Swapnil Dhopade emerges as the Straight champion
By S.PAUL AROKIA RAJ,Chief Arbiter
After war of nerves for 11 days in the orange city of Nagpur the 53rd National Challengers Championship came to an end today with the GM elect and IM Swapnil Dhopade of Railways emerging as straight champion with 10 points.The find of the championship was FIDE Master K.Praneeth Surya of Telengana who stood second with 9.5 points in a eleven way tie.The third place was secured by GM Karthikeyan Muarali of Tamil Nadu. Top 9 players have qualified from this championship for the national premier championship slated for November this year at Tiruvarur, TamilNadu.
Final Standings :
| Standings | Title | Name of the player | Unit |
| 1 | IM | Swapnil S. Dhopade | RLYS |
| 2 | FM | K. Praneeth Surya | TEL |
| 3 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | TN |
| 4 | GM | Neelotpal Das | PSPB |
| 5 | GM | Venkatesh M.R. | PSPB |
| 6 | GM | Shyam Sundar M. | AAI |
| 7 | IM | Rathnakaran K. | RLYS |
| 8 | IM | Karthikeyan P. | RLYS |
| 9 | GM | Kunte Abhijit | PSPB |
| 10 | IM | Shyaamnikhil P | TN |
| 11 | IM | Das Arghyadip | RLYS |
| 12 | GM | Sengupta Deep | PSPB |
| 13 | IM | Thejkumar M. S. | RLYS |
| 14 | Harsha Bharathakoti | TEL | |
| 15 | IM | Konguvel Ponnuswamy | PSPB |
| 16 | Gusain Himal | CHAN | |
| 17 | Shailesh Dravid | MAH | |
| 18 | GM | Laxman R.R. | RLYS |
| 19 | Sahoo Utkal Ranjan | ODI | |
| 20 | GM | Lalith Babu M.R. | PSPB |
| 21 | IM | Satyapragyan Swayangsu | AI |
| 22 | IM | Rajesh V A V | TN |
| 23 | IM | Nitin S. | RLYS |
| 24 | IM | Das Sayantan | WB |
| IM | Stany G.A. | KAR | |
| 26 | Karthik V. Ap | AP | |
| 27 | IM | Sharma Dinesh K. | LIC |
| 28 | GM | Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi | RLYS |
| 29 | IM | Kulkarni Vikramaditya | RLYS |
| 30 | CM | Aronyak Ghosh | WB |
Final Report – Senior National Arbiters’ Seminar and Examination, Lucknow, Uttar Pradesh on 14 & 15 March 2026. 
Final Report :SNA Seminar and Exam held in Ranchi on 21 & 22 Feb 2026 
Final Report :Senior National Arbiter Seminar cum Examination in Mohali on 31st Jan & 1st Feb 2026. 
Final report :SNA Seminar, Bhubneshwar on 17 & 18 January 2026 
FIDE World Youth Chess Championships – 2026 in Montesilvano, Italy from 14th to 27th June, 2026 
Certificates of SNA Seminar & Exam in Ahmedabad on 02 & 03 Jan 2026