Deepan Chakkravarthy of Railways, with 10.5 points, defeated teammate Swapnil Dhopade in the final round to win the 55th National Challengers Chess Championship at the Karnavati Club here on Wednesday.
Dhopade, who led most part of the championship, started the final round with a half-point cushion but the never-say-die attitude of Deepan made the difference in the end.
Dhopade finished as runner up with 10 points while Himanshu Sharma finished third with 9.5 points to make a clean sweep for railway men at the podium.
Deepan Chakkravarthy, Swapnil Dhopade, Himanshu Sharma, Debashis Das, M.R. Lalith Babu, Abhijit Kunte, S.L. Narayanan, S.Nitin and R.R. Laxman qualified for the National Premier, scheduled at Patna in November.
--IANS
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