Kristi Vibek Sangskritik Sangstha organised Independence Day Chess Championship

way2barak, Aug 16 : Deep Das clinched the Sudhangshu Dutta Memorial Trophy for emerging on top of points table in the Open Category of the Independence Day Chess Championship 2026 organised by the Kristi Vibek Sangskritik Sangstha in association with the Cachar District Chess Association. The two day chess competition held on 15th and 16th August , 2026 at the premises of the Pranabananda International School, Tarapur saw 113 Chess players fight it out on the 64 squares for the top prizes. Somagnik Chakraborty won the Chandan Malakar Memorial Trophy and Subhradeep Roy won the Chandan Malakar Memorial Trophy awarded to the second and third position holders in the Open Category.

Pratik Kanti Paul won the Umananda Bhattacharjee Memorial Trophy for winning the Under-15 Rated Category title. Yash Chakraborty won the second prize and Shlok Suklabaidya secured the third prize in the Under-15 Rates Category.

The first prize in the Under-7 age category for boys went to Naitik Kanu for which he was awarded Sankar Biswas Memorial Trophy. Naitik Dey and Bikash Das won the second and third prize in the same category. In the Under -7 age category for girls Lakshita Paul won the Sankar Biswas Memorial Trophy.

In the Under-9 age group category for boys Swarnavo Podder secured the Jadabendra Dey Memorial Trophy for the first prize. The second and third prize in the same category went to Shriyan Deb and Neil Ghosh. Among the girls in the same category Shreejita Dhar, Mahiyoshee Dutta and Pragya Roy won the first, second and third prize respectively.

In the Under-11 age group for boys the Manik Dhar Memorial Award went to Adhiraj Paul, Ranvijay Singha and Bishnu Roy won the first, second and third prize respectively. In the girls category of the same age group Aaradhya Bhattacharjee, Aadvika Das and Priyangshi Deb won the first second and third prize respectively.

In the Under-13 age group for boys the first, second and third prize went to Apurba Choudhury, Adelino Surong Khyriem and Bishwadeep Deb. Among the girls in the same category Aaditri Chakraborty and Sreeporna Dutta won the first and second prize respectively.

In the Under- 15 age group for boys Arkadeep Nath, Aryan Acharjee and Hrishikesh Deb won the first, second and third prize. Among the girls in the same age group Sarita Kairi won the first prize.

Kanad Purkayastha, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha who graced the prize distribution ceremony hailed the young and budding chess players from this part of the world for making their presence felt in high stakes tournament. He also assured that steps will be taken in the near future to come up with proper infrastructure in Silchar to host FIDE rated tournaments.

Sushmita Dev, Member of Parliament, Rajya Sabha from West Bengal highlighted the role played by Kristi Vibek Sangskritik Sangstha in promotion of sports in this region. She further pointed out that following the announcement of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to launch a campaign to produce sportspersons who can potentially represent India in the 2036 Olympics the time has come for budding athletes including Chess players from Barak Valley to aim higher.

Bibendu Das, president of Cachar District Chess Association said that chess players from Cachar are earning laurels in big ticket competions on a regular basis. He informed that 46th Robula Trophy Open FIDE rated tournaments the first, second and third prize were clinched by Soram Raul Singh, Iftikar Alom Mazumder and Rajdeep Das who belong to Cachar. He also appreciated Abhrajyoti Nag recently won the 24th ASEAN Age Group Chess Championship.

S.B Dutta, president of DSA, Silchar spoke about the rich tradition of Chess in India. He encouraged the young chess players who participated in the tourney to emulate legendary Chess players like Arjun Erigaisi and Vishwanathan Anand and bring glory for the nation.

Dipayan Chakraborty, former Silchar MLA highlighted the role played by Kristi Vibek Sangskritik Sangstha in promotion of sports and sportspersons of this region. He further lauded the efforts of the office bearers of CDCA in developing a culture of Chess which can go a long way in producing promising chess players.

Partha Pratim Adhikary, principal of Pranabananda International School stressed on the important role parents can play in nurturing sportspersons. He also talked about the initiatives being undertaken by the Pranabananda International School in coming up with facilities for Olympics sports like shooting.

Among other dignitaries who graced the prize distribution ceremony included Kushumeshu Purkayastha, president of KVSS and Babul Hore, former president of DSA, Silchar.