Venkata Ramana Pips Akash Thakur For Title
By Arvind Aaron

J. Venkata Ramana of Andhra Pradesh won the second Air Marshal Subroto Mukherjee Memorial FIDE Rated Open at Delhi on April 18. He had the higher progressive tie-break score after he and Akash Thakur tied for the first place on 9/11.

In the eleventh and final round, Venkata Ramana won with the black pieces against Sudhir Kumar Sinha for the title.

It is a surprise that J. Venkata Ramana, 1974-born player rated 2168 was able to win this strong event with nearly a dozen International Masters and an equal number of future IMs in the fray.

Final round saw two IMs from the south, D.P. Singh and Konguvel share the point in just eight moves while two IMs from the north, Sriram Jha and Himanshu Sharma also shared their point but after 108 moves.

The tournament was organised from April 10-18 at the Head Quarters of the Western Air Command. A total of 11 IMs took part in this 313-player overall field. Further details can be seen at www.delhichess.com

Final placings: 1 J. Venkata Ramana (AP), 2 Akash Thakur (Mah), 3 IM Himanshu Sharma (Har), 4 IM D.P.Singh (Rly, TN), 5 IM P. Konguvel (ONGC, TN), 6 FM V.A.V. Rajesh (TN), 7 T. Purushothaman (AP), 8 Rahul Sangma (Del), 9 IM S. Satyapragyan (AI, Ori), 10 G.B. Joshi (AI, Del).

Special prizes: Veteran: 1 S.K. Sharma (Elo 1936) 6, 2 Ishwar Ramteke (1723) 6. Sub-Junior: 1 Vaibhav Suri, 2 Mehar Chinna Reddy 7.5 each. Best women: 1 Kumari Rama 7.5, 2 Alka Das 6.5. Best Defence Ward: 1 Aditya Gutpa 4.5, 2 Naman Sisodiya 4.
 

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