Nandhini, Anurag win Under 13 titles

Nandhini Saripalli (ELO 1857) beat Celianne Carvalho in an epic endgame struggle to win the Goa State Selection Under 13 Girls title by scoring 3.5/4 points. Celianne, who had performed creditably in the Chennai National 'B' was full of confidence, needed just a draw in the final game. However, Nandhini who had just beaten Pushpalata Mangal (1990) and Nabeela Farheen (2101) also in Chennai, proved to be a tough cookie and justified her top seeding to win in 65+ moves. Celianne finished second on 3 points ahead of Jessica Perreira who had the same score but had to remain content with third place because of inferior progressive score.

In the boys section top seeded Niraj Saripalli (1988) lost to third seeded Anurag Mhamal (1888) in the Scotch Opening to finish out of the reckoning completely. Thanks to this win, Anurag was first on 5.5/6 points and in the final encounter duely capitalised on his coach Akash Thakur's fine opening preparation borrowed from a Kasparov-Karpov game. Umang Kaisary (1839) beat Pranav Zantye (1795) to finish on 5/6 points and in second place. Second seeded Cyrus Perreira (1893) finished third after beating Agasti Tari in the final round.