Mani Bharathy dominates Visalakshi - Arunachalam 9th SCS Rating Open 2025

by R Anantharam - 10/07/2025

Mani Bharathy scored an unbeaten 7.5/8 to win Visalakshi - Arunachalam 9th SCS Rating Open 2025. He finished a full point ahead of the rest. Eight players scored 6.5/8 each. Out of them, CM R Shadhursshaan and FM P Maheshwaran were placed second and third respectively according to tie-breaks. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹450000. The top three prizes were ₹70000, ₹50000 and ₹35000 along with a trophy each. The four-day eight round Rating Open tournament was organized by Sivakasi Chess Sparklers and Mepco Schlenk Engineering College from 19th to 22nd June 2025 at Mepco Schlenk Engineering College in Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu. This is Mani's first rating tournament triumph of the year. Photo: IA R Anantharam

Mani's first rating tournament triumph of the year

15th seeded Mani Bharathy of Coimbatore won the Visalakshi Arunachalam 9th SCS FIDE Rated Open Chess Tournament, organised by Sivakasi Chess Sparklers held at Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, Sivakasi from 19th to 22nd June 2025. After recording seven consecutive wins, he conceded a draw to Boggarapu Kritan of Scotland in the eighth and final round to score 7.5 points. He collected a purse of ₹70000 for his efforts.

.Champion - Mani Bharathy 7.5/8 | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Eight players tied for the second place with a tally of 6.5 points and former National Schools Under-15 champion CM R Shadhursshaan of Aruppukottai, a town near Sivakasi had the best tie break among them to be declared as runner-up.

Former National Schools Under-15 champion R Shadhursshaan of Aruppukottai is the runner-up | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Former Tamil Nadu Junior champion FM Maheswaran P of Sivakasi had the second best tie break to secure the second runner-up spot.

FM Maheswaran P of Postal Services finished third | Photo: IA R Anantharam

The first three prize winners | Photo: IA R Anantharam

While Shadhursshaan received ₹50000, Maheswaran increased his bank balance by ₹35000.

FM Ayushh Ravikumar of Chennai drew with B Selvamurugan of Thoothukudi to be declared fourth. The latter finished ninth.

Ayushh Ravikumar drew with B Selvamuruan to claim the fourth place. The latter secured ninth | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Top seed P Vijay Shreeram of Chennai lost to the eventual runner-up Shadhursshaan and also drew with Krishna of Karnataka, pushing him to fifth place.

Top seed Vijay Shreeram was beaten by Shadhursshaan of Aruppukottai pushing him to fifth place | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Krishna of Karnataka drew with Vijay Shreeram in the fourth round | Photo: IA R Anantharam

28th seeded KS Naveen of Chennai won against eleventh seeded KG Hiren also of Chennai in the final round to attain the sixth rank.

KS Naveen (right) won against KG Hiren to claim sixth position | Photo: IA R Anantharam

International master BT Murali Krishnan of Railways could muster only the seventh place by beating 13-year-old Jagajit Sinha of Assam in the final round.

IM Muralikrishnan BT got seventh place by virtue of his win over Jagait Sinha of Assam | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Boggarapu Kritan of Scotland drew with the champion Mani Bharathy in the eighth and final round and achieved the eighth rank.

Eighth placed Kritan Boggarapu of Scotland drew with the champion Mani Bharathy in the final round | Photo: IA R Anantharam

B Yashwant of Madurai (left) obtained the tenth rank. He is in action against G Gokul | Photo: IA R Anantharam

FM Maheswaran P (right) defeated Tapan Badamundi of Odisha which helped him to get third place | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Though G Nigash of Salem jointly led the field with Mani Bharathy at the end of the fifth round, two consecutive losses in the sixth and seventh rounds put him out of contention.

Nigash (left) finished eleventh after a bright start | Photo: IA R Anantharam

A total of 273 players from Tamil Nadu, Andhra Pradesh, Assam, Jharkhand, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Odisha, Pondicherry, Rajasthan and Telangana, in addition to players from the USA and Scotland participated in the four days eight round event.

Dr. S. Arivazhagan, Principal, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College inaugurated the tournament

The tournament was inaugurated by Dr. S Arivazhagan Principal, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College (left) and local star FM Maheswaran P | Photo: IA R Anantharam

V Vijayaraghavan, Vice President, Tamil Nadu State Chess Association and Professor Thanikachalam of Mepco SCE distributed the prizes on the final day.

While the players were seriously fighting on the board, the parents and accompanying persons were totally engaged with nine tournaments for themselves.

Parents Tournament Schedule | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Chess tournament for parents

Carrom for women | Photo: IA R Anantharam

The principal and management were keen on providing free hostel accommodation with cot and bed and quality food at a very nominal cost. Non-veg. food was served daily.

Final standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	TB6	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	15	AGM	Mani, Bharathy			4014CBE2025	IND	1937	TN	7,5	38	42	38,75	0	7	4	8	7,5	5,28	2,22	20	44,4
2	10	CM	Shadhursshaan, R			9230VNR2025	IND	2006	TN-V	6,5	41,5	46	37,00	0	5	4	8	6,5	5,53	0,97	40	38,8
3	9	FM	Maheswaran, P.			53173VNR2025	IND	2010	TN-V	6,5	39,5	44	35,00	0	5	4	8	6,5	5,89	0,61	20	12,2
4	7	FM	Ayushh, Ravikumar			2397CHE2025	IND	2020	TN	6,5	39	42,5	34,00	0	5	4	8	6,5	5,87	0,63	20	12,6
5	1		Vijay, Shreeram P			2888CHE2025	IND	2112	TN	6,5	38	41,5	32,25	0	6	4	8	6,5	6,55	-0,05	20	-1
6	28		Naveen, K S			25824CHE2025	IND	1873	TN	6,5	37,5	41	31,50	0	6	4	8	6,5	4,63	1,87	20	37,4
7	2	IM	Murali, Krishnan B T			NA	IND	2082	RLy	6,5	36,5	41	32,75	0	5	4	8	6,5	6,67	-0,17	10	-1,7
8	4		Boggarapu, Kritan			NA	SCO	2035	SCO	6,5	36	40	31,75	0	6	4	8	6,5	6,58	-0,08	40	-3,2
9	8		Selvamurugan, B			9685TUT2025	IND	2017	TN	6,5	35	38	30,25	0	6	4	8	6,5	6,12	0,38	20	7,6
10	6		Yashwant, B	U15		5556MDU2025	IND	2022	TN	6	41,5	45,5	31,75	0	5	4	8	6	5,92	0,08	40	3,2
11	12		Nigash, G			4416ERO2025	IND	1994	TN	6	38	42	28,50	0	6	3	8	6	6,14	-0,14	40	-5,6
12	13		Majhi, Fakir			NA	IND	1949	OR	6	38	41,5	30,25	0	5	4	8	6	5,93	0,07	20	1,4
13	27		Jagajit, Sinha	U15		NA	IND	1878	AS	6	38	41,5	29,75	0	5	4	8	6	5,55	0,45	40	18
14	17		Gokul, G	U15		9019VPM2025	IND	1922	TN	6	37,5	41,5	29,75	0	5	4	8	6	5,81	0,19	40	7,6
15	5	AIM	Arul, Prakash N			5543MDU2025	IND	2032	TN	6	37,5	41	29,50	0	4	4	8	6	6,56	-0,56	40	-22,4
16	38		Mithiran, A	U15		6574SLM2025	IND	1808	TN	6	37,5	41	29,00	0	4	3	8	6	3,57	2,43	40	97,2
17	19		Divesh, G			24363CHE2025	IND	1912	TN	6	36,5	40,5	28,50	0	5	4	8	6	5,92	0,08	40	3,2
18	22		Raaghav, Kabil M			52008TNV2025	IND	1900	TN	6	36	39	28,50	0	4	4	8	6	5,82	0,18	40	7,2
19	24		Kishore, Prajith	U15		1302CBE2025	IND	1886	TN	6	35,5	39,5	28,75	0	5	4	8	6	5,98	0,02	40	0,8
20	52	AIM	Ethan, V Johnson			49941CBE2025	IND	1730	TN	6	35	38	27,00	0	5	4	7	5	3,32	1,68	20	33,6
21	44		Nikhil, T L			7743TPR2025	IND	1771	TN	6	35	37,5	26,00	0	5	4	8	6	4,71	1,29	40	51,6
22	20		Sathya, Giri V			5167KKI2025	IND	1909	TN	6	33	37	28,00	0	4	4	8	6	6,15	-0,15	20	-3
23	100		Manoj, Reddy Maram			NA	IND	1597	TEL	6	32	34,5	23,50	0	6	3	7	5	2,67	2,33	20	46,6
24	11		Hiren, K G			2739CHE2025	IND	2001	TN	5,5	40,5	44,5	29,00	0	5	4	8	5,5	5,96	-0,46	20	-9,2
25	18		Prawin, K			5800CBE2025	IND	1915	TN	5,5	40,5	44,5	28,25	0	5	3	8	5,5	4,82	0,68	20	13,6

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About the Author

Prof. Rathinam Anantharam is an A-grade international arbiter. Member of FIDE Arbiters’ Commission, Chairman of Titles Commission in All India Chess Federation, Vice President of Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, Chief Arbiter for six world championships, many Asian, International and National Championships. Nominated as one of the top seven arbiters in the world for the past hundred years by FIDE.

The report was edited by Shahid Ahmed