Sub-junior chess: Aravind and Vaishali triumph

Aravind Chithambaram and R. Vaishali, the winners of National sub-junior championship on Tuesday. Photo: K. K. Najeeb

It proved a memorable day for Grandmaster R.B. Ramesh and Velammal School, Chennai, at the National sub-junior chess championship here on Tuesday. Both the champions, Aravind Chithambaram and R. Vaishali, are students of that school and are trained by Ramesh.

Vaishali was the first to clinch the title, as she settled for a 25-move draw in a Spanish Game with Sunyukta. “Since I needed only a draw to win the title, I played it safe,” said the champion.

A draw would have sufficed Aravind, too, following the draw on the second board, but he preferred to play on and posted a victory in 48 moves, after opting for the Sicilian Defence. “I tried to win because I did not want to lose my rating points,” he said.

This prodigy with two Grandmaster norms came here with a rating of 2467 Elo points, 159 more than the second seed. A.L. Muthiah, Ritviz Parab and C. Sai Vishwesh were tied for the runner-up spot and they finished in that order when the tie-breakers were applied.

In the girls’ tourney, Aakanksha Hagawane finished runner-up with 8.5 points, the same as Chandreyee Hajra, who, though, had an inferior tie-break score.

Important results (11th round): Sammed Shete 8 lost to Aravind Chithambaram 9.5; Ritviz Parab 8.5 drew with A.L. Muthiah 8.5; C. Sai Vishwesh 8.5 bt Harsha Bharathakoti 7.5; N.R. Visakh 8 bt A. Abhishek 7; V. Karthik 7 lost to Harshal Shahi 8; V. Pranavananda 7 lost to Abhimanyu Puranik 8; S. Ajay Krishna 6.5 lost to P. Iniyan 8; Dhananjay 7 drew with Pranav Vijay 7; Naresh Naik 6.5 lost to R. Pragnananda 7.5; Audi Ameya 6.5 lost to Indrajeet Mhindrakar 7.5.

Standings: 1. Aravind 9.5; 2-4. Muthiah, Ritviz and Vishwesh 8.5; 5-9. Visakh, Iniyan, Shete, Shahi and Puranik 8; 10-13. Bharathakoti, Saurabh Anand, Pragnananda and Mahindrakar 7.5.

Girls: C.M.N. Sunyukta 8 drew with R. Vaishali 9.5; Chandreyee Hajra 8.5 drew with Riya Savant 8; P. Supreetha 7 lost to Aakanksha Hagawane 8.5; Ananya Suresh 8 bt Harshita Guddanti 7; Tejaswini Sagar 7 drew with Samridha Ghosh 7; Sakshi Chitlange 7.5 bt M. Tulsi 6.5; I. Harivardhini 7 drew with Hilmi Parveen 7; Saloni Sapale 6.5 lost to Rutumbara Bidhar 7.5; Bhagya Jayesh 6.5 drew with Tarini Goyal 6.5; Priyanka Nutakki 7 bt P. Saye Sreeza 6.

Standings: 1. Vaishali 9.5; 2-3. Aakanksha and Chandreyee 8.5; 4-6. Riya, Sunyukta and Ananya 8.

7-8. Sakshi and Rutumbara 7.5; 9-16. Harshita, Supreetha, Hilmi, Tejaswini, Harivardhini, Priyanka, V. Toshali and Samridha 7.