India's first chess features print magazine published quarterly from Lucknow since 2004 by Aspire Welfare Society.

Tuesday, July 8, 2025

Lakshya and Abhigyan star in CCBW Open Rapid Chess


Lucknow's renowned polyglot and educationalist Dr Manju Anand with the winners of the CCBW Rapid Chess Open

Teenager Lakshya Nigam (Oxford Model Convent) scored a perfect 7/7 ahead of Lucknow’s senior chess players to win the Rapid Open hosted by Chess Club Black & White (CCBW). 

Dr Manju Anand, Executive Director of IFLAPS (Institute of Foreign Languages and Professional Studies) spoke on the deep Indo-Russian chess connection from the times of the Mahabharata. The players enjoyed the special session on learning Russian vocabulary particularly how to say “I love chess (ya lyublyu shakhmaty)”. 

From left to right: Dr Manju Anand, Ms Kavya Agrawal and Mr Vishesh

Dr Anand is Lucknow's renowned polyglot and educationalist with Doctorates in Russian and French teaching since 1985. She and her team gave away 64 trophies, 15 medals and 20 consolation prizes to more than 100 players from across Uttar Pradesh in the age group 4 to 85 years.

Playing hall at The Hotel Golden Apple, Mahanagar

The star of the tournament was ten-year-old Abhigyan Katiyar (Modern School, Aliganj) who beat Khare and 2nd seed Arif Ali to stand third with 5/7 points. Ravishanker was runner-up with 6/7 points.

Main category 3rd prize winner Abhigyan Katiyar

Under 16 unrated Champion Samarth Gupta

Teenager Samarth Gupta (CMS Aliganj Cambridge) won the under 16 unrated section with 6.5/7 points. DPS Eldeco's Soumil Shaildendra Singh scored creditable 6/7 points to finish as runner up.

Senior Citizen winners (left to right): KK Khare, Sakiluddin (top), Sayeed Ahmad (bottom) and Mohd Irfan
Kapil Kumar Khare took the senior citizens’ trophy with 5.5 points. Sakiluddin, Sayeed Ahmad and Mohd Irfan were joint second with 5 points each.

Dr Anand with Under 8 category winners

The Under 8 section was won by Viyan Agarwal (CMS Gomti Nagar 1) with 4/4 points. Atharv Sarin Shukla (Modern School, Aliganj) and Avyaan Gupta (La Martiniere Boys) were joint second with 3/4 points.

More photos in Facebook album (including newspaper clippings): https://www.facebook.com/share/16ehDrXL6q/

Other News Links:

.


.
.
.
 
Design by Free WordPress Themes | Bloggerized by Lasantha - Premium Blogger Themes | Press Release Distribution