Seven-year old Raahil Mullick wins medals at back-to-back Chess championships

Raahil Mullick poses with the First Prize Trophy at the Asian Schools Chess.

Raahil Mullick, seven year old student from Dhirubhai Ambani International School, won the bronze position at the prestigious Indian National U-7 Open Chess Championships held at Kolkata from 1st to 9th September 2014. This is his second win coveted win in the last two weeks, wherein he defeated the tournament top seeds in their head-to-head matchups.

Mullick finished first, procuring a gold, at the 10th Asian Schools Chess Championships 2014 held in Taichung, Taiwan (from 23rd to 29th August 2014). Mullick’s performance helped India finish on top position with 4 Golds and a total of 9 medals. The tournament, which attracted 203 players from 14 countries, was organised by the Chinese Taipei Chess Association under the auspices of the Asian Chess Federation and FIDE.

At the 28th National U-7 held in Kolkata, Mullick surprised top seed Dev Shah (FIDE rating 1448) in the fifth round. Shah playing white opened with the Exchange Variation of the Slav Defense and had to concede defeat after getting his bishop trapped in the 19th move. Mullick finished the tournament as 2nd runnerup with a total score of 9 out of 11. Shahil Dey of Assam (FIDE rating 1346) finished on top position with 9.5 out of 11 points. The U-7 Open category of the tournament saw a total of 138 boys compete from 23 states of India.

Earlier this fortnight, Mullick at the 10th Asian Schools Chess Championship, upset top seed, Amir Amirul Faiz (FIDE rating 1472) of Malaysia with attacking tactical play in the middle game. Raahil emerged on top of the U-7 Open group that saw battles for top position between players from India, Malaysia, Mongolia, Kazakhstan and Sri Lanka.