Champion Bitan Banerjee with Grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly at Gorky Sadan on Wednesday. A Telegraph picture

Calcutta: Defending champion Bitan Banerjee of Baruipur High School annexed The Telegraph Schools’ Chess championship at Gorky Sadan on Wednesday with a score of 9.5 points.

Abhratanu Dutta of St James’, too, scored 9.5 but Bitan edged out the former on account of his better progressive score. Bitan walked away with a prize money of Rs 15,000, while Abhratanu received Rs 10,000.

Much to the chagrin of chess fans, the leading girls Pallabi Roy and Sukanya Dutta lost their games and a chance to create history. Pallabi went down, rather tamely, with the white pieces in the exchange variation of the French defence.

Sukanya fought a prolonged battle against Abhratanu, with an even position for most part of the game, but she missed a back-rank mate, under severe time pressure and bowed. Sukanya, who had won her first seven rounds, had to be content with 12th position.

Unfancied, Dipantu Das (St Augustine’s Day School), seeded 34th, outwitted Kaushalendra Kumar (Bihar) in the last round to finish a creditable third.

The find of the championship, however, was 11-year-old Chandrasish Majumder of St Xavier’s who scalped Vijay Kumar of Bihar to take the fourth position.

Following his win, Bitan told The Telegraph: “I had decided to give the tournament a miss, as I was exhausted after playing many tournaments… but I was inspired by sir (GM Dibyendu Barua) to participate as this was an important tournament. I am glad I took part.” The 14-year-old is a student of Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy.

National Chess Champion, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, a find of The Telegraph Schools’ meet was the chief guest on the occasion. Emphasising on physical fitness in chess, Surya Sekhar said: “Do anything… like swimming, yoga or karate… but be fit.”

He also asked the parents not to put pressure on their children. “Let them enjoy and learn. Let Biswajit’s unfortunate death be an example to all of us.” A budding table tennis player, Biswajit Bhattacharya (14) had died after allegedly being beaten up by his demanding father early in January.

He urged the young players to “practice with dedication and devotion even if it was for a short period”. He also asked the losers not to get disappointed. “I remember my coaches at Gorky Sadan telling me when I was young ‘you won’t learn, if you don’t lose’.”

St. James’ School took the Best School trophy for the record fifth time in succession with 31 points, while South Point was placed second with 30 points. Mohana Sengupta was awarded the Best Game prize instituted in memory of Parimal Mukerjee, former treasurer of Alekhine Chess Club.