Lucknow: Lucknow’s Ravi Shanker, won the KB Mahana Chess Memorial hosted by Chess Club Black & White (CCBW) at Hotel Golden Apple with 6/7 points on tiebreak. Kuldeep Shankar, deputy director, Parliament, New Delhi, was second.
Medical School student, would-be-doctor Siddhanth Chopra was the star of the tournament winning the Best Unrated first prize ahead of several rated professional players. Top senior citizens were Saeed Ahmad, Shakiluddin, KK Kharey, UB Singh, Mohd Irfan, Jamal Sir, Vipul Awasthi, RP Gupta and Ambuj Agarwal.
Saransh Shukla (4.5 points) was Best Under-16 player while Ayush Yadav won the Junior Unrated section with a fantastic 6.5 points. Navya Srivastava was Best Junior Girl and Kunwar Pranav Singh was Under-8 champion. Both scored 6 points.
The club also felicitated top chess coaches of the city including Dr Junaid Ahmad (Lucknow Nagar Nigam), Saeed Ahmad (Lucknow Chess Centre), Pawan Batham (State Tax Department), Mayank Pandey (Defense), Deep Kumar Singh, Rama Shanker (DPS Gomti Nagar), and Ravi Shanker (DPS Eldeco).
The tournament was organised to celebrate the life of engineer Krishan Baldev Mahana and his beloved wife, Santosh. KB Mahana, of the Arya Samaj, gave Lucknow several iconic structures including the State Museum building and Indira bridge in the 1950s. KB Mahana’s grandson, Parikshit Mahana, gave away the prizes and spoke about his grandfather’s love of chess.
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https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=RtToJsBhYBatUrym&v=mOuYNSdhjHA&feature=youtu.be
https://www.youtube.com/watch?si=RtToJsBhYBatUrym&v=mOuYNSdhjHA&feature=youtu.be
