Grandmaster-in-waiting Abhijit Gupta of Bharat Petroleum won his second successive and third National Junior chess crown after settling for a quick draw with Vishnu Prasanna in the 11th and final round in Aurangabad.
Abhijit finished with an impressive tally of 19 points out of a possible 11 and won the event, leaving behind Prasanna, who secured the second place with 8.5 points on a better tie-break score.
"It really feels good to have won this championship for the third time but now I would like to train my sights on the World junior championship that starts in a few days time at Armenia," said Abhijit after winning the crown.
Deep Sengupta defeated B Adhiban in the final round to finish third while the fourth place went to T Abhay, who caused a flutter in the final round by beating S P Sethuraman.
Despite the loss, Adhiban made it to the Indian junior team by finishing fifth, while the last spot was filled in by local favourite Swapnil Dhopade.
It turned out to be an excellent event for Abhijit as he also equalled the national record for junior triumphs, which was held by GM Abhijeet Kunte who won it consecutively from 1995 to 1997.
The Bhlwara lad was unbeaten throughout the championship and conceded just four draws apart from seven victories to come out trumps.
Important results (final round): Abhijit Gupta (9) drew with Vishnu Prasanna (8.5), Deep Sengupta (8.5) beat B Adhiban (8); T Abhay (8.5) beat S P Sethuraman (7); S Dhopade (8) drew with Ashwin Jayaram (8); D Sai Srinivas (7) lost to T Purushothaman (8).
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