Lalitpur, July 22:

Manish Hamal of Kathmandu won the second Madan Memorial National Youth Chess Tournament here today.

Hamal claimed the championship with 7.5 points despite playing a draw against Prem Krishna Maharjan of Mahadev Makhan Club in the ninth and the final round. Former national champion

Badri Lal Nepali finished second ahead of Rajendra Bajracharya on better progressive points. Both Nepali and Bajracharya had seven points but the former Nepal champion (40 pts) earned better progressive points then Bajracharya (37 pts). Nepali drew his game against Ganesh Man Duwal and Bajracharya was held by Uttam Raj Thapa in the final round.

Prem Krishna Maharjan also had seven points but finished fourth after earning 36 progressive points. Uttam Raj was next with 6.5 points. Ganesh Man (sixth), Rabindra Shakya (seventh), Raju Subedi (eighth), Ratna Byanjankar (ninth) and Sujendra Prasad Shrestha completed the top 10.

Top three winners received Rs 11,111, Rs 9,999 and Rs 7,777 respectively. The only lady participant Monalisa Khumbu, who also represented Nepal in the 15th Asian Games in Doha, was named the talented woman player. Likewise Prakash Nepal was honoured with the Rising Talent and Nawal Ghimire with the Rising Star awards. Both Nepal and Ghimire hail from Jhapa. All three players got Rs 1,000 each.

CPN-UML leader Bam Dev Gautam gave away prizes to the winners of the event organised by DNYF. Meanwhile, Lalitpur District Chess Association is organising the qualifying tournament for the 15th National Chess Tournament from Wednesday.