Dr. N. Mahalingam 28th National Under-17 Open and Girls Chess Championship 2017
Dr. N. Mahalingam 28th National Under-17 Open and Girls Chess Championship 2017 was organised by Dr. N. Mahalingam Chess Academy, & Coimbatore District Chess Association conducted at Kumaraguru College of Technology, Coimbatore from 24th October to 1st November, 2017. This mega event was inaugurated by Dr. M Balasubramaniam Correspondent, KCT. Shri. Shankar Vanavarayar Joint Correspondent, KCT, welcomed Shri Bharat Singh Chauhan, Secretary AICF, Prof. Anantharam, Shri. Stephen Balasamy, Secretary TNSCA.
The tournament was declared open by Dr. M Balasubramaniam by making a move on the board against Shri Bharat Singh Chauhan. In the open Category 108 Boys had taken part from 20 states with FM Erigaisi Arjun of Telangana as a Top seed. The open category also saw 2 Visually impaired players namely Aryan Joshi of Maharashtra and Marimuthu K of Tamil Nadu competing against regular players. In Girls category 70 girls were participated with WIM Sakshi Chitalange of Maharashtra as a top seed.
In 2nd round of Open Category Ratneesh R from Tamilnadu held the Top Seed FM Erigasi Arjun for a draw on the first board. 4th seed FM Jeet Jain of Gujrat was stunned by local lad Sibi Vishal. At the end of 3rd round only 6 players namely Mitrabha Guha (West Bengal), FM Rathanvel V S, Manish Anto Christiano F, Arunachalam Siva T V (all Tamil Nadu), Nitin Babu (Kerala) and Chaitanya Sairam Mogili (Andhra Pradesh) were leading with 6 points. Chaitanya Sairam Mogili created a sensation by defeating the top seed FM Erigaisi Arjun.
In the fifth round FM Rathanve S emerged as a sole leader with 5 points by defeating his Manish Anto Christiano F of his state. He was followed by FM Mitrabha Guha and CM Raja Rithvik R of Telangana. In 6th round Rathanvel maintain his lead of half point by defeating FM Mitrabha Guha and was closely followed by ony CM Raja Rithvik R of Telangana with 5.5 points.
In the 7th round CM Raja Rithvik R surprised everyone by beating FM Rathanvel V S and emerging as a sole leader with 6.5 points. Tamilnadu players Sibi Vishal R and FM Rathanvel V S were joint 2nd with 6 points followed by FM Erigaisi Arjun, FM Mitrabha Guha, FM Nitish Belurkar of Goa with 5.5 points. In the 8th Round CM Raja Rithvik R defeated Sibi Vishal to take his tally of points to 7.5. As FM Nitish Belurkar held FM Rathanvel V S for a draw CM Raja Rithvik was having a lead of 1 point over the top seed FM Erigaisi Arjun and FM Rathanvel V S.
In the 11th Round CM Raja Rithvik R of Telangana emerged as a winner by beating Tarun V kanth.
In the girls Category WFM Bommini Mounika Akshaya of Andhra Pradesh was held by Kalaiarasi D Pasubathi of Tamil Nadu for a draw in the first round. In 2nd Round 5th seed WFM Tarini Goyal of Chandigarh was shocked by Senthamizh Yazhini S of Tamil Nadu.
Niharika Ch of Andhra Pradesh won against Priyanka K to be among the 4 leader including WIM Sakshi Chitalange of Maharashtra, WCM Jyothsna L of Tamil Nadu and WIM Tejaswini Sagar of Gujrat. At the end of 4th round Niharika Ch who has scored over WCM Jyothsna L emerged as a sole leader as both the WIMs viz, Tejaswini and Sakshi agreed for a draw among themselves, only to emerge as joint leader at the end of 5th round as Sakshi defeated Niharika and Tejaswini to Toshali V of Andhra Pradesh.
In 6th Round WFM Arpita Mukherjee of West Bengal defeated top seed Sakshi to join another leader Tejaswini who had a draw against Tarini Goyal. In 7th Round Arpita stunned Tejaswini with black pieces and gained a lead of half point over 5 others.
At the end of 8th round Priyanka K drew with the leader Arpita Mukherjee allowing Sakshi and Tarini to be joint leader with Arpita with 6.5 points. They are followed by Tejaswini and Priyanka with 6 points.
In 10th round Priyanka won a hard fought battle against the Sakshi emerging as a sole leader with half point lead. In 11th Round Priyanka K drew with Tejaswini to clinch the title.
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