Bhubaneswar teenagers Manish Kumar and Yashita Rout bagged the open and girls’ titles respectively in the Odisha State U-16 Online Chess Championship, which was organised by All Odisha Chess Association on 7 and 8 June, 2021. Manish won all of his six games, while Koustuv Dash finished runner-up with five points.

Yashita emerged champion with 4.5 points out of a possible five. Ananya Anamika settled as runner-up with four points. A total of 72 players, including 22 girls participated in the championship, which was conducted in Tornelo platform.

All India Chess Federation Vice-President Bhavesh Patel inaugurated the tournament. in the presence of IM Padmini Rout, AOCA President Ranjan Mohanty, Secretary Debabratta Bhatta, Fairplay Committee head GM Swayams Mishra and Chief Arbiter Suresh Chandra Sahoo.

The title winner and runner-up in both the categories qualified to represent Odisha in the National U-19 Online Chess Championship, which would take place on June 13 to 15. Besides these four, Suhana Jena (Khordha), FM Mahitosh Dey (Khordha) and Harshit Ranjan Sahu (Cuttack) would also participate in the National U-16 Championship.

FINAL RANKINGS (Top 10):

OPEN CATEGORY: 1. Manish Kumar, Khordha (6), 2. Koustuv Dash, Khordha (5), 3. Harshit Ranjan Sahu, Cuttack (5), 4. Priyansh Das, Jajpur (4.5), 5. Aryan Arnav Samantaray, Balasore (4.5), 6. Pratyush Mohapatra, Khordha (4.5), 7. Satyam Nayak, Sundargarh (4.5), 8. Shriyansh Dey, Cuttack (4), 9. Sriansh Das, Jajpur (4), 10. Omm Aditya Khadanga, Khordha (4).

GIRLS CATEGORY: 1. Yashita Rout, Khordha (4.5), 2. Ananya Anamika, Khordha (4), 3. Suhana Jena, Khordha (4), 4. Bijayalaxmi Barik, Khordha (4), 5. P Sairupa, Cuttack (3.5), 6. Dristi Pradhan, Sundargarh (3), 7. Arushi Srichandan, Khordha (3), 8. Sahana Lenka, Khordha (3), 9. Sandeepa Priyadarshini Sahoo, Cuttack (3).
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PHOTO: Undated file picture of open category champion Manish Kumar.