Tirtha Sankar of West Bengal justified his top billing by emerging champion in the 1st Balasore All-India FIDE Rating Chess Tournament (Below 1800), which concluded here at Modern Engineering & Management Studies (MEMS) today. He logged 8.5 points out of a possible nine to take home the top prize of Rs 30,000.

Odisha duo Pranab Kumar Patra and Mahitosh Dey finished second and third with eight and 7.5 points respectively. Pranab received Rs 20,000, while Mahitosh became richer by Rs 15,000. Altogether 203 players from 15 states participated in the four-day tournament, which was organised by Balasore District Chess Association (BDCA), under the aegis of All Odisha Chess Association.

Total prize fund of the tournament was Rs 2 lakh. Balasore Collector Sanatan Mallick, MEMS chairman Himanshu Dash, BDCA president Pradip Kumar Panda and secretary Manorajan Panda haned over the trophies and cash prizes at the closing function.

FINAL STANDINGS (Top 20): 1. Tirtha Sarkar (WB, 8.5), 2. Pranab Kumar Patra (Odisha, 8), 3. Mahitosh Dey (Odisha, 7.5), 4. Subhendu Kumar Patra (Odisha, 7.5), 5. Nirmal Chandra Sandil (Jharkhand, 7), 6. Susobhit Das (Odisha, 7), 7. PJ Kiran Kumar (AP, 7), 8. Sanjay Kumar Maharana (Odisha, 7), 9. Asif Mohammad Tayyeb (MP, 7), 10. Satya Sundar Nayak (Odisha, 7), 11. Soumya Ranjan Sahoo (Odisha, 6.5), 12. Thompson Sahu (Odisha, 6.5), 13. Deepak Batra (Punjab, 6.5), 14. Kaushik Nath (WB, 6.5), 15. Rajat Kumar Sahoo (Odisha, 6.5), 16. Nilsu Pattnayak (Odisha, 6.5), 17. Anurag Deo (Odisha, 6.5), 18. Ankush Sahoo (Odisha, 6.5), 19. N Sasikumar (TN, 6.5), 20. S Jeevananandam (TN, 6.5).
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
PHOTO: Top three prize winners with guests at the closing function in Balasore on January 26, 2015.