The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Navin Kanna, Saranya triumph

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Tuesday, Jul 22, 2008
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Sport - Chess

Navin Kanna, Saranya triumph

Arvind Aaron

WINNERS: Champions T.U. Navin Kanna and J. Saranya pose with the chief guest V.B. Chandrasekhar.

Chennai: Navin Kanna and J. Saranya, both representing Tiruvallur district won the FIDE-rated SRM Tamil Nadu junior chess championship for boys and girls that concluded at the SRM University at Kattankulathur near here on Monday.

Navin Kanna, a third year student from Guindy Engineering, finished with 8.5 points along with top seed Shyam Nikhil of SDRM Nightingale School. But he pipped the latter to the title with a better tie-break score. Shyam Nikhil outplayed Arun Karthik in 29 moves with white from a Pirc defence to tie for first place. Arun Karthik (SRM) finished third.

“My eyes were on Arun Karthik’s board. When he slipped into a losing position (against Shyam Nikhil), I offered a draw and got it in 20 moves,” said Navin Kanna.

Navin Kanna was the only undefeated player and he won six games and drew five to win the 37th edition of the Tamil Nadu junior championship.

Saranya, 14, a ninth standard student from Velammal School won the 22nd edition of the girls’ section with an aggressive final round win over A. Sithalatchumi of Madurai in 46 moves. She finished first with 9.5 points to gain close to 50 Elo points. The top four advance to play in the National junior later this year.

Former Indian cricketer V.B. Chandrasekhar gave away the S. Ramakrishnan Memorial Rolling Trophy for boys and V.V. Rajamani Memorial Trophy for girls and cash awards totalling Rs. 40,000.

Final prize list (tie-break order): Boys: 1-2. T.U. Navin Kanna, P. Shyam Nikhil 8.5/11; 3. R. Arun Karthik 8; 4-9. R. Premnath, M.M. Anandh Raj, S. Ganesh Babu, N. Aravind Subramanian, S. Ramesh, T.R. Shanmuganathan 7.5 each; 10-12. P. Lokesh, V.A.V. Rajesh, A. Kedarnath 7 each.

Girls: 1. J. Saranya 9.5/11; 2. N. Raghavi 9; 3-4. S. Harini, P.K. Jayashree 7.5 each; 5-8. R. Visalatchi, G. Apurva, V. Janu, S. Anushya 7 each; 9. A. Sithalatchumi 6.5; 10-12. C.H. Savetha, A. Akshaya, M. Poojakanth 6 each.

Important round eleven results: Boys: Shyam Nikhil bt Arun Karthik, Navin Kanna drew with Aravind Subramanian, Anandh Raj drew with R. Premnath.

Girls: A. Sithalatchumi lost to J. Saranya, M. Poojakanth lost to N. Raghavi, S. Harini drew with V. Janu, R. Visalatchi lost to P.K. Jayashree.

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