Visakh Nr Wins With 8.5/9
Untitled Visakh Nr won the Lightning Chess Tournament held as part of the 65th Birthday celebrations of the Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa in Chennai on March 3, 2013.
In a field of 782 players, Visakh won ahead of 30 titled players which comprised of nine Grand Masters, 12 International Masters among others.
Chennai's Visakh and Salem Grand Master Arun Prasad drew their fifth round game and beat the eight other opponents to score 8.5/9. Visakh had the higher tie-break score and was declared the champion.
On course to the title, Visakh overcame Grand Masters R.R. Laxman and Deepan Chakkravarthy and higher rated Navin Kanna and M Kunal. Visakh picked up Rs.65,000 first prize in the Rs.2 Lakh prize money sponsored by All India Chess Federation, President, J.C.D. Prabhakar.
Five months back, Visakh had won the National Under-13 title at the same playing hall. Chess champions are certainly getting younger and younger.
Last year's champion Krishnan Sasikiran was playing an International Tournament in France and missed this event. International Arbiter R. Srivatsan was the chief arbiter and the venue was the Nehru Indoor Stadium in Chennai. India had 782 players and one from Ireland took part.
India's first Woman Grand Master S Vijayalakshmi scored 7.5 and finished 19th. Top seed Grand Master M.R. Venkatesh finished tenth with 7.5 points.
Placings of other Grand Masters: 12 Laxman 7.5; 14 Adhiban 7.5; 24 Shyam Sundar 7; 26 Sethuraman 7; 32 S Kidambi 7 and R.B. Ramesh 3/3 withdrew.
Final placings (tie-break order): 1-2. Visakh Nr, GM S Arun Prasad 8.5/9 each; 3-8. GM Deepan Chakkravarthy, IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh, IM N Sudhakar Babu, IM R Siddharth, Vignesh Nr, D.S. Shashaank 8 each....783 players.
Pic: In the picture above, Visakh is seen receiving the trophy from B Valarmathi, Minister for Social Welfare and Nutritious Noon Meal, Government of Tamil Nadu. Others from left are: Saidai S Duraisamy, Mayor, Chennai Corporation, J.C.D. Prabhakar, President, AICF, D.V. Sundar, Vice President, FIDE.
