Kolkata : IM Swayams Mishra of Odisha emerged as the sole leader with 5 points after the conclusion of the 5th round of Siddha Chess For Youth Championship here on Saturday. The 7 round Swiss league rapid chess tournament has attracted 700 chess enthusiasts and is being organisedf by Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy and Allsport Foudation and sponsored by Siddha Group.
“We are very happy to be associated with this Chess for Youth as we feel that Chess is a sport which makes the mind sharper and more analytical which results in greater brain power – which will eventually assist the state and country in the long run” said Sanjay Jain, Managing Director, Siddha Group.
On an eventful day, Swayams won all the 3 rounds, comfortably to sit pretty on 5 points at the top of the table. In the 5th round, playing white, he outwitted young and talented youngster Mitrabha Guha in 24 moves in a Nimzo Indian defence. In the 3rd round, he had beaten Sukanya Dutta, while Deborshi Mukherjee had put up spirited resistance against Swayams ,but had failed to make any headway losing in 29 moves.
The highlight of the day’s play, however, was the upset of IM Diptayan Ghosh, who went down to Arpan Das in an interesting struggle. Diptayan now meets the sole leader Swayams Mishra in the next round tomorrow.
Top seed, GM Debashis Das of Odisha , after his reversal in the 2nd round, came back in reckoning with 3 straight wins to take his tally to 4 points He had little difficulty in getting the better of H. Venkatesh and Dipanjan Choudhury in the 3rd and 4th rounds.He went on to beat Arpan Das in style in the 5th and now meets Kaustav Kundu in the penultimate round.
The final two rounds of the Siddha Chess for Youth comes off tomorrow from 9 .a.m. with the prize distribution sated at 4:00 p.m. Mr Arup Biswas, the sports minister, will be the chief guest on the occasion.