Jalandhar: Suvrajit Saha of Bengal won the 40th edition of the National 'B' chess championship easily with a draw against International Master Lanka Ravi of PSCB in the final round that concluded on Sunday.

Saha tallied a maximum of 10 points in the championship and this was his fourth short draw in the 13 rounds he played in.

It was a near effortless victory for the Kolkatan, who led the field right from the beginning and hung on to it till the end.

International Master Sunderrajan Kidambi of Tamil Nadu finished runners up on 9.5 points having the best progressive tiebreak score amongst a group of 14 players.

Kidambi played a quick draw against teammate M R Venkatesh, who also made the grade by finishing in the top 12 to qualify for the next National 'A' chess championship scheduled early next year.

The third place went to triple Grand Master norm holder G B Prakash of Bank Sports Board as he also settled for a draw with Arvind Shastri of Karnatka, who finished a creditable fifth.

Prathamesh Mokal of Maharashtra and S Satyapragyan of Indian Airlines became the other two newcomers in the next National 'A' besides Shastri and Venkatesh by virtue of a superior tie-break.

Of the two, Prathamesh had it easy in the last round, settling for a draw with IM Tejas Bakre who finished seventh while Satyapragyan had to sweat it out before putting it across Poobesh Anand of Tamil Nadu.

PTI