SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, Sept 24: 10-year-old Adhiraj Mitra from Jharkhand won the prestigious Chhattisgarh Chief Minister International Chess Trophy that concluded at Raipur on Friday evening.
The international tournament was organized from September 19 to September 23 in which 348 players from 20 states and three countries participated.
Adhiraj Mitra of Jamshedpur had participated in the below 1400-rating players event and bagged first prize of Rs 50,000.
International arbiter Jayant Bhuiya said with this win Adhiraj Mitra has also increased 209 points in his international rating.
In the championship, eight players from Jharkhand including Saara Jain (Asian School Chess medalist) participated.
Adhiraj Mitra, the budding talent of Jharkhand, had earlier showed outstanding performance in the Green Sky Trophy chess championship held in Telco (Jamshedpur) from September 12 to September 16. It was the ever highest prize money ( Rs 1.78 lakh) chess tournament in Jharkhand. Though Adhiraj Mitra got 5th position, he was the sole leader till the 7th round of the tournament with 7 points.
He lost in the 8th and 9th rounds and missed the medal. Veteran player and former champion Pritam Singh won the first prize followed by Priyanka Kumari and Manish Sharma of Chakradharpur (West Singhbhum) in second and third positions respectively.
A total of 162 players from 11 districts of the state participated in it. Top seed Vatsal Singhania got the 4th position.
All Jharkhand Chess Association general secretary Neeraj Mishra, joint secretary Ajay Kumar, international arbiter Jayant Bhuiya, FIDE arbiters Dipak Kumar, Prabhat Kumar Ranjan, former state chess association treasurer Arvind Kumar Sinha congratulated Adhiraj Mitra over his victory in Chhattisgarh Chief Miniter International Chess tournament and expressed hope that he would continue performing in the international championship.
