Ajay Srikanth dominates 1st Sports Bees Rapid Rating Open 2024 after more than a decade long hiatus

by Shahid Ahmed - 12/01/2025

When a lot of tournaments take place, naturally a lot of champions get crowned. However, it is slightly different with Ajay Srikanth, the winner of 1st Sports Bees Rapid Rating Open 2024. He scored 8.5/9 and finished a half point ahead of the rest. Five players - FM Ankit Gajwa, IM Sathvik Adiga, Vivaan Sachdev, FM Apoorv Kamble and Aarya Satish Chikodi scored 8/9 each. They were placed second to sixth according to tie-breaks. Ajay defeated the eventual runner-up, Sathvik in the final round to become the champion. The total prize fund was ₹250000. The top three prizes were ₹35000, ₹25000 and ₹20000 along with a trophy each. The two-day nine-round Swiss league rapid rating tournament was organized by Sports Bees at CMK Convention Hall in Bangalore, Karnataka on 28th and 29th December 2024. This is Ajay's first rating tournament triumph of his career. If you have not played a tournament for a really long time, check out this report and you might just find your inspiration. Photo: sportsbees.in

Ajay makes an epic comeback after more than a decade

Ajay Srikanth won his first tournament in July 2009 - 35th Tamil Nadu State Sub-Junior (Under-15) Open. The last open tournament he played was in 2012 where India's stalwarts like - GM Sasikiran Krishnan, GM Vishnu Prasanna, GM Deepan Chakkravarthy, GM Venkatesh M R, GM Ramesh R B, GM Sethuraman S P, GM Aravindh Chithambaram, IM Subbaraman Vijayalakshmi and many more strong titled players took part in it. More than a decade later, he played a rating tournament and won it convincingly. One of the latest IMs of India, Karnataka's Sathvik Adiga was the sole leader by winning eight games in-a-row. Ajay was the only player trailing him by a half point at 7.5/8. He managed to beat the talented teenager Sathvik in the final round to become a clear champion.

Champion - Ajay Srikanth 8.5/9 | Photo: sportsbees.in

Dear reader, if you have not played a tournament for a long time, even if it is more than a decade, you do not have to look further than Ajay Srikanth's performance. A lot of things might have changed since you were in action but with a proper preparation, you can still do it, Ajay showed it.

Runner-up - FM Ankit Gajwa 8/9 | Photo: sportsbees.in

Second Runner-up - IM Sathvik Adiga 8/9 | Photo: sportsbees.in

Ajay Srikanth scored an unbeaten 8.5/9, finished a staggering a half point ahead of the field and gained 7.8 Elo rating points

Trophies for the prize winners | Photo: sportsbees.in

Players in action at CMK Convention Hall in Bangalore, Karnataka | Photo: sportsbees.in

A total of 511 players including an IM took part from various parts of India, one from Singapore and two from the USA. The tournament was organized by Sports Bees at CMK Convention Hall in Bangalore, Karnataka on 28th and 29th December 2024. The nine-round Swiss league Rapid Rating tournament had a time control of 20 minutes + 5 seconds increment from move no.1.

Final standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	RtgI	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB5
1	2		Srikanth, Ajay			IND	2142	8,5	52	54	51,25	8
2	1	FM	Gajwa, Ankit			IND	2147	8	56	61	53,00	8
3	6	IM	Sathvik, Adiga			IND	1914	8	56	61	52,50	8
4	14	AFM	Vivaan, Sachdev			IND	1801	8	55	59	51,00	8
5	3	FM	Apoorv, Kamble			IND	2103	8	52	56,5	48,50	8
6	40		Aarya, Satish Chikodi			IND	1616	8	51	55	48,00	8
7	10	AIM	Farhaan, M			IND	1847	7,5	53	56	44,50	7
8	7		Bhuvan, Krishna Prasanth			IND	1898	7,5	52	56	44,00	7
9	9		Ajit, Singh			IND	1855	7,5	49	53,5	43,50	7
10	15		Rohan, Gupta			IND	1790	7,5	48	52,5	42,50	7
11	21		Gopika, M		w	IND	1717	7	53,5	59	43,75	6
12	13		Vigneshwaran, S			IND	1825	7	53,5	58	42,00	7
13	5	WCM	Charvi, A		w	IND	2007	7	53	55,5	39,50	7
14	56		Karthik, G Iyer			IND	1569	7	52,5	55	40,25	6
15	39	AFM	Shobhit, Agilarasan			IND	1616	7	52	55,5	39,50	7
16	27	AFM	Sinthia, Sarkar		w	IND	1672	7	51	55,5	40,50	7
17	37		Samaksh, Ashok			IND	1621	7	51	55	39,75	6
18	19		Nishanth, Dsouza			IND	1727	7	51	53,5	38,50	7
19	24		Karthik, S			IND	1679	7	50,5	54,5	39,50	7
20	30		Ekantharaju,			IND	1658	7	50	54,5	39,50	7
21	31		Kavari, Aarav	U09		USA	1649	7	50	52	37,00	7
22	63		Raghav, Budur			IND	1559	7	49,5	54,5	39,50	7
23	20		Ragavan, Samarth Rajesh			USA	1721	7	49,5	52,5	38,75	6
24	43		Prahalad, Sen			IND	1608	7	49,5	52,5	37,50	7
25	4	FM	Apaar, Saxena			IND	2012	7	49,5	52	37,50	6
26	33		Tarun, Thiyagarajan			IND	1637	7	48,5	52,5	37,00	7
27	151		Rishikesh, K M			IND	1441	7	47,5	51,5	36,50	6
28	25		Amogh, Manohar			IND	1676	7	46,5	50,5	38,50	6
29	28		Vamsi, Krishna A			IND	1669	7	46	49,5	36,00	7
30	17		Gowtham, K K			IND	1764	7	46	48,5	36,50	7