Three people tied for second with 5 points each including Shatrughan Rawat, Shadab Khan (Lakhimpur), and top woman player Vartika R. Verma. Vartika has proved to be Lucknow's strongest woman player consistently making it to the top-10 in the Open category for the last one year. Parth Pande and Nikhar Saxena, both nineteen, excelled in tactical play.
Caption: Chief Guest GMJH Global MD Javed Khan with prize winners of the Lions vs Cubs Chess at a Hotel Golden Apple in Lucknow.
In the under-16 category, ten-year-old Ameya Rajendra and 14-year-old Ujjwal Raj Srivastava impressed with 5.5 points each.
"This was a special-format tournament Lions vs Cubs developed by Chess Club Black & White (CCBW) to help unrated youngsters learn from rated senior citizens," said Fide International Arbiter and chess author Naveen Karthikeyan. He said, "These senior citizens became chess experts before the Internet era. Today, an app on your cellphone plays stronger than the world champion. It's easy to practice. How did our senior citizens play so well? It's pure human ability. We must treasure our senior citizens."
CCBW honorary director, UP champion, Dr Junaid Ahmad said, "We want to create chess opportunities for all levels of players. Some players felt, as an organiser, we would lose out on entry fee but that's never been our purpose. We are a charitable society. The more chess happens and the more the marginalised players get opportunities, we will benefit as a community. The All-India Chess Federation too has many such formats. We will continue with our all-women and all-senior citizen formats also."
Aarav Garg 1st in the Lions vs Cubs Chess.
Top results
(Lucknow unless mentioned)
1-2. Aarav Garg, Sayeed Ahmad 6.5 pts 3-4. Shatrughan Rawat, Shadab Khan (Lakhimpur) 5 pts. 5. Neeraj Chaurasiya 4.5 pts, 6-10. Sanjeev Mishra (Kanpur), Ratnesh Shanker Verma, Nikhar Saxena, Zafar Mahboob, Ayush Singh 4 pts.
Senior Citizens
1-2. Sharad Kumar Sharma, Rajendra Mahana 4.5 pts 3-4. RK Gupta (Jhansi), Kamlesh Kumar Kesharwani, 4 pts 5. Sakiluddin 3 pts
Women
1. Vartika R Verma 5 pts,
2. Vinky Dixit 2 pts
1-2. Aarav Garg, Sayeed Ahmad 6.5 pts 3-4. Shatrughan Rawat, Shadab Khan (Lakhimpur) 5 pts. 5. Neeraj Chaurasiya 4.5 pts, 6-10. Sanjeev Mishra (Kanpur), Ratnesh Shanker Verma, Nikhar Saxena, Zafar Mahboob, Ayush Singh 4 pts.
Senior Citizens
1-2. Sharad Kumar Sharma, Rajendra Mahana 4.5 pts 3-4. RK Gupta (Jhansi), Kamlesh Kumar Kesharwani, 4 pts 5. Sakiluddin 3 pts
Women
1. Vartika R Verma 5 pts,
2. Vinky Dixit 2 pts
