CHIRAG Lahoti in Open Group and Swara Borkhade in Girls Group reigned supreme in the Nagpur District Under-9 Open and Girls Selection Chess Championship 2023 organised by Chess Association Nagpur in a joint venture with GH Raisoni Sports and Cultural Foundation and Kalpana Prakash Welfare Foundation at Vivekanand Hall, Shraddha House, Kingsway, near Kasturchand Park on Sunday. Third seed Chirag annexed the title by way of a superior tie-break score over second seed Swaraj Mishra with 5.5 points from six rounds. Swaraj, who also scored identical points, was placed second. Top seed Arav Dhoot was pushed to the third position with 5 points to his credit.

In the girls section, Swara scored full 5 points from 5 rounds and won the championship by remaining unbeaten. Sanskruti Jambhulkar, Swara Rahul Gandhi and Vishwaja Deshmukh scored 4 points each and were placed from 2nd to 4th in the final list judged as per their tie-break scores. The fifth position was bagged by Anushka Deshpande who scored 3.5 points.

Chirag and Swaraj Mishra shall represent Nagpur district in Open Group and Swara Borkhade and Sanskruti Jambhulkar shall represent Nagpur district in Girls Group as regular selected players from Nagpur district in the Maharashtra State Under-9 Open and Girls Chess Championship scheduled to be held at GH Raisoni Institute of Management and Technology, Wadi Hingna Link Road, Nagpur from May 5-7. Due to spectacular performance of Nagpur’s star player Vedika Pal in the last year’s Asian Under-9 Chess Championship held at Sri Lanka, Nagpur district was entitled to field three more players this year in Girls Group. Swara Rahul Gandhi, Vishwaja Deshmukh and Anushka Deshpande were also selected to represent Nagpur district in Girls Group. Top 10 finishers in Under-9 Open Group and Top 10 from Under-9 Girls Group got trophies. Medals were also given to top players in Under-7 category.

Prizes were distributed by Narendra Jog and Dr Sarika Kadu. SS Soman, Working President, CAN, Bhushan Shriwas, Secretary and Chief Arbiter IA Deepak Chavan were present on the occasion. Shyam Agrawal conducted the programme and proposed a vote of thanks. Chavan was assisted by SNA Shyam Agrawal, SNA Prayas Ambade and Prathamesh Machave.