22nd U-11 National Children Chess-2008 from Aug 23

Gandhinagar, Aug 20 (UNI) Nearly 300 tiny tots will be exhibiting prowess of their wits and wills at the 22nd National Under-11 Boys and Girls Chess Championship-2008 to be held between August 23-31 at Preksha Vishwa Bharati Institute here.

The Championship has attracted 75 Federation International De Chess (FIDE) rated players in both Boys and Girls category from every nook and corner of India, according to a spokesman of Mind Games Association Krishna Kumar Chankain, a release said here today.

Mr Chankain said, ''Among these 75 rated players, star attractions are Sayantan Das (2135 FIDE ratings), Girish A Koushik (2108), Vaibhav Suri (2080), Sweety Patel (1902), Ivana Maria Furtado (1836) and Sunyasakta Satapathy (1753).'' He said, ''The host Gujarat's challenge will be led by Hetul Shah (1815), Jeet Jain (Surat), Bhargav Rawal (Vadodara), Shivam Chandak, and Megha Gupta (1643) (all in boys category), and Akansha Bhogani, Bharti Singh, Khushita Shah (all in girls category).'' So far, players from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Punjab, Delhi, Andhra Pradesh, West Bengal, Orissa, Assam, Tripura, Bihar, Maharashtra and Gujarat have confirmed their participation in the Championship, he said.

The Champions and Runner-ups in both the categories, will represent India at the U-11 World Championship to be held at Turkey in year-2009. They will also represent India at Common Wealth Chess and Asia Chess Championship in their age groups, venues and times for which have yet to be decided, Mr Chandak said.

Both the categories have total 11 rounds each. Winners will get a cash prize and coveted trophies. The Championships have total prize-pool of Rs 66,000, which will be disbursed among first 10 rankers, he added.

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