Post News Network
Bhubaneswar, May 28: On a difficult day for the Oriya chess players– GM Debasish Das (5.5), IM Swayams Mishra (5.5), Vaibhav Mishra (four) and Saina Salonika (4.5) played out drawn games against their respective opponents in the eighth round of the Elite category in the KIIT International Chess Festival at the KIIT University here Saturday. However, Sidhant Mohapatra (5.5), Utkal Ranjan Sahu (five) and Rajesh Nayak (3.5) got better of their respective opponents.
Russia’s GM Boris Grachev (seven points) continued to lead while GM Sandipan Chanda, GM Ivan Popov, FM Srihari Raghunandan and IM Diptayan Ghosh remained in second spot with 6.5 points in their kitty.
Meanwhile, five state players — Aurashis Sahu, Avinash Baliarsingh, Rudranarayan, Aditya Ranjan Samal and Purna Khillo are sharing the top spot with four others having four points each in their kitty after the fourth round of the Premium category.
Salmi secures bronze
Salmi Kispatta was the only athlete from Orissa to win a medal in the 13th National Youth Athletic Championship at Calicut, Kerala.
Salmi of Sundargarh bagged a bronze medal in the girls’ discus. She secured the third position by throwing the metal disc to a distance of 36.61 metres. Purarna (38.59m) of Tamil Nadu won gold, while Bhabna Yadav (37.68m) of Delhi bagged silver.
Nine athletes comprising six girls and three boys from Orissa had participated in the meet. But other than Salmi, none impressed.
Disappointing show
Orissa players Rakesh Mohanty and Rajat Das representing the U-16 East Zone colts failed to impress in the drawn encounter against West Zone in the BCCI Inter-Zone cricket tournament at Hubli which ended Saturday.
West Zone scored 105 in their first essay and East replied with 275 for the loss of six wickets declared to pick three valuable points for obtaining the first innings lead. West were 180 for six when the match ended. In the only innings he batted Rajat scored three while Rajesh failed to pick up any wickets in the game.
