Sr National Chess: Arjun Erigaisi crowned champion

Kanpur : Second seed Telangana Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi became the National Chess Champion after signing the peace treaty with Sethuraman S P of PSPB in the eleventh and final round of the 58th Senior National Championship, here on Thursday.Scoring 8.5 points out of a possible 11, Arjun tied for the title with Tamil Nadu Grandmasters duo D Gukesh and P Iniyan but better Buchholz tie break score helped Arjun to lift the champion trophy while Gukesh and Iniyan finished as first and second runner up respectively.

In the final round, Gukesh split the points with Delhi Grandmaster Aryan Chopra while Iniyan produced a decisive result against Mitrabha Guha of West Bengal.While Arjun got richer by Rs 6 lakh, Gukesh got Rs 5 lakh and Iniyan took Rs 4 lakh from the total kitty of thirty lakh prize money.In a closing ceremony, BCCI vice-president Rajiv Shukla gave away the trophies and prize money in presence of Dr Sanjay Kapoor, president All India Chess Federation, Vijay Kapoor, chairman Ganges Club, Naresh Sharma, treasurer All India Chess Federation, AK Raizada, secretary UP Chess Sports Association.

Results:
GM Sethuraman S P of PSPB (8) drew with GM Arjun Erigaisi of Telangana (8.5); GM Gukesh D of Tamil Nadu (8.5) drew with GM Aryan Chopra of Delhi (8); IM Pranav V of Tamil Nadu (8) drew with GM Visakh N R of Railways (8); GM Iniyan P of Tamil Nadu (8.5) beat GM Mitrabha Guha of West Bengal (7.5); GM Deep Sengupta of PSPB (7.5) drew with GM Aravindh Chithambaram of Tamil Nadu (8); GM Karthikeyan Murali of PSPB (8) beat IM Aditya Mittal of Maharashtra (7); IM Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh (7.5) drew with GM Harsha Bharathakoti of Telangana (7.5); GM Lalith Babu M R of PSPB (6.5) lost to IM Koustav Chatterjee of West Bengal (8); GM Adhiban B (7) drew with IM Himal Gusain of Railways (7); IM Ratnakaran K of Railways (6.5) lost to GM Abhijeet Gupta of PSPB (7.5); IM Pranesh M of Tamil Nadu (6.5) lost to GM Swapnil Dhopade of Railways (7.5); IM Aronyak Ghosh of West Bengal (7) drew with IM Shyaamnikhil P of Railways (7); IM Ravi Teja of Railways (7) drew with GM Sriram Jha of LIC (7); IM Shahil Dey of Assam (7.5) beat IM Krishna CRG of Railways (6.5); Sambit Panda of Odisha (6.5) lost to IM Sayantan Das of Railways (7.5).