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Bhubaneswar, June 14: Asirwad Swain of Nayagarh and Rutumbara Bidhar of Khurda emerged champions in the open and girls’ segment respectively in the Orissa state U-15 Chess Championships at the DS Law College in Kendrapara, Sunday.
Asirwad got past overnight leader Ansuman Samal in the sixth round to emerge as the leader and then defeated Nilsu Patnaik in the seventh and final round to consolidate his position with 6.5 points. Sangram Keshari Sahoo (six points) and Ansuman (5.5 points) finished second and third respectively.
In the girls’ category, Rutumbara needed a draw in her last round match against Sreejita Khuntia and she achieved it to win the event with 4.5 points out of a possible five. Sreejita and Pratyusha Priyadarshini finished tied second while Sovan Sonali Jena and Anisha Mishra were joint third.
Manish, Miracle shine
Manish Kumar moved up a place to second position but his state counterparts Aditya Anurakta Mohanty and Prasmit Prayanshu slipped to joint fifth position in the U-9 National Chess Championships at Ahmedabad, Sunday.
Manish comfortably overcame Nikhil Magizlan in the sixth round, but Aditya and Prasmit suffered embarrassing defeats against Arora Honi and Dev Shah respectively.
In the girls’ segment, Miracle Panda and P Sairupa both registered wins but Bijayalaxmi Barik lost her match.