Kovai Vidyashram, a CBSE School organized their 1st State Level Open and Children Chess Tournament on 3rd & 4th December 2016. Around 340 players had participated in various categories like Under 9 , 12, 15 & Open. The tournament was inaugurated by Dr. Dhanapal, Correspondent of KovaiVidyashram. He was the key person to support our TN State Open Chess Championship, which was held in the same venue during the month of May 2016.
Former TN State U17 Champion S.Prasanna was the top seed in the Open section followed by Phoobalan of ICF and IM R.Balasubramaniam also of ICF. The open was a 7 round event with a total prize fund of Rs.22,000/- and the winner getting a purse of Rs. 5000/-. 93 players have eagerly participated in this event. Prasanna beat Vigneshwaran to move on to sole lead with 5 points. Prasanna lost to Phoobalan in the 6th round but beat Aravindswami to finish on 6 points and finished first on tie breaks. Y Saranya of Tiruvallur ,Vinodh Kumar of Coimbatore and Balasubramaniam of ICF finished 2nd,3rd,4th respectively on 6 points.
In the Under 9 section of 109 players, it was race between brothers younger Aakash of Coimbatore who finished ahead of his elder brother Kishor Kumar with 6.5 points. In the Under 12 section 105 players, Muralishankar and Nirmal of Coimbatore finished 1st& 2nd respectively with 6.5 points. Under 15 section had less number of entries with only 36 participants. Harshavardhan won with 6 points out of 6 round. The Prizes were distributed by Mr. R.Palanisamy, Chairman, Kovai Vidyashram School.
Open – Prize Winners
| Rank | Name | Pts | |
| 1 | Prasannaa.S | 6 | |
| 2 | Saranya Y | 6 | |
| 3 | Vinod Kumar M. | 6 | |
| 4 | IM | RamnathanBalasubramaniam | 6 |
| 5 | Phoobalan P. | 5½ | |
| 6 | SreeNithish B | 5½ | |
| 7 | Aravindaswami T | 5 | |
| 8 | Deepak Kumar R | 5 | |
| 9 | Vigneshwaran N. | 5 | |
| 10 | Siva Shanmugam S | 5 | |
| 11 | ArunachalamShivaa T V | 5 | |
| 12 | Balaguru B | 5 | |
| 13 | Shalini J | 5 | |
| 14 | Umeshwaran S A | 5 | |
| 15 | Murali. R | 5 | |
| 16 | Nivekithan S | 5 | |
| 17 | Tarunika P | 5 | |
| 18 | AGM | Mani Bharathy | 5 |
| 19 | Nandha Kumar K | 4½ | |
| 20 | Satheesh Kumar G | 4½ | |
Under 9 Prize Winners
| Rank | Name | Pts |
| 1 | Aakash G | 6½ |
| 2 | Kishor Kumar G | 6½ |
| 3 | Nandish V S | 6 |
| 4 | Abi A | 6 |
| 5 | Sarveshwaran V | 5½ |
| 6 | Nirmal Kumar K | 5½ |
| 7 | Abenav M | 5½ |
| 8 | Sherlina S | 5½ |
| 9 | Denin Vijay V | 5 |
| 10 | SarvaJayan J | 5 |
| 11 | Jayashri M | 5 |
| 12 | Rakshit A | 5 |
| 13 | Vasanthi S | 5 |
| 14 | Lakshmi M | 5 |
| 15 | Kartheepan S | 5 |
Under 12 – Prize Winners
| Rank | Name | Pts |
| 1 | Muralishankar J T | 6½ |
| 2 | Nirmal L | 6½ |
| 3 | Santhosh S | 6 |
| 4 | Davlin Arlen Vijay V P | 6 |
| 5 | AlagiriSriram B | 6 |
| 6 | Sirdhiraj M | 5½ |
| 7 | Sivashankar M | 5 |
| 8 | Sivaneshan V | 5 |
| 9 | ManikandaPrabhu B V | 5 |
| 10 | Arivarasu K P | 5 |
| 11 | Kirusanth | 5 |
| 12 | Aravind A | 5 |
| 13 | Stepheena S | 5 |
| 14 | Parthiban V | 5 |
| 15 | SiddharthSathish | 5 |
Under 15 – Prize Winners
| Rank | Name | Pts |
| 1 | Harshavardhan AnandPalaniswam | 5 |
| 2 | Soundariya Lakshmi G | 5 |
| 3 | Vignesh Shiva Ram M | 4½ |
| 4 | Devaraja G | 4½ |
| 5 | Anantha Sai S | 4½ |
| 6 | Leaha B | 4½ |
| 7 | Subhash P M | 4 |
| 8 | Nikhil K | 4 |
| 9 | Akshaia Shree T | 4 |
| 10 | Reshap G | 4 |
| 11 | Kishore M | 4 |
| 12 | Shyaam Ganesh M | 3½ |
| 13 | Sharan Krishnan | 3½ |
| 14 | Emmanuel Austin B | 3½ |
| 15 | Dhinesh M | 3½ |