At age 7, she was already at Queen’s Gambit level. Now, she’s eyeing the international board.
Durban, South Africa (23 September 2025) – Shreeya Mahadeo, now 15, is one of the best chess players of her age group in South Africa. She already has a very long list of accolades to her name.
Last year, she made it her mission to qualify for and win as many National and KZN Chess tournaments in 2024 as she could for Parkinson’s Awareness, dedicating all her tournaments and fundraising to Parkinson’s ZA and her granddad.
This year, Shreeya was awarded a National Chess SA title as Woman Regional Master in June. Then, she went into nomination for three awards at the inaugural KZN Chess Awards in August – Women Player of the Year, Girl Player of the Year, and Junior Female Player of the Year. She took the title for the latter.
In that same month, Shreeya represented Team Ethekwini at the KZN Women Chess Championship 2025 at King Cetshwayo District and was awarded Best Player for Board 2 with a full score of 6/6.
She’s built a reputation for wiping the board clean.
Not only does she have her name splayed across the board in SA, the bright spark has earned her a place on Team South Africa for several international events this year. In Greece, for the World Youth Rapid & Blitz Championship and in Kenya for the African Schools Individual Chess Championship.
Unfortunately, these tournaments were missed due to a lack of funding and financial constraints
Now, Shreeya has another shot at representing South Africa and KZN on an international level at the Commonwealth Chess Championship in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia, from November 8th to 17th this year.
Her supporters are determined to get her there.
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A BackaBuddy page has been launched to raise funds for the upcoming event, with a funding goal of R80,190, which would cover the registration fee, player and accompanying person’s entry, accommodation, admin fees, sundry expenses and uniform, as well as return flights.
The community has already shown up for her, raising R20,544 so far, at the time of writing.
There’s still a long way to go, but with the right people in her corner, Shreeya’s dreams of repping her country on an international level are entirely possible.
“We are humbly reaching out to individuals and organisations to help make her dream a reality. Any contribution, no matter how small, would be deeply appreciated and would directly help Shreeya proudly represent our country. Thank you for your time and for considering our request. We hope you can help Shreeya on her journey to Kuala Lumpur,” the campaign reads.
If you would like to donate, follow this link.
While the Commonwealth Championships are a focus for Shreeya at the moment, she has also been selected to represent Team KZN at the 2025 Mzansi Inter-Provincial Youth Chess Championship in Gqeberha in December. As well as the16th African Youth Chess Championship in Zimbabwe, in that same month!
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