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IM Norm holder Suvrajit Saha
of Railways sparkled along to clinch the title at the Second HDCA FIDE Rated Open Chess Tournament arranged by Howrah District Chess Association which concluded
in West Bengal on May 8, 2002. Playing under the Swiss League System Subhrajit
Saha, IM Shankar Roy and Laltu Chatterjee all finished on 9.0 points each but Shankar was
piped to the second place followed by Laltu on progressive scores.
Among the age group
players, Sourav Chakravarty of St James' School, Calcutta played well to emerge the best player boys' Under-14. Mary Ann Gomes added another feather to her successful cap by finishing the best Under-14 Girls'
player. Mary of Goodricke National Chess Academy is currently the National Junior Girls' Runner Up and she is slated to represent India in the Asian Girls' Junior Chess Meet at Colombo shortly.
After a Goliath start to his chess life in 1992 when
Suvrajit registered a facile triumph lifting The Telegraph Schools'
Chess FIDE Tournament Ist Prize Trophy he achieved a whopping maiden full rating of 2390 in 1993! Well known for his
modesty, impeccable mannerisms and strong chess sense, Subhrajit Saha's finest hour dawned at the 1998 National U-25 Chess Meet where he was declared the
National Champion. Another sterling performance by this talented Calcuttan was his third place finish at the National Rapid Chess Championships held at Jalandhar in the year of Y2K.
He fondly remembers his best
games. Among them, a 1998 seesaw battle with the then IM Krishnan
Sasikiran, tenacious draws against Koneru Humpy and Abhijit Kunte remain etched in his memory. A National 'B' Runner
Up, Subhrajit Saha is yet another young promise on his way to board India's global chess bandwagon. I am sure we will hear a lot more about him in the not-too-distant future.
Debashish Majumdar
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