Mysuru: Arnav Muralidhar and K G R Anagha, both from Mysuru, emerged as champions in boys and girls U-9 Karnataka State Open Chess Championship respectively. The championship was organised by Mysore Chess Centre on behalf of United Karnataka Chess Association at Hotel Paradise in Mysuru.
Arnav beat Apoorva Kamble of Bengaluru in the final round and scored a total of 8 points. Sachith Katti, Abhyuday Santhosh, Arhan Chethan Anand were tied for 2nd position with 7.5 pts each. But due to better tiebreak score Sachith of Bengaluru was declared runner-up.
Anagha scored victory against Valety Shwetha of Bengaluru in the final round to secure 8.5 pts out of 9 rounds. Shefali A N of Mandya split the points with Yashaswi S Kiran to secure the second place.
Hanumantha R, Joint Secretary, All India Chess Federation; Vikram Das, Director of Dasprakash Group of Hotels; Sreeram Kote, former state champion; Harsha Kikkeri, Chess Robot BEAM Developer and Manjunath Jain, Joint Secretary, UKCA distributed the prizes.
