Ramco Institute of Technology FIDE Rated Chess Tournament

• December 20, 2019
• in Chess, Chess Spotlights, Flash News, Tournament News

The Ramco Institute of Technology FIDE Rated Chess tournament organized by the college, a unit of Ramco Group of Industries was held at the college campus, Rajapalayam from 30^th November to 3^rd December. A total of 381 players from eight states, including a grandmaster and three international masters took part in the four day – eight round event. The time control was 90 minutes to each player with an increment of 30 seconds per move.

Grandmaster RR Laxman of ICF was the top seed of the tournament, followed by A Ra Harikrishnan of Chennai and AL Muthaiah of Tiruvallur. The first round had a few minor upsets, the prominent one being the draw by R Sanjai Karna of Kovilpatti against AGM Sa Kannan of Karaikudi, rated 900 points above his opponent. Thirty four players were leading with three points each at the end of the third round. On the fourth board of the fourth round, fourth seed Senthil Maran had to be content with a draw against Avinash Ramesh of TN and the same thing happened to eighth seeded Balkishan of Karnataka with Deepak Raj of TN. Thirteen players led with four points

Five players shared the lead with five points each at the end of the fifth round. Laxman defeated R rathneesh of Chennai, Harikrishnan routed B Vignesh of TN, Selvamurugan of Madurai lost to Muthaiah, BT Muralikrishnan got the better of Vijay Kumar Pakkurti of TN and SS Mangandan of GKCA Madurai had an easy outing against S Aswath of TN.  GM Laxman defeated his friend and rival IM Murali Krishnan to emerge sole leader with six points from six games. Six players were half a point behind him. In the seventh round encounter between the top two seeds, IM Harikrishnan shocked GM Laxman and the eighth seeded Balkishan also upset the third seeded international master AL Muthaiah. The summit clash was set up between the leaders Hari and Balkishan, each having a score of 6.5 points.

Playing venue

In the final round, Balkishan after obtaining a clear winning position in a queen (Balkishan) Vs three minor pieces, frittered away his chances and settled for a draw with Hari. It led to a seven way tie involving these two players, Laxman, Senthil Maran, N Lokesh, SS manigandan and BT Muralikrishnan, Harikrishnan pipped Laxman at the post in the tiebreak score to emerge the champion. After having same score in the first three tiebreaks, Hari was ahead by 0.25 in the fourth tiebreak to clinch the title. Harikrishnan won a purse of Rs.70000/- and Laxman received a cash prize of Rs.50000/-. A total prize money of Rs. five lakhs was offered from cups for various categories.

Sri. PR Venketrama Raja, President All India Chess Federation and chairman of the Ramco Group of Industries visited the tournament on the final day. He also presented a memnto to the under 9 national champion G Aakash of Coimbatore. Dr. R. Venkatraj, Chief Educational Officer, Ramco Group of Industries inaugurated the tournament in the presence of Dr.L. Ganesan, Principal, Ramco Institute of Technology and Sri V. Vijayaraghavan, Joint Secretary, Tamil Nadu State Chess Association. Sri. A. Gopalsamy, President of Virudhunagar District Chess Association and former vice president of Tamil Nadu State Chess Association distributed the prizes in the presence of Sri V. Vijayaraghavan, joint secretary, TNSCA.

Final Ranking