BS Sivanandan of Sagar won the FIDE-rated State chess championship collecting nine points out of the possible 11. Sivanandan drew his last-round match with YG Vijendra.
Mysore’s MS Thejkumar, who shared the lead along with Sivanandan overnight, also tallied nine points, but the Sagar boy emerged the winner on a better tie-break score.
Thejkumar should consider himself a tad unlucky as he couldn’t convert his chances. Despite being a pawn up, the Mysore boy erred to squander the advantage to settle for a draw against Arvind Shastry.  
Defending champion N Sanjay finished a disappointing fifth, though he managed to beat Girish Koushik in the last round. The below par performance also meant that Sanjay will miss the chance to represent Karnataka in the 45th National ‘B’ chess championship to be held at Dindigul from June 10 to 20. Thejkumar, Sivanandan, Shastry and Sriram Sarja will be part of the State squad.
Results (11th round):
Sivanandan BS (9) drew with Vijendra YG (8.5), Arvind Shastry (8.5) drew with Thejkumar MS (9), Sriram Sarja (8.5) bt Girish Koushik (8), Sriram Sarja (8.5) bt Shruthi K (7.5), Stany GA (8) bt Raju M (7), Gahan MG (8) bt Gautam JK (7), Balkishan A (7) lt to Prakash V Rao (8), Sushrutha Reddy (8) bt Mahishi RK (7).
Final standings:
Sivanandan BS (9) 1; Thejkumar MS (9) 2; Arvind Shastry (8.5) 3; Sriram Sarja (8.5) 4; Sanjay N (8.5) 5; Vijendra YG (8.5) 6; Prachura PP (8.5) 7; Girish Koushik (8) 8; Stany GA (8) 9; Sushrutha Reddy (8) 10; Bharadwaj HG (8) 11; Prakash V Rao (8) 12; Gahan MG (8) 13; Anil S Shetty (7.5) 14; Shruthi K (7.5) 15.
Other categories:
Under-8: Arjun Roshik Bharat 1; Varun Shyam Shankar 2; Prakyath KC 3.
Under-10: Satvik M 1; Shalon J Pias 2; Mayank G Jain 3.
Under-14: Balkishan A 1; Nagesh R 2; Yashas D 3.
Best women players: Manasa K 1; Priyanka S 2; Shristy Shetty 3.
Best veteran player: Raghuraman NR.