Himanshu, Kavitha reign supreme

Chennai, November 18: Himanshu Sharma of Haryana (7.5 points) and JE Kavitha (Tamil Nadu) (seven points) won the boys and girls crown with...

Chennai, November 18: Himanshu Sharma of Haryana (7.5 points) and JE Kavitha (Tamil Nadu) (seven points) won the boys and girls crown with a round to spare in the Indian Oil-Servo National Under-18 Chess Championship at Ambedkar Auditorium, Avadi, here on Saturday.

Kavitha retained the girls title displaying confidence and stability in her play. The 17-year-old Christ King Girls HSS student defeated compatriot H Nilavoli, who erred in the Giouco Piano, wasting a few moves and lost a pawn in the 19th move. Kavitha wrapped the game in the rook and pawn ending.

Kavitha, who had been training intensely under the tutelage of Hariharan for the last three years, defeated rivals with aplomb and made fewer mistakes in her games.

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M Kasturi (TN) ended the title hopes of teammate Y Prathiba with a convincing win. Kasturi with six points will be aiming to finish second.

Boys: Himanshu Sharma (Har) 7.5 bt MR Venkatesh (ECC) 5; Prathamesh Mokal (Mah) 5.5 lost to P Mahesh Chandran (TN) 6.5; RR Laxman (TN) 5.5 drew Praveenkumar (TN) 5.5; Arghyadip Das (GNCA) 6 bt JM Utarid (Kar) 5; Deepan Chakravarthy (TN) 4.5 lost to Ram S Krishnan (Capa) 5.5; Soumya Ranjan Mishra (Ori) 5.5 bt Poobesh Anand (TN) 4.5; Bharath Gupta (Raj) 4.5 lost to Pradip Ghosh (WB) 5.5; Preetham Sharma (TN) 4.5 drew G Rohit (AP) 4.5; R Siddharth (TN) 5 bt K Anbazhagan (Pdy) 4; Ramachandran (Kar) 4 lost to R Muthukumaran (T’Nagar) 5; TU Navin Khanna (TN) 4 lost to Kukku Ramesh (Ker) 5; Raghuram Balaji (CCI) 4.5 drew Sudhir K Sinha (Bih) 4; R Uttam Sharma (TN) 3.5 lost to RS Prasanna (TN) 4.5; TS Pradeep (Kar) 4.5 bt Phanindra Reddy (TN) 3.5; Ranvir S Bhatti (MP) 4.5 bt Rahul Sangma (Bih) 3.5.

Girls: H Nilavoli (TN) 5 lost to JE Kavitha (TN) 7; M Kasturi (TN) 6 bt Y Prathiba (TN) 5.5; Baisakhi Das (WB) 4.5 lost to Nabeela Farheen (TN) 5.5; CV Rajalakshmi (TN) 5 drew P Malarselvi (TN) 4.5; Amruta S Mokal (VCA) 5.5 bt P Sumathi (TN) 4; Anuradha Beniwal (Har) 5 bt B Uma Maheswari (TN) 4; N Sandhya (Ker) 5 bt Anuprita Patil (Mah) 4; Prajeesha (Ker) 4.5 bt Soumya Swaminathan (Mah) 3.5; P Uthra (TN) 3.5 lost to P Priya (ECC) 4.5; S Ramya (Pdy) 4.5 bt P Sivasankari (TN) 3; PN Harini (TN) 3 lost to Priya (Bih) 4; Aneeqha Tahseen (TN) 3 drew E Lakshmi (Kar) 3; J Megha (Kar) 3.5 bt BK Srivani (AP) 2.5; T Anusha (TN) 0 lost to V Krithika (TN) 3.5; Swethanarayan (Capa) 2.5 bt M Monogna (AP) 2.