Odisha chess prodigy Saina Salonika felicitated by Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan

Odisha Sun Times Bureau
Bhubaneswar, Nov 4:

Budding chess talent and reigning World Under-10 chess champion Saina Salonika of Odisha was felicitated by Union minister Dharmendra Pradhan on Tuesday.

Saina had won the World Under-10 chess championship in the UAE in 2013.

Saina, a student of KIIT International School, is the second chess player from the state to have won a world title after WGM Padmini Rout, who had won the Under-14 world championship in 2008.

Prior to winning the world title, Saina had won championships in the Asian School Chess Championship in Colombo in 2010, Commonwealth Chess Championship in the Under-10 category for girls in Chennai, Asian Chess Championship and Asian School Blitz Chess Championship both in the Under-9 category at New Delhi in 2012 and a bronze medal in the Under-8 category in the World Youth Chess Championship at Caldas Novas in Brazil in 2011.

In the Under-10 world championship in UAE, Saina had scored nine points from 11 rounds to emerge at the top by winning seven games and drawing four.