Minhazuddin Ahmed Sagar makes a move at Gorky Sadan on Monday. Picture by Santosh Ghosh

Calcutta: Jain Shrenhik Daklia of Yugantar Public School, Chhatisgarh emerged as the champion with 10 points, with a last round win against Sandipan Chatterjee, in The Telegraph Schools’ Chess Championship at Alekhine Chess Club in Gorky Sadan on Monday.

Daklia, playing against Sandipan Chatterjee, of Sree Jain Vidyalaya, opted for the Reti opening and had a clear space advantage on the queenside. He had little difficulty thereafter in converting his advantage into a win.

Minhazuddin Ahmed Sagar of Bangladesh prevailed over Debayan Majumdar of St James to take the second place with 9.5 points. Minazuddin, decided to play safe by opting for the exchange variation against the French defence of Debayan, which has a reputation of being drawish in nature. Debayan castled on the opposite wing and sacrificed a piece, but it proved disastrous for him.

Soumya Thakurta, who had led the field till the ninth round, had to be content with the third place on nine points. Soumya, playing white, against Suman Basu of Madhyamgram Boys’ HS squandered a winning position which arose from the Sicilian Dragon. Soumya had two passed pawns on the queenside in a minor piece ending which should have ensured an easy win, but he misplayed the ending and lost.

St James School, which had already ensured the best school’s trophy, took their tally to 33 points. Sunbeam School, Varanasi, who totalled 27.5 points were declared the second best school.

TOP BOARD RESULTS

Jain Shrenhik Daklia (10) bt Sandipan Chatterjee (8.5); Minhazuddin Ahmed (9.5) bt Debayan Majumdar (8); Soumya Thakurta (9) drew with Suman Basu (8.5); Bitan Banerjee (8.5) drew with Debaditta Sinha Biswas (8.5); Kh. Sanjoy Singh (8.5) drew with Debasish Das (8.5); Saurav Chakraborti (8) drew with Abhratanu Dutta (8); Antarip Roy (8.5) bt Amritesh Ray (7.5); Debanjan Das (8)drew with Subhransu Mohan Satpathy (8);Satyajit Kundu (7.5) lost to Subhabrata Das (8.5); Ali, Mohammed Imran (8) bt Shuvra Ghosh (7); Jain Shrayansh Daklia (8) bt Trailokya Nanda (7); S. Ashwini (8) bt Saurav Anand (7); Mohana Sengupta (7) lost to Hemant Sharma (8); Farjana Hossain Anne (7) lost to Swayams Mishra (8); Pallabi Roy (7) lost to Menhajul Hoda (8).

Naresh Kumar chief guest

India’s former Davis Cup captain Naresh Kumar will be the chief guest at the prize distribution ceremony, to be held at Gorky Sadan at 4.30 pm on Tuesday.