The Hindu : Muralikrishnan claims title

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 02, 2003

Sport

Sport - Chess

Muralikrishnan claims title

By Our Sports Reporter

Southern Railway's B.T Muralikrishnan, who won the B.C. Cochin all-India FIDE-rated chess tournament in Kochi on Thursday, with the trophy.

KOCHI MAY 1. Southern Railway's unassuming B.T.Muralikrishnan walked away with the top prize in the suspense-packed B.C.Cochin all-India FIDE-rated chess tournament which concluded at the Ernakulam YMCA here on Thursday evening.

The 28-year-old fourth seed drew his last round with the local star M.B.Muraleedharan to win his second all-India title this year.

``Even when I went into the final round, I was not sure of winning,'' said Muralikrishnan who took the top prize of Rs. 15,000. But I felt very sorry for Muraleedharan. Had he won the last round, he would have been the champion,'' he added, almost apologetically.

Bengal's Arghyadip Das (GNCA) finished runner-up while the top-seeded Himanshu Das, who suffered a slump midway through the event, recovered nicely and ended third.

Andhra's J.Malleswara Rao, the overnight leader, lost his steel when it mattered the most, losing the last two rounds to finish a poor 10th.

Chief Income Tax Commissioner L.Kuriakose gave away the prizes.

Final placings (top 10): 1. B.T.Muralikrishnan (S.Rly, 7.5 pts), 2. Arghyadip Das (GNCA, 7.5), 3. Himanshu Sharma (Hary, 7.5), 4. M.B.Muraleedharan (B.C.Cochin, 7), 5. S.Maria Arul (TN, 7), 6. Alex Thomas (Ker, 7), 7. U.C.Mohanan (HIL, 7), 8. Ravi Kumar (Chat, 7), 9. E.P.Nirmal (B.C.Cochin, 7), 10. J.Malleswara Rao (AP, 6.5).

The results (Final round): M.B.Muraleedharan (B.C.Cochin, 7 points) drew with B.T.Muralikrishnan (S.Rly-Chennai, 7.5), J.Malleswara Rao (AP, 6.5) lost to Himanshu Sharma (Hary, 7.5), Alex Thomas (Ker, 7) drew with S.Maria Arul (TN, 7), P.D.S.Girinath (AP, 6) lost to Arghyadip Das (GNCA, 7.5), K.Gunasekharan (TN, 6) lost to E.P.Nirmal (Ker, 7), U.C.Mohanan (HIL-Ker, 7) bt O.T.Anilkumar (Ker, 6), Ravikumar (Chat, 7) bt Deric Pinto (Goa, 6), P.V.Girish (Ker, 6.5) drew with Syed Anwar Shazully (Rly, 6.5), A.Sankar (Rly, 6.5) drew with P.Maheshwaran (TN, 6.5), A.K.Jagadeesh (Ker, 6.5) drew with S.C.Subramanian (Rly, 6.5); T.J.Suresh Kumar (Rly, 6.5) bt M.Vinoth Kumar (TN, 5.5), P.Sreekumar (Ker, 6.5) bt S.Ravichandran (TN, 5.5), P.Balaji (TN, 6.5) bt Aditya Saxena (MP, 5.5), J.Sridhar (TN, 5.5) lost to Soumyaranjan Mishra (Ori, 6.5), P.S.Ameer (Ker, 5.5) lost to Binju Oommen (Ker, 6.5), C.Sachin (Ker, 6) drew with D.Prabaharan (6), J.E.Kavitha (TN, 6.5) bt K.R.Madhusudanan (Ker, 5.5), Ram S.Krishnan (TN, 6) bt C.R.Raveendran (Ker, 5.5), V.Ravichandran (Rly, 5.5) drew with M.Joel Modestus (TN, 5.5), M.A.Joy Lazar (Ker, 5.5) drew with Nithin Prem (Ker, 5.5), M.Rahul Manohar (Ker, 6) bt T.R.Shanmuganathan (TN, 5), N.T.Suresh Kumar (Ker, 6) bt N.Santhosh Kumar (Ker, 5), K.M.Nisam (Ker, 6) bt R.P.Senthil Kumar (TN, 5), M.Srikanth Sarma (Jhar, 6) bt Pon. N.Krithika (Rly, 5), R.Premnath (Rly, 5) lost to Yashpal Arora (MP, 6), Standrik Colaso (Goa, 5.5) drew with T.S.Panindra (Karn, 5.5), K.V.Govindan Nambiar (Ker, 5) lost to V.M.Rajeev (Ker, 6).

Eighth round: B.T.Muralikrishnan bt J.Malleswara Rao, Himanshu Sharma bt O.T.Anilkumar, S.Maria Arul bt J.Sridhar, K.R.Madhusudanan lost to M.B.Muraleedharan, S.C.Subramanian drew with K.Gunasekharan, Arghyadip Das bt T.J.Suresh Kumar, D.Prabaharan lost to Alex Thomas, N.Santhosh Kumar lost to P.D.S.Girinath, Ram S.Krishnan lost to P.Maheshwaran, R.P.Senthil Kumar lost to Ravi Kumar, Syed Anwar Shazuli bt M.Srikanth Sarma, Yashpal Arora lost to A.Sankar, C.R.Raveendran drew with P.Sreekumar, V.Ravichandran lost to A.K.Jagadeesh, E.P.Nirmal bt Srinivas Menon, Nithin Prem lost to U.C.Mohanan, V.M.Rajeev lost to P.V.Girish, Yuzvendra S.Chahal lost to Deric Pinto, T.R.Shanmuganathan drew with C.Sachin, Gopal Shah lost to P.Balaji.

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