Bhat, Soumya champs

MUMBAI, OCT 2: Rohit Bhat and Soumya S won the under-9 boys8217; and girls8217; State Mini chess tournament at the Dombivli Gymkhana today.

Shainesh Aher with 8.5 points and Devangi Patankar of Pune with five points were the under-7 champions.

Bhat, a fourth standard student of Abhinav Vidyalaya, won over Varun Dattani 8212; who finished second 8212; and third placed Vishal Shah. Bhat won eight pairs out of nine and checkmated Dattani in the seventh round in one and half hours.

Avinash Awate played a simultaneous game against 20 players and lost to both Bhat and Soumya.

Final standings

Under-9: Rohit Bhat 8, Varun Dattani 7, Vishal Shah 7, Soumitra Majumdar 6.5, Anirudh Deshpande 6.5, Akshay Bhor 6.5, Anuj Motiwal 6.5, Rohit Bhide 6.5.