Joyti wins Bhubaneswar Open Chess
Bhubaneswar: local boy Jyoti Ranjan Padhi emerged champion of the 6th BBSR All India Fide Rating (below-1600) Tournament here on Wednesday. 63rd seeded Joyti Ranjan won six and draws in two matches gathered seven points out of eight rounds tournament and gained 51 rating points. Binu Sebastian and Sai Raj Gopal K bagged seven points each and finished second and third respectively. The champion received a cash award of Rs 20,000, while second and third finishers got Rs 15,000 and Rs 12,000 respectively. As many as 276 players from across 12 States were participated in the eight round meet. Total cash prizes of Rs 2 lakhs were distributed among 80 winners including 30 merit holders, 18 winners in rating categories, 10 unrated winners , best women player, best veteran and 20 age group winners. Infosys regional manager Biswajit Nayak gave away the praizes as the chief guest of the closing ceremony in presence of Khurda District Chess Association Secretary Subhasis Pattnaik.
Boudh complete Kalahandi Cup QF line-up
Bhubaneswar: Boudh booked the last quarterfinal berth of the Kalahandi Cup Senior Inter-District Tournament by taking first-innings lead against Dhenkanal in their two-day Group-C qualifying match, which ended in draw here at Barabati Stadium on Thursday.
Earlier, four teams (Cuttack-A, East Coast Railway, Bhubaneswar-A and Jajpur) from Group A and three from Group B (Bhubaneswar-B, Cuttack-B and Rourkela) advanced to the last-eight stage. Kalahandi Cup is being conducted by Odisha Cricket Association at different grounds here from February 26. At Barabati Stadium: Dhenkanal 139/10 in 52.1 overs (Bikash Kumar Rout (B) 31 n.o; Ashish Sahu 24; Manoj Nayak 6/22, Hemanta Kumar Champati 2/38, Tapendra Singh 2/44) and 239/4 in 45 overs (Sunil Kumar Sahoo 136, Bikash Kumar Rout 44 n.o; Tapendra Singh 2/70) drew with Boudh 161/10 in 36 overs (Sanjib Barik 34, Tapendra Singh 28, Venkatesh Vande 27, Bikash Kumar Rout 7/83, Jaganath Patra 2/22) and 191/7 in 54 overs (Tapendra Singh 31, Hemanta Champati 30, Vijendra Kumar 21, Sibananda Khety 26, Sanjib Barik 27; Bikash Kumar Rout 4/82).
Soft Tennis team to join national meet
Bhubaneswar: A 18-member Odisha soft tennis team proceed from here on Thursday to participate in the 13th Senior National Soft Tennis Championship schedule to held at Ahmadabad from March 27 to 31.
Swapna Kumari Sahu and Md Ansarul Haq will lead the women and men team respectively while Md Azam and Niranjan Panigrahi joined the teams as coach and manager respectively. The players will participate in singles, doubles and mixed doubles event in both men and women categories. Odisha team: Women; Swapna Kumari Sahu (Captain), Sibani Swain, Monalini Sahu, Banasmita Nayak, Minarani Sahu, Md Azam (coach), Niranjan Panigrahi (manager). Men team: Md Ansarul Haq, Siba Ram Swain, Dipti Ranjan Behera, laxminarayan Sethi, Rayguru Ansuman Das, Ganesh Chandra Rout, Mantu Meher, Rosan Kumar Meher, Sibaji Rout, Srisananda Nayak, Ananta Madhav Sahu.
Yazdani Club-73 enter Bhagyadhar Football final
Bhubaneswar: Yazdani Club-73 defeated defending champions East Coast Railway 5-3 via through tie-breaker barged into the final of the 2nd Bhagyadhar Trophy Football Tournament at Indira Maidan here on Friday. The semifinal match ended in goalless draw. Club-73 goalkeeper stand rock solid in the tie-breaker and made difference by deflecting penalty kicks of Railway and adjudged as man of the match.
In the second semifinal on Saturday, Kishor Club of Bhubaneswar will take on SAI center of Cuttack.
All Odisha Open Chess begins
Bhubaneswar: As many as 102 players from 16 districts, including 17 rated players, are participating in the three-day 11th All Odisha Open Chess Championship at Secretariat Recreation Club here on Friday, being organized by Odisha Secretariat Recreation Club. Kumar Ashok Kumar, Birakishore Behera, Prakash Sahoo, Sailendranath Rout, Prabhat Ojha, Bibhuti Mohanty, Balaram Swain, Aditya Pattanaik, Bansidhar Bhoi and Bhimsen Pradhan are 10 players are leading with three points each by the end of third round. Amit Mohanty, Saibatanu Mishra, Sushant Garabadu, Dhirendra Das, Borhan Molla and Braja Moharana are the six players placed in the second place by scoring 2.5 points each. The top seed of the tournament is Borhan Molla with a rating of 2076 while oldest participant is 73-year old Arati Bijoy Mohanty and the youngest participant is 6-year old Jayashree Barik of Bhubaneswar.