3rd seeded ,S S Manigandan of Madurai won the title in 28th SPIC FIDE Rated Open Chess tournament at Spic Nagar Thoothukudi, he collected 8point in nine rounds and won the Winner’s trophy and pocketing a cash prize of Thirty thousand Rupees. Along with Manigandan Joy Lazar from Kerala also collected 8 points but better tie break score helped Manigandan won the title.
Vadivel of Thoothukudi became the champion in Non medalist section with 8.5 points.
The chief guest of the function Shri. Jawahar Kennedy, Asst. Engineer , TWARD Board tax gave away the prizes Mr. S R Ramakrishnan, WTD and the president of Thoothukudi District Chess Association presided over the meeting , Nine times National Champion Arjuna awardee, India’s first International Master Mr. Manuel Aaron felicitated the function, Mr. Gopalakrishnan Secretary, Thoothukudi District Chess Association welcomed the gathering and Mr. Bhaskar Velayutham Secretary, Spic Nagar Multi Activity Club(SMAC) proposed the vote of thanks.
Earlier, the 28th SPIC FIDE Rated Open Chess tournament got underway at Spic Community Hall, Spic Nagar,Thuthukudi from 26th October 2015. The event attracted 261 players in Medalist section out of which 168 players are Fide rated. Players from Assam, Gujarat, Kerala, Maharastra, Pondicherry and Tamilnadu participated.
In Non-Medalist section there are 240 players. Spic is the only organization in Tamilnadu which is conducting chess tournament for Non- medalist players regularly. The previous medal winners will not be allowed in this section and also the rated players are also not allowed to participate in this tournament.
Ram S Krishnan of BSNL is the top seeded. The total prize fund of the event was One Lakh forty eight thousand and five hundred in medalist section, out of which, Rs. 30000/- was reserved to the winner. The total prize fund for Non medalist was Rs.23100/-
The tournament was declared open by Assistant Commissioner, Commercial Tax, Sivakasi Thiru. R Masilamony. He inaugurated the event by making the customary first move.
In his inaugural speech he pointed out that chess players have very good memory power and the game itself will sharpen the brain.
In round 3 The 11 years old boy Ruban Sanjay from Sivakasi shocked the former deaf & dump champion Alaguraja from Madurai in Sicilian defense. 13 years old Genish Prakash from Kanyakumari District made an upset win against the 8th seeded Uma Maheswaran of Madurai. In round four Joy Lazar of Kerala beat the second seeded J Nishvin of Kanyakumari and lead the event with 5 points along with Ram S Krishnan, S S Manigandan of Madurai and Aadhityaa of Kanch District. young Aadhityaa’s win against the top seed Ram in round six made him sole lead, as the encounter between Joy Lazar and S S Manigandan ended in a draw. Manigandan beat the previous round leader Aadhityaa in round seven where as the local star Shakthi lost to Joy Lazar in the same round. Mani and joy are the leader with 6.5 points at the end of round seven. Mani & Joy did not take any risk in the eighth round and settled draw against their opponent and maintained the lead with seven points, where as Vinodh Kumar of Pondicherry joined the leader after won against Selvamurugan at the end of the penultimate round. In the last round both Manigandan and Joy Lazar won their game against Vinothkumar and Muthuhareeswaran respectively and tied for the first prize with 8 points. But better tie break score helped Manigandan won the tournament.
In non medalist section, Vadivel of Thoothukudi collected 8.5 points and become the champion.
Once again the organizer gave a wonderful tournament people from various part of the country enjoyed it.
M.Ephrame IA, Chief Arbiter
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