Date:02/09/2008 URL: http://www.thehindu.com/2008/09/02/stories/2008090260831900.htm

Sport - Chess

Big field for school tournament

KOLKATA: Local boy Satyajit Kundu will lead a massive field of around 300 entries in the 20th edition of The Telegraph schools’ chess tournament, which gets underway here on Tuesday.

Kundu, who has the highest rating of 2165, is on top of a list of talented age-group champions including former world under-10 and current Asian under-12 champion Girish Kaushik of Karnataka, former world under-10 bronze medallist Prince Bajaj of Delhi, reigning Asian under-10 champion Diptayan Ghosh and Sayantan Das among others.

The field, which is the highest so far in the only FIDE rating schools’ chess tournament of the country, has 44 rated players. There will be participants from 120 schools from 12 states of the country, according to the organiser, Alekhine Chess Club. There are also six entries from Bangladesh. The youngest participant is a three-year-10-month-old local boy, Anubhav Bal.

The tournament will be played in 10-round Swiss League format and the final round comes up on September 8. The total prize money for the tournament has been enhanced to Rs. 1 lakh with the winner bagging Rs. 20,000 and the runner-up Rs. 15,000.

There will be cash prizes till the 20th position. Apart from this there will be trophies for the best two performers of every age group from under-14 till under-6. — Principal Correspondent