BHUBANESWAR 09-Nov-2014 128
It is no wonder that chess has become an envy for other sports disciplines in Odisha. Plethora of tournaments with lucrative cash prizes has worked wonders to bring the 64-square-game to this position in the state.
Lesser-known Sanjeeban Nayak, who started with a rank of 399 among 470 participants, proved the point by walking away with the title and a cheque of Rs 1 lakh in the 1st SR All-India Fide Rating (Below 1600) Chess Tournament here at Hotel Presidency today.
Nayak and Sudeep Kumar Nath of West Bengal tied for the top spot with 8.5 points each out of a possible nine. But Nayak edged out Nath on tie-break score to bag the top prize, while the latter contended himself with the runner-up prize of Rs 60,000. The tournament carried a total prize fund of Rs 5 lakh.
Bhubaneswar North MLA Priyadarshi gave away the trophies and cash prizes in the presence of former Police DG Sarat Chandra Misra, host S R Chess Centre president Subhasis Patnaik and secretary Satya Ranjan Pattnaik.
FINAL STANDINGS (Top 10): 1-2: Sanjeeban Nayak, Sudeep Kumar Nath (each 8.5); 3-4: P Ravindra, Debi Prasad Sarkar (8 each); 5-9: Rahul Bharadwaj, Jitendra Kumar Das, Prabhat Kiran Sabat, S Hareeswaran Muthu, Vishwabandhu Upadhyay (each 7.5); 10-22: Bala Subramaniyan R, Sanjib Mali, Devansh Ratti, Roneet Das, Sambarta Banerjee, Sri Sain Biswanath, Siva Kumar Badireddy, Lochan Kumar Das, Sarbeswar Sahoo, Bristy Mukherjee, Tapas Acharya, Swastik Sourav Sahoo, Sasanka Shandilya, Abhijit Bhattacharjee.
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PHOTO: Top three finishers (L to R) Sudeep Kumar Nath, Sanjeeban Nayak and P Ravindra with their trophies in Bhubaneswar on Nov 9, 2014
