Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Jun 16:

World U-10 Girls' Chess champion and Woman Candidate Master Saina Salonika of Odisha won three gold medals at the 16th Asian Chess Championship, which concluded at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore today.

Saina Salonika

Saina got an individual gold in the U-12 girls Blitz Chess Championship and two team gold medals in Standard and Rapid Chess Championships.

A total of 459 players from 16 countries of Asia had participated in the nine-day event, which began on June 8 in which India was placed in the fourth position.

Daughter of Ganeswar Jena and Babita Jena, Saina is a Class VII student of KIIT International School.

She had earlier won six International Medals in the World Youth Chess Championship, Commonwealth Chess Championship and Asian Chess Championship.

She expressed her gratitude to AN Sahay, CMD of Mahanadi Coalfields Ltd (MCL) and officials of the public sector company for sponsoring her for international tournaments and thanked Dr Achyuta Samanta, founder KIIT & KISS, for providing financial assistance to participate in the Championship at Singapore.

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