Odisha International Master Padmini Rout the gold medal in the women`s category of the Commonwealth Chess Championship, which was conducted at Hotel Park Plaza in New Delhi from June 23 to 30, 2015. S Vijayalakshmi won silver while S Meenakshi bagged the bronze.
Playing in the top category, which featured a total of 298 players from 11 countries, Padmini finished overall ninth with seven points out of a possible nine. There were 79 titled players in the fray, including 17 Grandmasters, six Women Grandmasters and 22 International Masters.
It was first gold medal Padmini in the Commonwealth Championship and she remained unbeaten till the end, while winning five games and drawing the remaining four. Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta emerged champion in the main category with eight points. Indians made clean sweep of all three medals as Arghyadip Das came second winning the silver ahead of M R Lalith Babu who claimed the bronze.
As many as 14 players from Odisha took part in seven different categories of the eight-day championship and three among them bagged medals. Besides Padmini, Woman Candidate Master Saina Salonika secured silver medal in under-12 girls category, while Mahitosh Dey grabbed bronze in under-10 open section. Saina finished second with 5.5 points out of a possible seven, while Mahitosh finished third with identical score.
PERFORMANCE OF ODISHA PLAYERS:
Main Category: Padmini Rout (9th), Rakesh Kumar Nayak (101), Kiran Manisha Mohanty (126), Susobhit Das (191), Rajesh Kumar Nayak (193), Raj Santosh Panda (247). U-14 Open: Ansuman Samal (7th). U-14 Girls: Anwesha Mishra (4th). U-12 Open: Sambit Panda (12th). U-12 Girls: Saina Salonika (2nd), Shreya Smruti Mohanty (10th). U-10 Open: Mahitosh Dey (3rd), Dikshant Dash (8th). U-10 Girls: Miracle Panda (12th).
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PHOTO: Odisha players (L to R) Saina Salonika, Padmini Rout and Mahitosh Dey with their trophies at the Commonwealth Chess Championship in Delhi on June 30, 2015.