Former under 12 world champion and Woman Grandmaster R Vaishali of Chennai won the AI Chess Grandprix 1st Sri Kaliswari College FIDE Rated Rapid Chess Tournament Sivakasi on 17th November, 2019. The tournament had a participation of 249 players, mostly from Tamil Nadu. National champion and Grandmaster Vr Aravindh Chithambaram of PSPB was the top seed of the tournament, followed by International Masters S Nitin of Southern Rly. and A Ra Hartkrishnan of Chennai. Under 18 world champion and Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa of Chennai had a lower seeding, as he had not played many rapid tournaments. The tournament was a seven round swiss format with a time control of 15 minutes plus five seconds increment to each player.
While the first three rounds had no upsets, the fourth round compensated it in plenty. The two girls from Chennai P Balakannama and S Harini (wife of GM Karthikeyan P) shocked the second seeded Nitin and the former national rapid champion GM RR Laxman of ICF. Youngster LR Srihari of Chennai accounted for the Railway international master BT Muralikrishnan in this round. In the fifth round, R Sibi Vishal of Namakkal, rated 1978 drew with the top seed Aravindh, who has a rapid rating of 2546. Six players shared the lead with five points each at the end of the fifth round.
On the top board of the sixth round, the third seeded IM Harikrishnan, defeated IM Shyaamnikhil of ICF, Saravana Krishnan beat Avinash Ramesh and R Vaishali got the better of Senthil Maran, leaving the three players at the top with six points from six rounds. Both Vaishali and Saravana Krishnan maintained their cool to outwit their opponents Harikrishnan and Sibi Vishal respectively to record their seventh win in seven rounds to tie for the first place.
Eight players scored six points each to be ranked from third to tenth place. International master A Ra Harikrishnan of Chennai and national champion and grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram of PSPB were placed third and fourth respectively. Sri. Balamurugan, Vice Principal, Sri Kaliswari College was the chief guest.
The tournament is the second leg of the All India Chess Grandprix series and P Saravana Krishnan is leading the GrandPrix with 268 points from two tournaments. Three more tournaments at Madurai (25th December), Karaikudi (26th January) and Coimbatore (23rd February) will decide the top earners of the GrandPrix points, who will play a round robin tournament for a prize money of Rs.1,25,000/-.
Final Ranking
| Rank | Name | Points |
| 1 | WGM Vaishali R (Chennai) | 7 |
| 2 | IM Saravana Krishnan P (KVB) | 7 |
| 3 | IM Harikrishnan.A.Ra (Chennai) | 6 |
| 4 | GM Aravindh Chithambaram Vr (PSPB) | 6 |
| 5 | Srihari L R (Chennai) | 6 |
| 6 | Prasannaa.S (Kanchi) | 6 |
| 7 | Manigandan S S (Madurai) | 6 |
| 8 | Dhanush Ragav N S (Dindigul) | 6 |
| 9 | Mohamed Anees M (Chennai) | 6 |
| 10 | Kavitha P L (Salem) | 6 |
| 11 | Senthil Maran K (Chennai) | 5½ |
| 12 | Sibi Visal R (Namakkal) | 5½ |
| 13 | Barath Kalyan M (Bishop Heber,Trichy) | 5½ |
| 14 | IM Shyaamnikhil P (ICF) | 5½ |
| 15 | Chandra Sekharan A P (Trichy) | 5½ |
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