Suvrajit Saha wins National 'B' chess
Suvrajit Saha of Bengal won the 40th National 'B' chess championship after a draw against International Master Lanka Ravi of PSCB in the final round in Jalandhar on Sunday.
Saha tallied a maximum of 10 points in the championship after his fourth short draw in the 13 rounds he played in.
It was a near effortless victory for the Kolkatan, who led
the field right from the beginning.
IM Sunderrajan Kidambi of Tamil Nadu finished runner-up
on 9.5 points, having the best progressive tie-break score
amongst a group of 14 players.
Kidambi played a quick draw against teammate M R
Venkatesh, who also made the grade by finishing in the top 12
who qualify for the next National 'A' chess championship
scheduled early next year.
The third place went to triple Grandmaster norm holder G
B Prakash of Bank Sports Board after he also settled for a draw
with Arvind Shastri of Karnatka, who finished a creditable
fifth.
Prathamesh Mokal of Maharashtra and S Satyapragyan of
Indian Airlines were the other two newcomers in the next
National 'A' besides Shastri and Venkatesh by virtue of a
superior tie-break.
Of the two, Prathamesh had it easy in the last round,
settling for a draw with IM Tejas Bakre, who finished seventh
while Satyapragyan had to sweat it out before putting it
across Poobesh Anand of Tamil Nadu.
