Mysore :

Chess is a mind game and is a very popular and traditional game played in our country. After the exploits of world champion V. Anand, many of our country’s youngsters have taken up to the game and have been making rapid strides in this sport.

On such chess champion from our city is IM M.S. Thej Kumar. Thej Kumar taking part in the Shri Narayanrao L. Kurtkoti Memorial Rapid Chess Championship at Dharwad yesterday won the title by scoring 8.5 points out of a possible nine. He is our Star This Week.

IM Thej Kumar, an employee of South Western Railways, Mysore, is a talented chess player who is the only player in the Karnataka who has achieved the three Grand Master norms and has another 94 points to get his Grand Master title.

He is being helped in his pursuits for this norm by encouragement from the Government of Karnataka and also with sponsorship from www.mysoresport.com and Saanvi Technologies, USA.

Taking part in the Karnataka State Rapid Chess Tournament in Dharwad recently. Thej Kumar had wins over S.G. Bharghav of Dharwad, Rahul Mayur Sharma of Bangalore, K. Shantaram of Chikmagalur, S.M. Raviprakash of Mysore, V.A. Akshay of Dharwad, Dasari Dattetreya Rao of Dharwad, S. Shreeshan of Dharwad and Vivekraj of Mangalore. He drew his seventh round with V.K. Koti of Dharwad.

Presently he is taking part in the 14th National Cities Chess Championships being held at Kottayam, Kerala representing Bangalore City. In the first round, the team beat Kottayam ‘B’ 4-0.

Thej Kumar recently taking part in the Mayor’s Cup International-rating Chess Tournament at Mumbai, fared well.

Thej Kumar had wins against Chakravarthi Reddy of India, S. Mari Arul of India and Manisha Mohanty of India.

He has been invited to play in four tournaments in France from the end of June to the end of August. He aims to play well in the tournaments and intends to work hard and gain maximum points so that he gets his Grand Master title soon.

source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Sports / June 16th, 2013