MPL 35 th National Under 11 Chess Championships 2022 29 th October to 6 th November, Gurgaon Report – 1 to 6 rounds

The MPL National Under 11 Chess Championships 2022 was organised by District Chess Association Gurgaon at HSV Global School Gurgaon from 29 th October to 6 th November. A total of 429 boys (297)
and girls (132) from more than 30 Indian states participated in the tournament. Rosh Jain of Delhi
(2333) and Prisha Gupta (1556) also of Delhi were given the pride of honour in the seeding list. Delhi
and Haryana contributed a maximum of 93 players put together in the open section alone. World
under 8 girls champion A Charvi of Karnataka preferred to play in the open section.
Pyrotechnic display started in the first round (close to Diwali) itself, with Swaraj Jyoti Neog of Assam
forced the top seed Rosh Jain rated more than thousand points above him, to split the point. Fifth
seeded Aansh Nandan Nerurkar also had to give away half a point to Puneet Verma of Punjab. The
second seeded Ethan Vaz, winner of six medals (including three gold) in the recent Asian Youth
championships also had to shed half appoint to Mahir Taneja of Delhi in the second round. Lower
rated Shravan Sriram of Tamil Nadu caused a mild upset by beating higher rated Vandan Alankar
Sawai in this round. It was the turn of the third seed Syed Abdul Khader of Karnataka to lose half
point to Atharv Soni of Maharashtra in the third round. Upcoming Md Reyan of Bihar had to go
down to Sagnik Halder of West Bengal on the second board. Samrath Sreeni Waarier of Gujarat beat
higher rated Nimay Agarwal of Haryana on the fifth board.
In the absence of the top five players on the top boards, sixth seeded Satvik Adiga of Karnataka
continued his march by beating S Madheswaran of Pondicherry in the fourth round. Seventh seeded
Javal Saurin Patel of Gujarat dashed the hopes of another Karnataka player Sarthak Sharma to stay in
the front. BU Premshankar of Tamil Nadu continued his fine run by upstaging higher rated Badole
Shaunak of Maharashtra. Ten players led with five points each at the end of the fourth round. Four
players marched on with five consecutive victories at the end of the fifth round. Satvik Adiga of
Karnataka, Jval Saurin Patel of Gujarat, K Adarsh and RS Pranav Sai Ram both from Tamil Nadu were
the front runners.
All the four leaders drew their games allowing three more players Ethan Vaz, Aansh Nandan
Nerurkar and Nihan Pohane both from Maharashtra to join the lead with 5.5 points apiece, after six
rounds. The top seeded Ethan Vaz climbed up to the top board in the seventh round.
Things went on the expected lines in the first round for the girls. Priyanka Rajan of Kerala dealt a
blow to the third seeded Hanya Shah of Gujarat in the second round. The top two boards of the third
round ended in draws; the top seed Prishita Gupta drew with Saranya Devi Narahari of Telangana
and Gorti Nyna of AP drew with Sandeepa Priyadarshini Sahoo of Odisha. The number of players
leading at the end of the fourth round was reduced to four – Shreya Rajesh and Aadhya Ranganath
of Karnataka, B Kirthika of Telangana and VC Nivedita of Tamil Nadu, as all of them scored facile wins
over their respective opponents.
VC Nivedita emerged sole leader with full points by beating B Kirthika of Telangana at the end of the
fifth round. The other two co-leaders and Karnataka team mates Shreya Rajesh and Aadya
Ranganath drew their personal encounter. Nivedita extended her lead by a full point over her

nearest rivals with a win over Karnataka’s Shreya Rajesh in the sixth round and she also has scored
six consecutive victories. Six players are trailing behind with five points each.
Sri Saurabh Jindal, President, Haryana Chess Association inaugurated the tournament in the
presence of Sri Aayush Sharma, Director, HSV Global School, which is the venue of the championship
and Sri Naresh Sharma, the treasurer of All India Chess Fedration. The seventh round was
inaugurated by Sri Al Taher Hisham, Secretary of Asian Chess Federation in the august presence of
Sri Bharat Singh Chauhan, the Deputy President of Asian Chess Federation and Chairman of the Fide
advisory board.