Chennai, Dec 23 (Chess News) India's V S Raahul and B Savitha Shri won the boys and girls titles in the Asian Junior chess championship in Sri Lanka on Thursday.

Both the players finished a point clear of the rest of the field to emerge champions as the Indians dominated.

The 18-year old Raahul scored 7.5 points and finished ahead of compatriots Mitraba Guha (7 points) and G B Harshavardhan (6.5 points), who took the second and third places respectively.

Indian players K Raghunandan and Vardaan Nagpal took fourth and sixth spots in the final standings.

Raahul remained unbeaten in the nine-round event and scored six wins to go with three draws. He also secured his maiden GM norm.

Guha, who became a Grandmaster last month, was the top-seed and a defeat to Raahul in the fifth round and a draw aginst Sri Lanka's Ranindu Liyanage in round two, hurt his chances. In the girls section, Savitha Shri drew her ninth round game against Chaindi Attanayake (Sri Lanka) to finish with seven points and on top.

Fellow Indian player K Priyanka took the second place, ahead of Iran's Anousha Mahdian, though, the two finished with 6.5 points due to a better tie-break score.

The 14-year old Savitha Shri also won her maiden Woman Grandmaster norm. She was unbeaten in the tournament, won five games and drew two. 

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News Source : PTI