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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 | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | |
| 1 | GM | Karthik Venkataraman | 2503 | 10 | 100 |
| 2 | GM | Gupta Abhijeet | 2601 | 9,5 | 102,5 |
| 3 | GM | Visakh N R | 2544 | 9,5 | 100 |
| 4 | IM | Shyaamnikhil P | 2490 | 9,5 | 90 |
| 5 | IM | Das Sayantan | 2475 | 9,5 | 88 |
| 6 | IM | Aronyak Ghosh | 2521 | 9 | 103,5 |
| 7 | IM | Koustav Chatterjee | 2508 | 9 | 103 |
| 8 | GM | Mitrabha Guha | 2487 | 9 | 102,5 |
| 9 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | 2642 | 9 | 101,5 |
| 10 | Hari Madhavan N B | 2385 | 9 | 98,5 | |
| 11 | GM | Iniyan P | 2507 | 9 | 96,5 |
| 12 | FM | Panesar Vedant | 2387 | 9 | 96 |
| 13 | IM | Vignesh N R | 2493 | 9 | 91 |
| 14 | IM | Saravana Krishnan P. | 2244 | 8,5 | 97 |
| 15 | IM | Harshavardhan G B | 2434 | 8,5 | 95,5 |
| 16 | IM | Srihari L R | 2429 | 8,5 | 94,5 |
| 17 | Sahoo Utkal Ranjan | 2333 | 8,5 | 94 | |
| 18 | IM | Ajay Krishna S | 2383 | 8,5 | 94 |
| 19 | GM | Karthikeyan P. | 2316 | 8,5 | 91 |
| 20 | IM | Nitin S. | 2372 | 8,5 | 90,5 |
| 21 | IM | Kushagra Mohan | 2390 | 8,5 | 87 |
| 22 | CM | Soham Kamotra | 2329 | 8,5 | 87 |
| 23 | IM | Avinash Ramesh | 2327 | 8,5 | 83,5 |
| 24 | GM | Sengupta Deep | 2486 | 8 | 99 |
| 25 | IM | Mehar Chinna Reddy C.H. | 2405 | 8 | 98,5 |
...196 players
