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SPIC - sponsored
M R Venkatesh's consistent play won him the prestigious State Chess title held at Mannargudi for the
V J Brahmayya Trophy. The 15-year old school boy from Chennai, with eight points, tied with ICF's Syed Anwar Shazuli of Madurai and won the championship on the basis of higher tie-break score.
This FIDE rated tournament attracted 113 players from 16 districts, three special units and five academies participated in the 10 - round Swiss, which included 17 women players. The event was organised by the Thiruvarur District Chess Association and M.A. Thirunagalingam of Madurai, was the chief arbiter.
Going into the final round, Venkatesh was leading with half a point from the rest. A victory over P Rajesh would have given him the title without doubt. Other contender for the championship, Deepan Chakravarthy lost his final round and made a clear way for Venkatesh to decide a draw after 24 moves from a Sicilian Najdorf, in his final round match against Rajesh . This draw made Rajesh to qualify for National 'B' for the first time.
Rajesh came up with his best show. He held stronger opponents like Hariharan, Deepan Chakravarthy and CJ Arvind. Among the top finishers, he was the only unbeaten player.
In the final round, one of the title contender, 14-year old R Siddharth of Chennai made an inexplicable blunder in the eighth move to lose against C Natarajan of ICF and lost his chance to qualify for
National 'B'. Venkatesh's sister M.R. Sangeetha, State Women's champion scored a creditable 6.5 points
Madurai boy Poobesh Anand qualified for the National `B' with a swift execution of Baskaran in the final round.
G Irulappan won the prize for being the best Thiruvarur district player with five points.
Final
Placings
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