Vishnu wins Golden Jubilee of Sivakasi Chess Club, NPSS Rathina Nadar - Dr. N Mahalingam Rating Open 2023

by R Anantharam - 30/07/2023

GM Vishnu Prasanna V scored 8/9 to win 50th year of Sivakasi Chess Club, NPSS Rathina Nadar Dr. N Mahalingam Rating Open 2023. Vishnu finished a half point ahead of the field. Thus, no tie-breaks were required. Despite losing the second round game, Vishnu bounced back by winning the next seven games in a row. Four players - IM Nitin S, IM Ratnakaran K, Selvamurugan B and Surendran N scored 7.5/9 each. They were placed second to fifth respectively. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹1000000. The top three prizes were ₹120000, ₹80000 and ₹65000 along with a trophy each. This is only fourth tournament Vishnu played this year. His last tournament triumph was exactly a year and a day ago at Olympiad Curtain Raiser Rapid Rating Open 2023. Photos: IA R Anantharam

Vishnu wins a tournament after a year and a day later

Grandmaster Vishnu Prasanna, the coach of India no. 2 D. Gukesh ended a long drought of winning a FIDE rated tournament at the 50th year of Sivakasi Chess Club NPSS Rathina Nadar – Dr. N. Mahalingam chess tournament with prize money of ten lacs rupees.

Vishnu Prasanna receives the trophy from Dr. M Manickam, President, Tamil Nadu State Chess Association

Vishnu Prasanna, as the champion, received one lakh and twenty thousand rupees. The tournament was held at Sivakasi from 21st to 25th July 2023. 266 players from Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Pondicherry, Andhra Pradesh and Haryana participated in the nine rounds event.

Irrespective of the final round loss to Vishnu, International Master S Nitin of Railways secured the runner-up spot. Nitin scored 7.5 points from nine games. Nitin received a prize of ₹80000.

The final round loss to GM Vishnu Prasanna put IM Nitin S on the runner-up spot

IM Ratnakaran K of Railways did a Houdini act, capitalizing a blunder by S Rohith of TN to win the game from a total losing position and the third place went to him. The win helped him to get a cash prize of ₹65000.

IM Ratnakaran's Houdini act against S Rohith in the final round helped him to get the third place

Winners of the first three places - GM Vishnu Prasanna, IM S Nitin and IM Ratnakaran K with the guests

Dr. M. Manickam, A P Selvarajan and A Tenzing, industrialists and big supporters of chess are adjacent to the winners.

Grandmaster Vishnu Prasanna, the head coach of Hatsun Chess Academy, Sivakasi did not disappoint his local students and scored eight points and the only loss came against his own student I Kirpesh at the Hatsun CA. in the second round. Kirpesh is also a member of the host Sivakasi Chess Club.

GM Vishnu Prasanna scored 8/9, scored seven consecutive wins after losing the second round game

Top seeded GM Vishnu Prasnna lost to his student I Kirpesh of Hatsun Chess Academy/Sivakasi Chess Club in the second round

B Selvamurugan of Tamil Nadu defeated S Gokulakrishna to gain the fourth rank. Gokulakrishna is the biggest beneficiary in terms of gaining 114 rating points in the tournament.

Both B Selvamurugan and S Gokulakrishna had a good tournament. The former won the fourth place and the latter 114 rating points

Experienced N Surendran, a coach rated 2197, defeated youngster G Aakash, a former national under-11 champion, to win the fifth rank. His friend N Lokesh, a good player, trainer and chess administrator, who organised the National Schools 2023, together with Ananthi Chess Academy Madurai won the next rank.

N Surendran defeated youngster G Aakash to win the fifth rank

N Lokesh won the sixth place by beating KP Akash

Vijay Shreeram (right) played well to achieve the seventh rank, He defeated Abel Sajan of Kerala in the final round

Former Tamil Nadu state junior champion SS Manigandan of Golden Knights CA, Madurai got the better of former national under-11 girls champion Anupam M Sreekumar of Kerala, which helped him to finish eighth.

S S Manigandan defeated former national under-11 girls champion Anupam M Sreekumar of Kerala to secure the eighth place

Balkishan A (left) of Karnataka collected the ninth place

Swarna Nihal of Andhra Pradesh, who finished tenth, played a marathon game against Srihari K R in the third round and drew.

Round 3: Swarna Nihal (AP) - Srihari K R (TN): 0.5-0.5

Nitin - Vishnu, Round 9

Position after 28...Qa6

White's only defense was 29.Qb6 which is not easy to spot considering his king is in a precarious position. 29.Nf4?? Bf3 ended things in a hurry for IM Nitin S (2389). His opponent, GM Vishnu Prasanna (2413) went on to win the game in another eleven moves.

GM Vishnu Prasanna outplayed IM Nitin S to lift the crown

In the crucial sixth round encounter, IM Nitin S prevailed over IM Ratnakaran K

Third seeded L Srihari of Ponicherry lost to S Gokulakrishna of TN in the fourth round

A five-year-old boy ended the game in Stalemate in a commanding position

A Iyan Adeendren a prominent industrialist in Sivakasi and rated 1258 inaugurated the tournament. He is watching Sathvik Adiga, a former national under 7 silver medalist

The Arbiters' team

R Anantharam, Secretary of Sivakasi Chess Club was the Chief Arbiter, helped by IA Vijayaraghavan V as the Deputy Chief. Member of the Technical Commission, FIDE IA Arasu B was the fair play officer and was also in charge of the 12 live games.

A total of 266 players participated from various parts of the Tamil Nadu. The five-day nine-round Swiss league Rating tournament was held from 21st to 25th July 2023. It was organized by Sivakasi Chess Club at Kammavar Kalyana Mandapam in Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu. The time control for event was 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.

Replay all available games

Final standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	RtgI	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	1	GM	Vishnu, Prasanna. V			IND	2413	8	48	52	0	46,50	9	8	8,20	-0,20	10	-2
2	2	IM	Nitin, S.			IND	2389	7,5	53,5	58	0	46,50	9	7,5	7,83	-0,33	10	-3,3
3	4	IM	Ratnakaran, K.			IND	2237	7,5	51	55,5	0	44,75	9	7,5	7,95	-0,45	10	-4,5
4	11		Selvamurugan, B			IND	1945	7,5	47	51	0	42,25	9	7,5	7,72	-0,22	20	-4,4
5	5		Surendran, N			IND	2197	7,5	46,5	51,5	0	42,25	9	7,5	8,67	-1,17	20	-23,4
6	6		Lokesh, N.			IND	2152	7	51	55,5	0	40,75	9	7	7,01	-0,01	20	-0,2
7	14		Vijay, Shreeram P			IND	1840	7	48	52	0	38,50	9	7	6,77	0,23	20	4,6
8	8		Manigandan, S S			IND	2036	7	47,5	52,5	0	40,00	9	7	7,99	-0,99	20	-19,8
9	16		Balkishan, A.			IND	1826	7	46	50	0	37,00	9	7	7,06	-0,06	20	-1,2
10	15		Swarna, Nihal	U15		IND	1839	7	42,5	45,5	0	35,50	9	7	7,83	-0,83	40	-33,2
11	24		Gokulakrishna, S			IND	1743	6,5	50	54,5	0	37,00	9	6,5	3,65	2,85	40	114
12	21		Rohith, S	U15		IND	1756	6,5	48	52,5	0	35,50	9	6,5	5,70	0,80	40	32
13	3		Srihari, L			IND	2281	6,5	47,5	51,5	0	36,25	9	6,5	8,74	-2,24	20	-44,8
14	32		Shadhursshaan, R			IND	1681	6,5	47,5	51,5	0	34,75	9	6,5	4,39	2,11	40	84,4
15	17	AGM	Sa, Kannan			IND	1820	6,5	47	51,5	0	36,50	9	6,5	6,56	-0,06	20	-1,2
16	27		Kanishka, S		w	IND	1723	6,5	47	51,5	0	35,25	9	6,5	6,69	-0,19	40	-7,6
17	19		Aakash, G	U15		IND	1784	6,5	46,5	50,5	0	34,50	9	6,5	6,30	0,20	40	8
18	20		Anilkumar, O.T.	S55		IND	1778	6,5	46	50	0	32,00	9	6,5	6,25	0,25	20	5
19	7	FM	Maheswaran, P.			IND	2058	6,5	45	49,5	0	34,75	9	6,5	8,63	-2,13	20	-42,6
20	59		Ahaz, E U	U15		IND	1512	6,5	43	46,5	0	32,50	9	6,5	5,20	1,30	40	52
21	50		Gokula, Vishnu R			IND	1558	6,5	41,5	43,5	0	29,25	9	6,5	5,34	1,16	40	46,4
22	38		Naveen, K S			IND	1652	6,5	38,5	42,5	0	30,75	9	6,5	7,51	-1,01	40	-40,4
23	10	FM	Vinoth Kumar, M.			IND	1967	6	48	52,5	0	32,50	9	6	7,37	-1,37	20	-27,4
24	46		Anupam, M Sreekumar	F15	w	IND	1595	6	48	52	0	31,25	9	6	3,93	2,07	40	82,8
25	18		Jai, Sankar Subramanian			IND	1797	6	47,5	51,5	0	30,75	9	6	6,43	-0,43	40	-17,2
26	13		Dhanush, Ragav N S			IND	1860	6	47,5	51	0	32,25	9	6	6,15	-0,15	20	-3
27	47		Mahith, Giridhar			IND	1595	6	47	51,5	0	32,50	9	6	4,97	1,03	40	41,2
28	61		Raaghav, Kabil M			IND	1499	6	47	50,5	0	30,75	9	6	3,88	2,12	40	84,8
29	45		Abel, Sajan	U15		IND	1603	6	46,5	50,5	0	31,25	9	6	4,80	1,20	40	48
30	35		Yashwant, B	U15		IND	1667	6	46,5	50,5	0	31,00	9	6	5,36	0,64	40	25,6

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About the Author

Prof. Rathinam Anantharam is an A-grade international arbiter. Member of FIDE Arbiters’ Commission, Chairman of Titles Commission in All India Chess Federation, Vice President of Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, Chief Arbiter for six world championships, many Asian, International and National Championships.

The report was edited by Shahid Ahmed