V Pranav of Chennai won the 68th Tamil Nadu State Open Chess Championship

• April 9, 2021
• in Chess, Chess Spotlights, Flash News, Tournament News

V Pranav of Chennai won the 68^th Tamil Nadu State Open Chess Championship

Mr. M R Paulraj, Chairman, Thamirabharani engineering college inaugurating the tournament by making the first move in the presence of Mrs. Annalakshmi, Principal, TEC and other Officials

The 68^th Tamil Nadu State Open Chess Championship was organised by Tirunelveli District Chess Development Association held at Thamirabharani Engineering College, Tirunelveli from 29^th March to 02^nd April, 2021. The Prize fund of Rs.1,50,000 were split into 25 main prizes and 80 trophies for age category players. This five day event was inaugurated by Mr. M R Paulraj, Chairman, Thamirabharani engineering college in the presence of Mrs. Annalakshmi, Principal, TEC, Prof. R Anantharam, Vice President, TNSCA and Tournament co-ordinator, Mr. M Ephrame, Joint Secretary, TNSCA, Mr. Paul Kumar, Secretary, Tirunelveli DCDA, Mr. Prethip, Vice President, Tirunelveli DCDA, Mr. Rex, Secretary, Kanyakumari DCA, Mr.R P Senthil Kumaran, Secretary, Thanjavur DCA, Mr.S Ganesh Babu, Chief Arbiter and Mr.Selva Manikandan, Deputy Chief Arbiter & Treasurer, Tirunelveli DCDA.

374 players from 30 districts participated in this nine round swiss format tournament out of which 207 players were FIDE International Rated players.

Fifteen year old defending champion master V Pranav (2348 rating) of Velammal Vidyalaya, Chennai headed the seeding list followed by N Lokesh of Krishnagiri, followed by K Senthil Maran of Tiruvallur, followed by IM Balasubramaniam R of Chengalpattu and the runner up of the last edition SS Manigandan of Madurai were seeded from 2^nd to 5^th respectively.

The first round witnessed a mild upset when S Jai Karthik of Trichy held sixth seeded FM T Purushothaman of Thanjavur who recently migrated from Andhra Pradesh. In the third round, second seeded N Lokesh had to share the point with Sudharsun Gurukrishnan of Salem in a same colour bishop ending. There were two more drawn encounters among the top seven boards, wherein former national blitz champion Ram S Krishnan of BSNL had to give up half a point to V Mithun Anand of Thoothukudi and higher rated G Gugan of Salem had to concede a draw to S Sathyanarayanan of Chennai. Of the top five games of the fourth round, FM Senthil Maran and M Barath Kalyan of Tiruvarur were forced to split the point with Aadith R of Chengalpattu and Sree Veeramani P of Kanchipuram respectively. Twelve players shared the lead with four points each at the end of the fourth round. Three players Pranav, IM Balasubramaniam and fourteen year old R. Shadhursshaan of Virudhunagar emerged leaders with a full score of five points from five rounds.

Pranav took six continuous victory in six games to become the sole leader of the championship. On second board, Manigandan and Shadhursshaan shared the point. Former under 9 national champion and runner up in the under 11 nationals, AR Ilamparthi also drew with Arnav. AGM Vignesh B of Chengalpattu and Barath Kalyan defeated G Gugan and Arunachalam Shivaa of Coimbatore respectively to join Shadhursshaan, K  Nandha Kumar of Coimbatore and RM Subramanian on the second spot, half a point behind the sole leader.

Pranav maintained his winning score against AGM Vignesh on the 7^th round and on the 3^rd board Nandhakumar beat Subramanian RM to move to the second position with 6.5 points after round 7. Shadhursshaan hold Barath Kalyan to a draw who is rated 600 points above him on the second board. Ten players were on the third place with six points each. Pranav did not relax and raced to his eighth win beating Nandhakumar in round 8. IM Balasubramaniam, AR Ilamparithi and S Suganthan of Tirunelveli were on the second place, one point behind Pranav.

In the final round, Pranav went on to win his final round against Suganthan to retain his title with a record score of 9.0/9. IM Balasubramanian, Ilamparithi, SS Manigandan and Dinesh Kumar Jaganathan scored 7.5 points and was placed 2^nd to 5^th position respectively.

Shri. MR Paulraj, Chairman of the college presenting the trophy and the certificate to the winner in the presence of other officials

Shri. Senthil Kumar Palraj, Secretary Thamirabharani Engineering College presided over the PD function in the presence of Shri. MR Paulraj, Chairman of the college and he was the chief guest. Other guests of honour present were Mrs. Annalakshmi, Principal of the college and Mr. Prethip, Vice President, TDCDA, Prof. R. Anantharam, IA, Tournament coordinator, Mr. Paul Kumar, Secretary, TDCDA, Mr. S Ganesh Babu, Chief Arbiter and Mr. Selva Manikandan, Deputy Chief Arbiter & Treasurer, TDCDA.