By Venkatachari Jagannathan
Chennai, Dec 14 (SocialNews.XYZ) With a rich haul of medals, ten Indian junior chess players, across different age categories, have qualified for the finals from the Asian leg of the FIDE Online World Cadets and Youth (Under 10, 12, 14, 16 and 18) Rapid Chess Championships.
With the first three players in each category qualifying for the finals, the Indian contingent has bagged the highest number of medals (two gold, six silver and two bronze) in the championship's Asian leg that was held between December 11-13.
"The players who have qualified for the World Cadet's finals are: Open category - Mrinmoy Rajkhowa (U10), Pranav V. and Aditya Mittal (U14), P. Iniyan and Sankalp Gupta (U18)- Girls Category - Shreya G Hipparagi (G10) Mrittika Mallick (G12), Jyothsna L., Rakshitta Ravi (UG16) and Priyanka Nutakki (G18)," team coach Grandmaster (GM) M. Shyam Sundar told IANS.
While Pranav topped the U14 category, GM Iniyan topped the U18 segment.
According to the coach, FIDE has asked to confirm the participation of the qualified players to play in the finals by Tuesday.
The age categories that Indian team drew blank were U12 and U16 in the Open Category and in the Girls Category G14.
Shyam Sundar said the online games went off smoothly without any problems like disruptions in power supply or disconnection from the server that hosted the games.
According to him, the last round in the U14 saw two Indians crossing swords in the game of Kings and Queens viz Pranav and Mittal.
"To qualify for the final, Mittal with black pieces had to win. And he did that and qualified," Sundar said.
A total of 57 Indian players participated in the various age groups and was followed by China and Iran had 26 participants each.
According to www.chess-results.com, China won five medals (three gold, one each in silver and bronze).
(Venkatachari Jagannathan can be contacted at v.jagannathan@ians.in)
Source: IANS
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