Bengal youngsters dominated 30th National Under-17 Chess championship, commenced in Kerala from 29th June to 7th July, in all categories. Neelash Saha remained unbeaten and scored 9.5 points out of 11 rounds to seize the championship while Samriddha Ghosh garnered 8.5 points out of 11 to become the topper in the Girls’ category. CM Aronyak Ghosh and Utsab Chatterjee finished just after Neelash and stood runner-up and 3rd respectively in the open category of the event.
Samriddha, despite her only loss against Bengal’s Sneha Paul in the beginning round, performed brilliantly and held her nerve to set a perfect example of comeback. She defeated B Kalyani of Andhra Pradesh in a nail biting match in the final round to score 8.5. In the open category, second seed Neelash conquered opponents smoothly to remain unbeaten and overpowered Aditya Melani of Gujrat in the final round.Aronyak Ghosh stood runner-up in this national event with a score of 9 points after defeating Sibi Visal of Tamil Nadu in the final match and Utsab Chatterjee, another lad from Bengal, finished with a great win in the final round and bagged the third position after scoring 8 points.
Total 150 participants from all over the nation competed in this event and the toppers will represent India in the upcoming Asian Chess Championship and World Cadet.
Bengal Chess Association salutes the players for their stupendous performance!
