Odisha wonder Soundarya Pradhan achieved the biggest success of his career by winning the Silver Medal in 10th IBCA World Individual Junior Chess Championship for the Blind & Visually Impaired, held at Hotel Mineral in Solec-Zdroj, Poland from August 14 to 23, 2018.

This was also the biggest achievement by an Indian player in the IBCA World Junior, the previous one being a bronze medal, which was claimed by Darpan Irani in Serbia in 2013. Soundarya, who hails from Bargarh district, finished second with seven points from nine rounds. He won six games, drew two and lost one.

A total of 18 players from 10 countries, including two from India, participated in the championship, which was organised by International Braille Chess Association (IBCA). Adam Czajkowski (Poland) bagged the gold medals with 7.5 points, while the broze went to CM Mirko Eichstaedt (Germany), who finished third with 6.5 points.

Aryan B Joshi of Mumbai was the other Indian player in the fray and he finished sixth with 5.5 points. Soundarya, a complete blind player, and Aryan qualified for the World Junior by emerging champion and runner-up respectively in the National A Tournament earlier this year.

This was the third successive World Junior Championship appearance for Soundarya, who had finished 12th at Belgrade, Serbia in 2013 and 7th at Podgorica in Montenegro in 2015. Soundarya is now studying Computer Science at National Institute of Technology (NIT), Jamshedpur.

PERFORMANCE OF SOUNDARYA:
Round-1: Beat Darija Staskeviciute (Lithuania, 1479)
Round-2: Lost to Aryan B Joshi (India, 1623)
Round-3: Beat Maksim Ermakov (Russia, 1583)
Round-4: Beat Miguel Eduardo Mendez Manturano (Spain, 1774)
Round-5: Drew with Adam Czajkowski (Poland, 2232)
Round-6: Drew with Stefan Mitrovic (Serbia, 1659)
Round-7: Beat CM Mirko Eichstaedt (Germany, 2190)
Round-8: Beat Fabian Spionkowski (Poland, 1279)
Round-9: Beat Danil Garanin (Russia, 1565)
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PHOTO: Soundarya Pradhan with IBCA World Junior silver medal and trophy on August 23, 2018.