19-Dec-2009 115
Orissa boy Utkal Ranjan Sahoo beat Karma Pandya (Gujarat) in the 11th and last round to emerge champion in the 33rd National Under-13 Chess Championship at New Delhi today. This was the maiden National title for Rourkela youngster Utkal, who has the distinction of winning a silver medal in the under-10 category of the Asian Youth Chess Championship at Teheran in 2006.
Utkal topped the table with nine points, posting eight wins, two draws and one defeat. He pipped Girish A Koushik (Karnataka) and Vaibhav Suri (Delhi) in the Bucholz tie-break system after the three playres finished with identical score.
Among six other Orissa boys, Ashutosh Mohapatra (7.5) finished 18th, Rakesh Kumar Nayak (7) 31st, Rakesh Kumar Jena (6) 72nd, Bhaskar Sri Viswaroopanand (5.5) 117th, Sambit Subhankar Ray (5) 124th and Mohit Sahoo (5) 129th.
