Mani Sarbartho of WB & Narayani Umesh Marathe of MAH Wins National Under-7 & National Under-7 Girls Chess Championship 2023

36^th National Under-7 Chess Championship, 2023, was held from 21^st September to 25^th September 2023, at Hotel Stadel, Salt Lake Stadium, Kolkata. The event was organized by Sara Bangla Dhaba Sangstha, under the aegis of All India Chess Federation. The tournament attracted in all 366 players (243 in boys section, and 123 in girl’s section) from all over India. There were in all 36 international fide rated players among the participants.

The tournament was inaugurated at the hands of Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly. The other dignitaries present were GM Dibendyu Barua, President, Sara Bangla Dhaba Sangstha, Shri. Swapan Banerjee, President, IOA, Dr. R.P. Banerjee, CMD, EIILM, Shri. Debasish Barua, Tournament Director, Shri. Asit Baran Chaudhary, Treasure SBDS, Shri. Shyamol Datta Hon. Secretary, Sara Bangla Dhaba Sangstha and IA Swapnil Bansod, Chief Arbiter. The inaugural function was held at 10 AM and was preceded by technical meeting. The necessary technical matters were discussed and decided and also the appeals committee was formed in the meeting.

The five-day long chess at 36^th National Under-7 Chess Championship 2023, concluded at Hotel Stadel, Kolkata, class and talent of many young budding players was observed.

In the boys section of the tournament top seed Divith Reddy Adulla(1428) of Telangana and second seed Mani Sarbartho (1369) of West Bengal jointly leading the tournament at the end of 7^th round. In penultimate round game Divith Reddy Adulla made a huge blunder and lost game to Mani Sarbartho. Mani Sarbartho took the sole lead at the end of 8^th round and maintain his lead till the end of the tournament. He beat his 9^th round opponent Shivin K of Tamil Nadu to clinch the National Under7 Chess Championship title with perfect score of 9 out of 9. On 2^nd Board in last round game Kavish Palaniappan made huge upset by beating the top seed Divith Reddy Adulla, 2 successive loses pushed Divith to 6^th position. While his last round opponent finished 2^nd in final standing. Shivay Singh of Uttar Pradesh beat Akshit Done of Telangana and secure the 3^rd place in final standing.

In the Girls section, 89^th seed Rayna Ajay Patel  from Gujarat took sole lead after 6^th round. She beat her co leader Ankita Raj of Bihar in 6^th round game. Unfortunately she lost her next round to 3^rd seeded Maharashtra player Narayani Umesh Marathe, on 2^nd board of same round Sanvitha Shetty of Karnataka beat Anirudhi Anant of Chhattisgarh to share the lead with Narayani Marathe(1200). Narayani and Sanvitha paired in the 8th round against each other.  Narayani outplayed Sanvitha in the opening and beat her easily. She took the sole lead with 7.5  at the end of penultimate round. She maintained her lead till the end of championship and scored another victory to clinch her maiden National title with unbeaten score of 8.5 out of possible 9. Sanvitha Shetty beat Rayna Ajay Patel in the last round game to secure silver medal for her, while Nakshatra Gumudavelli won against Madhumitha G of Tamil Nadu to clinch bronze medal.

Organizers distributed, biscuits, mango juice, cupcakes to all participants which was a unique move by Sara Bangla Dhaba Sangstha and was appreciated by all parents and managers. The tournament ended in a very peaceful atmosphere.

The prizes were distributed at the hands of GM Diptayan Ghosh, and GM Sayantan Das. The other dignitaries present were Shri. Sanjay Budhia, CMD, Patton Group, Mrs. Shyamsree Roychowdhury, S S Foundation, Shri. Priyabrata Chowdhury, CMD EIILM., GM Dibendyu Barua, President, SBDS, IA Debasish Barua, Tournament Director and IA Swapnil Bansod Chief Arbiter.

The team of Arbiters was headed by Chief Arbiter IA Swapnil Bansod and he was ably assisted by IA Promod More, Dy. Chief Arbiter, FA Suravi Dutta Dy. Chief Arbiter, FA Amit K Biswas, FA Mrinal Ghosh, SNA Swapan Adhikari, SNA Darunath Chatterjee, SNA Pritam Ghosh, SNA Sriya Bhattacharjee, SNA Sobha Rajak, SNA Mishra MK, SNA Alok Priyadarshi and NA Piyali Ghosh.

IA Swapnil Bansod