SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, April 5: Maintaining their supremacy in Jharkhand chess, Ranchi girls bagged double titles in the 21st state open chess championship which concluded at JRD Tata Sports Complex in the late evening on Monday.
Aditi Raj and Niharika Chakraborty of Ranchi emerged as champions in girls under-14 and under-10 age groups respectively.
However, Debanjan Sinha, the second seed of East Singhbhum stole the show in the championship by winning double titles. He lifted the under -14 state title by defeating his teammate Harsh Kumar Jha in the fifth and final round of the championship. Earlier, he had won the under-12 age group title.
Harsh Kumar Jha, despite his last round defeat, finished second on better tie-break points to leave Dhanbad’s Krishna Kumar Saw in third place. The top two players would represent the state in the national championship.
The girl under the -14 section had a three-way tie among Aditi Raj of Ranchi, Pratibha Singh of Dhanbad and Sunidhi Singh of East Singhbhum. Aditi Raj was declared the winner on a better Cut-Bucholz point pushing Pratibha to second place. Although Sunidhi Singh pulled off an upset result in the last round by defeating the top seed Aditi Raj, this win helped her only to get the third spot due to her poor tie-break.
In the open section of boys under 10, title favourite, Adhiraj Mitra playing as per reputation won the event comfortably by gaining five points from five rounds. Nischay Singh Rana and Arijit Ghosh finished 2nd and 3rd although Abhinav Prakash who finished 4th too had equal points 4 each. The top three finishers were from East Singhbhum (Jamshedpur)and the 4th place holder Abhinav represented Saraikela Kharsawan.
The girls under -10 group witnessed a well-fought game between the arch-rivals, Niharika Chakraborty of Ranchi and Navieka Jaiswal of East Singhbhum, in the last round. Niharika created an attack on the Kingside in a seemingly equal position in which Navieka succumbed to pressure and conceded the championship to Niharika Chakraborty. The third place went to Under – 8 Champion Dishita Dey of East Singhbhum.
