Somak Palit
of Mitra Institution emerged as the champion in 14th The Telegraph Schools’ Chess
Championship at Alekhine Chess Club at Calcutta recently. Somak Palit and Saptarshi both
scored 9.5 points but Somak was placed first on account of his better progressive score.
Somak had little difficulty in beating
Supriya Maji in a Centre counter defence. Supriya sacrificed a pawn in the opening but had
little compensation for the same. Somak later went into the endgame and won two more pawns
after which Supriya resigned. Top seed Saptarshi Roy was lucky to win from an inferior
position against Joydeep Dutta in an irregular opening. Joydeep had a clear advantage from
the opening but blundered a Rook under time pressure and lost. Abhishek Das was upset by
Debayan Majumder in a long game in the Winawer variarion of the French defence. With the
win Debayan Majumder took his tally to 9.0 points and was placed clear third.
The players observed a minute’s
silence before the start of play in memory of 5 chess players who lost their lives in the
tragic car accident at Puri yesterday. The Prize Distribution ceremony will be attended by
the current World Champion Viswanathan Anand at Gorky Sadan Auditorium. |
