Eastern Railway convincingly clinches 37th All India Railway Team Championship 2025

by Shahid Ahmed - 16/09/2025

Eastern Railway scored an unbeaten 10/12 to win 37th All India Inter Railway Team Chess Championship 2025. ER defeated South Eastern Railway convincingly 3.5-0.5 in the final round to become a clear champion. The defending champion scored sole 9/12 to secure second place. They also remained undefeated. Southern Railway, South Central Railway and South Eastern Railway scored 8/12 each. They secured third, fourth and fifth place according to tie-breaks. IM Sidhant Mohapatra was the top scorer for his team ER. He scored an unbeaten 4.5/6. The highest rated player of the field - GM Diptayan Ghosh and one of the top rated IMs of the country, Aronyak Ghosh scored 4/6 each. IM Arghyadip Das drew all of his games to contribute a valuable 3/6. This is ER's first triumph of this event in 17 years. Photos: Shahid Ahmed

17-year-long wait ends

There are two secret tournaments in India - Intra PSPB and RSPB tournaments. Both are non-rated events as it is an internal event. The last time PSPB event took place in Kolkata was in 2022, just after Covid-19 pandemic started subsiding and things getting back to normal. So I decided to skip going there, no point risking too much before the 44th Olympiad which took place in Mahabalipuram, Tamil Nadu. On 19th August, the day of the tournament at around 1 a.m. just before going to sleep, I saw on chess-results that the Round 1 starts at 10 a.m. So at that moment I decided to go because it is such a strong event. I love attending strong events and missing it would be a mistake. Only on the third day of the team championship, I could not go because it was raining like anything. The players staying inside the campus ensured that the rounds go smoothly on that day. This edition was also crucial as World Railway Championship qualification spots were up for grabs. All games were deliberately recorded by skipping the opening. So that no player feels their preparation getting revealed or in case they are practicing a line before playing at a rated tournament.

Integral Coach Factory had won the last three editions of All India Inter-Railway Team Championship. They were the only team which had only Grandmasters in their lineup. However, in terms of rating, it was the second seed. The top seed was Eastern Railway. They drew against the defending champion in the fourth round. They did not use a substitute throughout the tournament and ended a 17-year-long wait of winning this event. IM Himal Gusain won the individual event. That report will be published separately.

Champion - Eastern Railway 10/12

Interview with the champion team - Eastern Railway | Video: ChessBase India

Runner-up - Integral Coach Factory 9/12

Second Runner-up - Southern Railway 8/12

Eastern Railway's performance

Photo Gallery

17-year-old drought coming to an end brought a lot of joy to Eastern Railway

The tournament gate - 37th All India Railway Chess Championship 2025

The Saptarshis - Roy vs RoyChowdhury did take place but not in a tournament one can easily guess

Things got interesting as early as Round 2

Round 4: Integral Coach Factory - Eastern Railways: 2-2

It all came down to the game between IM Sidhant Mohapatra (ER) and GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (ICF)

The tournament hall - Eastern Railway Sports Complex, Majerhat in Kolkata, West Bengal

For more photos, please click here.

Video Gallery

IM Ayush Sharma's relentless kingside attack vs GM Diptayan Ghosh | Video: ChessBase India

FM trades his knight for three pawns versus a GM - Abhishek Das vs Visakh N R | Video: ChessBase India

C R G Krishna wins his debut tournament in Africa, Scholarship of his academy and draw against a GM | Video: ChessBase India

Is this Pawn down Rook Endgame defendable? FM Abhishek Das vs GM P Shyaam Nikhil | Video: ChessBase India

The support of Indian Railways in the lives and career of GMs and IMs | Video: ChessBase India

The first Indian Railways recruit to become a Grandmaster - Laxman R R | Video: ChessBase India

Venue tour | Video: ChessBase India

A total of 15 teams including 12 GMs and 17 IMs represented various railway divisions of Indian Railways across the country. The three-day six-round Swiss League non-rating team tournament was organized by Eastern Railway Sports Association at Eastern Railway Sports Academy Complex, Majerhat in Kolkata, West Bengal from 19th to 21st August 2025. The time control of the event was 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.

Final standings

Rk.	SNo	Team	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	1	Eastern Railway	ER	6	4	2	0	10	0	15,5	217,8	38
2	2	Integral Coach Factory	ICF	6	3	3	0	9	0	14	198	37,5
3	4	Southern Railway	SR	6	3	2	1	8	0	15,5	199,5	41
4	7	South Central Railway	SCR	6	4	0	2	8	0	15,5	183,3	35,5
5	5	South Eastern Railway	SER	6	4	0	2	8	0	14	188	31,5
6	3	Metro Railway	Metro Railway	6	3	1	2	7	2	14,5	186,8	36
7	8	Northern Railway	NR	6	3	1	2	7	0	15,5	124,3	39,5
8	6	Western Railway	WR	6	3	0	3	6	0	15	164,5	36,5
9	9	Central Railway	CR	6	3	0	3	6	0	12	127,3	37,5
10	11	East Coast Railway	East Coast Railway	6	2	2	2	6	0	10,5	89,8	29,5
11	14	Chittaranjan Locomotive Works	CLW	6	2	1	3	5	0	9,5	72,3	23
12	10	South Western Railway	SWR	6	0	4	2	4	0	10,5	125,5	26,5
13	15	Rail Wheel Factory	RWF	6	1	2	3	4	0	10	75,5	22
14	12	North Western Railway	NWR	6	2	0	4	4	0	7,5	54,3	18,5
15	13	West Central Wailway	WCR	6	1	1	4	3	0	9	74,8	18,5
16	16	North Central Railway	NCR	6	0	1	5	1	0	3,5	34,3	9