Karthik Venkataraman clinches second Indian national title

by Shahid Ahmed
8/28/2024 – Karthik Venkataraman won the 61st edition of the Indian National Championship after scoring 9/11 points at the event organised by the Haryana Chess Association. This is the second victory in a national championship for Karthik, who had also won the tournament in 2022. Surya Ganguly and Neelash Saha scored as many points as the champion, but finished in second and third place on tiebreaks. | Photos: Himank Ghosh
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Surya Ganguly & Neelash Saha on the podium

GM Karthik Venkataraman (AP) remained undefeated when he won the 59th edition back in 2022, scoring 10/13 points. This time, he also remained unbeaten as he scored 9/11 points to become the champion.

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (PSPB) and IM Aronyak Ghosh (RSPB) drew with IM Himal Gusain (RSPB) and GM Lalit Rohit (RSPB) respectively in the last round. It created a window of opportunity for GM Karthik Venkataraman (AP) to win the tournament. He defeated the reigning Commonwealth champion, GM Mitrabha Guha (RSPB), to win the event. Surya finished second on tiebreaks. IM Neelash Saha (RSPB) scored a comfortable win over IM Sammed Shete (MAH) to finish third. The top three finishers scored 9/11 each.

Karthik thus earned his place at the next World Cup.

A total of 340 players including 20 GMs, 11 IMs and 2 WGMs took part from various states and units across India in this 11-round Swiss open tournament. It was organized by the Haryana Chess Association at RPS International School in Gurugram, Haryana on 17-27 August 2024. The time control was 90 minutes for 40 moves plus 30 minutes for the rest of the game and 30-second increments from move 1.

Indian Chess Championship 2024

Top 3 (L to R): 2nd GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly (PSPB), 1st GM Karthik Venkataraman (AP) and 3rd IM Neelash Saha (RSPB)

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Mitrabha 0 - 1 Karthik

Mitrabha Guha (RSPB, 2537) made an incorrect decision when he captured the e7-pawn - 17.Bxe7? Rfe8 18.Nd2 Rxe7 19.Nxc4 Bxc3 20.Rb1 Qe6 21.Qd6 Qxd6 22.Nxd6 Bb4 23.Nb5 Bc5 24.Rfc1?? Rxe2 and it is over for White.

Karthik had no trouble converting his advantage into a win.

Indian Chess Championship 2024

Karthik Venkataraman scored a crucial win (with black) over Mitrabha Guha in the final round to become the champion

Indian Chess Championship 2024

The top 10 finishers

For more photos from round 11 and the closing ceremony, please click the respective links.

Final standings

Rk. Name Pts.  TB1 
1 Karthik, Venkataraman 9 78
2 Ganguly, Surya Shekhar 9 77,5
3 Neelash, Saha 9 76,5
4 Ghosh, Diptayan 8,5 78
5 Aronyak, Ghosh 8,5 77,5
6 Gusain, Himal 8,5 72,5
7 Lalit, Babu M R 8,5 71,5
8 Gupta, Abhijeet 8,5 70,5
9 Shyaam, Nikhil P 8,5 69
10 Sethuraman, S.P. 8 78,5
11 Venkatesh, M.R. 8 73,5
12 Das, Sayantan 8 73,5
13 Ajay, Karthikeyan 8 72,5
14 Viani, Antonio Dcunha 8 72,5
15 Nitin, S. 8 72,5
16 Adireddy, Arjun 8 71
17 Visakh, N R 8 70
18 Majumder, Shrayan 8 63,5
19 Sankalp, Gupta 7,5 75,5
20 Swapnil, S. Dhopade 7,5 75

...341 players

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Shahid Ahmed is the senior coordinator and editor of ChessBase India. He enjoys covering chess tournaments and also likes to play in chess events from time to time.