Ram, Priyanka emerge champions in National U-11 Chess C'ship

Top seeds Ram Aravind of Tamil Nadu and Priyanka Nutakki of Andhra Pradesh clinched the boys and girls titles of the National Under-11 Chess Championship, which concluded here today.
Ram defeated Barath M of Goa, while Priyanka beat Lakshmi C of Tamilnadu in the eleventh and final round of the event at the Ludlow Castle Sports Complex here.
Playing with black pieces, Ram faced some stiff resistance from his Goan rival but managed to secure full point to take his point tally to 10.
He won nine and drawn two in this eleven round Swiss System tournament to lift the coveted trophy with an unbeaten record.

In the girl's section, Priyanka easily overcame her final round rival without much struggle in 37 moves to register her tenth win in the tourney.
The only lose she suffered in the event was at the hands of Samridhaa Ghosh of West Bengal in the fourth round. Samridhaa finished fifth in the championship with seven and half points.

Vantika Agrawal brought cheers to home crowd by securing the runner-up position in the girl's section with nine points after beating Krystal Fernandes of Goa in the final round.
Odisha duo Salonika Saina and Anwesha Mishra tied for the third spot but better tie break score helped later to finish as second runner-up.

Meanwhile in the Open section, four players including local hope Aansh Gupta tied for the second spot with eight and half points but better Buccholz tie break score helped Rahul Srivatshav of Andhra Pradesh to finish second while second seed Saurabh Anand of Bihar, who beat Rahul in the final round to finish third.
Neelash Saha of West Bengal and Aansh Gupta of Delhi satisfied with fourth and fifth spot finish.
In a colourful closing ceremony, Bharat Singh Chauhan, CEO of All India Chess Federation give away the prizes in presence of AK Verma, Secretary Delhi Chess Association, Sudarshan Kumar, Secretary Himacal Pradesh Chess Association, Atul Kumar, Secretary Jammu & Kashmir Chess Association and Shambu Ved, Secretary Delhi Gujarati Samaj.