Kochi: Kerala grandmaster S.L. Narayanan scored a series of wins in the final three rounds to clinch a bronze medal at the World Junior Chess Championship in Bhubaneswar on Sunday.
The 18-year-old finished with nine points, behind USA’s Jeffery Xiong (10.5) and Russian Vladislav Artemiev (9.5). Naryanan, who made a good start in the 13-round event by winning the first three games, went on to draw six out of the next seven, diminishing his chances of winning the title. However, the 10th seed won three matches in a row to win the bronze.
He defeated Polish IM Nasuta Grezegorz in the final round. Chinese FM Yi Xu and Indian GM Karthikeyan ended fourth and fifth respectively.
Last November, the chess player from Thiruvananthapuram had become Kerala’s second and India’s 40th Grandmaster in the Philippines international open. He is the youngest from the state to achieve the title. He also holds the record of Kerala’s youngest International Master, the title he held before the GM title since the age of 15.
