Sethuraman, Bhakti Win National Junior
By Arvind Aaron
 

International Master S.P. Sethuraman of Chennai and Bhakti Kulkarni of Goa won the Stree Seva Mandir Diamond Jubilee National Junior Chess Championship which concluded at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium in Chennai on Sep 28.

Sethuraman scored an attacking win over Arun Karthik of Chennai with the white pieces in a Pirc defence to reach 8.5 points. Bhakti Kulkarni lost the final round to National Sub-Junior champion R. Bharathi of Chennai. Both players were crowned and presented gold medals, certificates and awarded cash prizes of Rs.17,000.

The two overnight leaders, Swapnil Dhopade and Anwesh Upadhyaya drew in a Caro-Kann defence That left them on 8.5 points. All the players playing on 7.5 had an eye on the title. The best chance was before Shyam Sundar who was also an exchange up and had the highest tie-break score. He did not make use of the opportunity and drew Bitan Banerjee and finished fourth as the only undefeated player of the entire event.

Sethuraman scored and joined Anwesh and Swapnil on the 8.5-point group. When all the games were completed, Buchholz was applied and Sethuraman won his fourth National title. Sethuraman had won the National U-13 in 2004, National Sub-Junior in 2005 and 2007 earlier. It was a tension filled round, said Sethuraman. On lower tie-break score, Swapnil Dhopade of Amravati finished second and Anwesh Upadhyaya of Bhubaneswar finished third. All three of them scored 8.5/11. Both Swapnil and Anwesh have IM norms to their credit and are soon to become IMs.

Bhakti Kulkarni won the girls section with 9.5/11. She is winning this event for the second time. Padmini Rout played well and finished second with 9 points. The loss to Bhakti after an exchange sacrifice proved costly. Pratyusha of Andhra checkmated second seed Pon N Krithikha for the third place.

In a colourful closing ceremony, Lion Leo Muthu, Chairman, Sai Ram Engineering College distributed the prizes. TNSCA President P.R. Venketrama Raja, sponsor Surya Narayana Sao, vice president,

Stree Seva Mandir, J.C.D. Prabhakar, Vice President, TNSCA, Manuel Aaron, Government Observer, Chess, took part. The crowning was done by Surya Narayana Rao on Seethuraman and Mrs D.V. Sundar on Bhakti Kulkarni. The event was organised by Sports Promotion Foundation on behalf of Tamil Nadu State Chess Association.

Grand Master Open In Chennai: Sundar

In his address, D.V. Sundar said there will be a Grand Master Open in Chennai in January 2010. It will happen three days after the Parsvnath Open in Delhi and the idea should make Chennai and Indian players happy. Chennai players have a tournament in their own backyard and Indian players get an additional strike to make IM and GM norms.

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