Thirteen year old FIDE Master M Pranesh of Sivagangai Dt, Tamilnadu won the inaugural All India Grand Prix event, Servo 1st All India Rapid FIDE Rated Chess tournament with 6.5 points out of 8 rounds. The tournament was jointly organized by Trivarur District Chess Association, Rotary Dist 2981, Zone 17, Tiruvarur New Barath Matriculation Higher Secondary school, Tiruvarur Taluk Chess Association, Servo oil was inaugurated by Rtn S.Venkatesan, President, Tiruvarur Rotary club in presence of Zone 17 Assistant Governor & Organising committee chairman S Mohan, Rotary Dist chairs Rtn Tatas pari, Rtn Arungandhi, Zone 17 Secretary R Annadurari, Treasure Rtn Sivagurunathan, pp Rtn kumarasmy, pp Rtn Kamaraj Rtn Sathyamoorthy and many others. This is the first event of grand prix series of 5 tournament.
Pranesh has earned 200 grand prix points from this victory. There was a 9 way tie! on 6 points from 2nd to 10th place with L R Srihari of Kanchipuram, taking the 2nd spot on tie breaks ahead of 3rd placed R Ganesh of Coimbatore. All the 9 players who tied for the 2nd place were given 88.88 grandprix points.
The 7 round swiss format was conducted in a single day and carrying a total prize fund of Rs.1,25,000/- with the main prizes of Rs.80,000/- and the winners getting a cash prize of Rs.15,000/-. Apart from the main, prizes were given to ELO rating and age category performers. When top seed IM Saravanakrishnan of KVB was held to draw in the 4th round by Rohith Krishna, Srihari & Pranesh were among the leaders with 4 points along with few others. 2nd seeded Ram S Krishnan lost to Srihari and Pranesh was scoring against unfancied opponents. At the end of 6th round Pranesh, Srihari, Senthil Maran, Sa Kannan & Sibi Visal were jointly leading with 5.5 points each. In the final round Pranesh was able to beat Sibi Visal, while Srihari had to be contend with a draw against Senthil Maran. Sarvanakrishnan beat Sa Kannan in the final round to take the 4th place.
Tournament witnessed 223 players from the Southern States, Jharkand, 3 Institutional representatives. Free lunch was provided to all the participants and parents.
The Chairman of Organising Committee, Rtn S Mohan, Asst Governor, Zone – 17 left no stone unturned to make this event a grand success. Rtn R K Balagunasekaran, Jt Secy of TNSCA and the member of organising team, thank the support rendered by all.
Prize winners
Rank | Player Name | Club | Points |
1 | Pranesh M | SVG | 6½ |
2 | Srihari L R | KAN | 6 |
3 | Ganesh R | CBE | 6 |
4 | Saravana Krishnan P | KVB | 6 |
5 | Senthil Maran K | TVLR | 6 |
6 | Selvamurugan B | MDU | 6 |
7 | Syed Anwar Shazuli | ICF | 6 |
8 | Ram S. Krishnan | BSNL | 6 |
9 | Harikrishnan A Ra | CHE | 6 |
10 | Sibi Visal R | NMK | 5½ |
11 | Rohith Krishna S | CHE | 5½ |
12 | Sa Kannan | SVG | 5½ |
13 | Manigandan S S | MDU | 5½ |
14 | Ayushh Ravikumar | CHE | 5½ |
15 | Karthik Rajaa | CHE | 5 |
16 | Swaraj Palit | JHAR | 5 |
17 | Bala Kannamma P | CHE | 5 |
18 | Prasannaa S | KAN | 5 |
19 | Dhanasekar K | CBE | 5 |
20 | Prasath K R | MDU | 5 |