Grandmaster M R Venkatesh (BPCL) with 8.5 points won the 66th Birthday celebrations of “Thanga Tharagai” Puratchi Thalavi AMMA Honorable Chief Minister of Tamil Nadu lightning chess tournament that concluded at Multipurpose Indoor Stadium, Chennai here today.
In a three way tie to the top, Venkatesh (8.5) emerged the Champion in tie-break ahead of Grandmasters Krishnan Sasikiran and S P Sethuraman. In the crucial final round, Venkatesh, playing with black pieces, held top seed Sasikiran to a draw.
The winner takes home a cash prize of Rs 66000 among the total prize money of Rs 202000 (Rupees Two Lakhs two thousand only). The prizes were distributed by Shri N Balaganga, MP and Shri Saidai Duraisamy, Mayor of Chennai. Present in the dais were Shri JCD Prabhakar, MLA, President, All India Chess Federation and Shri D V Sundar, Vice President, FIDE respectively.
The nine round lightning event attracted 1035(!) entries including nine Grandmasters, 12 International Masters among 32 FIDE titled players. Earlier, the annual event was inaugurated by Tmt. B. Valarmathi, Hon’ble Minister for Social Welfare, Government of Tamil Nadu.
R R Vasudevan
Press Officer
Final standings (top finishers):
1 GM Venkatesh M.R. IND 2584 – 8.5
2 GM Sasikiran Krishnan IND 2698 – 8.5
3 GM Sethuraman S.P. IND 2465 – 8.5
4 IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh.R IND 2396 – 8
5 IM Karthikeyan P. IND 2407 – 8
6 Kunal M. IND 2308 – 8
7 IM Rajesh V A V IND 2359 – 8
8 Saravana Krishnan P. IND 2273 – 8
9 Lokesh P. IND 2226 – 8
10 FM Vinoth Kumar M. IND 2141 – 8
11 IM Karthikeyan Murali IND 2331 – 8
12 IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman IND 2357 – 8
13 Sunyuktha C M N IND 1687 – 8
14 GM Laxman R.R. IND 2504 – 7.5
15 Ram S. Krishnan IND 2434 – 7.5
16 GM Adhiban B. IND 2606 – 7.5
17 Akash Pc Iyer IND 2189 – 7.5
18 GM Sundararajan Kidambi IND 2454 – 7.5
19 Clifford Flair IND 1811 – 7.5
20 FM Shantharam K.V. IND 2167 – 7.5
21 Hemanth Raam IND 1905 – 7.5
22 WGM Meenakshi Subbaraman IND 2235 – 7.5
23 GM Ramesh R.B. IND 2472 – 7.5
24 IM Nitin S. IND 2473 – 7
25 IM Ramnathan Balasubramaniam IND 2238 – 7
Impressive.