Iniyan, Aakanksha Win SubJunior In Jammu

Iniyan, Aakanksha Win SubJunior In Jammu
By Arvind Aaron

Top seed P Iniyan of Tamil Nadu and third seed Aakanksha Hagawane of Maharashtra won the National Sub-Junior Chess Championship that concluded at Jammu on September 29, 2015.

Iniyan from Erode remained undefeated winning seven games and drawing four for the title. Iniyan drew Nitish Belurkar (Goa), Mitrabha Guha, Neelash Saha and second seed Srijit Paul (all WB). Iniyan gains 25 Elo and would be representing India in the World Under-16 at Khanty-Mansiysk and in the World Youth Chess Olympiad in 2016.

There was a three-way tie for the second place and it went to FIDE Master Mitrabha Guha (WB), FM K.S. Raghunandan (Kar) and Candidate Master Nitish Belurkar (Goa) in that order.

Among girls, R. Vaishali, the National Junior champion finished only second starting as the top seed. She suffered two defeats against Nutakki Priyanka and Aakanksha and tied for the first place with 8.5/11. After a few months of upward climb, Vaishali’s rating is moving down by 28.6 Elo.

Aakanksha Hagawane also suffered two defeats but won the event with a higher tie-break. She lost to Samriddhaa and Nutakki Priyanka and beat Vaishali in a crucial fifth round game. She gains 36.4 Elo.

The third player to tie for the first place was Priyanka K from Tamil Nadu and she remained undefeated all through the eleven rounds. Priyanka took home 120 Elo.

The event ran from Sep 21-29 and was organised by the Jammu District Chess Association. International Arbiter Nitin Shenvi of Pune was the chief arbiter. The tournament director was Atul Kumar Gupta and the venue was Jalsa Retreat, in Domana, Jammu.

Final placings:

Open: 1 P Iniyan (TN) 9/11; 2-4. FM Mitrabha Guha (WB), FM K.S. Raghunandan (Kar), CM Nitish Belurkar (Goa) 8.5 each; 5-7. S Jayakumar (TN), Aradhya Garg (Del), Srijit Paul (WB) 8 each; 8-14. CM V.S. Rathanvel (TN), FM Rakesh Kumar Jena (Odi), Kumar Gaurav (Bih), M Bharath Kalyan (TN), FM R Praggnanandhaa (TN), Pr Hirthickkesh (), Sankalp Gupta (Mah) 7.5 each….107 players.

Girls: 1-3. Aakanksha Hagawane (Mah), WFM R Vaishali (TN), Priyanka K (TN) 8.5/11 each; 4-6. Samriddhaa Ghosh (WB), Nutakki Priyanka (AP), Vantika Agrawal (Del) 8 each; 7-9. WIM Sakshi Chitlange (Mah), WCM Ananya Suresh (Kar), WFM Tejaswini Sagar (Mah) 7.5 each; 10-14. Srishti Pandey (Mah), WFM Arpita Mukherjee (WB), Harshita Guddanti (AP), C.M.N. Sunyuktha (TN), G.P.S. Sneha (TN) 7 each…77 players.

From left: Priyanka K, R Vaishali, Aakanksha Hagawane, P Iniyan, Mitrabha Guha, K.S. Raghunandan.