School boy Hari Ganesh lifts 21st Adyar Times Rating Open 2023 Trophy

by S Paul Arokia Raj - 18/09/2023

15-year-old Hari Ganesh T and FM Vinoth Kumar M scored an unbeaten 7.5/8 at 21st Adyar Times Rating Open 2023. The teenager won the tournament due to better tie-breaks and Vinoth secured second place. Six players - Kavishvaran P, Malla Nooka Raju, Selvamurugan B, Sridhar C S, Raghav V and IM Ramnathan Balasubramaniam scored 7/8 each. Kavishvaran was adjudged third among them. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹250000. The top three prizes were ₹35000 + trophy, ₹25000 and ₹15000 each respectively. This is Hari's first Rating and overall second tournament triumph of his career. His first tournament victory happened earlier this year when he won Changalpattu District Under-17 Boys Tournament 2023. Check out Hari's two of the best games selected and annotated by the boy himself. Photos: IA and FI S Paul Arokia Raj

Hari Ganesh's first rating tournament triumph

The Adyar Times FIDE rated open chess tournament is one among the very few tournaments in the Indian chess circuit that has been organized regularly for more than 20 years. Flagged off in the year 2001 as a small event with a meagre 135 participants, has now roped in 508 entries because of its growing popularity. The inaugural edition namely Adyar Times New Millennium FIDE Rated Open Chess Tournament was held in July 2001 at St. John’s Matriculation School, Beasant Nagar, Chennai right opposite to the legendary hero Viswanathan Anand’s residence. I still remember a parent of a player from Coimbatore telling that they have travelled all the way to play in this event to have a glimpse of GM Vishy Anand’s home. GM Dronavalli Harika also featured in the event as a ten-year-old girl! I was also one among that 135 participants and figured in the prize list too. Next year onwards my role changed from that of player to Chief Arbiter which I have been doing earnestly without for the last two decades continuously.

Champion - Hari Ganesh T 7.5/8

Runner-up - FM Vinoth Kumar M (right) 7.5/8

Second Runner-up - Kavishvaran P 7/8

Sponsored by Adyar Times a famous neighborhood newspaper in South Chennai and therefore the event is always organized in and around South Chennai. Excepting the two years 2020 and 2021 due to Covid impact, the tournament has marked a permanent place in the annual calendar of the AICF. Tamil Nadu State Chess Association is the organizer of this famous event. The 21st edition held between August 25th and 28th this year at the centrally located Bala Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School, Adyar had a representation from five national federations namely Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, USA and of course India.

Hari Ganesh - Lukesh, Round 6

Position after 14...Bb8

Find out the fantastic winning continuation for White which Hari Ganesh T (1740) executed in the game against Lukesh A (1549).

The eventual champion - Hari Ganesh ponders over his move (right)

Hari Ganesh T scored an unbeaten 7.5/8 and gained 43.6 Elo rating points

In a simple ceremony Indian’s first IM and Arjuna awardee, Manuel Aaron flagged off the four days event by making a formal move against Commodore Vijesh Kumar Garg, VSM the correspondent of BVM school.

India's first IM in history - Manuel Aaron makes the inaugural move

It was school boy Hari Ganesh of Vellammal Vidyalaya, Guduvancherry, Chennai who emerged as the champion after scoring 7.5 points out of eight rounds after conceding only one draw against ninth seeded Haridev also from Chennai. The champion was always in the company of leaders by recording six straight victories and drawing the seventh round. Even though Hari Ganesh was only eighth seed of the tournament, his remarkable victories from initial six rounds put him on the top ahead of other higher seeds.

S Haridev (right) was the one of the leaders heading into the final round 6.5/7, next to five-time Adyar Times champion - IM Ramnathan Balasubramaniam

At the end of the seventh and the penultimate round, five players namely T Hari Ganesh, M Vinodh Kumar, S Haridev, Sivan S Roshan and Navin M S were in the top spot with 6.5 points each. While Hari accounted for Nawin, Vinodh scored over Sivan. However, one more leader Haridev met his waterloo at the hands of Selvamurugan B and was halted at 6.5. This helped Hari and Vinodh to sit pretty with 7.5 points each and tied for the first place. Curiously, both did not meet with each other as Vinodh settled for a draw in the fourth round against a lesser known opponent Anuj Narayanan and went down to play in the lower tables in the successive rounds. But Vinodh well known trainer from Chennai proved his consistency by inflicting defeat over his remaining five opponents to catch up Hari. In a two-way tie Hari Ganesh relegated FM Vinodh Kumar to the second spot by virtue of his better Buchholz score. The champion became richer by 35000 Rupees apart from lifting the Adyar Times trophy. For the third place there were six contestants all with 7 points each. But it was P Kavishvaran who finished third, ahead of everyone via his better tie-break score.

Inauguration of Round 3 by the Editors of Adyar Times

Adyar Times is a regional newspaper published from South Chennai and it is the pioneer among the regional newspapers in the Chennai city. Founded by Mr. A J Ambrose, I A S (Retd.). The newspaper was established in the year 1993 and now it is being nurtured by his son - J P Janakan. In a glittering closing ceremony held on the evening of 28th August, J P Janakan, Managing Editor, Adyar Times felicitated the winners in the presence of Dr. Srinivasa Raghavan and other officials from the Tamil Nadu State Chess Association.

The sponsor J P Janakan, Managing Editor, Adyar Times felicitates the winners

21st Adyar Times Arbiters' family

Thambi - The official mascot for 44th Chess Olympiad, was spotted at one of the tournament halls

The tournament hall at Vidyapeet Auditorium, Bala Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School in Chennai, Tamil Nadu

Parents and accompanying persons awaiting their players

Chief Arbiter IA S Paul Arokia Raj is conducting his 20th Technical Meeting at 21st Adyar Times Rating Open 2023

Final Standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	8		Hari, Ganesh T	IND	1740	7,5	41	45	42,25
2	1	FM	Vinoth, Kumar M.	IND	1940	7,5	38,5	42	39,50
3	34		Kavishvaran, P	IND	1487	7	40,5	44,5	37,00
4	7	AGM	Malla, Nooka Raju	IND	1824	7	38,5	43,5	37,50
5	2		Selvamurugan, B	IND	1928	7	38,5	42	36,00
6	6		Sridhar, C S	IND	1833	7	38	42	36,00
7	22		Raghav, V	IND	1551	7	37	40,5	34,00
8	3	IM	Ramnathan, Balasubramaniam	IND	1925	7	36	40	34,00
9	12		Haridev, S	IND	1653	6,5	42	46	35,25
10	18		Sivan, S Roshan	IND	1611	6,5	40	44	34,00
11	9		Nawin, M S	IND	1731	6,5	39,5	42,5	33,00
12	5		Vijay, Shreeram P	IND	1845	6,5	38,5	43	34,00
13	16		Soumyajit, Das	IND	1620	6,5	37	40	31,50
14	52	AIM	Premshankar, B U	IND	1397	6,5	36,5	40	25,25
15	11		Ajjesh, J R	IND	1671	6,5	34,5	37,5	30,50
16	35		Rahul, Ramakrishnan	IND	1486	6,5	34	37	29,00
17	46		Subramanian, V	IND	1445	6,5	33	36	29,00
18	26		Medhansh, Rathi	IND	1519	6	42	45,5	32,00
19	23		Lukesh, A	IND	1549	6	42	44,5	28,00
20	27	WFM	Rajasurya, J.	IND	1515	6	41,5	44	30,25
21	14		Jaivant, R	IND	1626	6	40	45	32,50
22	21		Vaidyanathan, Kannan	USA	1560	6	39,5	43	26,75
23	76	ACM	Srinivasan, Subramaniam	IND	1327	6	39,5	42,5	28,00
24	38		Ananya, Raman	IND	1467	6	38	41,5	28,00
25	32		Sanjay, Ganesh Pandi	IND	1489	6	38	40,5	29,00
26	60		Sanchith, Sundararam K	IND	1365	6	38	39	25,25
27	30		Bhuvan, Krishna Prasanth	IND	1504	6	37	41	29,75
28	25		Gopal, Aravamuthan Iyengar	IND	1526	6	37	40,5	27,25
29	59	AIM	Rishiadithya, Murali	IND	1370	6	37	39,5	27,00
30	70		Goutham, Ramesh	IND	1341	6	36,5	39,5	26,00
31	82		Ivan, George E	IND	1296	6	36,5	38,5	25,50
32	37		Divesh, G	IND	1476	6	35,5	39	28,00
33	24	AIM	Banik, Hrishikesh Kumar	IND	1531	6	35,5	38,5	27,50
34	132		Prithiv, Arokiadass	IND	1208	6	35,5	37,5	25,00
35	20		Richard, Solomon M	IND	1567	6	35	38,5	26,75
36	57		Lakshmi, Narasimhan V S	IND	1379	6	34,5	38,5	28,00
37	10		Anirudh, R	IND	1679	6	34	38	26,50
38	36		Rashmika, Maringanti	IND	1485	6	33,5	37	27,00
39	53		Anirudh, Rajan P	IND	1394	6	33,5	35,5	23,50
40	61		Nishant, T.R.	IND	1361	6	33	35,5	24,25

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About the Author

Paul Arokia Raj is a Grade-A International Arbiter. He is one of the most reputed arbiters of India. He has officiated many top events. He is a former National Sub-Junior champion and his career high rating was 2205. He was also the coach of University of Madras for nearly 20 years. Best among his products is GM Sundararajan Kidambi. He is now working as Assistant Traffic Manager in Chennai Port Authority and he was All India Major Ports Chess Champion for nearly 20 years.

The article was edited by Shahid Ahmed