6th Tamil Nadu IM Norm Closed Circuit Chess Tournament – Chennai
GM Alexei Fedorov wins 6th IM Norm Tournament
Top seeded Grandmaster Alexei Fedorov of Belarus won the 6th Tamil Nadu IM Norm Closed Circuit Chess Tournament, organized by Tamil Nadu State Chess Association at Clarion Hotel President, Mylapore, Chennai. His compatriot GM Evgeniy Podolchenko scored six points, two points short of Alexei, to claim the runner up position. Ajay Santhosh Parvathareddy of U.P. and Kyrgyzstan IM Asylbek Abdyzhapar tied for the third place scoring five points each. As Ajay defeated Asylbek in the very first round, he was placed third.
Shri. Chandrasekaran A, former assistant director, enforcement directorate makes his first move against WIM Chitlange Sakshi
Tournament was inaugurated by Shri. Chandrasekaran A, former assistant director, enforcement directorate on 19th November 2023 in presence of Shri. Murugavel B, Vice President, Shri. Anantharaman R, Vice President, TNSCA, Shri. Stephen Balasamy P, General Secretary, TNSCA, SHri. Srinivasan R, Treasurer, TNSCA and the chief arbiter.
Even after winning the title in eighth round itself, Alexei went for another win against S Prasanna of Chennai. He played a neat end game arising from Sicilian defence, winning a rook and the game in pursuit of promoting the pawn.
Ajay Santhosh Parvathareddy exploited a few opening mistakes by the Russian IM David Gochelashvili to trap his bishop on the 17th move. With extra minor piece, Ajay achieved the win easily in fifty moves.
In the Classical variation of the Nimzo Indian defence between GM Evgeniy Podolchenko of Belarus and WIM Sakshi Chitlange of Maharashtra, the former played a steady game to improve his position slowly. In the resulting double rook and pawns ending, Evgeniy held the advantage of an extra pawn to convert it to a win.
Grandmaster M Shyam Sundar, coach for Indian women team in the Olympiad 2022 was the chief guest and WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy, a former under 18 world girls champion was the guest of honour and distributed the prizes to the winners.
GM Podolchenko Evgeniy of Belarus receives $300 USD as 2nd prize
Master Ajay Santhosh Parvathareddy of India received $200 USD as 3rd prize
Final standings
| Rank | Title | Name | Rtg | FED | Pts | Res. | SB |
| 1 | GM | Fedorov Alexei | 2447 | BLR | 8 | 0 | 32.50 |
| 2 | GM | Podolchenko Evgeniy | 2395 | BLR | 6 | 0 | 24.00 |
| 3 | Ajay Santhosh Parvathareddy | 2180 | IND | 5 | 1 | 21.25 | |
| 4 | IM | Abdyzhapar Asylbek | 2326 | KGZ | 5 | 0 | 18.25 |
| 5 | FM | Prasannaa.S | 2120 | IND | 4½ | 0 | 17.00 |
| 6 | GM | Ziatdinov Raset | 2077 | USA | 4 | 1 | 14.50 |
| 7 | IM | Gochelashvili David | 2304 | RUS | 4 | 0 | 14.75 |
| 8 | Hemanth Raam | 2230 | IND | 3 | ½ | 15.75 | |
| 9 | Arnav Maheshwari | 2244 | IND | 3 | ½ | 11.50 | |
| 10 | WIM | Chitlange Sakshi | 2224 | IND | 2½ | 0 | 9.00 |
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