Photo by Erin Nelson.
Sarvagna Velidandla, 14, a freshman at Vestavia Hills High School, inside The Library in the Forest on Aug. 14. Earlier in August, Velidandla defeated three state champs at the 2019 Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions in Orlando.
In the 2019 Barber Tournament of K-8 Champions, a ninth-grader at Vestavia Hills High School, defeated not one, not two, but three state champions.
“It was a great experience,” Sarvagna Velidandla said.
Her mother, Uma Mudunuru, said it also was a “great experience” to watch her daughter walk into the opening ceremonies carrying the Alabama state flag.
The tournament was in early August in Orlando and brings together junior high state champions, Velidandla said. For her efforts, Velidandla was given a medal and a new chess board. She would have spent more time in Orlando, but school started the day after she got back to Alabama.
“I was looking forward to it, [and was] excited before the tournament,” Velidandla said. “I felt lucky to have the experience.”
Being in the tournament and playing strong competition pushed Velidandla to learn from her mistakes and continually improve herself as a chess player and person, learning to take those same lessons into every area of her life. She said she has learned different strategies and tactics.
This isn’t Velidandla’s first brush with success as a chess player.
In 2013, she won first place in the K-3 unrated section of the super national chess tournament, and she has garnered more than 20 trophies since she began playing in 2012. In the summer of 2018, she represented the state of Alabama in the National Girls Tournament of Champions, where she finished 17th out of 44 players, and she also played in the 15th annual Susan Polgar Foundation Girls’ Invitational Chess Tournament in St. Louis.
Velidandla’s love for chess began when she saw two friends playing the game and became interested in it. She joined a chess club and got a coach, even receiving online coaching from Europe.
“Chess really helps in school,” Velidandla said. “I really like the game and the dynamics of it. It’s just fun. I love it.”
The game also helps with time management skills, she said.
As Velidandla begins her freshman year at Vestavia, she said she hopes to start a chess club on the campus even as she gets acclimated to more rigorous studies. She is taking all advanced classes this year.
“She balances it all,” Mudunuru said.
In addition to her academic work and chess competition, Velidandla also plays piano. She’s doing well in all three areas, planning her own schedule and putting academics first, Mudunuru said.
“In my family, we value academics a lot,” Velidandla said.
Velidandla usually practices about an hour per day and also spends time going to the Vestavia Hills Library in the Forest, where she teaches a handful of others, just like she hopes to do in a possible chess club.
With their daughter starting high school, Mudunuru said the family may not travel to as many competitions, but she’ll still be competing in championship competitions. From Aug. 30 to Sept. 1, Velidandla competed in the Alabama state championship. The national competition is in December.
Velidandla said, academically, she wants to achieve high grades, become valedictorian and go to a great school, and in chess, she eventually wants to become a chess master and a grand master, the highest level given to chess players.
But for now, Velidandla said she will focus on learning how to make it through high school.
