Aravindh Chithambaram clinches National Senior Championship title

The second seed wins the tournament with a one-point margin after a comfortable win in the final round.

Aravindh Chithambaram with his trophy. Photo: @Rameshchess

Second-seeded Grandmaster Aravindh Chithambaram (Tamil Nadu) retained the National title with 9.5 points after 11 rounds in the National Senior Chess Championship at SMIT, Majitar, on Thursday.

Aravindh won the title with a one-point margin and was awarded a trophy along with the cash prize of ₹five lakhs.

Playing with black, Aravindh scored a comfortable victory over IM Shyaamnikhil (RSPB) in the final round.

Second place for G. Akash

Sharing the second spot were IMs G. Akash (Tamil Nadu) and S. Ravi Teja (RSPB) at 8.5 points, securing a cash prize of ₹four lakhs and ₹three lakhs respectively. 

Top seed Grandmaster Abhijeet Gupta (PSPB) finished with 7.5 points tying for the 11th spot.

Former Indian football star Bhaichung Bhutia and Kuber Bhandari, secretary, Sports & Youth Affairs Dept., Govt. of Sikkim, gave away the prizes.

Final Placings 1: Aravindh Chithambaram (TN) 9.5; 2-3: Akash G. (TN), Ravi Teja S. (RSPB) 8.5; 4-10: Vaibhav Suri (Del), Anurag Mhamal (Goa), M. R. Lalith Babu (PSPB), N. R. Visakh N. R. (TN), Himanshu Sharma (Har), Konguvel Ponnuswamy, Kunte Abhijit (both PSPB) 8.