Odisha Woman Fide Master, Saina Salonika bagged individual silver medal and team gold medal in under-18 girls category of the Western Asian Youth Online Chess Championship which was organised by Srilankan Chess Federation, under the aegis of Asian Chess Federation from 18 to 20 September 2021.

The Tournament, featuring players from 17 West Asian countries, was conducted on Tornelo platform in different age categories starting from under-8 to under-18. Saina bagged the individual silver medal with seven points out of a possible nine. She won six games, drew two and lost one. The competition in U-18 girls groups had 23 players in the fray.

India made a clean sweep of all three individual medals as well as the team team gold in U-18 girls age category. Prachiti Chandratreya captured gold, while Susmita Bhowmick settled for bronze. Saina defeated Pratichi, but lost to top seed Mohammad Melika of Iran.

With these two medals, the total number of international medals for Saina increased to 19. Saina just completed her CBSE Grade-XII exam from KIIT International School by scoring 97.4 per cent marks. She had also scored 97.4 per cent in the CBSE Grade X exam in the year 2019. She has also achieved two Woman International Master norms till date.