Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Sept 10: Jammu and Kashmir’s only International Master (IM), Soham Kamotra, today engaged with young trainees of Vivek Chess Academy in an inspiring interactive session.
Soham, a trailblazer for the chess community in the Union Territory, earned the prestigious IM title awarded by FIDE, the International Chess Federation — a remarkable achievement that continues to inspire budding players.
“Cool, composed and soft spoken Soham spend around an hour with the young trainees as if he was one of the them. The top J&K player played a unique game with high rated six trainees at once. Further, he has also got the ability of playing upto three players without watching at the board,” Vivek Bharti, said.
To mark Soham’s visit, Vivek Chess Academy organised the Raesha Cup, where he emerged champion, receiving the title trophy and a cash prize of Rs 1000. Surinder Gupta secured second place and Ishaan Chowdhary finished third, both awarded Rs 500. Amrita Gupta was named Best Woman Player, while Nitika was declared Best in Under-12 Category, each receiving Rs 500.
It is noteworthy that Soham learned the fundamentals of chess under Vivek Bharti at the same academy from 2013 to 2020. In addition to being the first IM from J&K, Soham also holds a Commonwealth Gold and has achieved a career-high FIDE rating of 2412.
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