Manish Kumar made Odisha proud when he won the title in the National Under-18 Open Online Chess Championship, which concluded earlier on 12 June, 2021. The title in the girls category was claimed by V Rindhya of Tamilnadu. The title winners scored nine points out of possible 11.

Bhubaneswar boy Manish tied for the pole position with International Master Aronyak Ghosh of West Bengal and Ayush Sharma of Madhya Pradesh. But better tie-break score helped Manish to finish as champion while Aronyak finished as First Runner-up and Ayush settled with third spot.

Meanwhile in the girls section, the Fair Play Panel disqualified few players for Fair Play Rules violation which paved way for Rindhya to clinch the title with 8.5 points while Bristy Mukherjee of West Bengal and Dhyana Patel of Gujarat finished second and third with 8 points each.

A total of 227 players, including six from Odisha, vied for honours in open category. Among other five Odisha players, Jagdish Barik finished 16th with eight points, followed by Sambit Panda (23rd, 7.5 pts), Harshit Ranjan (63rd, 6.5 pts), FM Mahitosh Dey (128th, 5 pts) and Indrajeet Suryapranjal (166th, 4.5 pts).

In girls category, total 123 players, including five from Odisha took part. Saina Salonika was best among Odisha players, securing 28th position with 6.5 points, followed by Yashita Rout (32nd, 6.5 points), Ankita Sahoo (56th, 5.5 points), Priyanka Routray (58th, 5.5 points) and Ishani Das (106th, 4 pts).
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PHOTO: National U-18 Open Online Chess champion Manish Kumar of Odisha.