Om Kadam and Anupam Sreekumar are National Under-09 Champion

Photos: ChessBase India

The National Under 9 Open & Girls Chess Championship  2017 was held at the Shri Ram Global School in Gurugram, Haryana. In the Open section, Om Kadam from Maharashtra emerged as the champion while Anupam Sreekumar from Kerala won the title in the Girls’ section.

In quite a dramatic finish, the leaders in both Open and Girls sections lost their respective games thus losing the title chances.

Kadam Om Manish (MAH) became National Under-09 Champion after defeating John Veny Akkarakarn (KER) in the eleventh and final round. John Veny and Kadam Om tied for the top spot, a better-tie break score made the latter to lift the trophy. John Veny settled for second place and Viswak Sen M (TEL) who defeated top-seeded  Ilamparthi A R (TN) secured third place.

Meanwhile, in the girls’ section, Anupam M Sreekumar (KER) clinched the title after drawing Aashi Upadhyay (RAJ) the n final round. Rajanya Datta (WB), the sole-leader of the tournament had a heart-breaking final round loss against WCM Shefali A N (KAR).  Three players tied for pole position with 9 points but better tie break score helped Anupam to finish first while Shefali and Rajanya satisfied for second and third position respectively.

Final Ranking after 11 Rounds [Open]

Final Ranking after 11 Rounds [Girls]