Sethu wins premier section
Chennai based ONGC employee Grandmaster Sethuraman S P won the premier section of 2nd Hyderabad International Grandmasters Chess Tournment after drawing with Grandmaster Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia in the eleventh and final round that concluded here at Kotla Vijaya Bhaskara Reddy Indoor Stadium, Yousufguda today.

Sethu finished with eight and half points out of a possible eleven and finished at tied first along with top seed Ivan Popov of Russia, who defeated Georgian Grandmaster Levan Pantsulaia in the final round. But better Buchholz tie break score helped Sethu to finish at top while Popov had settle with runner-up position.

Carlsen Crowned World Champion
World No.1 ranked Magnus Carlsen of Norway was formally crowned the World Chess Champion at a glittering, brief awarding ceremony in Chennai. He was presented a dazzling gold trophy, cheque and the crown by the FIDE President Kirsan Ilyumzhinov and the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister Ms J Jayalalithaa at the Ballroom of the Hyatt Regency Hotel in the heart of Chennai.

The Chief Miniter of Tamil Nadu, Ms J Jayalalithaa presented symbolic cheques for Rs.9.90 Crores to Magnus Carlsen and Rs.6.03 Crores to Viswanathan Anand at the prize giving ceremony of the FIDE World Chess Championship that came to a close today. She handed over the crown made from olive leaves in the Nilgris mountains in Tamil Nadu to the FIDE President who did the crowning.

Aravindh Chithambaram wins Chennai GM Open 2013
14-year-old FIDE Master V R Aravindh Chithambaram emerged the champion with a whopping 9/11 after the final round of the Chennai Grandmaster International Open Chess tournament held in celebration of the FIDE World Championship Match 2013 at Nehru Stadium, Chennai on 23rd November. Aravindh, for his spectacular performance, takes the winner's trophy and the cash award of Rupees 200000 (Rupees Two Lakhs only)

Grandmasters Neverov Valeriy (Ukraine) and S P Sethuraman (India) shared the second spot with 8.5 points. Further half a point down at 8 points were GMs Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, V Vishnu Prasanna (both India) and Borovikov Vladislav (Ukraine). Borovikov, incidentally, swept off his final round Indian opponent, GM Lalith Babu, with a bolt-from-the-blue queen sacrifice.

Aravindh Chithambaram who already has National titles in Under 11, 13 & 19 titles under his belt, is also an Under-14 silver medalist from World Youth Chess Championship 2012 at Slovenia. His ELO 2728 performance rating here fetches 80 ELOs taking him past 2400 mark.
In the picture: (L to R) Mr.V Hariharan,General Secretary,Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, Shri. Dr.T.S.Sridhar I A S Additional Secretary/Commissioner, Revenue Administration Department, R Anantharam, International Arbiter, Champion Aravindh Chithambaram, International Arbiter M Ephrame, Chief Arbiter.

Iniyan Wins Title
P Iniyan of Erode, won the International FIDE Rating Chess Tournament that concluded at the Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai on November 22, 2013.

Iniyan works with two trainers, K Visweswaran of Chennai and Senthilvel of Salem. He scored all nine victories to win the Rs.3 Lakh prize money event with a stunning full score.

This event was part of the side show for the FIDE World Chess Championships. This event was for players rated below 2100. Entries close to 500 are possible only in Chennai. People love the game here more and also have an urge to get FIDE ratings.

The final placings: 1 P Iniyan 9/9; 2-3. K Senthil Maran, Srija Seshadri 8 each; 4-7. V Varun, Vinayak Kulkarni, V Karthik, Vasantha Ruba Varman 7.5 each.

Magnus Carlsen Is The New World Chess Champion
Magnus Carlsen of Norway became the 20th chess player in chess history to become the world chess champion. He defeated Viswanathan Anand 6.5-3.5 with two games to spare in the best of 12-series at Hyatt Regency Hotel in Chennai on November 22, 2013.

Since becoming the World No.1 ranked player three years before, Carlsen was expected to win this title but the question was when. Now, he won three games and drew seven to take this match. Carlsen said he settled into the match in games three and four. "Here I found that he was as nervous as me," said Carlsen. He also called these games as the turning point in the match.

Playing the match in the home town of the World Champion, Viswanathan Anand, Carlsen did well to win the title with a 6.5-3.5 score. Carlsen was supported by a large group of Norwegians citizens, family members, journalists numbering over 30.