Fiji Sun - August 20th, 2009
Reigning secondary school champion Dhiraj Chand of MGM starts as favourites in the Fiji Chess Federation’s national under 20 championships which will be played this Saturday at the Fiji Olympic House in Suva.

Schoolmate Ravi Bhavsar, fifth former Wayne Areki of MBHS and Gaurav Raicker fresh from his stint in the Oceania Zonal are expected to provide stiff oppositions for the junior title.

Wati Kado, primary school champion from Stella Maris and Elizabeth Kim of Saint Agnes will feature prominently in the girls U12 category. The tournament will be divided in various categories U20, 18, 16, 14 and 12 for both girls and boys.

Dr. Virgilio de Asa , president of the federation says that the junior event is part of Fiji Chess Federations (FCF) continuing development programme to encourage the study and playing of chess amongst the youths and to identify young talents and groomed them for international competitions and the chess Olympiad.

At stake in the annual tourney are chess sets, trophies, chess programme and books.

The FCF will also run a parallel tournament for the veteran and elite players.

Meanwhile CM Calvin Prasad took the solo lead and remains unbeaten in the 2009 FCF Chess League Championship with 3 points after three rounds of play.

He beat Gaurav Raicker in the first round outplayed top seed CM Manoj Kumar in his second match and outmaneuvered Ashneel Singh in round three to post an early lead in the eight player single round robin league games.

Dr. Neel Arora is close in second with 2.5 points with wins over Sukhu and Raicker and a drawn game against Arvind Goru. CM Kumar is placed on third with two points followed by Goru with 1.5 points with one game still to be played.