World Chess Championship 2013 Parallel Chess Events: Aravindh Chithambaram wins Chennai Chess Open

FIDE Master V R Aravindh Chithambaram has won the Chennai Grandmaster International Open Chess tournament held alongside the Anand – Carlsen World Chess Championship Match. Aravindh won the event with nine points in 11 rounds and earned the winner’s trophy along with a cash award of Rs two lakh.

Grandmasters Neverov Valeriy (Ukraine) and S P Sethuraman (India) shared the second spot with 8.5 points.

Half a point away were GMs Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, V Vishnu Prasanna (both India) and Borovikov Vladislav (Ukraine). Borovikov beat Indian GM Lalith Babu with an exciting Queen sacrifice.

Fourteen-year-old Aravindh, who already has won National titles in Under 11, 13 and 19 sections, is also an Under-14 silver medal winner at the World Youth Chess Championship. His elo 2728 performance rating here got him 80 elo points taking him past the 2400 mark.

Earlier, 15-year-old Chennai boy B Kumaran made an International Master Norm, bringing the Norms tally (2 GM Norms, 6 IM Norms, 1 WIM Norm) here to nine.

This GM event, sponsored by the Government of Tamil Nadu, carries a total prize fund of Rs 10 lakh, including cash awards for top 35 players and cash prizes for various categories.

Final Standings: 1 V R Aravindh Chithambaram (India) 9, 2-3 Neverov Valeriy (Ukr), S P Sethuraman (Ind) 8.5, 4-6 Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, V Vishnu Prasanna (both India), Borovikov Vladislav (Ukr) 8, 7-8 Mozharov Mikhail (Rus), Babujian Levon (Arm) 7.5, 9-10 M R Lalith Babu (Ind), Mirzoev Azer (Aze) 7.