Kolkata – Grandmaster Dibyendu Baruah’s Chess For Youth is now in it’s tenth year . The tournament, brainchild of Dibyendu started way back in the year 2006 . The tournament which started it’s journey with 250 odd participants is growing in it’s stature with every year . This year the tournament will see as many as 700 particpants from various age groups vying for the top honour . The tournament was inaugurated today by versatile actor Prosenjit Chatterjee at the Khudiram Anushilan Kendra . The final of the tournament is scheduled to take place on January 30 .
The 7 round Swiss league Rapid championship for aspiring Grandmasters is being organised by Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy and Allsport Foundation and will continue till January 31.
Top seed, GM Debashis Das (2571) of Odisha had little difficulty with black pieces in round 1 against Dilip Kr Pedda as he had a rook and two minor pieces against the latter’s 2 Rooks. IM Swayams Mishra(2539) , too, sailed through with ease against young Utsav Mukherjee of Bengal as he obtained two rooks and extra pawns against his opponent’s rook and knight.
IM Diptayan Ghosh (2495)of Bengal , playing black against H. Venkatesh had two powerful bishops against Venkatesh’s lone rook and had little difficulty in getting the full point.
Bidita Shenoy beat 6th Kaustav Kundu in the only upset in the premier section with black in 13 moves in a Dutch defence.
Amongst the other top players, Mitrabha Guha beat Arijit Mukherjee , Arpita Mukherjee beat Rishabh Kothary while Debarshi Mukherjee beat Adrian Sajjan and Sayan Bose outwitted Soumen Mondal.
The Tournament is being held in two sessions to accommodate such a huge number.
The meet was earlier inaugurated by the eminent actor Prosenjit Chatterjee. Also present on the occasion were Grandmaster Neelotpal Das, Mr Sanjay Jain, MD , Siddha Group, Mr Sanjay Budhia, MD Patton International , Mr Kunal Gupta , MD Met Technologies and Mr Samit Ray , Chairman and permanent Trustee of Adamas University.
Prosenjit , himself an avid chess follower was present to encourage the participants “ I always loved playing chess . I seldom play the game with my son Trishanjit . The game is very popular here in Bengal and is running in the blood of a common Bengali .”
According to Dibyendu Barua “ I started with a visionary to spread the game throughout Bengal . The inititative have been reaping dividends but still a long way to go . I want to see a grandmaster coming up from this tournament in future ”