Kruttika wins Jr. Nat. girls' chess

Third seed Kruttika Nadig of Maharashtra clinched the 19th National Junior girl's chess championship on a better progressive score after a three-way tie with second seed Tania Sachdev of Delhi and defending champion N Raghavi of Tamil Nadu in Kozhikode on Tuesday.

Facing International Woman Master Tania, who shared the lead with her overnight, in the crucial ninth and final round, Kruttika managed to split the point after 21 moves and the two finished at the top with seven points each.

A three-way tie ensued after seventh seeded Raghavi overcame the Pirc defence of Saheli Nath of West Bengal in 41 moves to also aggregate seven points. However, Kruttika was declared the champion on the basis of her better progressive score.

Top seed IWM Eesha Karvade (Maharasthra), who required an outright victory to claim the title, could manage only a draw against Kiran Monisha Mohanty of Orissa and with 6.5 points ended a tame fourth behind Tania and Raghavi.

The winner and runner-up have assured themselves of a place in next year's World Junior and Asian Junior girls' tournaments respectively. It was officially stated a decision would be taken later on whether the third and fourth place finishers would also get an entry to the prestigious events.

While Kruttika walked away with a prize of Rs 14,500, Tania and Raghavi became richer by Rs.9,700 and Rs.6,000 respectively.

Important results (ninth and final round): Kruttika Nadig (Mah) 7 drew with Tania Sachdev (Del) 7; N Raghavi (TN) 7 bt Saheli Nath (WB) 6; Eesha Karvade (Mah) 6.5 drew with Kiran M Mohanty (Ori) 6; M Rajadarshini (TN) 6.5 bt P Sivasankari (TN) 5.5; Nabeela Farheen (TN) 6.5 bt H Sowmya (ACA) 5.5; Mary Ann Gomes (GNCA) 6 bt Lakshmy Praneetha (CCA) 5; Iswarya Shobana (GLDN) 6 bt Dhyani B Dave (Guj) 5; Baisakhi Das (Jha) 5 lost to Ramya Krishna (AP) 6; Supriya Maji (WB) 6 bt Kajri Choksi (Guj) 5; Soumya Swaminathan (Mah) 5.5 bt C Delphin (MCA) 4.5.

Final placing: