Divya Deshmukh is the golden girl for India

By T.J. Suresh Kumar

Divya Deshmukh drew with top seeded Rakshitta Ravi in the eleventh and final round to win the title in the U-12 girls section at the world cadets chess championship 2017 that concluded on Thursday at Pocos de Caldas in Brazil.

Divya scored a total of 9.5 points to give India its only medal in the world cadets chess championship this year. Rakshitta Ravi finished eighth with 7 points. Bhagyashree Patil finished 15th with 6.5 points. Dhayana Patil scored 6 points to finish 18th.

In the U-12 open section, M. Pranesh scored 7.5 points to finish 11th. S. Rohith Krishna finished 16th with 7 points. Manish Anto Cristiano scored only 6 points to finish 32nd.

In the U-10 girls section, M. Sahithi Varshini finished seventh with 7.5 points. B. Savitha Shri scored 7 points to finish 10th. Rohilla Shivika finished 19th with six points.

In the U-10 open section, H. Bharath Subramaniyam drew his game in the last round to finish fourth with 8 points. Dev Shah defeated Shahil Dey to finish sixth with 8 points. Shahil came 13th with 7 points, while Praneeth Vuppala finished 21st with 6.5 points.

In the U-8 girls category, A. N. Shefali finished 11th with 6.5 points. Sneha Halder and R. Saineha scored 6 points to finish 17th and 19th respectively.

In the U-8 open section, A. R. Ilamparthi drew his final round game to finish fourth with 8 points. Priansh Das and Daaevik Wadhawan finished 10th and 11th with 7.5 and 7 points respectively.