CHENNAI: Four players — S Jai Sankar of Virudhunagar, the runner-up in the 2023 tournament, S Haridev of Chennai, VS Nandish of Coimbatore and S Gokul Krishna of Tirupur — share the top position with five points each at the end of the fifth round of the 33rd Tamil Nadu State U-17 Chess Championships, organised by Sethu Institute of Technology and Sivakasi Chess Club at the SIT campus on Friday. Three players — S Rohith of Karaikudi, Goutham Ramesh and V Kanishkaraj of Chennai — are behind the leaders by half a point. In the girls’ section, S Kanishka of Salem and S Padmini of Chengalpattu jointly lead with five points each.
Five on top after Round 5
Five players — International Master R Balasubramanian of ICF, Sham R, Sree Veeramani, Tharshan MK and Aswin Sairam — are leading the table with five points each at the end of the fifth round of the 2nd International Fide Rating chess tournament held at KCG College of Technology, Karapakkam, Chennai, for a prize pool of `300,000. Ten players Vijay Shreeram, Anirud Rajan, Advaith Ashok Kumar, Sathish, Sivan Roshan, Saravanan, Prasanna Karthick, Ramkumar, Sathyanarayana and Sananda are on second spot with 4.5 points each.
Sharvaanica clinches gold
Sharvaanica AS aged 8 from Hatsun Chess Academy emerged as the winner at the World Cadets Rapid & Blitz Girls U-10 Championship organised by FIDE. Sharvaanica clinched the gold medal in the U-10 girls’ category at the World Cadets Rapid and silver medal in the IRLS U-10 category at the World Cadets Blitz. The championship was held at Durres, Albania. About 375 participants from across 43 countries in the rapid segment and 336 players from across 43 countries in the blitz segment took part in the championships.
Kothan inspires Swathi CC
Kothan’s 80 (49b; 4x4; 8x6) helped Swathi CC beat YSCA ‘A’ by 54 runs in the 54th All-India YSCA trophy. Brief scores: Swathi CC 195 in 30 ovs ( Kothan 80, Shivajana 3/38) bt YSCA ‘A’ 141 all out in 26.3 ovs (V Ranjith Kumar 39, Akash 3/18). Vinayaka Packaging 121 all out in 29.2 ovs (M Rajkumar 28, Madana Gopal 30) lost to Vepery CC 122/8 in21.4 ovs (Hemprasad 34, Arun Anand 32, Rajesh Kumar 4/31).
Hasim cracks century
S Jawfer Hasim’s century (115) came in handy for VMAS to defeat PSCA by 90 runs in the 19th Freyer-LMCA U12 meet.
Brief scores: GFCA 132/7 in 25 ovs (M Humesh 37 n.o) bt V-MAS 119/4 in 25 ovs (S Jawfer Hasim 51). LMCA 246/4 in 25 ovs (NS Dheena 100, Aadhithya Balaji 51) bt PSCA 175/6 in 25 ovs (S Mohammed Javid 98 n.o). LMCA 213/5 in 25 ovs (Aadhitya Balaji 91) bt V-MAS 105 in 22.2 ovs (NS Dheena 4/20). GFCA 256/3 in 25 ovs (Sudheep 31, M Humesh 42, Sri Vishnu 53 n.o, Sidheswar 58 n.o) bt PSCA 227/1 in 25 ovs (Harshad Rajesh 122 n.o., S Mohammed Javid 79). VMAS 245/2 in 25 ovs (A Ganesh 80, S Jawfer Hasim 115) bt PSCA 155/7 in 25 ovs (S Mohammed Javid 31, D Shaun 35 n.o). GFCA 143 in 25 ovs (Sudheep 40, Humesh 39) lost to LMCA 146/3 in 20.1 ovs (Aadhitya Balaji 57).