Vishakhapatnam: Vizag’s Chess prodigy Alana Meenakshi Kolagatla has been chosen for the Pradhan Mantri Rashtriya Bal Puraskar 2023. After her debut in Chess four years back, she has achieved several milestones in her career.

She is now World No. 1 in the Under-12 girls’ category as per FIDE’s January 2023 ratings. Expressing joy and surprise over the news, Alana’s mother Aparna said, we are very happy as Alana has been achieving new milestones in chess. But receiving a national award from the President is something special on a different level.

Chess is my favourite sport and I will continue to excel at international championships, said Alana. My immediate goal is to become IWM (International Women Master) and later Woman Grandmaster, she added. She said she owed her success to her coach Chiranjeevi and also Chess Gurukul at Chennai. In 2022, Alana’s ELO rating improved to 2120 from 1963 and achieved the Woman FIDE Master (WFM) title.