Aradhya, Varshini Win National Under-17

Aradhya, Varshini Win National Under-17
By Arvind Aaron

Aradhya Garg of Delhi and Varshini of Tamil Nadu won the 25th National Under-17 Chess Championship that concluded at Patna on December 10, 2014.  Aradhya Garg started as the fifth seed and played strongly to defeat the top three seeds on course to the title he won on tie-break. Second seed Pranavananda won the last four rounds to catch up with Aradhya on top with 9.5 points. Both players remained undefeated.

The girls’ event was thrilling till the end. Leader, and top seed Mahalakshmi lost the final round to third seed and team-mate Srija and that helped Varshini to win the title. No player went home undefeated here. The top four finishers are from Tamil Nadu, so it was podium plus one.  Top seed N Ravi Teja finished eleventh and lost 128.40 Elo from this one single event. The top finishers from this event will represent India in the World and Asian Under-18 Championships of 2015.

The tournament director was FIDE Master Arvind Kumar Sinha and the chief arbiter was I.G. Parmar of Gujarat. It was organised by the All Bihar Chess Association at the Adhiweshan Bhavan in Patna.

Rating changes in the top 10:
Rating gainers: Pranavananda +143.60, Baivab Mishra +139.60, Aradhya Garg +115.20, Neelash Saha +61.60, Y Grahesh +25.60, Hemanth Raam +13.60. Rating losers: A Abhishek -74.00, S Prasanaa -73.20, Kumar Gaurav -62.40, S Yogit -53.20.

Girls gainers: V Varshini +60.00, Soneji Janhavi +56.80, V Toshali +46.80, Arpita Mukherjee +21.20, G Lasya +5.20. Rating losers: R Divya Lakshmi -18.80, Monnisha -16.40, Srija Seshadri -9.20, M Mahalakshmi -8.80, Tarini Goyal -6.00.

The final placings:

Open: 1-2. Aradhya Garg (Del), V Pranavananda (AP) 9.5/11 each; 3 S Yogit (TN) 7.5; 4-10. Baivab Mishra (Odi), S Prasannaa (TN), Y Grahesh (AP); Neelash Saha (WB), Hemanth Raam (TN); A Abhishek (Ker), Kumar Gaurav (Bih) 7 each….50 players.

Girls: 1 V Varshini (TN) 8.5/11; 2-3. M Mahalakshmi (TN), Srija Seshadri (TN) 8 each; 4-7. G.K. Monnisha (TN), Soneji Janhavi (Mah), Tarini Goyal (Del), V Toshali (AP) 7.5 each; 8-10. G Lasya (AP), Arpita Mukherjee (WB), R Divya Lakshmi (TN) 7 each…51 players.