The Hindu : Sport / Chess : National sub-jr. championship

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Tuesday, Oct 02, 2007
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Sport

Sport - Chess

National sub-jr. championship

Arvind Aaron

Chennai: S.P. Sethuraman of Chennai, who became an International Master recently, will be the top seed in the Canara Bank-National sub-junior chess championship starting at the Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium here on Tuesday.

Another IM, B. Adhiban, also of Chennai, who is rated just five ELO points behind him at 2422, will be the next seed.

A close race for the title can be expected from these two players.

India had won the World youth Olympiad at Singapore this August and most of the winning team players will participate for the individual honours here.

Good response

A total of 150 boys and 96 girls have given the entry according to the organisers, the Tamil Nadu State Chess Association.

An equal number of parents and accompanying coaches and managers are also present. The top three boys and girls will represent India in the sub-junior Asian and World championships in 2008.

Besides Sethuraman and Adhiban, there are other prominent players like M.R. Lalith Babu, Mehar Chinna Reddy (both AP) and IM M. Shyam Sundar (TN).

There are plenty of World and Asian age-group winners like World under-8 champion, Ch. Mohineesh (Visakhapatnam), World under-10 champion, Girish Koushik (Mysore) and N. Srinath, a former World under-12 champion from Chennai.

Krithika favourite

In the girls’ section, Pon N. Krithikha of Chennai is one of the favourites.

The World under-10 champion, Ch. Sahajasri of Karimnagar (AP), World under-8 bronze medallist Mahalakshmi (TN) and Devangi Patankar (Maharashtra) are the other contenders.

T.P.M. Mohideen, Minister for Environment and Sports, Tamil Nadu, will make the inaugural move at 12.30 p.m. in the Hall of Chess.

Cash prize

The total cash prize is Rs. 135,000. There will be 11 rounds and the event will run until October 10.

The chief arbiter for this championship is Kolkata’s International Arbiter, Debashish Barua, who is the elder brother of GM Dibyendu Barua.

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