Odisha Woman Fide Master (WFM) Saina Salonika contended herself with a bronze medal in the girls’ category of the 34th National U-15 Chess Championship, which was held at Rajpath Club, Ahmedabad, Gujarat from Oct 1 to 9, 2017. Third seed Saina finished third with Saina Salonika 8.5 points out of a possible 11. She won eight games, lost two and drew one.

Saina’s bronze was the only medal an 11-member Odisha squad could achieve in the nine-day championship. Among three other Odisha girls, Woman Candidate Master Shreya Smruti Mohanty (6.5) finished 25th, Priyanka Routray (6) 34th and Ananya Anamika (5.5) 57th.

In the open category, Sambit Panda was most successful performer, securing 15th rank with 7.5 points. Among the other six, Sarthak Debata (7) finished 25th, Rudranarayan (6.5) 54th, Mahitosh Dey (6.5) 57th, Aditya Ranjan Samal (6) 60th, Yasoman Patro (5.5) 92nd and Sk Ezaz Ahamed (5) 124th.

Sankalp Gupta (Maharashtra) won the open title with nine points, while Koustav Chatterjee (West Bengal) finished runner-up also with nine points. The title in the girls’ category was captured by WFM Divya Deshmukh (Maharashtra) with 9.5 points, while Sanskriti Goyal (Uttar Pradesh) became runner-up with nine points.
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PHOTO: Saina Salonika with her bronze medal  and trophy in Bhubaneswar on October 10, 2017.