Two Gujarat girls shine with 4 medals at Commonwealth Chess meet in SL

Ahmedabad: Age is no barrier for breaking records, as explosive batter Vaibhav Sooryavanshi has demonstrated in the IPL, or in winning medals, as Gujarat’s Manya Drolia and Pragnika Vaka showed at the recently concluded Commonwealth Chess Championship 2026 in Sri Lanka.

The two girls from Surat claimed four medals, with Manya Drolia claiming medals of all three hues, while 8-year-old Pragnika Vaka clinched a silver in the blitz format.

Manya won a gold in the classical format, a silver in blitz and a bronze in the rapid format in the U-12 category.

Manya won the eighth-round match against woman candidate master Pooja Shree, who has an ELO rating of 1909, told TOI, “I was very excited and emotional after winning the medals. Last time, I missed out on a medal at the worlds narrowly, securing fourth position. That time I cried a lot.”

Attacking mindset helped her, Manya said, stay ahead of her opponents.

The 12-year-old, who defeated Sri Lanka’s Gomez Vaneesha Oshini, who has an ELO rating of 1,758, in the last round in the classical format, stated, “It was a dream to bag gold for the country and hear the national anthem being played at the international level. I played the match with an attacking mindset and my coach Rohan Julka Sir prepared me with a different opening for which the opponent was unprepared. This gave me an advantage in the opening and I went on to win the match. Before the tournament, we analysed all the games of the opponents, which gave us an edge.”

An elated Pragnika too echoed similar views. She said, “All the hard work, dedication and countless hours of preparation have finally paid off.”