4th edition of State Open Chess Tournament to be held in Feb

GANGTOK, 29 Jan: The 4th edition of the State-level Open Chess Tournament is being organized by Sikkim Democratic Front Bhawan Trust with technical support of Sikkim Chess Association [SCA] from 09 to 12 February here at SDF Bhawan.
More than 150 players are expected to participate in the tournament which boasts of around Rs 1 lakh as prize money in total. The tournament will follow the Swiss League System.
Addressing a press conference today, coordinator of the tournament, Kabita Subba mentioned that since the establishment of SDF Bhawan Trust, it has been engaged in different activities in the field of social upliftment.
“On these lines the Trust will be organizing the state-level open chess tournament for the fourth time this year. Participation in the tournament has been increasing every year especially when it comes to students,” she said.
Ms Subba informed that the Trust is also organizing a voluntary blood donation camp at SDF Bhawan with the support of STNM Hospital blood bank on 15 February. She invited the public to be a part of this initiative by donating their blood.
SCA general secretary, Mahendra Dhakal, who is also an international arbiter, informed that players would also be selected during this tournament for the upcoming North-East FIDE Rating Chess Tournament scheduled to be held in the last week of February in Manipur. He informed that the selected players from the tournament will be representing the state in the said North-East tournament.
“The objective of the tournament is to provide more platforms to local players to evaluate and improve their game to reach higher levels. In a short span of time Sikkim has produced 9 young FIDE rated players at present”, said Mr Dhakal.
Rated players from Sikkim are Rakesh Gurung [1853], Thendup Tamang [1678], Durga Sharma [1674], Leela Prasad Acharya [1670], Rahul Gurung [1593], Phurba Bhutia [1570], Sushmita Lama [1540], Pranisha Gurung [1513] and Jonah Lepcha [1549].
Interested participants can collect the forms of the tournament from the SDF office at Indira Bye Pass road.