Vidula A, Akash G Claim Top Spots in National Under-9 Championship

After completion of 11 rounds at the 33rd National U-9 (Open and Girls) Chess Championship. Tamil Nadu’s Vidula Anbuselvan and Akash G claimed the top spots to be crowned as National Champions at GSC Bank Auditorium, Ahmedabad, Gujarat, which concluded on 11th August 2019.

Akash scored 9.5 points in the Open category while Vidula scored 9 points in the girls’ category.

The 9-day swiss event carried a prize fund of Rs.2,00,000/- and was distributed to top 20 places of each category. The girls section had 163 participants from 28 states and the open section had 263 participants from 30 states. Out of 163 girl players Gujarat fielded 22 players followed by Maharashtra with 17. In open section, Gujarat was on top with 47 and Maharashtra behind with 35 players.

n the open section, Aakash won 8 games and drew 3 games to score 9.5 and remained undefeated till the end. On his way to the title he beat the first seed Sadbhav Rautela of Uttarakhand and 2nd seeded Lakshyesh Mohan Gupta of Madhya Pradesh. He drew with the runner up Adireddy Arjun of Telangana in the 7th round.

There was a 3-way tie for the 2nd place between Adireddy Arjun & Suhaas of Telangana and Mrinmoy Rajkhowa of Assam on 9 points. Adireddy Arjun had better Buchholz scores. Meanwhile, Lakshyesh and Sadhbav finished 5th & 6th respectively with 8.5 points.

On the other hand, unrated Vidula Anbuselvan was coasting well with 9 points till 10th round but stumbled in the last round against 2nd placed Devaki Nandana of Andhra Pradesh. Luckily for her the tie break scores came in handy. Shreya G Hipparagi of Maharashtra and Shreshti Gupta of Punjab finished 3rd & 4th respectively.

Open: Final Ranking after 11 Rounds

Girls: Final Ranking after 11 Rounds