Parimarjan Negi clinches National chess title

New Delhi: Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi of PSPB clinched the National title after settling for a quick draw against Grandmaster Tejas Bakre in the final round of the REC National Premier Chess Championship here on Wednesday.

Playing with white pieces in the final round, second seed Negi needed just half point to ensure the title and he secured the same within 15 moves today against his Air India rival. He ended the tournament with nine and half points. Three players tied for the second spot with eight and half points but better Bucholz tie break score helped Kochi based top seed G N Gopal to lift the Runner-Up trophy and pocket a cash prize of eighty thousand rupees. In the final round, Gopal settled half point against defending champion Grandmaster B Adhiban. Adhiban finished third while former national champion Abhijit Kunte had a fourth spot finish after beating International Master Vidit Gujarathi in the final round. Along with his national title and cash prize of Rs 1.25 lakh, Negi became the first Indian to secure a berth for the next World Cup in Khanty Mansiysk.Delhi Chess Association President Bharat Singh Chauhan also announced a cash award of Rs 50,000 during the closing ceremony to Negi for becoming the first Delhi player to become the National Premier Champion. Ajai Choudhry, Secretary Ministry of External Affairs, gave away the prizes in presence of Bharat Singh, President Commonwealth Chess Association and Jyoti Gupta, Principal of K R Mangalam World school. Results (Round-13):- GM Tejas Bakre of Air India (8) drew with GM Parimarjan Negi of PSPB (9.5); GM Gopal G N of PSPB (8.5) drew with GM Adhiban B of PSPB (8.5); GM Abhijit Kunte of PSPB (8.5) beat IM Vidit Gujarathi of Maharashtra (7.5); GM Praveen Thipsay of Maharashtra (8) drew with IM Lalith Babu M R of Andhra Pradesh (8); IM Vaibhav Suri of Delhi (8) beat IM Venkatesh M R of PSPB (7.5); IM Shyam Sundar of Tamilnadu (7) lost to GM Arun Prasad S of PSPB (8); GM Kidambi S of PSPB (6.5) lost to GM Deep Sengupta of West Bengal (7.5); IM Sethuraman S P of Tamilnadu (7.5) beat Vikramaditya Kamble of Railways (6.5); GM Deepan Chakkravaarthy of Tamilnadu (7) drew with Navin Kanna T U of Tamilnadu (7); Stany G A of Karnataka (7.5) beat IM Saptarshi Roy of Railways (6); GM Neelotpal Das of Railways (7) beat IM Karthikeyan P of Tamilnadu (6); GM Laxman R R of Railways (6.5) drew with IM Prathamesh Mokal of Maharashtra (6.5); IM Konguvel P of PSPB (7) beat IM Shyam Nikil of Tamilnadu (6); WGM Soumya Swaminathan of Maharasthra (6.5) beat IM Singh D P of Railways (6); Arjun Tiwari of Railways (6) drew with IM Thejkumar MS of Railways (6); IM Debashis Das of Orissa (6) beat Matta Vinay Kumar of Andhra Pradesh (5); IM Sudhakar Babu of Tamilnadu (5.5) drew with IM Suvrajit Saha of Railways (5.5); WGM Padmini Rout of Orissa (5) lost to FM Ramakrishna J of Andhra Pradesh (6); IM Rahul Sangma of Delhi (5) drew with Shashikant Kutwal of Railways (4.5); Joshi G B of Air India (4.5) drew with IM Dinesh Sharma of LIC (5); FM Rajesh VAV of Tamilnadu (5) drew with IM Vishnu Prasanna of Tamilnadu (4.5); Akash Thakur of Railways (5.5) beat Anilkumar O T of Kerala (2.5)Final standings (top ten):- 1. GM Parimarjan Negi of PSPB 2. GM Gopal G N of PSPB 3. GM Adhiban of PSPB 4. GM Abhijit Kunte of PSPB 5. IM Vidit Santosh Gujarathi of Maharashtra 6. IM Laith Babu M R of Andhra Pradesh 7. GM Praveen Thipsay of Maharashtra 8. GM Arun Prasad S of PSPB 9. GM Tejas Bakre of Air India 10. IM Vaibhav Suri of Delhi. PTI