After finishing runners-up in the Bihar Open FIDE Rated Chess Tournament, Russian GM Petr Kiriakov on Monday played simultaneous matches against 36 young players from the state at the Indoor Stadium in Patna’s Patliputra Sports Complex.During this event, young prodigies from Bihar rose to the occasion to challenge the Grandmaster. The overall contest lasted three hours and three players even succeeded in securing draws in their respective matches. They were Kumar Srijan and Abhimanyu Kumar from Patna and Abhijit Kumar from Bhagalpur and the trio were felicitated by the Grandmaster and Dharmendra Kumar, secretary of All Bihar Chess Association (ABCA).The remaining participants were also presented with certificates personally signed by the Grandmaster in the presence of Raveendran Sankaran, director general cum CEO of the Bihar State Sports Authority (BSSA), who was enthralled by how the kids played.“These were game-changing moments in their chess careers. They learned a few important moves. Our budding players were confident, aggressive and strategic. Many times, GM Petr had to think for quite some time because their moves were very sharp,” said Sankaran.Meanwhile, speaking after the tournament on Sunday, Kiriakov was pleased with the experience and expressed his desire to come back again next year to earn the top prize.“It was my first time in India. I was quite surprised to see so many strong players. I expected to finish on top but ended up second,” said Kiriakov on Sunday. “Maybe I will now come back once again to try and win the tournament because it was an overall good experience. Everyone wanted to take pictures and I felt very happy.”Meanwhile, the top prize at the event — held under the joint aegis of BSSA and ABCA — was won by Maharashtra’s Mahindrakar Indrajeet.In the final round, Indrajeet defeated Parambrata Sarkar of Bengal, while Kiriakov settled for a draw in just thirteen moves. Haryana’s Prithvi Sharma defeated Nepal’s Rupesh Jaiswal. As a result, all three players finished with eight points. However, based on tie-break scores, Indrajeet was crowned champion, winning the title by a margin of half a point.During the award ceremony, Bihar education minister Sunil Kumar was joined by sports minister Shreyasi Singh and he emphasised on the importance of chess for intellectual development. He also proposed the inclusion of chess in the primary education curriculum, stating that plans for its systematic implementation would be pursued in the future.
