The Hindu : Sport / Chess : Muralikrishnan claims title

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Tuesday, Jun 24, 2008
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Sport - Chess

Muralikrishnan claims title

Arvind Aaron

CHENNAI: Bathey Thulasiraman Muralikrishnan of Southern Railway, Madurai won the Tamil Nadu FIDE-rated State chess championship after he pipped G.B. Prakash of Indian Bank, Chennai for the title at the Nehru Stadium here on Monday.

Both Muralikrishnan and Prakash scored last-round victories to tie for the first place on nine points from eleven rounds. Muralikrishnan was declared winner for his 56 progressive score while Prakash had 54.5.

Also, Muralikrishnan had defeated Prakash in the mutual encounter and remained the only undefeated player in this Rs. 1 lakh prize money event.

Muralikrishnan, 34, recently became an International Master hails from a chess-playing family. By actively playing he believes that he can become a grandmaster soon. He received the V.J. Brahmaiah Rolling Shield and Rs. 30,000 cash prize.

Having entered unknown waters in the final round against Praveen Kumar with white, Muralikrishnan yet managed to get an advantage playing against the Sicilian defence by transposition. He benefited from a piece blunder on move 62 to win this event for the second time in three years.

Muralikrishnan said playing in the State championship gave him the chance to keep pace with the current opening theory and helped his norm-making ability in other competitions.

Final placings (tie-break order): 1-2. B.T. Muralikrishnan (Rly), G.B. Prakash (IB) 9/11 each, 3-10. P. Maheswaran (Vir), R. Siddharth (Che), R. Arun Karthik (Che), P. Phoobalan (Cbe), R. Ashwath (Che), K.Narayanan

(Siv), D.P. Singh (Rly), R.A. Pradeep Kumar (Che) 8 each.

Important results (final round eleven): R. Siddharth lost to G.B. Prakash, B.T. Muralikrishnan bt Praveen Kumar, Arun Karthik drew with P. Maheswaran, Sudhakar Babu lost to Pradeep Kumar, Shyam Nikhil lost to P. Phoobalan, J. Sridhar lost to D.P. Singh, T.J. Suresh Kumar lost to R. Ashwath, K. Narayanan bt P. Saravanakrishnan.

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