Prachurya and Soundarya Pradhan, India

Pradhan brothers from Odisha.

"Chess is very similar to life. There are ups and there are downs. Sometimes you end up losing a winning game and vise versa. More important is you enjoy every moment of your life."

They were born in Boden, a village in the Kalahandi Balangir Koraput, and its said to be the most impoverished region of Odisha. They both are visually challenged and are 100% blind. But this hasn’t stopped them from playing the royal game of chess. They both are finest players from our country and have represented India on a number of occasions.

Initially they were in a boarding school which was 500km away from their home. As there was no special school for blind in their hometown. But somehow they were not comfortable there and they withdrew from the school and came back to the village.

Their first tournament had an interesting outcome, Soundarya being the younger one lost all of his game and prachurya being the elder one won all of his game and was declared as the Odisha state junior blind champion. Being at home meant they could spend maximum time on chess and play more often than they used to.
Coming from a small village, life wasn’t easy for them. 
They faced a number of impediments right from the initial stage of their lives. For a long while their was irregular electricity supply and whenever they had a connection they had to settle for 2G network as there was nothing better than that. After requesting for a number of times they finally solved the problem and their village received much needed connection. Along with this lack of study material, lack of books were other problems they faced. Being visually challenged they needed someone to narrate them the book. Their uncle Keshav was the first coach of the Pradhan brothers. He himself is a recognized player from the state.
Then with better connection and proper guidance achieving all the feats somehow became a little easy for them.

Prachurya went on to win the National Junior Championship for blind in 2011, and this was just the start of their dominance in the field. There was no looking back. Soundarya and prachurya dominated the field.

Here are some of Prachurya’s achievements:
National champion in 2011/2012
Runner up in National B 2018
Qualified for National A on 5 occassions.
First odisha blind chess player to get a rating and first one from the state to qualify for National A for blind from Odisha.

Some of Soundarya’s achievements:
Won Silver medal in IBCA world individual chess championship for blind in Poland.
Participated in World team championship.
Won Silver medal in Para Asian games.
Have been part of team India on a number of occasions.
He was felicitated by Hon’ble Prime Minister Narendra Modi.
Shared dais with Sachin Tendulkar in a panel discussion organized by UNICEF.

But hang on, there’s more, Prachurya scored 90% in HSC and 86% in CHSE and now he has cleared CA IPCC both the groups and is going CA final.

While Soundarya is Studying B.tech CS at NIT, Jamshedpur And he has coded a program to improve blindfold chess. Link

Pradhan brothers are surely an inspiration to each and everyone out there. No matter whether you're a chess player or not, their story their hardwork and their never give up attitude is really inspiring.
For them chess is everything.