East Singhbhum reigned supreme by bagging three top slots at the 16th Jharkhand State Chess Championship, which concluded at the eastern wing of JRD Tata Sports Complex in Jamshedpur on Thursday.

While Kumar Sankalp emerged champion in the boys under-9 category, Pracheta Agarwal clinched the title in the under-13 section for girls and Kumar Utkarsh topped in the under-13 category for boys.

Kaushika Kumari of Seraikela-Kharsawan claimed the title in the under-9 category for girls with 5 points.

Sankalp garnered 6 points while Pracheta secured 4. Utkarsh, on the other hand, had 5.5 points under his belt.

Sankalp edged out Ishant Kumar of Dhanbad (5 points) whereas Pracheta sailed past Ranchi's Sucharita Chakraborty (3 points). Utkarsh stood ahead of districtmate Satwik Rath, who scored 4 points.

Dyuti Chakraborty of East Singhbhum (4 points) finished behind Kaushika

Dhanbad's Archit Mittal ( 4 points) finished third in the boys under-9 category while East Singhbhum's Prakriti Singh (2 points) had to be satisfied with a third spot in the girls under-13 section. Shaswata Paul of West Singhbhum also managed third position in the boys under-13 group.

State food minister Saryu Roy was the chief guest who handed over the trophies to the winners in presence of All Jharkhand Chess Association (AJCA) secretary Pritam Singh and other functionaries.

The championship, which was organised by AJCA, also witnessed matches in the under-7 and under-11 groups earlier.

AJCA secretary Pritam Singh said the top three finishers in the under-9 and under-13 age groups will represent Jharkhand in the national championship to be held in Punjab (under-9) and Gujarat (under-13).

"There is no dearth of talent in the state. Proper coaching and exposure would bring more improvements in their performance," Singh said.