Nagpur's Om, Neeti are state U-13 chess champions

NAGPUR: Overnight leaders and talented city chess players Om Vitalkar and Neeti Tatiya emerged champions in the Arunrao Kalode Memorial Maharashtra State U-13 Fide Rating Chess tournament, organized by the Nagpur Chess Academy, which concluded at the Gulmohar Hall, Khamla, here on Thursday.
Om clinched the boys title with eight points to his credit. Fellow Nagpurian Salil Deogade finished runner-up with 7.5 points.Top seed Bhavik Bharambe had to be satisfied with third place.
In the ninth and final round, Om and Salil opted for a draw. On the second board, top seed Bhavik thumped Kedar Morvekar, while Krishnater Kushager prevailed over Sankalp Gupta.
In the girls section, Neeti garnered eight points to bag the crown pipping Faibhavi Jadhav to the second spot. Another city girl Mrudul Dehankar finished third.
Pallavi Darade, Rambhau Khandwe, Veenatai Kalode, Ashish Kalode and VK Trivedi distributed the prizes.
Final standings
Boys: 1. Om Vitalkar (8, 51), 2. Salil Deogade (7.5, 52.5), 3. Bhavik Bharambe (7.5, 50.5), 4. Krishnater Kushager (7.5, 48.5) 5. Kedar Morvekar (7, 52), 6. Vaibhav Raut (7, 52), 7. Nishit Singh (7, 51.5), 8. Aditya Samant (7, 49.5), 9. Raunak Sadhwani (7, 49), 10. Ameya Shrivastava (7, 48).
Girls: 1. Neeti Tatiya (8, 45.5), 2.Vaibhavi Jadhav (7, 47), 3. Mrudul Dehankar (7, 46), 4. Srishti Pandey (6.5, 51.5), 5. Ekisha Basu (6.5, 46), 6. Tanya Pandey (6, 47.5), 7. Khushi Surana (6, 47), 8. Seeya Thakare (6, 45.5), 9. Khushi Khandelwal (6, 44), 10. Eesha Sarda (6, 43.5).