Humpy ensured her championship by playing a safe draw against Manjula James (Ker). She aggregated 7.5 points out of 9, followed by Tania Sachdev (Del) with 7 points.

On the top board, Humpy, playing white transposed into a Queens Gambit, declined exchange variation against Manjula. Humpy exchanged queens and two minor pieces to leave Manjula with a bad bishop. Humpy needed a draw and she agreed to it in 28 moves.

Harikrishna too ensured his championship with a safe draw against second seed RR Laxman (TN) in the final round. He got 8 points out of 9, and half point above Venkatesh (TN) and Valay Parikh (Guj) who were placed second and third respectively.

In a Queens Gambit declined game, Laxman castled on the queen wing and saddled black with an isolated pawn on the d file. Harikrishna tried toplay on the queen-side. However, Laxman managed to exchange queens and the players agreed to a draw in 19 moves.

While Humpy and Harikrishna will represent India in the World Sub-Junior Championship, Tania and Venkatesh get a chance to play in the Asian Sub-Junior Championship.

Venkatesh faced the Sicilian Najdorf of Nilabha Upadhyay (WB) with the sharp Bg5 line. Venkatesh took the advantage of the time required for black to get his King rook into play and broke open the centre. Nilabh sacrificed a rook to give check. Venkatesh defended accurately and the game was drawn in 32 moves.

Rajalaxmi (TN) played the English opening which transposed into a reverse close Sicilian against Tania. Rajalaxmi seemed to have developed a quick queen side offensive. But she faltered and allowed Tania to launch a King-side offensive with her pieces. White had to make several weakish moves which allowed Tania to win a piece and Rajalaxmi resigned on the 24th move.

In another game, Subhashini took advantage of Kavitha'sweak opening play from the black side of a Sicilian Najdorf and won a couple of pawns with an attack on her King. Faced with strong attack, Kavitha was forced to exchange queens and go into an inferior ending. Subhashini underestimated the strength of Kavitha's f passer and was forced to give up her rook.

Subhashini resigned on the 38th move.

In the boys section, Valay Parikh employed the London system against Bharat Gupta (Raj). Valay wrongly exchanged on e-4 and allowed his opponent create an outpost on d-6. Valay played energetically to set up his own outpost at d-5. Bharat exchanged his knight by mistake and allowed black a strong pawn passed. Valay exchanged queens and used his passed pawn effectively in the ensuing endgame to score a victory in 47th move.

RESULTS

Boys: RR Laxman (TN) 6 drew with P Harikrishna (AP) 7.5, MR Venkatesh (TN) 7 drew with Nilabh Upadhya (WB) 6, Bharat Gupta (Raj) 6 lost to Valay Parikh (Guj) 6.5, Thangkhiew Gillford (Megh) 6 bt P Mokal (Mah) 5.5, Amar Kamat(Mah) 5.5 lost to Himanshu Sharma (Har) 5.5, Balak Binu (Ker) 5.5 drew with Ram Krishnan (TN) 5.5, Vaibhav Saxena (Mah) 5.5 lost to Rahul Shandilya (Bih) 5.5, Rakesh Agrawal (Bih) 5.5 drew with JM Utarid (Ker) 5.5.

Girls: Koneru Humpy (AP) 7.5 drew with Manjula James (Ker) 6, Rajalaxmi (TN) 5.5 lost to Tania Sachdev (Del) 7, JE Kavitha (TN) 6.5 bt TS Subhashini (TN) 6, Shradha Samani (Mah) 5.5 lost to Y Prathiba (TN) 6.5, M Kasturi (TN) 6 drew with Chitra Sridhar (Ker) 6.

Final placing

Boys: 1 P Harikrishna 8, 2 MR Venkatesh 7.5, 3 Valay Parikh 7.5, 4 T Gillford 7, 5 Himanshu Sharma 6.5, 6 Rahul Shandilya 6.5, 7 RR Laxman 6.5, 8 Nilabha Upadhyay 6.5.

Girls: 1 K Humpy 7.5, 2 Tania Sachdev 7, 3 Y Pratibha 6.5, 4 JE Kavitha 6.5, 5 TS Subhashini 6, 6 Chitra Shridhar 6, 7 M Kasturi 6, 8 Manjula James 6.