Former National under- 13 champion International Master Harsha Bharathakoti of Telangana and women International Master Mahalakshmi from Tamil Nadu won the Khadi India National Junior Chess Championship for boys and girls respectively.
The 11-round championship concluded at the Patliputra sports complex here on Monday.
IM Harsha Bharathakoti tied with Karthik Venkatraman of Andhra Pradesh with 9.5 points. He was declared the winner because he had defeated Karthik in their individual encounter. While Karthik finished second, International Master Krishna Teja N of Andhra Pradesh finished third with 8 points.
In the final round, former world under-12 chess champion WIM Mahalakshmi outwitted Rutuja Bakshi of Maharashtra to bag the crown in the 32nd edition, The Maharashtra girl scored 9 points followed by Sakshi Chitlange of Maharashtra with 8.5 points Karnataka's Isha Sharma also scored 8.5 points, but she need to be content with the third spot because she lost in her direct contest to Isha Sharma. In the boys section, reigning champion Kumar Gaurav of Bihar got the 19th position.
Players shortlisted on the basis of their rankings in the championship will represent the country in the world age-group events.
Rajgir to have sports academy
For the promotion of the sports Bihar will soon have a sports academy at Rajgir close to the upcoming Nalanda University. The state government has already approved plan outlay of the academy for Rs 600 crore and land also acquired, said Chief Minister Nitish Kumar at the prize distribution ceremony.
Expressing happiness over the holding of the chess championship, a first ever event in the State, Nitish said many projects for the promotion of sports were being undertaken and work on many of them was going on. Sports stadium were being constructed across the State on demand of the youths. "There is no dearth of sports talent in Bihar," he said.
lauding the efforts of the organisers of the 9-days event which was attended by 192 participants from across the country, the CM stressed on the need for coordination between education and sport.
Khadi and Village Industries Commission chairman VK Saxena was also present.