Mary Ann Gomes

Kozhikode: Pursuing a no-defeat record successfully, top seed Mary Ann Gomes of Calcutta lifted the girls title with a round to spare in the national sub-junior super league chess championship here on Tuesday.

Playing black, the overnight sole leader easily defeated V. K. Sindhu (TN) in the 12th and penultimate round in a Dutch defence in 30 moves after settling for a draw against another Tamil Nadu girl, N. Raghavi in the earlier round.

Maharashtra’s Soumya Swaminathan and P Sivasankari who split points among themselves, finished with 8.5 and eight points to take the second and third spots, respectively, and ensure a national berth along with Gomes for the youth Olympiad to be held in July.

The fourth and fifth qualifying positions could be decide only tomorrow with Raghavi and Rajadarshini, both logged at 6.5 points each, besides J. Rajasurya (all TN) with 5.5 points vying for minor honours.

Easlier, Tamil Nadu’s Arun Prasad justified his top billing among boys emerging champion in the tenth round. (PTI)