Fiji Times - 22/03/10

FIJI'S number one Manoj Kumar took out the 27th Brijlal Open Chess Championship at the Fiji Olympic House yesterday.

It was sweet revenge for Kumar, who dethroned defending champion and fellow candidate master Calvin Prasad after the latter took away the former's Kundan Singh Open title in a previous tournament last month.

Kumar beat Dr Neel Arora and Ravi Bhavsar before a draw with Arvind Goru to finish the elite grade with 3.5 points.

Goru, who's only loss was against Prasad finished second with 2.5 points.

Ravinesh Singh won the B-grade competition with maximum five points while Luo Wan Yu was second with four points.

Gloria Sukhu forced her way back into the national team for the upcoming Chess Olympiad after taking out the Women's National Championship.

Sukhu finished unbeaten with six points.

Dr Rachna Ram, who flew in from Labasa for the championship finished second with five points.

Fiji Chess Federation president Dr Virgilio De Asa said the four-member women's national team would be finalised this week.

He said there was a mix-up with the date of yesterday's championship and it affected the turnout.

One of the top seeds for the women's championship, Hilda Vukiko-moala did not feature in the championship.

"There was no notice put out for the championship.

"But we will still consider Hilda for the Olympiad based on her performance in previous competitions."

Atman Nand, a Form Six student of Indian College was the best player in the secondary schools grade while Ryan Jai, who is a Class Seven pupil of Mahatma Gandhi Memorial School was the best in the primary schools grade.