Karthik Venkataraman wins 59. Indian Championship

by André Schulz
1/5/2023 – Over the turn of the year, the Indian Chess Federation organised its 59th National Championship, an open event that attracted almost 200 players. After a very exciting tournament the 23-year old Karthik Venkataraman won with 10.0/13. | Photos: All Indian Chess Federation

ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024 ChessBase 17 - Mega package - Edition 2024

It is the program of choice for anyone who loves the game and wants to know more about it. Start your personal success story with ChessBase and enjoy the game even more.

More...

On 22.12, the All Indian Chess Federation (AICF) launched the 59th Indian National Championships. The tournament was a 13-round Swiss with almost 200 participants. As the date clashed with the Rapid and Blitz World Championships in Almaty, a number of well-known Indian top players were absent. But still 65 title holders took part, 18 of them grandmasters.

Top seed was S.P. Sethuraman (Elo 2642). Abhijeet Gupta, five-time Commonwealth gold medallist, Vaibhav Suri, captain of the Indian team at the World Team Championship and Leon Mendonca were also among the favourites.

With 5.0/5 Abijheet Gupta had the best start.

GM Abijheet Gupta und IM Koustav Chatterjee

Top seed GM S P Sethuraman | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

But then Gupta lost the momentum and his rivals could catch up. In round 11 Gupta lost a crucial and tense game against GM Karthik Venkataraman, in which both sides missed wins in a complicated position.

 

A very important win for Karthik Venkataraman who then also won in round 12 against Chatterjee. Before the 13th and last round Venkataraman was thus sole first and a last-round draw was enough for him to win the title with 10.0/13 as his rivals also drew. In the 13 rounds of the Championship the 23-year old from Andhra Pradesh did not suffer a single loss.

Abijheet Gupta, who won silver, also received a big cup...

... as did Visakh NR, who finished third

The 19-year-old Koustav Chatterjee, who finished seventh with 9.0/13 made his third and final GM norm and is now India's 78th grandmaster.

Koustav Chatterjee | Photo: Twitter

Final standings after 13 rounds

Rk. Name Pts.  TB1 
1 Karthik Venkataraman 10 100
2 Gupta Abhijeet 9,5 102,5
3 Visakh N R 9,5 100
4 Shyaamnikhil P 9,5 90
5 Das Sayantan 9,5 88
6 Aronyak Ghosh 9 103,5
7 Koustav Chatterjee 9 103
8 Mitrabha Guha 9 102,5
9 Sethuraman S.P. 9 101,5
10 Hari Madhavan N B 9 98,5
11 Iniyan P 9 96,5
12 Panesar Vedant 9 96
13 Vignesh N R 9 91
14 Saravana Krishnan P. 8,5 97
15 Harshavardhan G B 8,5 95,5
16 Srihari L R 8,5 94,5
17 Sahoo Utkal Ranjan 8,5 94
18 Ajay Krishna S 8,5 94
19 Karthikeyan P. 8,5 91
20 Nitin S. 8,5 90,5
21 Kushagra Mohan 8,5 87
22 Soham Kamotra 8,5 87
23 Avinash Ramesh 8,5 83,5
24 Sengupta Deep 8 99
25 Mehar Chinna Reddy C.H. 8 98,5

...196 players

Games

 

Links

Tournament page...


André Schulz started working for ChessBase in 1991 and is an editor of ChessBase News.