A fitting reception was given to the three medal winners of Chennai when they returned from the World Youth chess championship at Antalya in Turkey on Wednesday.

The three players, S.P. Sethuraman, the World under-16 champion, J. Saranya, the World under-14 girls’ bronze medallist and Karthikeyan Murali, the World under-10 silver medallist, were garlanded and crowned with flowers by the Tamil Nadu State Chess Association and Velammal School officials at the Chennai airport.

“It was my career best,” said S.P. Sethuraman, who has been waiting for this moment for the last five years since Belfort 2005. Since being trained by Grandmaster Aleksander Doloschopov of Kiev, Ukraine recently, there has been a big improvement in his game, said S. Panayappan, his father who is a chess trainer.

First title

Sethuraman is the National junior champion and this is his first World chess title. Last year he won the silver medal and this gold means a big jump for the hardworking player. In a way, Chennai keeps the World under-16 title as B. Adhiban was the champion in 2008 and he moved to the under-18 section this time.

M. Velayudham, who is the coach of both J. Saranya and K. Murali, was delighted. The parents of the medal winners distributed sweets.

The three medal winners belong to Velammal School.

Manuel Aaron, Government Observer for chess, K. Muralimohan, General Secretary, Tamil Nadu State Chess Association (TNSCA), V. Kameswaran, vice-president, TNSCA, S. Balaraman, Secretary, Thiruvallur District Chess Association, Muthukumar, Secretary, Kanchi District Chess Association and Velammal School officials were present.

Coach of the Indian delegation, GM R.B. Ramesh who returned with the team, said: many of the players had just crossed into the next higher age group and believed that the performance next year could be better.

IM K. Murugan of Neyveli said at least three of our players — Vaibhav Suri, B. Adhiban, Bansi Prathima — lost the final round and along with it title or medal chances. It was not poor nerves, but their final round opponents played better chess, he said.