SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, May 2: Jharkhand’s budding chess talent unrated Navieka Jaiswal got the 11th position with 7 points in the 34th MPL National under-10 girls championship which concluded in Jammu.
Navieka lost only one game to Karnataka’s Krupha S Ukkali in the 5th round of the championship. She won four games in a row and drew six matches with higher-ranked players from the country. She was given the 54th rank in the championship on a tie sheet.
Navieka, a school student of Jamshedpur, was the runner up in the state championship that was recently concluded at Jamshedpur.
Jharkhand Chess Association general secretary Neeraj Mishra and international arbiter Jayant Kumar Bhuyan giving this information said that Navieka had started the championship in fashion by earning 4.5 points in six games. But she failed to capitalize on the initial advantage as in all remaining five games she could manage only a draw.
“A couple of victories would have given her a chance to finish among three top players,” said Mishra and Bhuyan.
State under-10 champion Niharkia Chakraborty of Ranchi finished in 26th position in the championship with 6.5 points. Despite a poor start, she came back in the championship with a winning spree but her loss in the final round deprived her of the prize.
Boys event-
Jharkhand’s Adhiraj Mitra got 18th position with 7.5 points in 11 rounds. He was given 8th rank in the championship but he failed to perform as per reputation. Another boy of Jamshedpur Nischay Singh Rana scored only 4 points in the championship.
However, Karnataka girls and Gujarat boys dominated the championship. A Charvi of Karnataka won the championship with 10.5 points. Adadya Ranganath of Karnataka finished 2nd with 8.5m points and Hanya Shah of Gujarat (8 points) got the third position.
In the boys’ section, Vijaan Vishal Shah emerged champion with 9 points. Madhya Pradesh’s Pratap Sharma also got 9 points but he had to be content with the 2nd spot.
East Singhbhum district chess association general secretary NK Tiwary and state chess’s executive officer Pritam Singh highly praised the performance of their players and said that despite adverse circumstances ( Covid) they proved their mettle on the national platform. Former state chess association treasurer Arvind Kumar Sinha also hailed the performance of state players.
