Karthikeyan Murali, Monisha Crowned National Sub-Junior Chess Champions 2013

Chennai: Tamil Nadu swept the titles at the national sub-junior chess in Kolkata on Wednesday.

IM Karthikeyan Murali edged out IM Diptayan Ghosh in a tiebreaker for the crown after they finished with nine points each in the 11 round tournament. G.K.Monnisha had it easy in the girls’ section as she scooped the title with nine points. Both Karthikeyan and Monnisha were second seeds in the tournament.

In the final round, top seed Diptayan kept his cool to beat Vignesh in 53 moves on the top board.

But his win was not enough as Karthikeyan got the better of his state mate Pranav Vijay in an intriguing battle of 68 moves to take the final battle to the tiebreaker where the Tamil Nadu lad edged past the local favourite by a point.

Monnisha ensured that there was no tiebreaker in the girls’ section with a fine win over WFM R.Vaishali in the last round.

The battle stretched to 55 moves before Monnisha, who recently qualified for the women’s premier championship, settled the issue.

Results

Boys: 1. Karthikeyan Murali (TN); 2 IM Diptayan Ghosh (WB); 3. B.Kumaran (TN); 4 FM Aravindh Chithambaram (TN); 5.Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh (Mah); 6.Naresh Rishubh Naik (Goa); 7. Sidhant Mohapatra (Odi); 8 .Harsha Bharathakoti (AP); 9.Pranav Vijay (TN); 10.Vignesh Nr (TN).

Girls: 1 WFM G.K. Monnisha (TN); 2 WFM M. Mahalakshmi (TN); 3 V. Varshini (TN); 4 C.H.Meghna (Ker); 5. R. Gayetri (TN); 6. WFM R. Vaishali (TN); 7. WCM Riya Savant (Goa); 8. Dhanashree Pandit (Mah); 9. Shiny Das (Tri); 10.Divya Garg (Mah).