By IA Suresh Chandra Sahoo, Chief Arbiter.
The Maa Samaleswari FIDE Open Chess Tournament – 2021 was inaugurated by the Chief Guest Shri Pradeep Kumar, DRM & President East Coast Railway Sambalpur. Other dignitaries were Mrs. Isha Malik, President East Coast Railway Women Welfare Organisation, Shri Ranjan Mohanty, President, All Odisha Chess Association; Dr Milind Hirwe, Sr DOM & Sports Officer, East Coast Railway, Sambalpur & Shri Saroj Kant Das, Asst. Sports Officer. Chief Guest Shri Pradeep Kumar said that, it is a pride moment for Sambalpur Division to organise such event, “Chess makes a person mentally strong and stable.”
During the Covid period with night curfew, it was a great challenge for entire organizers were so co-operative team to hold such a valuable tournament. Organisers were so co-operative that entire session with proper sanitization, cleanliness, mask & maintaining the distance between each player everything was followed. Officials & Players were under metal detector & thermal temperature sensor with proper wearing of mask. Players enjoyed to play in air-conditioned hall in this hot summer.
The total no of participants 65 from 14 districts had taken part in this event. 30 rated players (including 8 women) were participated. Eight rounds Swiss system league was played with a time control of 60 min. with 30 sec increment from move no.1.
The total prize fund for above captioned event was ` 1,25,000/- (Rupees One lakh & twenty five thousands only). The organiser arranged with FREE dormitory Accommodation to players for entire tournament period.
The top seed Nilsu Pattnayak, 1948 of Cuttack clinched the Championship trophy with 7 win 1 draw with 11 seed and awarded a cash prize of ` 15,000/-. The 4th seed Rabindra Kumar Ojha won the last battle and became Runner-up with 6.5 points (1 draw, one loss) & award a cash prize of ` 10,000. The 3rd seed Sanjeeban Nayak, 1796 of Jajpur became 2nd Runner-up & bagged ` 8,000/- with 5 wins, 2 draw with 7 & 63 seed and one loss from top seed in the tournament.
The tournament concluded with Valedictory ceremony-cum-Prize Distribution, at 06:30 P.M. on 13 April 2021. The Chief Guest was Sri Pradeep Kumar, DRM & President East Coast Railway Sambalpur; Guest of Honour Shri Ranjan Mohanty, President, All Odisha Chess Association; Mrs. Isha Malik, President East Coast Railway Women Welfare Organisation, Shri Debabrata Bhatta, Secretary, All Odisha Chess Association, Dr Milind Hirwe, Sr DOM & Sports Officer, East Coast Railway, Sambalpur. Other dignitaries who graced the occasion were Alok Ranjan Panda, Sports Secretary, Mr. Kamal Rout, Md. Rafi, (Railway) & Manoj Kumar Dash, Anil Kumar Panda from Sambalpur District Chess Association.
The Press and Media covered the event well and we had considerably support from the parents and guardians of the kid participants and without any dispute the tournament ended successfully.
Out of 35 unrated players 7 players will get their new rating in the month of May & only 3 players gained more than 50 ELO in this tournament. Satyam Sarbajit Mishra, 1065 (+126), Piyush Kumar Sahoo, 1098 (+76), Mrutyunjay Mondal, 1159 (+60).
The Chief Arbiter for the event is International Arbiter Suresh Chandra Sahoo ably assisted by NA Ranjan Mohanty & NA Bidhu Bhusan Mishra of Odisha.