CONTINUING his excellent form, Nagpur-born budding chess player Raghav Pathak emerged champion of Amsterdam Chess League recently.

Playing in the national league, Raghav won all the matches in the seven-round competition to become the undisputed U-8 Dutch National Champion. He will now represent Netherlands in World Classical Chess Championship to be held in Batumi, Georgia in September.

Earlier in May, he had represented Netherlands at World Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship in Greece and finished second best in Blitz and sixth in Rapid Chess.

Following her elder brother’s footsteps, five-year-old Ira also emerged champion of Amsterdam region in girls and open category (U-7 and U-8) walking away with twin trophies.

Ira, daughter of Rashmi and Vilas, played in pre-qualification tournament and won five out of seven games in the combined group of G and H category (U-7 and U-8). As U-7 Amsterdam champion, Ira played in Dutch National Championship held at Spijkenisse near Rotterdam and finished with four points in her kitty to bag top spot amongst girls thus becoming U-7 Dutch national chess champion.

Ira is being coached by her father Vilas Pathak and mentor Milind Gawde at Chess Devils Academy.

The brother and sister duo have also qualified for the U-10 nationals. There are four players in each team. While Raghav plays for Team 1 on Board 1, Ira plays for Team 2 on Board 2. Both their teams qualified separately for nationals.