Pune: Grandmaster SP Sethuraman comfortably won the 60th National Championship which was organised by Maharashtra Chess Association at the Boxing Hallof the Shiv Chhatrapati Sports Complex in Mhalunge Balewadi here on Saturday by playing out a quick theoretical draw on board 1, in the eleventh and final round.
Sethuraman maintained his unbeaten streak, finishing the National Championship with 9.5 points out of 11 rounds, with 8 wins and 3 draws.
This was GM S.P. Sethuraman’s second National title after he won his first in 2014. the top board players mostly played safe games, and settled for draws without taking much risks.
Top Seed GM Abhijeet Gupta, playing on board 2, played a marathon game to earn a draw with white pieces. At the end of the tournament Gupta finished on 9th rank.
Sethuraman, SP was awarded Adv. Sanket Fuke Memorial trophy and Rs.600000, while runner up received trophy and Rs.400000. The prizes were given away at the hands of Mr. Naresh Sharma, Treasurer of AICF and Mr.Suhas Patil, Dy. Director Sports, Maharashtra State. Working President of Maharashtra Chess Association Mr.Siddharth Mayur, Mr Niranjan Godbole, Secretary of MCA, Mr. Vilas Mhatre, Treasurer of MCA, Mr. Prakash Kunte, VP of PDCC, Mr .Rajendra Shidore, Chairman of Arbiter Commission of Pune District Chess Circle and Chief Arbiter Mr. Gopa Kumar.
Results (Eleventh Round):
Sethuraman, SP (9.5) (PSPB) drew with Mitrabha Guha (8.5) (Ben).
Abhijeet Gupta (8.5) (PSPB) drew with Aronyak Ghosh (8.5) (RSPB).
Vishnu, Prasanna. V (9) (TN) bt Abhimanyu Puranik (8) (AAI).
Diptayan Ghosh (8.5) (Ben) drew with Vignesh NR (8.5) (RSPB).
Surya Shekhar Ganguly (8.5) (PSPB) bt Suyog Wagh (7.5) (Mah).
Venkatesh, MR (8) (PSPB) drew with Visakh, NR (8) (RSPB).
Iniyan P (8) (TN) drew with Nitin S (8) (RSPB).
Utkal Sahoo (7.5) (ODI) lost to Neelash Saha (8.5) (RSPB).
Karthikeyan, P (8) (RSPB)drew with Srihari, LR (8) (TN).
Krishna, CRG (8) (RSPB) drew with Apoorv Kamble (8) (Kar).
Dinesh Sharma (7) (LIC) lost to Sayantan Das (8) (RSPB).
John, Veny Akkarakaran (7) (Ker) lost to Deep Sengupta (8) (PSPB).
Akash G (7) (TN) lost to Laxman RR (8) (RSPB).
Sidhant Mohapatra (7.5) (RSPB) drew with Soham Kamotra (7.5) (J&K).
Rajesh Nayak (7) (ODI) lost to Arghyadip Das (8) (RSPB).
Manisha Mohanty(7.5) (LIC) drew with Utsab Chatterjee (7) (WB).
Shyaamnikhil, P (7.5) (RSPB) bt Ram Krishnan (6.5) (BSNL).
Anuj, Shrivatri (7.5) (MP) bt Harish Sharma (6.5) (Del).
Mehar Chinna Reddy CH(7) (RSPB) drew with Mummana Venkata Ruthvik (7) (AP).
Aakash G(7) (TN) drew with Srihari L(7)(PUD).
Pranav KP (6.5) (TN) lost to Abhishek Kelkar (7.5) (MAH).
