Srihari L clinches Visalakshi Arunachalam 7th SCS Rating Open 2023 with a perfect 8/8

by R Anantharam - 23/06/2023

Top seed Srihari L scored a perfect 8/8 to win Visalakshi Arunachalam 7th SCS Rating Open 2023. He finished a full point ahead of the field. Thus, tie-breaks were not required. Six players - Selvamurugan B, Umashankar A, Aakash G, Nandish V S, Sa Kannan and Vignesh Kannan P scored 7/8 each. They were placed second to seventh respectively according to tie-breaks. Srihari defeated his sole pursuer Mithun Anand V 6.5/7 in the final round to become a clear champion. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹500000. The top three prizes were ₹70000, ₹50000 and ₹35000 along with a trophy each. This was Srihari's first-ever rating tournament triumph of his career. Photos: IA R Anantharam

Srihari's first-ever rating tournament triumph

L Srihari of Pondicherry rated 2273, smothered all his eight opponents to score 8/8 and win the title at the Visalakshi Arunachalam 7th SCS FIDE rated tournament, organized by Sivakasi Chess Sparklers at the green campus of the Mepco Schlenk Engineering College. Six of his nearest rivals scored seven points each to tie for the second to seventh place.

Srihari L of Pondicherry is the winner of the 7th SCS trophy at Sivakasi

With eight wins in-a-row, Srihari was a full point ahead of six others, who were on seven points each. Tie-breaks tipped B Selvamurugan of Tamil Nadu to the second place and A Umashankar to third place. While Srihari won seventy thousand rupees, Selvamurugan received fifty thousand rupees.

B Selvamurugan of Madurai was the runner-up

A Umashankar, also of Pondicherry was the second runner-up

The top three finishers with their respective trophies and cheques

A total of 400 players from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka, Pondicherry, Telangana, Maharashtra and USA participated in the eight rounds, four days event, which bestowed great hospitality to the players and parents.

Srihari L scored a perfect 8/8 and gained 8.4 Elo rating points

L Srihari of Pondicherry was the highest rated player in the event, followed by B Vignesh of Tamil Nadu and former All India Postal champion P Maheswaran of Sivakasi.

Eighth seeded and two-times Kerala state champion P Sreekumar was beaten by 60th seeded Gopal Aravamuthan Iyengar of Tamil Nadu in the third round.

Round 3: Sreekumar P - Gopal Aravamuthan Iyengar: 0-1

Local boy, I Kirpesh of Hatsun Chess Academy held the 13th seeded P Stanley Samson in this round.

Local boy I Kirpesh drew with 13th seeded Stanley Samson P

Umashankar of Pondicherry lost to his city mate L Srihari

Abdallah M Nisthar of Kerala caused a major upset by beating the second seeded B Vignesh of Tamil Nadu in the fourth round.

Second seeded B Vignesh lost to Abdalla (not in the picture) in the fourth round and was placed only 15th

Aakash G had one loss against Srihari in achieving the fourth place

V S Nandish defeated B Vignesh in the final round to reach the fifth place

Sa Kannan (right) finished off Akhilan E of Kerala to finish sixth

Vignesh Kannan P (left) claimed the seventh place by beating IM R Balasubramaniam

Two Pondicherry players – L Srihari and A Umashankar, along with V Mithun Anand of Tamil Nadu scored their consecutive sixth victory to stay on top at the end of the sixth round. Mithun Anand had poor results in the last two rounds; but a draw and a loss in the final two rounds had a heavy toll, pushing him to eighth place. Especially, Srihari was ruthless against him in the final round.

Srihari was ruthless against Mithun Anand in the final round; a draw and a loss in the last two rounds gave Mithun only the eighth place

Former TN state junior champion P Maheswaran of Sivakasi representing the Postal, finished ninth

S Rohit had an easy outing against R Tejaswi in the final round to pick up the tenth rank

Mr. A Tenzing, Correspondent, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College inaugurated the tournament in the presence of Dr. S. Arivazhagan, Principal, IA V Vijayaraghavan, Vice President, Tamil Nadu State Chess Association and M Sundarrajan, Secretary, Virudhunagar District Chess Association.

A Tenzing, Correspondent, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College, inaugurated the tournament

IA V Vijayaraghavan, Vice President, Tamil Nadu State Chess Association and Ms. Banu, Physical Director, Mepco Schlenk Engineering College were the Chief Guests for the prize distribution function.

Sivakasi Chess Club, the sibling of Sivakasi Chess Sparklers celebrates its 50th year of inception by organizing three tournaments in July – a rapid FIDE rated tournament with a prize money of 1,50,000/- rupees on 1st and 2nd July, a state level chess doubles tournament on 2nd July (Rs.50,000/- prize money) and a ten lacs rupees prize money tournament from 21st to 25th July. Details to follow.

A total of 400 players including an IM participated from various parts of the country and one from USA. The four-day eight-round Swiss league Rating tournament was held from 8th to 11th June 2023. It was organized by Sivakasi Chess Sparklers and Mepco Schlenk Engineer College, Sivakasi at Mepco Schlenk Engineering College in Sivakasi, Tamil Nadu. The time control of the tournament was 30 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.

Final standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	1		Srihari, L			NA	IND	2273	PON	8	43,5	47,5	47,50	0	8	8	8	7,58	0,42	20	8,4
2	6		Selvamurugan, B				IND	1936	TN	7	42,5	46,5	40,00	0	7	8	7	6,49	0,51	20	10,2
3	10		Umashankar, A			NA	IND	1891	PON	7	42,5	46	38,00	0	7	8	7	5,67	1,33	20	26,6
4	20		Aakash, G	U15			IND	1725	TN	7	39,5	43,5	35,50	0	7	8	7	5,53	1,47	40	58,8
5	18		Nandish, V S	U15			IND	1743	TN	7	39	43	37,00	0	6	8	7	4,99	2,01	40	80,4
6	17	AGM	Sa, Kannan				IND	1786	TN	7	39	43	36,00	0	7	8	7	5,62	1,38	20	27,6
7	24		Vignesh, Kannan P	U15			IND	1708	TN	7	36,5	40	34,00	0	7	8	7	4,92	2,08	40	83,2
8	12		Mithun, Anand V				IND	1871	TN	6,5	42,5	45,5	34,00	0	6	8	6,5	5,53	0,97	20	19,4
9	4	FM	Maheswaran, P.				IND	2076	TN-V	6,5	40	44	34,75	0	5	8	6,5	7,38	-0,88	20	-17,6
10	23		Rohith, S	U15			IND	1711	TN	6,5	39	42,5	33,25	0	6	8	6,5	5,36	1,14	40	45,6
11	15		Vijay, Shreeram P				IND	1817	TN	6,5	38,5	42	33,25	0	5	8	6,5	5,95	0,55	20	11
12	8		Akhilan, E M			NA	IND	1919	KER	6	44,5	48	33,00	0	6	8	6	6,00	0,00	20	0
13	5		Ram, S. Krishnan				IND	1956	TN	6	41,5	45,5	32,50	0	5	8	6	6,73	-0,73	20	-14,6
14	13		Jai, Sankar Subramanian				IND	1847	TN-V	6	40	43,5	30,50	0	5	8	6	6,78	-0,78	40	-31,2
15	3	AGM	Vignesh, B				IND	2195	TN	6	39,5	44,5	31,50	0	6	8	6	7,74	-1,74	20	-34,8
16	25		Kumaresh, A				IND	1703	TN-V	6	39,5	43	26,50	0	6	8	6	5,40	0,60	20	12
17	19		Hari, Ganesh T				IND	1733	TN	6	38,5	43	30,75	0	5	8	6	5,83	0,17	40	6,8
18	29		Shadhursshaan, R				IND	1675	TN-V	6	38	42	28,50	0	6	8	6	5,08	0,92	40	36,8
19	26		Abdallah, M Nisthar				IND	1701	KER	6	38	41,5	29,25	0	5	8	6	5,50	0,50	20	10
20	36		Nigash, G				IND	1635	TN	6	37,5	42	31,00	0	5	8	6	6,38	-0,38	40	-15,2
21	11		Dhanush, Ragav N S				IND	1877	TN	6	37,5	41,5	29,00	0	6	8	6	6,83	-0,83	20	-16,6
22	30		Merryston, David Scanny				IND	1668	TN	6	37,5	40,5	26,75	0	4	8	6	5,70	0,30	20	6
23	33		Sindhusree, K		w		IND	1652	TN	6	37	41	28,00	0	6	8	6	5,83	0,17	40	6,8
24	41	AIM	Arul, Prakash N	U15			IND	1613	TN	6	37	40,5	28,75	0	5	8	6	5,57	0,43	40	17,2
25	101		Divesh, G	U15			IND	1357	TN	6	36,5	38,5	27,25	0	4	6	4	1,02	2,98	40	119,2
26	22		Aakash, K P				IND	1714	TN	6	36	40	29,00	0	5	8	6	6,24	-0,24	40	-9,6
27	103	ACM	Prathamesh, Shashikant Deshmukh	U12		NA	IND	1350	KAR	6	34,5	37	26,25	0	5	7	5	2,99	2,01	40	80,4
28	49	AFM	Vakeesh, S				IND	1551	TN	6	34	38	28,50	0	5	8	6	6,99	-0,99	40	-39,6
29	58		Richard, Solomon M	U15			IND	1515	TN	6	34	37	25,00	0	6	8	6	5,40	0,60	40	24
30	56		Kavin, Oviyan R	U15		NA	IND	1519	KER	6	33	36	26,00	0	6	8	6	6,21	-0,21	40	-8,4
31	102	AGM	Adhithya, B				IND	1355	TN	6	33	35,5	25,00	0	5	6	4	1,66	2,34	40	93,6
32	16		Vijayaraj, R.				IND	1790	TN	6	32,5	36,5	27,00	0	6	8	6	7,42	-1,42	20	-28,4
33	62		Surendiraa, A Sathish				IND	1489	TN	6	32	35,5	25,50	0	5	8	6	6,06	-0,06	20	-1,2
34	61		Rajeev, V M			NA	IND	1495	KER	6	31	34,5	25,00	0	6	8	6	6,00	0,00	20	0,0
35	7	IM	Ramnathan, Balasubramaniam				IND	1929	TN	5,5	39	43,5	28,50	0	5	8	5,5	7,17	-1,67	10	-16,7

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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.

The report was edited by Shahid Ahmed