BHUBANESWAR 28-Dec-2013 212
Saina Salonika, the only Woman Candidate Master of Odisha, made the state proud once more by winning the under-10 girls` title in the World Youth Chess Championship, which concluded at Al-Alin in United Arab Emirates today.
Standard V student of St Joseph`s School here, Saina clinched the gold by scoring nine points from 11 rounds with seven wins and four draws. She was the only player to remain unbeaten in her category.
This was the second World Youth medal for Sania, who had secured a bronze in under-8 category at Caldas Novas in Brazil, two years ago. Overall, the cute girl has bagged six international medals so far.
Her other four international medals include, a gold each in under-9 girls`s standard and blitz categories of the 8th Asian Schools Championship at New Delhi in December, 2012; under-10 girls` gold in Commonwealth Championship at Chennai in December, 2012 and under-7 girls` gold Asian Schools Chess Festival at Colombo in December, 2010.
All Odisha Chess Association president Sekhar Chandra Sahoo congratulated Saina for her triumph and wished her to reach the top of women`s chess in the world. ``Thanks to Saina, Odisha has won gold medal in the World Youth Championship, ending a six-year drought. She has made us truly proud.,`` said Sahu, also an International Master and vice-president of All India Chess Federation.
India as a country achieved impressive success, bagging a total of eight medals in the championship that commenced earlier on December 17. The medals included three gold, two silver and three bronze. The other two gold medals were claimed by Murali Karthikeyan and R Praggnanandhaa (both Tamil Nadu) in under-16 and under-8 open categories respectively.
Karantaka duo Girish Koushik and K S Raghunandan claimed the two silver in under-16 and under-12 open groups respectively. The three bronze medals were grabbed by Vaibhav Suri (Delhi, U-18 Open), C Lakshmi (Tamil Nadu, U-10 Girls) and Bhagyashree Patil (Maharashtra, U-8 Girls).
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PHOTO: Saina Salonika with her World Youth gold medal in UAE on December 28, 2013.
