Bhubaneswar: Woman Fide Master Saina Salonika of Odisha added Monday another feather to her crown by winning the silver medal and the team gold in the Western Asian Youth chess championship. The tournament was organised by the Sri Lankan Chess Federation on behalf of Asian Chess Federation in online mode. Players from 17 different countries took part in the tournament in various age categories starting from under-eight to the under-18.
Saina bagged the silver medal in the under-18 girls’ segment. In the nine matches she played, Saina won six games, drew two and lost one tie to top seed Mohammad Melika of Iran.
The gold went to Prachiti Chanratreya of Sri Lanka, but she had lost to Saina in her match. Susmita Bhowmik of India bagged the bronze in the under-18 category. Saina also bagged the team gold medal for India in the same age category.
Prior to the online event, Saina had bagged 17 international medals. Now with the addition of two more her tally has increased to 19.
It should be stated here that Saina just completed her CBSE Grade-XII exams scoring 97.4 percent. She has also achieved two Woman International Master (WIM) norms till date.