Jammu: The daughter of the soil, Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Arushi Kotwal of Bhaderwah in Doda district of Jammu and Kashmir scripted history by winning medals in the the Commonwealth Rapid Chess Championship and Blitz Commonwealth Chess Championship held recently in Sri Lanka.
As per the information received here, Arushi won one gold medal in Commonwealth Rapid Chess Championship-2024 held on August 31 to September 1 while Silver Medal was won by WCM Sanudula K M Dahamdi of Sri Lanka and Bronze Medal won by Gamage Desandhi Dhihansa of Sri Lanka.
In Rapid India won 13 Gold Medals, 13 Silver Medals and seven Bronze Medals followed by Sri Lanka one Gold Medal, three Silver Medals and nine Bronze Medals and one Gold Medal by Singapur and Zambia each.
In Blitz Commonwealth Chess Championship, WFM Kalyani Sirin of India won Gold Medal, Silver Medal was won by Gamage Desandhi Dhihansa of Sri Lanka and Bronze Medal was won by WCM Arushi Kotwal of India (Jammu and Kashmir).
The Commonwealth Blitz Chess Championship-2024 held on August 29.
In the Blitz, India won 11 Gold Medals, 15 Silver Medals and eight bronze Medals followed by Sri Lanka five Gold Medals, two Silver Medals and eight Bronze Medals and one Gold Medal by Zambia.
Similarly India also dominated Standard followed by Srilanka.
This time five countries namely India, Mauritius, Singapur, Sri Lanka and Zambia participated in the Championship comprising 282 players in 18 different categories.
WCM is the first player from J&K to win a Medal in Junior (U-20) category in the Commonwealth or any International Chess Championship (Asian or World), read a handout.
In January 2024, WCM Arushi Kotwal won Bronze Medal in the All India Inter-university Chess Championship held in Gujarat and presently she is pursuing her M.A in Political Science from the Department of Social Sciences, University of Delhi, it read.
