National Chess Championship: Karthik comes from behind and edges Ganguly to script thrilling title win

Karthik had to win his game against Mitrabha Guha to entertain any hopes of winning his second Nationals (he was the champion at the 59th edition held early last year).

Karthik Venkataraman, the winner of the National Chess Championship, poses with his trophy. | Photo Credit: Shashi Shekhar Kashyap/ The Hindu 

In the end, Karthik Venkataraman proved more equal than the others. More equal than Surya Shekhar Ganguly, even.

Karthik, Ganguly and Neelash Saha finished with nine points from 11 rounds at the 61st National Chess championship at the RPS International School on Tuesday: the tie was broken using the Buchholz System after they finished in that order.

Karthik’s tie-break score was 78, against Ganguly’s 77.5. A win against Himal Gusain would have given Ganguly his seventh National championship, but he had to be content with his fourth draw in a row; he had won his first seven games and been in the sole lead going into the final round.

Karthik had to win his game against Mitrabha Guha to entertain any hopes of winning his second Nationals (he was the champion at the 59th edition held early last year).

He employed Caro-Kann Defence against the English Opening and won in 58 moves, converting a superior rook-and-pawn ending. “I hadn’t even looked at the tie-breaker score before the game but was determined to play for a win,” the 25-year-old from Tirupati said.

Important results (final round)

Himal Gusain (RSPB) 8.5 drew with Surya Shekhar Ganguly (PSPB) 9; Aronyak Ghosh (RSPB) 8.5 drew with M.R. Lalith Babu (PSPB) 8.5; Mitrabha Guha (RSPB) 7.5 lost to Karthik Venkataraman (AP) 9; Neelash Saha (RSPB) 9 bt Sammed Shete (Mah) 7.5; Abhijeet Gupta (PSPB) 8.5 bt N.R. Vignesh (RSPB) 7.5; Diptayan Ghosh (RSPB) 8.5 bt Sankalp Gupta (Mah) 7.5; P. Iniyan (TN) 7.5 drew with N.R. Visakh (RSPB) 8; Deep Sengupta (PSPB) 7 lost to P. Shyaam Nikhil (RSPB) 8.5; Ajay Karthikeyan (TN) 8 bt Swapnil Dhopade (Mah) 7.5; Koustuv Dash (Odi) 7 lost to S.P. Sethuraman (PSPB) 8; Sayantan Das (RSPB) 8 bt Dinesh K. Sharma (LIC) 7; J. Deepan Chakravarthy (RSPB) 7.5 drew with Vignesh Advait Vemula (TS) 7.5; Shrayan Majumder (Mah) 8 w/o S. Ravi Teja (RSPB) 7; Arpith S. Bijoy (Ker) 7 lost to M.R. Venkatesh (PSPB) 8; Daksh Goyal (Del) 7 lost to Viani D’cunha (Kar) 8.

The standings

1-3. Karthik, Ganguly and Saha 9; 4-9. Diptayan, Aronyak, Gusain, Lalith, Abhijeet and Shyaam 8.5; 10-18. Sethuraman, Venkatesh, Sayantan, Ajay, D’cunha, Nitin, Arjun Adireddy, Vishakh and Shrayan 8.