ISC Salalah conducts chess tournament

SALALAH: Indian Social Club, Salalah organised its first chess tournament of 2018, which received a huge response and witnessed some exciting matches.

“I am happy to see that large numbers of members are taking interest in this chess tournament and it encourages us to conduct such type of tournaments frequently,” said ISC Salalah Chairman Manpreet Singh in his speech. Participation saw more than 25 young children and “these kids have amazing talent and they exhibited high standard of chess,” said Raja, arbiter of the tournament.

The tournament was conducted in Swiss league format for senior and junior categories with age group of 16 and above and up to 15 years respectively.

The senior group category saw some tough competition where Syeed KK won the title with full 4 points. Shibu Vijayan and Sidharth Nottath were tied with three points each. But based on Buchholz (BH) tie-break method, Shibu was awarded second place and Sidharth finished in third place.

The juniors title went to Yashwant Bitra who earned a total of five points and was unbeaten. Based on Buchholz (BH) tie-break method, Clifford and Jishnu were awarded second and third place respectively as they were tied with four points each.

Sports Secretary Ajit, who was instrumental in organising the event, said, “I am passionate about sports because it serves us an entertainment, hobby and exercise.”

ISC Vice-president Mohandas NK and Cultural Secretary Ramesh were also present during prize distribution ceremony. ISC Treasurer Girish Kulkarni proposed the vote of thanks and drew curtains on the ceremony.