Senior National Open Chess Championship
Excelsior Sports Correspondent
JAMMU, Dec 18: Grand Master (GM) Aravindh Chithambaram secured 10 points and emerged overall winner in the Senior National Open Chess Championship, organized by All J&K Chess Association at Gurjar Desh Charitable Trust, here today. Cash prize of Rs 5 lakh was awarded to GM Aravindh Chithambaram.
By emerging overall winner, GM Aravindh Chithambaram has qualified for World Cup. It was not clear till the end of 13 rounds who will win the event. There were many ups and downs, but Arvind held his nerve high and won the Crown by winning 10 points out of 13 rounds.
The second position was clinched by International Master (IM) CRG Krishna of RSPB by securing 9.5 points and a cash award of Rs 4 lakh was presented to him. The third position having cash prize of Rs 3 lakh was clinched by Srijit Paul of West Bengal by clinching 9.5 points.
GM Venkatesh MR of PSPB secured 9.5 points and a cash award of Rs 2 lakh was presented to him, whereas fifth position having cash prize of Rs 1.50 lakh was win by GM Sengupta Deep of PSPB by securing 9 points.
GM Vaibhav Suri of PSPB secured sixth position by securing 9 points and a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh was presented to him, whereas the seventh position having cash prize of Rs 1 lakh was clinched by GM Vishnu Prasanna V of Tamil Nadu by securing 9 points.
IM Akash G Tamil Nadu secured eighth position by securing 9 points and a cash prize of Rs 1 lakh was awarded to him, whereas ninth position having cash prize of Rs 75,000 was clinched by
GM Chanda Sandipan of West Bengal by securing 9 points and the tenth position was clinched by IM Stany G A of AAI by securing 8.5 points and cash award of Rs 75,000 was presented to him.
On the valedictory function, Naveen Kumar Choudhary, Principal Secretary Finance was the chief guest, who distributed the cash prizes of Rs 20 lakh among the top ten position holders in presence of Talat Parvez, Excise Commissioner, Chief Accountant Officer USBRL Project of Northern Railway, J&K GS Hira and Divisional Sports Officer Jammu Ravi Singh.
On the conclusion of 13 rounds, GA Stany achieved Grand Master norm and Srijit Paul, Navalgund Niranjan, Ritviz Parab, Harsh Vardhan achieved IM norms. Varun Kumar, Kirti Sharma, Anil Kotwal and Bindu Pathania got International Arbiters norms from this event.
While speaking, Naveen Kumar Choudhary Principal Secretary Finance appreciated President of AJKCA Atul Kumar Gupta for bringing such a great event in J&K and providing chance to State players to enhance their chess skills.
This historic national was organized by All J&K Chess Association under the aegis of All India Chess Federation.
Around 160 players including 19 Grand Masters and 20 International Masters and some Arjuna Awardee players from 27 States and 8 special units–Air India, Railways, Defence, Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, LIC, etc. are participating in this event. Total 50 titled players are also playing in this historical and strongest ever national of India till date.
This is also a Asian Zonal 3.7 event as India is a separate zone in Asia. Top 10 board games were shown live on internet by expert Ganesh Babu of Tamil Nadu. Total prizes of Rs 20 lakhs will be distributed among top 10 players and first prize being Rs 5 lakh.
All the matches are played under the overall supervision of All J&K Chess Association President Atul Kumar Gupta.
International Arbiter Dharmendra Kumar is Chief Arbiter of this event who is supported by 7 other Arbiters.
Soham Kamotra of J&K performed well and scored 7.5 points. Other J&K players, who participated in this event, were Sumit Grover, Khalid Amin, SP Sharma, Ajit Singh, Ashutosh Jamwal, Surinder and Ankush Bhardwaj. J&K players got very high level exposure by this historic and strongest event of India.
All J&K Chess Association members present in today matches include AR Wani, Ashiq Ahmad Kolu, Baldev Raj, Taranvir Singh, Kuljeet Jamwal, Farooq Ahmad, Mohammad Shafi, Khalid Amin, Raj Kumar, Vikas Nanda, Rakesh Gupta and Mohit Bharti.
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