Indian Sub-Junior (Under-15) champion P Iniyan of Erode, in the southern state of Tamil Nadu won the 8th RSC Rating with an undefeated 8/9 score at Kochi on October 25, 2015.
This 262-player event for a nine round Swiss took place from Oct 21-25, 2015. This event was jointly organised by the Chess Association of Ernakulam and Regional Sports Centre, Kochi. It attracted 177 rated players for the Rs.30,000 first price. The event had 100 cash prizes! Indian chess has indeed grown big. Even in the post Fischer days at the Tal Chess Club in Chennai, entries never crossed the 50-100 range. The post Anand wave and also the excellent manner in which the game is administered by the All India Chess Federation are resons for huge chess growth.
Tamil Nadu players winning Open Tournaments in Kerala is not new. It has been happening at CUSAT and it is now happening at RSC Rating. Iniyan was in fact the top seed. He won drew Ankan Roy (WB) and former National “A” player U.C. Mohanan and won the remaining seven games. Thirteen year old Iniyan is an eighth standard school student.
The venue was the Rajiv Gandhi Indoor Stadium. The one and only multipurpose world class Sports Centre in India that is spread acriss in four acres of land. International Arbiter M Ephrame, Secretary of the Kanyakumari District Chess Association was the chief arbiter for this event.
As many as six players remained undefeated. It included U.C. Mohanan, Ankan Roy, Arjun Satheesh, O.T. Anilkumar, T.M. Abhishek and the dinner Iniyan.
Final placings: 1 P Iniyan 8/9; 2 U.C. Mohanan 7.5; 3-14. K Alex Thomas, Ankan Roy, K.U. Marthandan, Arjun Satheesh, WCM Ananya Suresh, O.T. Anilkumar, Chandar Raju, Abhishek T.M., Sanjay S Pillai, WFM Hilmi Parveen, M.A. Joy Lazar 7 each; 15-25. WFM Bindu K Saritha, S Athul Krishna, Joy Antony, K.A. Unas, A Harikrishnan, Vinay Thomas, K.S. Gopakumar, V.S. Unnikrishnan, Martin Samuel, C.H. Meghna, K Dhanasekar 6.5 each.
Image: P Iniyan receives the trophy at Kochi on October 25, 2015.
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