Mumbai's Dev Shah once again showed why he is one for the future by clinching the silver in the Under-7 National Chess Championship in Kolkata on Tuesday.
Second seed Dev, six, who is India's youngest rated chess player finished with an impressive score of nine out of the possible 11. Shahil Dey of Assam, who stood 10th in his first attempt last year, clinched the gold with 9.5 points. What helped his cause was overnight leader Shah losing to Tamil Nadu's Bharat Subramaniyam.
The silver added to Dev's large cabinet of medals which includes a gold in the mixed category at the Commonwealth Chess Championships held recently in Glasgow and twice at the Asian Schools Chess. The Mumbaikar trains at the South Mumbai Chess Academy and is a student of Dhirubhai Ambani School,
Fourth seed Shahil, who was half a point adrift of Dev in the penultimate round, bagged the title by defeating Honi Arora of Rajasthan in the final outing.
Final standings: 1. Shahil Dey (Assam) 9.5, 2. Dev Shah (MAH) 9.0, 3. Raahil Mullick (MAH) 9.0, 4. Garv Rai (DEL) 8.5, 5. H Bharath Subramaniyam (TN) 8.5.
