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Chess
Andhra kids rule the roost
By Manuel Aaron
CHENNAI, DEC. 31 Rucha Pujari of Maharashtra broke the Andhra strangle-hold in the children's chess championship by winning the National under-7 girls title. The last round of the 15th Velammal National under- 7, under-9 boys & girls chess championship concluded here on Monday evening.
In the under-9 boys, the Asian under-10 champion Y. Sandeep of Andhra drew against his State-mate Sanka Ravi Teja to finish joint first with nine points. But he edged out Teja on tie-break. Last year, Sandeep came second.
Monogna Mandava and Gundala Madhukiran, both of Andhra, had already won the National under-9 girls and under-7 boys championships on Sunday itself, with a round to spare.
Rucha needed only a draw to win the first prize, but she beat her fellow Maharashtra player, Pranali Patil to stand a point clear of those placed second. Rucha, who is from Kolhapur, learnt the moves only seven months ago.
Gundala Madhukiran won his final game also to finish the 11-round Swiss tournament with a stupendous score of 10.5 points. Madhukiran's sister Gundala Madanasri won the second prize in the under-9 girls category. Thus Andhra took three gold medals and Maharashtra, the fourth. The Andhra government fully supports its chess players with generous cash awards, running into lakhs. Even those who are increasing their FIDE ratings are given cash grants each year.
The three national champions from Andhra would each receive a notebook computer, costing around Rs. 1.25 lakhs and a cash grant of Rs 45,000. Those finishing second receive a personal computer plus Rs 25,000. So, the prize money got by the Andhra players here is really peanuts for them. Both boys and girls champions in the under-9 categories got Rs 5,000 each apart from trophies. The under-7 champions received Rs 4,000 each. The total cash prizes given away to ten players amounts to Rs 66,800.
More than the prize money, the qualification to the World and Asian Championships is important to the players. While the champion goes to the relevant World Championship, the runner- up goes to the Asian.
At a very precisely planned closing ceremony, the Chairman of the Velammal Educational Trust, Mr. M.V. Muthuramalingam said that it had raised Rs. 10.2 lakhs by way of sponsorship.
Mr. V. Jagannathan, CMD, United India Insurance, Mr. R. Buhril, IAS, Additional Export Commissioner, Mr. T.K. Rajendran IPS, DIG of Police and sportsmen Dhanraj Pillai (hockey), C.V. Sunny (basketball) and Hemang Badani (cricket) also participated in the function.
Final standings:
Under-7 (girls): 1 Rucha Pujari 9.5; 2- 4: Veena Monica, S. Gayathri, Mohana Sengupta 8.5; 5-6: J. Mohana Priya, J. Saranya 8; 7-12: Adapa Vaishnavi, Shaati Majumdar, Pranali Patil, V. Malavisha, Fahda, R. Varshini 7; 13-19: Shumona Agarwal, Gayathri Avinash, E. Gugapriya, V. Aishwarya, D. Bavna, Krishna Mishra, J. Vaishnavi 6.5.
Under-7 (boys): 1 G. Madhukiran 10.5; 2- 4: L. Shakespeare, K.H. Sanjoy, Samrat Ghorai 8.5; 5-8: Viani Antonio, S.K. Banerjee, N. Srinath, V. Bhargav 8; 9-13: Rakesh Kumar, M. Chenna Reddy, Asish Pattnaik, Ankit Kurmar Singh, I. Aquino 7.5; 14-22: Sahaj Grover, Fenil Shah, L. Mahindra, Sriharsha, Haresh Chodnekar, Ananbheri Thrid, Indranil Chatto, V. Ramkumar, Chiman Prakash 7;
Under-9 (girls): 1. Monogna Mandova 9; 2-4: G. Madansri, P.L. Sahiti, Phanichandra 8.5; 5-6: M. Khushboo, C. Vandana 8; 7-8: Devangi Patankar, Pon Krithika 7.5; 9-15: Bhakti Kulkarni, Sathya Priya, Pallabi Roy, CH. Savetha, Amruta Varshini, S.Ashwinin, Manabi Chouhan 7; 16-22: Divyasri, Ketki Prasanth, P. Priya Sandhya, Siddaali Sham, V. Bhavana, Akshatha Bhat, R. Bharathi 6.5;
Under-9 (boys): 1-2: Y. Sandeep, Sanka Ravi Teja 9; 3-4: Abhishek Kelkar, Sai Krishna 8.5; 5-8: Parimarjan Negi, B. Adhiban, Navneet Sharma, S. Nitin 8; 9-18: Abhishek Kohli, M. Shyam Sundar, K. Rajas Ajinkya, Sandipan Chatterjee, S. Karthikeyan, Shubham Pinge, Vishal Thakre, Rojoy Kumar, Archit Mokashi, Dhaval Adhav 7.5; 19-26: V. Sai Shankar, P.P. Prachura, M. Manimaran, Swayams Mishra, Abhratan Dutta, Shainesh Daher, A. Balkishan, Muthualagappan 7.
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