World Youth Chess: Pranav Anand, AR Ilamparthi clinch top prize

MAMAIA (ROMANIA): India’s Pranav Anand and AR Ilamparthi on Friday emerged title-winners in the Open Under-16 and Under-14 categories respectively in the World Youth Chess Championship here.

The top-seeded Anand, who on Thursday became the country’s 76th Grandmaster, scored nine points from 11 rounds to emerge clear winner. He was half-a-point ahead of the rest of the field. Anand’s compatriot M Pranesh, who was the second seed, finished joint-third along with three others with eight points.

Anand remained unbeaten through the 11 rounds and posted seven wins apart from four draws. He drew his 11th and last round game against France’s Droin Augustin after scoring over Armenia’s Emin Ohanyan in Round 10. Pranesh recorded six wins and four draws. However, a defeat at the hands of Ohanyan in round six hurt his title chances.

Like Anand, Ilamparthi was half-a-point ahead of the rest of the field with 9.5 points from 11 rounds. While losing to Ukraine’s Artem Berin in the fourth round, he won nine games and drew one to clinch the top prize. In the Open Under-18 event, Sohan Kamotra took the 14th place with 7 points while S Harshad (6.5 points) had to be content with 24th place.

Among girls, Mrittika Mallick finished fourth in the Under-14 section with 8 points while Anupam M Sreekumar and HG Pragnya secured seventh and eighth place respectively. In the Girls Under-18 event, S Kanishka, with 7.5 points, took sixth place while Rakshitta Ravi finished eighth, also with the same number of points.