CITY’S budding chess player Vivaan Vijay Saraogi finished a creditable fourth in the recently concluded 34th National Under-12 Open Chess Championship organised by Mandya Chess Academy, Mandya and District Chess Association and New Tumkur District Chess at Hotel Amaravathi, Srinivasapura, Mysore-Bangalore Highway, in Mandya. In the competition, Vivaan, who started as the 17th seed, garnered 8.5 points from 11 rounds to finish at the fourth position. Vivaan received a trophy and a cash prize of Rs 35,000. The 11-year-old Vivaan registered seven wins and three draws.

 

He started with wins over Assam’s Hridhant Sharma and Karnataka’s Nivaan Raghavendra. In the third round, he split point with Vedant Garg of Chandigarh and then bounced back with another win over Ayaan Garg, also of Chandigarh, In the 5th and 6th round, Vivaan collected full point with victories over Sriram Adarsh Uppala of Telangana and Aakash G of Tamil Nadu. Vaz Ethan of Goa halted Vivaan in the seventh round, but the Nagpur lad bounced back again with a win in the 8th round over Challa Saharsha of Telangana. In the ninth round, Vivaan drew with Sathvik Adiga of Karnataka and then in the 10th round, he beat Tanmay Rajbongshi of Assam. Vivaan ended the tournament with a draw with Md Reyan of Bihar to finish with 8.5 points in his kitty. Bhushan Shriwas, Secretary, Chess Association Nagpur congratulated Vivaan for his success in the national meet.