Chess prodigies Divya Deshmukh, Rounak Sadhwani and handball player Samiksha Itankar have been selected for the prestigious Shiv Chhatrapati award instituted by the State government. At the same time, at the age of 13 years they have become the youngest award recipients in Maharashtra.
Along with Divya and Rounak other three from Nagpur division have also been selected for the award. Since the age of seven both Divya and Rounak have stamped their supremacy in the game of chess. Both have excelled as number of national and international tournament. Divya got the WFM norm at the age of seven only and become youngest player to achieve this norm. She is now Woman International Master (WIM).
IM Rounak too dominated various national and international competitions. Considering their achievements at the tender age, they have been directly selected for the Shiv Chhatrapati awards. Divya won the gold medal in Under-10 girls section in the World Chess Championship held at Durban. She also won gold in blitz form of the game during Asian Youth Championship at Tashkand. She is the student of BVM whereas Rounak studies at Centre Point School.
Samiksha, Vaishnavi, Bhandarkar too honoured.
Handball player Samiksha Itankar, cyclist from Bhandara Vaishnavi Gabhane were also selected for Shiv Chhatrapati award for the year 2017-18. Among the organizers Bhandara’s Rajendra Bhandarkar was selected.
