| Mari Arul wins State Rapid title
 Talented
Railways star S Mari Arul created a record when he won the TN State Rapid Chess Title at
Chennai on Oct 17,99. The tournament was sponsored by HCL Infosystems Frontline Division
who are in their second year of continuous chess sponsorship. Last year they ventured into
chess, sponsoring the TN State team Chess, State Lightning Chess and Problem Solving
Contest. The problem-solving contest for this year was won by a promising youngster from
Chennai, P Mahesh Chandran. The problem solving was the brainchild of renowned
International problemist C G S Narayanan. There were six problems to be solved in less
than two hours. It included two three movers, a couple of two movers, an endgame study and
a helpmate.
 The rapid championship attracted more than a hundred entries
including International Master N Sudhakar Babu and several titled and FIDE Rated players.
The second round saw a few upsets in which R Naveen drew the Top Seed and International
Master N Sudhakar Babu (Indian bank) while FIDE Rated A L Kasi (P & T) being held to a
draw by young Jayanth (Bobby Fischer Chess Academy). In the fourth round, G Srikanth
(BPCL) stunned the second seed, FIDE master T S Ravi (IOC) while Chennai's promising
lad
T V Karthikeyan pulled down the third seed K Visweswaran.
At the end of the second day S Mari Arul
jointly lead with fellow Railways star A Sankar scoring 5.5 points from 6 rounds. However the next two rounds produced
mixed fortunes for the leaders. While Shankar lost both the games, Mari Arul dropped only
half-a-point to maintain his joint lead , this time with T V Karthikeyan (Loyola
College).Facing each other in the last round Mari Arul and Karthikeyan split the point to
tie for the first place . But the superior tiebreak saw Mari Arul winning the title.
Mari Arul had previously won the TN state Sub junior, Junior and Senior  Championships
and his victory in the Rapids completes a full circle and a new record in TamilNadu
Chess.The first two qualify for the forthcoming National Rapid Chess Championship to be
held at Mumbai.The Championship was jointly organised by Tiruvallur District Chess
Association and Rotary Club of Madras Central in admirable fashion at Mayor Radhakrishnan
stadium, Chennai.The tournament was ably conducted by National Arbiter R Srivatsan who was
assisted by Vijayakumar and Shakthi Prabhakar.
Final Placings |
