNBP International School, Pune.
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