Sahaj Grover wins Junior National Chess Championship

Ajmer: India`s newest Grandmaster Sahaj Grover won the National Junior Chess Championship defeating overnight sole leader Debashish Das of Orissa in the 11th and final round.

Grover, who turned 17 during the course of the championship, delivered when it mattered the most as Das was no match for the wily ways of his younger opponent. This victory for Grover comes soon after the completion of his Grandmaster title at the World Junior chess championship in Athens, Greece. Grover scored 8.5 points in all and ended up half a point ahead of nearest rivals N Srinath, Vidit Gujarathi, Debashish Das, Anurag Mahamal, Dipptayan Ghosh and GA Stany who all scored eight points in all. Grover lost one game, won seven and drew the remaining three. The loss against International Master Aditya Udeshi was heartbreaking in the fourth round but the Delhi-boy staged a remarkable comeback upstaging Das in the last round. "This has been a decent result after I was going haywire midway through the tournament, even before the last round I was not sure if would win the championship despite winning the last round, it was possible only thanks to some positive results for me on other boards," said Grover after winning the title. "The way I had been playing before the last round I was not convinced with myself, but then I had analysed this line for some time and when Debashish (Das) went for it, I knew it would be at least a keen tussle. And then it just went my way," he added. A former under-10 world champion, Grover is also a bronze medallist in the 2011 world junior championship. PTI