Bringing more sporting laurels to the state, Tripura’s chess wonder girl Arshiya Das has scored a hattric of gold medals in the just-concluded Commonwealth chess championship  held in Colombo, capital of Sri Lanka yesterday. Arshiya is northeast’s first candidate master chess player among girls. According to sources in Tripura Chess Association (TCA), Arshiya had earlier won two gold medals in ‘Blitz’ and ‘Rapid’ section of Commonwealth chess in the under-14 age category. But yesterday she made a clean sweep, winning her third gold medal in the classical time-controlled chess. 

An official of TCA said that Arshiya had scored 6.5 out of a total 7 points in the classical section of chess and remained undefeated in this section. In the last or seventh round played yesterday in Colombo , Arshiya easily inflicted a facile win over her Sri Lankan rival. 

Coming close to the great achievement of Arshiya, another chess prodigy from Tripura, Aradhya Das also became undefeated champion in the classical section of Commonwealth chess in the under-10 age group. Aradhya had narrowly missed medals in the ‘Rapid’ and ‘Blitz’ sections but she played scintillating chess in the classical section and won the championship without any defeat yesterday. Aradhya is also the youngest woman candidate master of chess in the Northeastern region of India.