Golden Knights 1st All India FIDE Rated Open Chess Tournament

• August 3, 2016
• in Chess, Chess Spotlights, Tournament News

Former National Blitz champion Ram S Krishnan of BSNL won the Golden Knights 1^st All India FIDE Rated Open Chess Tournament, organised by Golden Knights Chess Academy and PTR College of Engineering College at the college campus from 28^th July to 2^nd August 2016. It attracted 159 players mainly from Tamil Nadu besides Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana and Pondicherry. V. Karthik of Vellore (Tamil Nadu) was the top seeded player with a rating of 2328, followed by P. Saravana Krishnan of Karur Vysya Bank. Former State Champion M. Kunal was another player with a rating above 2300 and the starting rank had stalwarts like IM R. Balasubramanaian of Railways, Ram S Krishnan of BSNL, N. Lokesh, former National Sub Junior Champion R. Ashwath etc.

RB MohanaPraba of TN defeated former Under 17 State Champion SS Manigandan of Madurai in the second round. In the third round, N. Lokesh, rated 2258 was held to a draw by Karthik PM of TN, who has a rating of 1685. Similarly, Madurai youngster BS Aswin Kumar forced R. Aswath to share the point with him. Fourth round witnessed many hiccups, top seed V Karthik conceding a draw to Sa Kannan of TN, RM Subramanian of Golden Knights CA beating N Lokesh etc. Fifth round also had a spate of draws on top board – Saravana Krishanan drew with IM R. Balasubramanian, OT Anil Kumar extricated a draw against Ram S Krishnan, Sa Kannan had another draw against R. Ashwath

V Karthik bounced back to join the lead with Dusthageer by beating N Surendran In the sixth round. The crucial encounter in the seventh round between the leaders ended in a draw, enabling Ram S Krishnan, IM R. Balasubramanaian and S Prasannaa of Tamil Nadu to join the leaders with 6 points each. Hard fought wins by Dusthageer and Ram over Karthik and Balasubramanian respectively helped them to keep the lead after eight rounds. Ashwath defeated Saravana Krishnan in the penultimate round to join Dusthageer and Ram at the top with 7.5 points each. In the final round, Ram and Ashwath agreed for a quick draw but Dusthageer lost the game to N Lokesh, paving a way for tie between four players –Ram S Krishnan, Ashwath, Kunal and Lokesh. Half extra Buchholz point helped Ram S Krishnan to win the title and the other three finished in same order. A total of cash prize of two lakhs Rupees were distributed, in addition to special prizes for children. Ram S Krishnan became richer by Rs.40000/-

Sri.P. Thanavelan, Chairman, PTR College Engineering & Technology inaugurated the tournament and also distributed the prizes on the final day.

Final Ranking