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
1 |
10 |
GM |
Karthik Venkataraman |
IND |
2503 |
Andhra Pradesh |
10 |
100 |
106,5 |
81,00 |
0 |
7 |
2 |
3 |
GM |
Gupta Abhijeet |
IND |
2601 |
PSPB |
9,5 |
102,5 |
108,5 |
77,25 |
0 |
9 |
3 |
5 |
GM |
Visakh N R |
IND |
2544 |
RSPB |
9,5 |
100 |
107 |
76,75 |
0 |
7 |
4 |
13 |
IM |
Shyaamnikhil P |
IND |
2490 |
RSPB |
9,5 |
90 |
95 |
68,25 |
0 |
7 |
5 |
18 |
IM |
Das Sayantan |
IND |
2475 |
RSPB |
9,5 |
88 |
93,5 |
67,50 |
0 |
8 |
6 |
7 |
IM |
Aronyak Ghosh |
IND |
2521 |
RSPB |
9 |
103,5 |
110,5 |
74,00 |
0 |
6 |
7 |
8 |
IM |
Koustav Chatterjee |
IND |
2508 |
West Bengal |
9 |
103 |
110 |
72,75 |
0 |
7 |
8 |
14 |
GM |
Mitrabha Guha |
IND |
2487 |
West Bengal |
9 |
102,5 |
109,5 |
74,00 |
0 |
6 |
9 |
1 |
GM |
Sethuraman S.P. |
IND |
2642 |
PSPB |
9 |
101,5 |
106,5 |
71,25 |
0 |
7 |
10 |
32 |
|
Hari Madhavan N B |
IND |
2385 |
Tamil Nadu |
9 |
98,5 |
104,5 |
69,25 |
0 |
7 |
11 |
9 |
GM |
Iniyan P |
IND |
2507 |
Tamil Nadu |
9 |
96,5 |
102,5 |
69,00 |
0 |
6 |
12 |
30 |
FM |
Panesar Vedant |
IND |
2387 |
Maharashtra |
9 |
96 |
102 |
68,00 |
0 |
6 |
13 |
12 |
IM |
Vignesh N R |
IND |
2493 |
RSPB |
9 |
91 |
96,5 |
64,25 |
0 |
7 |
14 |
59 |
IM |
Saravana Krishnan P. |
IND |
2244 |
Tamil Nadu |
8,5 |
97 |
103 |
63,75 |
0 |
6 |
15 |
22 |
IM |
Harshavardhan G B |
IND |
2434 |
Tamil Nadu |
8,5 |
95,5 |
101 |
63,50 |
0 |
5 |
16 |
25 |
IM |
Srihari L R |
IND |
2429 |
Tamil Nadu |
8,5 |
94,5 |
100,5 |
63,25 |
0 |
5 |
17 |
46 |
|
Sahoo Utkal Ranjan |
IND |
2333 |
Odisha |
8,5 |
94 |
100 |
63,00 |
0 |
6 |
18 |
34 |
IM |
Ajay Krishna S |
IND |
2383 |
Tamil Nadu |
8,5 |
94 |
99,5 |
60,75 |
0 |
7 |
19 |
52 |
GM |
Karthikeyan P. |
IND |
2316 |
RSPB |
8,5 |
91 |
96 |
58,25 |
0 |
6 |
20 |
37 |
IM |
Nitin S. |
IND |
2372 |
RSPB |
8,5 |
90,5 |
96,5 |
61,50 |
0 |
7 |
21 |
29 |
IM |
Kushagra Mohan |
IND |
2390 |
Telangana |
8,5 |
87 |
91,5 |
57,75 |
0 |
5 |
22 |
48 |
CM |
Soham Kamotra |
IND |
2329 |
Jammu and Kashmir |
8,5 |
87 |
91,5 |
57,25 |
0 |
5 |
23 |
49 |
IM |
Avinash Ramesh |
IND |
2327 |
Tamil Nadu |
8,5 |
83,5 |
89 |
55,25 |
0 |
6 |
24 |
15 |
GM |
Sengupta Deep |
IND |
2486 |
PSPB |
8 |
99 |
104,5 |
60,00 |
0 |
6 |
25 |
27 |
IM |
Mehar Chinna Reddy C.H. |
IND |
2405 |
RSPB |
8 |
98,5 |
104 |
59,75 |
0 |
5 |
...196 players
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