Arun Kataria reigns supreme as Rajasthan players dominate second Jaipur Open Classical Fide Rated Chess tournament

Jaipur: Arun Kataria reigned supreme as Rajasthan players dominated the second edition of the five-day Jaipur Open Classical Fide Rated Chess tournament which concluded here on Sunday. The national-level tourney was organised at the Jaipur Club under the aegis of Waves and Jaipur Health and Wellness.
The aim of this meet was to promote mental health among all age groups and ancient sports like chess in Rajasthan. Arun Kataria (2353) of Udaipur remained undefeated in the competition and emerged as the champion and received Rs 1,00,000 as well as trophy.
There was a fierce fight among many players for second place till the last moment and at the end three players were tied up with 7.5 points each. As per the rules of the competition, a tie-breaker round was played in which Rahul Sangma (2121) won and clinched the second position with a cash prize of Rs 75,000, while the third spot went to Shrayan Majumdar (2110) from Maharashtra, who got a prize money of Rs 50,000.
In the women's category, Vedika Pal from Jaipur won the title of best female competitor by scoring six points, while in senior player category, GB Joshi from Delhi won the prize of Rs. 8,000 with 6.5 points. Raj Kapoor was the best player among Rajasthan's players and senior player Milind Gawade got the honour of being the best player from Jaipur.
Apart from this, separate awards were also given in the handicapped category in which 6 players including senior national level player SK Rathore from Madhya Pradesh won the first prize of Rs 8,000. A blitz championship was also held during the main competition which was claimed by Gopal Rathore and he won the first prize of Rs. 25,000.
The prize distribution ceremony was attended by chief guest National Health Mission additional director T Shubhmangala. Jaipur Club president Manoj Birla, Narayana Hospital marketing head Vikas Sharma, Jaipur Club sports secretary Saket Mathur, Ashok Bhargava, Ravi Bajaj, Sanjay Sharma, organizer and JHW founder Himmat Singh, co-founders Bhupendra Singh and RK Vyas, Waves founders Jayendra Chaturvedi and Amrish Joshi were the guests of the honour on the occasion.