Railway ‘A’ and Air India Champions

Bhopal (08 Feb 17) :- Railway ‘A’ won the National Chess Champion title with perfect score of eighteen points after beating Madhya Pradesh ‘B’ in the final round at Bansal Institute of Science Technology on Wednesday.

Being assured the title overnight, railway men faced a stiff challenge from the host team in the final round encounter. For Madhya Pradesh, unheralded Ashwin Daniel stunned Grandmaster Deepan Chakkravarthy on second board while Anuj Shrivatri held International Master P Karthikeyan to creditable draw on board number one. Grandmaster Swapnil Dhopade and International Master Himanshu Sharma helped railways to maintain their clean slate by beating Niklesh Jain and Anshul Saxena on third and fourth board to make the score line 2½ – 1½ in favour of the champions.

Airports Authority of India finished as first runner up beating Viyugam Chess Academy in the final round. Better tie break score helped Viyugam Chess Academy to finish third ahead of Railway ‘B’ and Air India.

Meanwhile in the Women section, top seed Air India and second seed Airports Authority of India tied for the pole position after beating Gujarat and Madhya Pradesh ‘A’ respectively in the final round. But direct encounter tie break helped Air India to become national champions while AAI satisfied with runner up position. Bengal finished as second runner up after outwitting Himachal Pradesh 4 – 0 in the final round.

B Shivananda of Karnataka, Ram S Krishnan of BSNL, Thejkumar M S of Railway ‘A’, Swapnil Dhopade of Railway ‘A’ and Himanshu Sharma of Railway ‘A’ won the Board prizes for board number one to five respectively in open section while Arpita Mukherjee of Bengal, Swati Ghate of LIC, Bhakti Kulkarni of Air India, Kiran Manisha Mohanty of LIC and Aarthie Ramaswamy of Air India won the yellow metal for board prizes in women section.

In a colourful opening ceremony, Shri. Upendra Jain IPS, Director Sports and Youth Welfare Government of Madhya Pradesh and Shri. Akashdeep Mathur, Director Airports Authority of India gave away the trophies and cash prizes to the winners in presence of Shri. Kapil Saxena, Secretary Madhya Pradesh Chess Association.

Final Standings Top ten (Open) :- 1. Raiwlay ‘A’ with 18 points 2. Airports Authority of India with 14 points 3. Viyugam Chess Academy with 13 points 4. Railway ‘B’ with 13 points 5. Air India with 13 points 6. LIC with 12 points 7. Tamilnadu ‘A’ with 11 points 8. Services Sports Control Board with 11 points 9. Bharat Sanchar Nigam Ltd with 11 points 10. Andhra Bank with 11 points.

Final Standings Top five (Women) :- 1. Air India with 12 points 2. Airports Authority of India with 12 points 3. Bengal with 10 points 4. Life Insurance Corporation with 10 points 5. Tamilnadu with 8 points.

Important Results :-

Round-9 (Open) :- Madhya Pradesh ‘B’ (10) lost to Railway ‘A’ (18) 1½ – 2½ ; Viyugam Chess Academy (13) lost to Airport Authority of India (14) 1½ – 2½ ; Tamilnadu ‘A’ (11) lost to Air India (13) 1½ – 2½; Railway ‘B’ (13) beat Karnataka (10) 3 -1; LIC (12) beat Kerala (10) 3 -1; Services Sports Control Board (11) drew with Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited (11) 2 -2; Andhra Bank (11) beat Anand Chess Club (9) 3½ – ½ ;Tamilnadu ‘B’ (11) beat Madhya Pradesh ‘A’ (9) 2½ – 1½ ; Bihar (9) lost to Rajasthan ‘A’ (11) 1 – 3; Sivakasi Chess Club (8) lost to Defence Accounts Sports Control Board (10) 1 -3.

Round-9 (Women) :- Airports Authority of India (12) beat Madhya Pradesh ‘A’ (8) 4 – 0; Gujarat (6) lost to Air India (12) ½ – 3½ ; Bengal (10) beat Himachal Pradesh (6) 4 – 0; LIC (10) beat Telangana (5) 3½ – ½ ; Ewing Christian (2) lost to Tamilnadu (8) 0 -4; Academy of Chess Education (6) drew with Punjab (5) 2 – 2; Madhya Pradesh ‘B’ (7) beat Gwalior (1) 3½ – 1/2 .