Ram Aravind, Lakshmi Win U-11 Titles

Ram Aravind, Lakshmi Win U-11 Titles
By Arvind Aaron

FIDE Master L.N. Ram Aravind of Tiruchi and Woman FIDE Master C Lakshmi of Chennai won the National Under-11 Chess Championships that concluded at Puri, Odisha on August 1, 2014.

The event was smoothly organised by the Puri Club on behalf of the AICF and the Odisha State Chess Association. It was sponsored by the Odisha Mining Corporation and co-sponsored by the Union Bank of India.

Ram Aravind snatched sole lead in the sixth round defeating Om Kharola of Delhi and did not let go the grip on the event. He lost to Aronyak Ghosh in the tenth round. Ram and Aronyak tied for first on nine points from eleven rounds. Ram Aravind became champion on tie-break though he is losing plenty of rating. Ram Aravind trains with GM R.B. Ramesh and Lakshmi trains with A.L. Kasi.

Lakshmi scored a crucial win over Divya Deshmukh and wrested sole lead in the fifth round and never let go the grip. She started as the second seed and is gaining ten Elo points.

This is the third time that Puri organised a Nationals. They did in 2007 and 2010 and have done it again. Under Odisha State Chess Association President IM S.C. Sahu, chess is growing in the host state.

IA Vipnesh Bhardwaj was the chief arbiter. “The sea is rough, do not venture into the sea!” were some of the announcements made for the children inside the playing hall at Rumani Hotel which was close to the sea.

The top finishers will represent India in the World Under-12 Championship in 2015.

Final placings (tie-break order):

Open: 1-2. FM L.N. Ram Aravind (TN), CM Aronyak Ghosh (WB) 9/11 each; 3-5. Nihal Sarin (Ker), Erigaisi Arjun (Tel), Koustav Chatterjee (WB) 8.5 each; 6-11. Sankalp Gupta (Mah), Vijay Shreeram (TN), Kushagra Mohan (Tel), R. Praggnanandhaa (TN), G.B. Harshavardhan (TN), Sayantan Mukherjee (WB) 8 each…173 players.

Girls: 1 C Lakshmi (TN) 9.5/11; 2 Mrudul Dehankar (Mah) 9; 3 WCM Saina Salonika (Odi) 8.5; 4-5. Arushi Kotwal (J&K), Seeya Thakre (Mah) 8 each; 6-9. WFM Divya Deshmukh (Mah), D Jishitha (AP), Manya Bagla (Del), D Chetana (Tel) 7.5 each; 10-12. B.M. Akshaya (AP), Bhagyashree Patil (Mah), Bidisha Roy (Jha) and others 7 each…99 players.