South Africa Chess: Youngest chess champion set for Commonwealth Games

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South Africa's youngest chess champion will soon be heading to the Commonwealth Games in India to represent her country. Seven-year-old Kajol Naidoo took the junior title at home after an impressive eight out of nine wins. CGTN's Julie Scheier has the story.

Kajol Naidoo started playing chess when she was just four years old. It wasn't long before she mastered the strategic board game.

KAJOL NAIDOO CHESS CHAMPION OF SOUTH AFRICA "I did not like going to bed at all, so I used to always play dad, and I got better and better against him, but I always used to lose. But I wanted to win and one day I beat him."

On meeting Naidoo she's a petite and sweet 7-year-old. But there's nothing small about her when she calmly sweeps her opponents aside, many of them much older than her. The silent challenge of the game is what she loves most.

KAJOL NAIDOO CHESS CHAMPION OF SOUTH AFRICA "It's not something that's loud and you can get hurt. It's calm and some games are easy, some games are difficult but it always gives you a new challenge. Sometimes I do my yoga to make my brain flow during the game."

She claimed the junior chess title when she won the Under-8 category earlier this year. And the Queen of Chess is just getting started.

KAJOL NAIDOO CHESS CHAMPION OF SOUTH AFRICA "I wanna go until I wanna stop which is hopefully never but I also wanna become a grandmaster. So there's different stages in chess, once you get to a certain rating or you get these points, you become a candidate master. Grandmaster is the highest thing you can get, and I really want to become that one day."

Naidoo will represent South Africa at the Commonwealth games in India, in June. Thereafter she heads to China for the World Cadet Championship in September.

JS CGTN JHB.