Celestial Minds, a new venture for Chess and Music in the greater Boston area formerly known as Prema Chess Lab, celebrated Chess Extravaganza in a sprawling ballroom where players, children and parents gathered around a scroll of squares and several white and black figures, to be a part of a game that has been celebrated since antiquity to push the boundaries of human strategy and logic.

The all-day event on Dec. 8th at Radisson Nashua, NH was attended by  104 chess participants  from all the three segments and overall 250 people who made it from different cities of the northeast to be a part of this to chess tournament and simultaneous chess display with music.

Donnalee Lozou, Mayor of Nashua, inaugurated the event and commended Kavya's and Celestial Minds entrepreneurship role in catalyzing Chess ecosystem in Nashua. Mayor also spoke of the importance of a platform to catalyze opportunity, exposure and excellence in Chess, and the key role played by organizations such as Celestial Minds in that regard.   She wished that Celestial Minds would grow into a thriving organization in the future.  Event Founder and Director of Celestial Minds Kavya Mallanna in her welcome speech spoke about the journey from Prema Chess Lab started in 2003 to the grand vision of Celestial Minds in reaching out to K-12 and Corporate world.  Advisory Member Sanjay Shah shared the current efforts  and goals of Celestial Minds. Prasanna Kumar, President of Celestial Minds felicitated the Mayor. Advisory Member Ravi Torvi convened the inauguration segment and motivated the players to have fun with the game.

Chess Master Ilya Krasik enthralled kids with puzzles and gave hands-on training on how to strategise the game better.

Corporate Chess  Tourney saw USCF “Class A “ players from IT companies like Juniper Networks, Alcatel-Lucent, Cisco Systems, Ericsson,  Putnam Investments  rake their brains for rejuvenation and recreation. Advisory member Dr. Deepti Navaratna spoke about the important role played by Celestial Minds in providing inspiration, enrichment and opportunities to excel in Chess for adults and kids.

Evening segment saw the Chess players  and hobbyists play against  the USCF Chess Master Ilya Krasik,  and  USCF Chess experts Joe Perl and Kavya Mallanna in Simul Chess Display along with DJ-Knight Ravi Torvi who kept the Social Chess Hour lively with his Music Mix.

Chief Guests Bob Messenger, President of New England Chess Org, Dr. Mukunda Dogiparthi of Sterling Smiles, Dr. Krishna Nagri , Ajay Kachrani BTI Systems, Tej and Vandana Dhakar Secretary IANH, distributed the prizes.

We like to thank our Sponsors Sterling Smiles-professional family dentistry, Naveen Udoshi of  Telesky Online Shopping, Pundit Junction,Tracy High of Juniper Networks . We like to thank our Supporters Dr. Shashidhar Kodambally, Anil Saigal, Hal Terrie, John Elmore, Tiffany Wang, Archana Dubey, Jawed Wahid, Preetesh Shrivatsav, Praveena Naduthota, Basavaraj Mudenur, Janhavi Basavarajappa, IANH, and MA-NH Chess Organizations.

Celestial Minds aims at bridging the gap between chess lovers and professionals and make Chess a house hold game.
Celestial Minds not only offers classes but will bring more of these events and hopes to see more players attending to celebrate the perfect  Chess Day. Please follow us on www.celestialminds.net and contact us at info@celestialminds.net

Winners:
Kanagavel Rajan of Cisco Systems trained at Celestial Minds , Manny Singh and Rajesh Peddireddy secured top three spots  in Corporate section.

Anson O Young , Abhinav Govindaraju and Aahan Mehera took top three spots in K-7 section.

Kaival Shah and Aarush Sathu of Celestial Minds, Keshav Rangan  secured top three spots for special category  K-3 sections.

Sanjana Kunnikuru of Celestial Minds and Ashley O Young of Nashua Chess Club won the Top two spots for girls category.

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