Providential escape for stars

RAIPUR (CHHATTISGARH), NOV. 6. The top seeds in both the sections of National Sub-junior championships had a miraculous escape on Monday night. A Tata Sumo jeep carrying J.Deepan Chakravarthy and his cousins - M.Priyadarshini and M.Rajdarshini (the National under-12 girls champion) - rammed into a truck and toppled into a pit. But the chess stars escaped miraculously without any injuries.

This was a second incident of young chess stars getting involved in a road accident. Barely a month ago, Asian under-10 champions D.Meenu and M.Abhinav died alongwith three other young chess players in an accident in Orissa.

It was a shocking experience, recounted Deepan who came directly from Spain where he took part in the World under-16 championship last week. The three players and their relative Ms.Vasanthi could not get into a train because of winter holiday rush at Nagpur and decided to catch a bus to Raipur, around 250 km from Nagpur.

The Vice President of All India Chess Federation, Mr.Vinod Kumar Rathi, made all the necessary arrangements for the stunned players.

- Raghunandan Gokhale

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