137 players hone chess skills at Kangra tournament

Dharamsala, August 26

The Kangra Chess Club on Sunday organised Rapid Chess Championship, a tournament for chess enthusiasts, at MCM DAV College, Kangra.

The event was attended by 137 participants, including players from the state, Jalandhar, Amritsar and Chandigarh.

The one-day event was held in three different categories — open, under 15 (boys’) and under 15 (girls’). According to Deepak Chug, the general secretary of the club, there were 5 rounds for the open and U-15 (girls’) categories, and six for the U-15 (boys’) category. In the open category, Vipan Kumar of Nadaun stood first, scoring 4.5. He was followed by Pranav Kumar of Mandi and Anshul Thakur of Hamirpur who stood second and third, respectively. Among the women, Payal Thakur of Jaisinghpur bagged the first position, while Aahna Gupta and Shriya Guleria stood second and third, respectively.

In U-15 (boys’) category, the first position was held by Shreyansh Jain of Punjab, who remained unbeaten, scoring 6/6. Shivam Thakur of Chamba and Rashesh Guleria of Kangra stood second and third, respectively. In U-15 (girls’), Aarshiya Chaudhary of Kangra stood first, while Shruti Sharma of Chamba stood second and Harshita Thakur stood third.

The youngest female player was 9-year-old Muskan Kapoor, while 6-year-old Karunveer Singh was the youngest among the boys.