Devansh Vellanki shows off the trophy he captured for finishing second in a recent tournament in Canada.

Chess has taken Devansh Vellanki to some interesting places. The Hopkinton resident has competed in national and worldwide tournaments throughout the United States, as well as in Canada, South America and Georgia — the country next to Russia, not the state next to Florida.

He’s captured numerous championships and represented the U.S. in multiple international tournaments. And he’s done most of his winning before his eighth birthday.

“Chess is a nice game, it’s about using your mind,” Vellanki said following a recent silver medal for Team USA at the North American Youth Chess Championships in Kingston, Ontario, Canada. “It’s not like tennis or soccer or football, it’s a different game.”

Vellanki finished tied for first in the under-8 category, winning eight of his nine matches and falling only to the eventual overall champion. His most recent tournament north of the border follows an eventful summer. He finished fifth in the world at the International Chess Federation FIDE World Cadet Cup, an invitation-only tournament with players from more than 35 countries. Vellanki competed for nearly two weeks in Batumi, a cultural hub on the Black Sea in the Eastern European country of Georgia.

Vellanki then traveled to Lima, Peru, to represent the U.S. at the 35th Pan-American Youth Chess Festival. He captured gold, silver and bronze medals in three different categories.

Vellanki plays chess every day, though usually he competes online as opposed to far-flung destinations. His mother, Harini Chadalavada, said the travel schedule has increased as her son has improved. Many tournaments are three or four days long, and some last more than a week.

“There has been a lot of travel, and we are hoping there will be more,” Chadalavada said. “Right now, as he is progressing further, we need to find more challenging tournaments. So we will have to probably travel a little bit more than we did previously.”

Chadalavada said her son usually travels with his father, Arun. But she is able to follow the major tournaments online, complete with graphics that show which player has the edge through a bar that rises or falls with the players’ moves.

“We could see and understand whether he was in a winning or losing position,” she said. “There were some games where we could see the bar go up and down.”

The technology did little to calm her nerves.

“I can say it was a little stressful for us,” Chadalavada said with a chuckle.

Vellanki, however, stays cool and calm during matches. He does not get overly excited after a win, nor is he down on himself after a loss, his mother said. He also does not lock himself into a particular strategy when he is playing, preferring instead to let the game come to him.

“It depends on how your opponent plays,” Vellanki said. “If your opponent plays a certain way, you prepare for their weaknesses and what they are good at.”

Now 8, Vellanki began playing chess around age 5 after cutting his teeth on puzzles and Legos. His parents gifted him a chess set, and he has not looked back. Vellanki has his sights set on being the youngest world champion, a journey he documents on Instagram under the handle @devanshvellanki. When he is not playing chess, he said he enjoys tennis and his schoolwork, particularly science and math. In December, he is set to travel to Seattle for a national competition. He will be keeping his game sharp before then.

“I am going to play a bunch of tournaments this fall,” Vellanki said.