Tamil Nadu schoolboy Karthikeyan Murali crowned National Chess champion

Tiruvarur: Sixteen year old Karthikeyan Murali of Tamil Nadu was crowned as the national champion irrespective of the final round loss to IM Arghyadip Das in the ONGC 53rd National Premier Chess Championship here on Saturday.

Things went in Murali's favour as GM Vidit Gujrathi drew his last game to be on par with him, each having 8.5 points in the final tally.

As direct encounter was the first tie-break, the 10th round victory by Murali over Vidit went in the former's favour. Besides winning a purse of Rs 2.5 lakh, Murali also qualified for the 2016 Chess Olympiad.