SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Aug 9: 11-year-old Adhiraj Mitra of Jamshedpur stormed in the title race of the FIDE rating chess championship being played at St. Xavier Welfare Centre, Chaibasa with a thumping victory over Kishan Kumar of Bihar.
After completion of the 8th round, a budding talent of Jharkhand, Adhiraj, along with Anurag Jaiswal of West Bengal are joint leaders with 7 points.
Adhiraj while playing black pieces shocked Kisan Kumar of Bihar who is considered a seasoned player.
So far till the 7th round in this championship, the 11-year-old boy of Jamshedpur was not in the race but in the 8th round, he proved his mettle and became a favourite for the title.
On top board, Anurag Jaiswal of Kolkata defeated the second seed of the championship Rohan Vijay Shandilya of Jamshedpur.
Last year, Adhiraj had won the Chhattisgarh Chief Minister chess championship for the non-Grand Master event surprising veteran players of the country.
After the completion of the 8th round, two players, Akshat Negi of Delhi and Shreyan Gupta Burman of Bengal are jointly on the second spot with 6.5 points each in the title race.
Akshat Negi playing with a white piece defeated Debanjan Sinha while Shreyan Gupta Burman defeated Saurabh Kumar (5.5 points).
Ten players Rohan Shandilya, Kishan Kumar, Bishwajit Chatterjee, Vishwanath Pratap Singh, Kamal Kishore Deonath, Rishan Deonath, S Halder, Ranit Maity, Saurav Kumar and Ajit Kumar Saw with 6 points each are on the third spot in the title race.
Bishwajit Chatterjee defeated Tarun N while Vishwanath Pratap Singh beat Bharat Shah to keep their chances alive in the championship. Kamal Kishore Deonath and Rishan Deonath beat Aharsi Ghosh and A Bani respectively.
On other boards, Raja Bose held Bhudeo Tripathi to draw S Haldar and Sayan Barua (5.5 points each) shared points.
The championship is being organized by the West Singhbhum Chess Association. Organizing secretary Basant Khandelwal said that the prize distribution ceremony will be held in the evening today.
Deputy Commissioner Ananya Mittal would be the chief guest and Deputy Collector Shruti Rajlaxmi the guest of honour. Rungta Steel TMT has sponsored the championship in which 179 players from 12 states are participating.
