Keshabananda  Memorial FIDE Rating chess begins

Bhubaneswar : Khordha District Chess Association (KDCA) under the aegis of All Odisha Chess Association (AOCA) and under the guidance of All India Chess Federation host the 4th Keshabananda Das Memorial All India FIDE Rating chess championship, which kicks started here on Friday. Altogether 108 players including 29 from Odisha are participating in 10 rounds seven day long meet. Two Grandmasters, 15 International Masters, one Women Grand Master, 15 FIDE Masters, one Women FIDE Master, one Candidate Masters and one Women Candidate Master from 13 State and five organizations are participating in the meet.

National Challenger Champion GM Swapnil S Dhopade is the top rated player of the meet. This is one of the high quality tournament of the country and proper plat form for the local players to increase their rating. Keshabananda was the first author to write a book on chess in odia language in 1982 for the benefit of Odisha chess players and chess lovers. He was the first Odia to invite a Soviet and Russian chess coach Yuri Averbakh to Odisha in 1974 to popularize chess in our State. Averbakh played a simultaneous match against 30 players of here. Averbakh won 26 and drew 4 players at that match. Yuri Averbakh is a renowned end game specialist cum author of several end game books from whom lakhs of chess players of the world have learnt skills through his technique. The tournament is featuring total cash award of `5.25 lakhs will be distributed among 29 winners including 20 merit holders, seven winners in rating categories, best junior player and best women player. Minister of food supplies and consumer welfare, employment, technical education and  training Sanjaya Das Burma inaugurated the meet. Among others, KDCA secretary Subhasis Patnaik, vice president Debasis Meka and AOCA executive member GC Mohapatra were present.

Singdeo Memorial TT Tournament from Sept 24

Balangir: Balangir District Table Tennis Association is all set to organize the first  R.N Sighdeo Memorial Table Tennis Tournament  to be held  at Bolangir from September 24 to26.This was announced by members of BDTTA to media persons on Friday. Among other Balangir Zilla Parishad president Bijaya Pradhani, president of Bar Association Ashok Mahanty, senior journalist Satya Narayn Behera , Sumit Purohit and Deepak Purohit spoke  on this occasion.

KISS, Xavier’s enter MCl Cup Football quarterfinals

Bhubaneswar: Defending champion KISS and Xavier’s Kedargouru entered the quarterfinals by defeating SAI International School by 4-0 goals and IRC Village Government High School by 1-0 goal in the MCl Cup Inter School Football Tournament at Unit-6 High School Ground, being organized by Unit-6 Athletic Association (UAA). Dillip Kumar Murmu of KISS scored a hattrick, he netted goals in the 8th,29th and 31st minutes respectively and his mate sana Kumar Marandi scored a goal in the 39th minutes and the team enter quarterfinals. Former MlA Dillip Srichandan gave away the man of the match award to Dillp Kumar Murmu of the winning team. Another pre quarterfinal match, Subham Sahoo of the Xavier’s netted the all important goal in the 19th minute and the team pipped IRC Village School by 1-0 goals. Bhubaneswar Athletic Association vice president Santosh Das gave the man of the match award to Subham Sahoo. Sudip Das, Saroj Maharana, Durga Routray, Amit Naik, Rajendra Barik and Kirti Ranjan Swain were conducted the matches as referees. DAV Unit-8 and Vikash School would meet Venkateswar School and Prabhujee English Medium School respectively in the pre quarterfinals.

Naisha, Amrutjay win Super Series Tennis Titles

Bhubaneswar: Top seed Naisha Srivastav of Karnataka edged out second seed Vidhi Nimesh Jain of Gujarat  by 6-3, 6-0 in the girls single final and emerged champion in the Falcon AITA Super series U12 Tennis Tournament which concluded at Kalinga Stadium Tennis Complex here on Friday. Similarly, in the boys singles final, local boy top seed Amrutjay Mohanty defeated second seed Hasith Gummuluru of Andhra Pradesh by 6-3, 6-4 and claimed the champion title. Odisha Table Tennis Association treasurer Damodar Pradhani gave away the prizes in presence of tournament director BK Dash. Among others, OTA executive member PK Tunga, AITA supervisor Surajit Bandyopadhyay, referee Jatin Bastya and OTA manager Prakash Pattanik.