Priyadharshan Kannappan

International Master Priyadharshan Kannappan has moved from one international chess hub to another. He is from Madurai in South India, where chess is popular, and now attends Lindenwood University in the suburbs of St. Louis.

Kannappan started playing the game at the age of seven and has now played for thirteen years.  “My brother learned chess before I did, and I found the game interesting and started to play,” he says. Kannappan’s parents took him to the same coach who was working with his brother. When Kannappan began to win tournaments, he was even more motivated to continue playing. Now he holds two Grandmaster norms and is very close to achieving the necessary rating of 2500. He would like to become a professional chess player.

In high school, Kannappan first considered coming to the United States to further his chess goals.  He chose St. Louis because of its reputation as a chess center in this country. Upon arriving here, he joined the Saint Louis Chess Club and enrolled in marketing at Lindenwood. He made an immediate impact to the city, becoming a member of the Saint Louis Arch Bishops (part of the United States Chess League) and a scholarshipped rating-leader of the Lindenwood’s chess team.