Sayantan Das clinches 1st SOA GM 2024, Diptayan Ghosh second and Sambit Panda third
08/02/2024 - GM Sayantan Das won the 1st SOA GM International Chess Festival 2024 scoring 8/10. He finished a half point ahead of the field. GM Diptayan Ghosh, IM Sambit Panda and IM Neelash Saha scored 7.5/10 each. They secured second, third and fourth place according to tie-breaks. Sayantan scored 7/8 in his last eight games after losing the second round game to WFM Ellen Fredericia Nilssen (DEN). She went on to score a WIM-norm. Sambit also made a fantastic comeback after losing his third round game in just eight moves against FM Goutham Krishna H. CM Soham Kamotra, Jethro Dino Aquino (PHI) and Vignesh Advaith Vemula scored an IM-norm each. Producing four norms has definitely made the inaugural edition of this event quite successful. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹3500000, ₹2000000 for Category A. The top three prizes are ₹300000, ₹200000 and ₹150000 along with a trophy each. Photos: IA R Anantharam