Jha wins National 'B' chess championship

Vijaywada:

International Master Sriram Jha of LIC claimed his second National 'B' Chess title with quick draw against IM S Kidambi of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board in the final round championship here today. Jha, at 10 points, was tied with Saptarshi Roy of Goodricke National Chess Academy, who sprang a major surprise by defeating top seed Grandmaster R B Ramesh of PSPB, but was declared winner on the basis of his much superior progressive score. The Kolkata player, who earned a full point from his victory to be the joint top scorer, had to content with the second position in the 42nd edition of the championship. In a 14-way tie for the third place, Andhra sensation and Women-Grandmaster-in-waiting Dronavalli Harika's progressive score happened to be the best and she was adjudged the second runner-up in the 326-player event. Apart from Jha, Roy and Harika the remaining 11 berths at stake for the National 'A' championship went to IM M R Venkatesh (PSPB), Abhijeet Gupta (Rajasthan), IM Prathamesh Mokal (Bank Sports Board), Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (West Bengal), IM Roktim Bandyopadhyay (West Bengal), Kidambi (PSPB), Suvrajit Saha (WB), IM Deepan Chakravarthy (TN), IM Rahul Shetty (Indian Airlines), Vishal Sareen (LIC) and IM P Konguvel (PSPB). (PTI)