MPL 11th National Schools Chess Championships 2023

Telangana stole the limelight by winning five of the twelve titles at stake in the MPL 11th National Schools Chess Championships at the Adhiyamaan College of Engineering, Hosur on Tuesday.

The other seven championships were won by seven different states Goa, Karnataka, Delhi, Haryana, Bihar, Pudhuchery and West Bengal.

As expected, Lad Mandar Pradip of Goa and Prasiddhi Bhat of Karnataka won the under 17 championship for boys and girls with consummate ease. While Lal scored eight points, Prasiddhi collected 7.5 points. Four players were behind Lad by a full point – Jaiveer Mahendru of Maharashtra had a superior tiebreak to get the runner up spot. The two Tamil Nadu lads S Mohamed Tharig and S Gokulakrishna were placed third and fourth. T Dhakshinga of Tamil Nadu is the only player to score 6.5 points to be declared as the runner up in the girls category.

Four players tied for the first place with a score of 7.5 points in the open segment of the under 15 open category. The honour went to Vignesh Advaith Vemula of Telangana who had a better tiebreak. Mrithunjay Mahadevan of Tamil Nadu, Gyana Sai Santhosh and Jaidambareesh NR of TN secured the second to fourth places respectively. In the girls category also, four players scored seven points and like in the open, the tiebreak chose Yashvi Jain of Telangana as the champion. The second to fourth places went to Tamil Nadu players – Pragnya HG, C Siyona Judoth and A Raveen Shri respectively.

The third player from Telangan to win the title is Challa Saharsha who had eight points after nine rounds. P Vignesh Kannan of Tamil Nadu and Sherla Prathamesh scored 7.5 points each to receive the second and third places. The favourite Saparya Ghosh of West Bengal played true to her seeding to clinch the first place in the under 13 girls section. Aadya Gupta of Delhi and Jhanvi Ashok of Kerala won the silver and bronze with seven points each.

S Madhesh Kumar brought laurels to the small state Pudhuchery by winning the under 11 open title with eight points. Aadik Theophane Lenin of Kerala, Siddhanth Poonja of Karnataka and Adhiraj Mitra of Jharkhant scored 7.5 points to finish from second to fourth. Three players had a similar score of 7.5 in the under 11 girls category and Modipalli Deekshitha pipped Pal Vedika of Maharashtra and Aadya Ranganath of Karnataka to be declared as the champion.

The growing popularity of chess in Haryana is evident from the fact that the first two places in the under 9 category were won by its state players. While Vyom Malhotra is the only player in the entire championship to have scored 8.5 points, Vairaj Sogerwal dropped one point in nine rounds. Samhita Pungavanam of Telangana added one more title to her state with eight points. Pooja Shri of Tamil Nadu mustered 7.5 points to become the runner up and Aaradhya Das of Tripura is the only bronze medal winner from the north eastern states.

Hriday Garg of Delhi made his state proud by clinching the under 7 open title, scoring eight points. Ayaan Phutane of Karnataka and Divith Reddy Adulla of Telangana achieved the second and third places for their 7.5 points tally. Ankita Raj of Bihar won the title by collecting eight points in the girls category. Vamshika Boga of Telangana and Rayna Ajay Patel of Gujarat settled for the second and third places and were adrift of half a point than Ankita.