IM Ravichandran Siddharth clinched the title
1st Sri Raghavendra Open Fide Rated Chess Tournament was organised by Sri Raghavendra Chess Academy with the support of Mastermind Chess Academy. It was inaugurated by Shri Rangan here at Sri Neelambal Mahal, Pallikaranai, Chennai on 12th August 2017. This event attracted 454 players from 5 federations (India, England, Kenya, Maldives and USA) which included 1 IM, 1FM and 2 CMs. Seeded players sailed smoothly up to 2 rounds. At the end of 3rd round 60th seeded player 13 years old boy Rathina Sabapathy, TN shocked 3rd seeded player Syed Anwar Shazuli, ICF. 14 and 6 players shared the lead with full points after the 4th & 5th round respectively. In 7th round IM Siddharth Ravichandran and T.Selvabharathy of TN played against each other with 6 points on the top table, the experienced IM beat Selvabharathy and took sole lead with the perfect score. Harikrishnan A. Ra (TN), P.Phoobalan (ICF) and M.Vinothkumar (TN) followed the leader with 6.5 points each.
Siddharth played with Harikrishnan and Phoobalan played with Vinothkumar on top 2 tables respectively. But they ended in peace with each other. IM Ravichandran Siddharth clinched 1st Sri Raghavendra Open Fide Rated Chess Tournament title and bagged the cash 35,000 with beautiful glittering trophy. Harikrishnan, Vinothkumar, Phoobalan, Bharath Subramaniam and Chaithanyaa finished with 7 points each and placed from 2nd to 6th respectively. Mr. M. Muthukumar, Secretary, KDCA, Joint Secretary, TNSCA and Mr. Ebenesar Rajkumar, Treasurer, KDCA distributed the prizes to the winners.