By Alesha Capone
Point Cook brothers Dhruthin and Rheyansh Annapureddy are both junior chess champions.
The pair, who are aged eight and five respectively, are members of the Wyndham Chess Club.
Dhruthin said he started playing chess around a year ago with his uncle Ashok, while Rheyansh took up the game a few months ago.
The boys have a large amount of chess trophies to their names, including Dhruthin’s first place in the Interschool State Finals 2019 and first place in the open section of the Chess Victoria Junior Masters Championship 2019.
He is also ranked number nine in Australia for classical chess players aged eight years old and under.
In October, Rheyansh was named the overall winner in the Wyndham Chess Club’s Novice Spring Cup chess tournament, in which other players were aged up to 13 years old.
Rheyansh and Dhruthin have both qualified to represent Victoria at an interschool national chess competition, to be held in Melbourne next month.
The brothers play chess every day, and practice before and after school by doing paper-based chess puzzles, watching chess videos and playing the game online.
“I just love it, I’d like to become a chess world champion,” Dhruthin said.
Rheyansh said he would like to become a grandmaster chess player.
“Chess is fun and I enjoy setting traps for my opponents,” he said.
The brothers thanked their parents, Sasi and Nagi, for helping them to train and driving them to chess tournaments.
