Hirthickkesh, Vaishali Win Under-13 Titles

Hirthickkesh, Vaishali Win Under-13 Titles
By Arvind Aaron

Top seed Tamil Nadu players, Hirthickkesh and R Vaishali remained undefeated and won the National Under-13 Chess Championship that concluded at Jamshedpur on November 2, 2014.

R Vaishali regained her title she won in 2012 at home in Chennai. She slipped ceding three draws in the first six rounds but came back strongly scoring a clean five from five to win by a one point margin.

Hirthickkesh of Tamil Nadu started as the top seed and won a tight contest scoring 9/11 and remained undefeated. The race was close as four players were half a point behind him on 8.5 points. Fifth seed Rahul Srivatshav of Andhra was briefly in lead for one round with 5.5/6 but Hirthickkesh defeated him in round seven.

At one point in the end of October, there were four ongoing National Championships and only a vibrant and active body like the All India Chess Federation can run four events simultaneously. The National Premier Women at Sangli in West India, National Under-25 at Chennai in south India and the National Under-13 Boys and Girls at Jamshedpur in east India.

The tournament director was International Master Neeraj Kumar Mishra. The chief arbiter was International Arbiter Nitin Shenvi of Pune. The event that ran from October 25 to November 2, 2014 was organised by the Jamshedpur Chess Academy. The venue was the Singhbum Chamber of Commerce and Industry, Chamber Bhavan, Bistupur, Jamshedpur
Final placings:

Open: 1 Pr Hirthickkesh (TN) 9/11; 2-5. Raja Harshit (Mah), Rajdeep Sarkar (WB), Rakesh Kumar Jena (Odi), Rahul Srivatshav (Tel) 8.5 each; 6-10. V.S. Rathanvel (TN), Gurung Rahul (Sik), Bharambe Bhavik (Mah), Sadhu S Adithya (TN), Nishit Singh (Mah) 6 each….134 players.

Girls: 1 R Vaishali (TN) 9.5/11; 2 Vantika Agrawal (Del) 8.5; 3-5. N Priyanka (AP), V Toshali (AP), Tarini Goyal (Del) 8 each; 6-10. Samriddhaa Ghosh (WB). K Priyanka (TN), Potluri Supreetha (AP), Saina Salinika (Odi), A Harshini (TN) 7.5 each….94 players.