Led by top rated Grandmaster Aleksandrov Aleksej of Belarus the seeded players coasted to comfortable victories in the Chennai Super Kings 5th International Grandmaster chess tournament 2013 at Media Hall, Nehru Stadium, Chennai here today.
Indian challenge was led by the trio of young Grandmasters Adhiban, Sethuraman and Lalith Babu who all won without much ado.
Earlier this mega annual Chennai event was inaugurated by Shri M Balasubramaniam, Director, Brookefields & Spencer Plaza who made the symbolic first move against Shri Bharat Singh Chauhan, Hon. Secretary, All India Chess Federation.
V Kameswaran, GM S P Sethuraman, GM Ziaur Rahman, D V Sundar, S Paul Arokiaraj, GM Niaz Murshed, GM Adhbiban Baskaran, GM Andrei Deviatkin, GM Marat Dzhumaev, Bharat Singh, M Balasubramaniam
Shri D V Sundar, Vice President, FIDE in his welcome address mentioned that Chennai is Mecca of Indian chess and added that Tamil Nadu has produced India’s first International Master in Manuel Aaron, first Grandmaster in Viswanathan Anand, first Woman Grandmaster in Vijayalakshmi, first International Arbiter in Kameswaran. Out of 31 GMs 13 are from TN. This tournament is a big opportunity for the youth to showcase their talent in these International tournaments.
Speaking on the occasion, Shri Balasubramaniam said, “We are happy to be associated with chess, especially that of international events held in Chennai.Chess has given the sportspersons in the country the kind of recognition that has not been awarded elsewhere. Also he offered to sponsor such events in future in Tamil Nadu especially in Coimbatore. I wish this tournament will produce more future champions.”
The eleven round 259 player event has the confirmed participation of 50 FIDE titled players. This includes 13 Grandmasters and 20 International Masters among others.
Young Aniruddh Aiyengar playing against top seed Grandmaster Aleksandrov Aleksej of Belarus
The tournament carries a total prize money of Rupees 1,000,000 (approx Euros 13,730) and concludes on 23rd Jan, 2013. Last year winner was Yu Ruiyuan, untitled player from China.
Round 1 Results (Indians unless specified):
Aniruddh Aiyengar lost to Aleksandrov Aleksej (Blr), Deviatkin Andrei (Rus) bt Siva Mahadevan, V Varshini lost to B Adhiban, S P Sethuraman bt M Aadhityaa, P Naren Swaminathan lost to Marat Dzhumaev (Uzb), M R Lalith Babu bt Atharva Godbole, P Iniyan lost to Lu Shanglei (Chn), Ziaur Rahman (Ban) bt J Rajasurya, Kumar Gaurav lost to Teske Henrik (Ger), Wan Yunguo (Chn) bt Audi Ameya, George Daniel drew with Rahul Shetty, M G Gahan drew with R Bhuvan.
D V Sundar, Vice President, FIDE welcoming the chief guest M Balasubramaniam, Director, Brookefields & Spencer Plaza
Special address by Bharat Singh Chauhan, Honorary Secretary, All India Chess Federation
K Muralimohan, General Secretary, Tamil Nadu State Chess Association with the chief guest M Balasubramaniam
