SUBHASH MISHRA
Dhanbad, June 22: Ranchi’s Aditi Raj and Jamshedpur’s Adhiraj Mitra emerged champions in girls’ and boys’ sections respectively in the Jharkhand State Inter-School Chess Championship organized by All Jharkhand Chess Association (AJCA) at Saraikela Kharsawa district.
Aditi Raj, a student of Delhi Public School (DPS) Ranchi, got 8.5 points out of nine to bag the top position in the girl event of the championship while Adhiraj Mitra, a student of Loyola School Jamshedpur, won his all matches and earned nine points out of nine rounds.
International Arbiter Jayant Bhuiya, who was the chief arbiter in the championship said that Aditi Raj of Ranchi established her dominance once again in the girls’ section of chess. Last month she had been declared women’s champion in the prestigious 13th KIIT International School Chess Festival-2022 held at Bhubaneswar last month. In the seven-round match, she had won five and drew two. Adhiraj Mitra won the BT Rao Memorial Chess championship last month.
Saara Jain, a student of Carmel Junior College Jamshedpur and Navika Jaiswal, a student of DAV NIT Adityapur got the second and third positions respectively in the girls’ events. Saara Jain got 7.5 points while Navika earned 7 points.
In the boys’ section, Jamshedpur players dominated the show. After Adhiraj Mitra, Kumar Sankalp (7.5 points), a student of Tiger Academy Jamshedpur and Pratyush Jaiswal (7 points), a student of DAV NIT bagged second and third positions respectively.
From government schools, boys (45) players participated in the championship in which Amit Kumar Singh of Chakradharpur school emerged champion with six points and got a berth in the state team.
Jharkhand State inter School Chess Championship was organized by the All India Chess Federation (AICF) under the celebration programme of the 44th Chess Olympiad to be held at Mahabalipuram (Chennai) from July 28 to August 10.
All Jharkhand Chess Association general secretary International Master (IM) Neeraj Mishra said that as per the AICF circular, based on this tournament, the top six players of Jharkhand would be selected to visit Mahabalipuram to watch Chess Olympiad. Two seats (one boy and a girl) in the state team have been reserved for students of government school.
Jayant Bhuiya said that the top two players of the boys and girls section and one champion of the government school have been selected for the Jharkhand team.