Nilay selected for chess nationals

Nagpur, Dec 31

Nilay Kulkarni, young chess talent and student of Narayana Vidyalayam of Nagpur stood third in Maharashtra State Junior Under-20 Chess Championship 2021 held at Jalgaon recently.

He started as 10th seed player, suffered a loss to lower-rated opponent in the third round game against Sangharsh Aole (1093) of Chandrapur and drew his game against another lower rated opponent Patil Om C (1104) of Buldhana. He scored five straight wins from round 4 to 8 and secured third place with 6.5 points out of 8 rounds. Nilay Kulkarni will represent Maharashtra state in forthcoming Nationals Junior Under-20 Chess Championship 2022 to be held at New Delhi from January 9 to 15. Earlier this month he won the Nagpur District Under-16 Chess Championship2021, and qualified for Maharashtra State Under-16 Chess Championship at Nandurbar. Top four players from each category selected for nationals include Jeet Shah- (Mumbai), Pushkar Dere (Mumbai), Nilay Kulkarni (Nagpur ) and Prathamesh Divekar (Thane) among the boys. WFM Bhagyashree Patil (Jalgaon), Kriti Mayur Patel (Mumbai), Yuti Mayur Patel (Mumbai) and Tiwari Radhika ( Aurangabad)

Other participants from Nagpur are Dishank Bajaj who finished 8th in the final standings. In the girls section, young talent Vedika Pal played an amazing tournament. She scored 5 points out of 8 and secured 6th place in final standing.