Rohit, Saheli emerge champions

Asian under-12 silver medallist G Rohit grabbed the boys' under-14 title, while Saheli Nath emerged champion in the under-14 girls' category at the end of the 10th and penultimate round in the RAMCO 15th National under-12 girls and under-14 boys' chess championships in Chennai on Wednesday.

Andhra Pradesh's Rohit tallied nine points from 10 rounds, while Saheli Nath, from West Bengal, with 8.5 points, took a one point lead over her nearest rivals.

Since both Rohit and Saheli Nath have good progressive scores they were adjudged champions, irrespective of the final round's outcome.

Rohit tamed Akshay Raj Kishore in a Sicilian defence of Sozin attack, winning in 38 moves.

Rohit was followed by Sriram Sarja of Karnataka, Vijay Puranik (Maharashtra) and Deep Sen Gupta of AICF, all of whom have eight points each.

Mary Ann Gomes of Goodricke National Chess Academy started with a bird's opening, but failed to complete the requisite 40 moves in two hours and conceded a full point to Saheli.

Following Saheli were three players, N Raghavi and M Rajadarshini, both from Tamil Nadu and J Megha of Karnataka, on 7.5 points each.

It was an unlucky outing for Ramya Krishna, who lost to Asian silver medallist V K Sindhu of Tamil Nadu in the girls' under-12 section.

Playing white, Ramya mishandled the Reti opening to lose the game on her 40th move. Her first loss in the tournament helped K L Praneetha of Andhra Pradesh take the sole lead with nine points. She was closely followed by Ramya. on 8.5 points.

The penultimate round in the boys' under-12 category saw three players - Vijay Keerthi (Karnataka), C R G Krishna (Andhra Pradesh) and Subodh Lakhey (Maharashtra) emerge joint leaders, with 8.5 points. They were followed by Y Sandheep, P Saravana Krishnan and S Saikrishna on eight points apiece.