Kidambi is national junior Chess champion

Second seeded International Master Sunder Rajan Kidambi pocketed the second national title of his career when he annexed the 31st National junior Chess Championship crown in Panji, Goa on Sunday.

Trailing Kidambi, who finished on nine points after 11 rounds, were R Preetham Sharma of Tamil Nadu and S Satyapragyan of Indian Airlines on 8.5 points apiece. However, Sharma was declared runner-up by virtue of a better progressive score than Satyapragyan.

Kidambi played an attacking game today to beat Deepan Chakravarthy in Caro Kann defence. When Deepan weakened his Kingside to gain an attack, Kidambi struck the first blow by sacrificing a piece.

A desperate Deepan sacrificed a piece when Kidambi exchanged all the pieces and emerged victorious.

Satyapragyan was held to a fighting draw by Akash Thakur in Sicilian Defence. Akash tried an unsuccessful attack and had a weak pawn structure but Satyapragyan fumbled in time pressure and had to split the point after 62 moves.

This gave an excellent opportunity to Sharma to catch up with Satyapragyan on 8.5 points. He beat A M Rajkumar(Manipur in Sicilian Defence.