Padmini Rout, the pride of Orissa

06 November, 2008

Orissa�s woman International Master (WIM) Padmini Rout won the gold medal in the World Youth Chess Championship (in the under -14 girls category) held at Vung Tau in Vietnam on Wednesday (October 29). Four players from Orissa participated.

HER SUCCESS has not only made the state proud but also the entire country proud. Padmini would now be a source of inspiration for the country’s younger players. Top seed Padmini clinched the title with one round to go. She beat Georgia’s Jalabadze Natia in the tenth and final round, taking her points to 9.5 in the match. She has won several internationals (in different age groups) but this title is her biggest so far. She had won the Asian under -12 girls title twice and the Asian under – 14 girls title once.

The World Youth Championship, featuring six different age categories (under 8, 10, 12, 14, 16, and 18) for boys and girls, concluded on Thursday (October 30). India has established its supremacy in the championship. There were four players from Orissa belonging to different age groups who participated in the championship. Among them Padmini Rout won the gold medal; Debasish Das won the bronze medal in the under-16 age group for boys. Sunyasakta Tripathy and Sridhant Mahapatra participated in the girls under -10 and boys under -10 categories respectively. Sunyasakta played well and took 8 points in his 11th round game to secure his 5th position. In the under-10 category for boys, Sridhant Mahapatra collected 7 points in his 11th round to secure his 17th position. Coach Subasish Pattaniak, Satyaranjan Pattanaik, Rajendra Sahu and KD Pillai congratulated these budding chess masters on their excellent performance.