Sikkim chess players shine with their outstanding performance in the 18th edition of North Eastern States FIDE Rating Chess Championship 2018 held in Shillong. 16-year old Rahul Gurung emerged the champion and also set a record of being the youngest champion in the 18 years long history of the tournament.
20-years-old Thendup Tamang secured third position in the championship and 17-years-old Rohit Gurung finished the championship on 14th position. Another state player, 17-years-old Sejal Rai secured the third position in U-17 girl’s category.
A 15-member Sikkim Chess Association team led by its general secretary Mahendra Dhakal, who is also an international arbiter, had represented Sikkim in the tournament. SCA executive body felicitated all winners from Sikkim on Tuesday and congratulated them for their outstanding performances in the championship.
Talking to media on Tuesday team manager Dhakal said this was the finest performance of the state players so far in the North-East Chess championship. He said Assam and Manipur have been dominating the championship since 18 years but Sikkim players have shown great improvement in a very short time.
“We started participating in the North-East Chess championship only from 2011 and the performance of our players is really appreciable and exemplary,” Dhakal said. He said other players also played well and many have improved their FIDE rating in the championship. He also informed Sikkim will be hosting the 19thedition of the championship next year in the state.
Sharing his experiences, the North-East champion, Rahul Gurung, who is a class X student of Tadong Senior Secondary School, expressed immense happiness on his achievement.
“This achievement has been motivating me to do better in my further national and international competition. I have been working hard to become International Master at the earliest,” he said.
Thendup said, “I am not so satisfied with my performance as I could have done better in the championship and will now practice more to do better in the future. I have targeted to be the International Master by 2022.”
Rohit, who is also class XII student of Tadong Senior Secondary School, said the championship was a learning experience and has been working hard to become International Master.
Similarly, Sejal, who is also a class XII student of Tadong Senior Secondary School, said, “The competition was tough and I learnt a lot from the championship. I need to practice harder and long to do better in the next edition of the tournament.”
