Pankaj Verma becomes Himachal Pradesh State Senior Champion for the fourth time

by Shahid Ahmed - 10/12/2022

Pankaj Verma, Suryansh Verma and Jatin Sharma scored 7/8 each. Pankaj won the tournament due to better tie-breaks. Suryansh and Jatin were placed second and third respectively. This was the first time, Himachal Pradesh State Senior Championship became a FIDE Rated event. Both Pankaj and Suryansh remained undefeated. Pankaj drew with the eventual runner-up in the penultimate round and defeated the second runner-up, in the fourth round. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹100000. The top three prizes were ₹11000, ₹9100 and ₹8100 along with a trophy each. Pankaj won the HP State Senior Championship for the fourth time. Photo: Rajesh Verma

Top three score 7/8

Pankaj Verma has clinched Himachal Pradesh State Senior Championship for the fourth time in his career. He has remained undefeataed in all four of these occasions. His scores in each of these triumphs were: 2015 - 7/8, 2018 - 6.5/7, 2019 - 7/8 and now 2022 - 7/8. The only time he finished as a runner-up was in 2016 scoring 6/7. The runner-up was according to tie-breaks and he was undefeated in that too. Thus, Pankaj is undefeated at HP State Senior Championship since 2015 for a total of 38 games and four out of five them he won. That is certainly an impressive record to hold. Runner-up, Suryansh Verma secured second place for the second year in-a-row and he also remained unbeaten in both of them. Pankaj is also the uncle of his nephew, Suryansh Verma.

Champion - Pankaj Verma 7/8 | Photo: Rajesh Verma

Runner-up - Suryansh Verma 7/8 | Photo: Rajesh Verma

Second Runner-up - Jatin Sharma 7/8 | Photo: Rajesh Verma

Pankaj Verma scored an unbeaten 7/8 including a draw with the runner-up Suryansh Verma and a win over the second runner-up Jatin Sharma

Check out Suryansh's favorite game from the tournament against Sanjeevan Saraswat from Round 6.

Players in action | Photo: Rajesh Verma

Trophies given to the prize winners | Photo: Rajesh Verma

All prize winners | Photo: Rajesh Verma

Thanks to Rajesh Verma for sharing the photos.

A total of 146 players took part from various districts of Himachal Pradesh. The three-day nine-round Swiss league Rating tournament was organized by Himachal Pradesh State Chess Association at Hotel Shimla Hills International in Shimla, Himachal Pradesh from 18th to 20th November 2022. The time control of the tournament was 60 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.

Final standings

Rk.	SNo	Name	Typ	sex	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	Rp	w-we
1	3	Pankaj Verma			IND	1719		7	40,5	44,5	37,75	0	6	1616	-0,06
2	36	Suryansh Verma	U17		IND	1199	Shimla	7	38	41	36,00	0	6	1756	4,23
3	23	Jatin Sharma			IND	1331	Mandi	7	35,5	37,5	32,00	0	7	1524	1,17
4	4	Dev Krishan			IND	1697	Kullu	6,5	39	42,5	33,75	0	5	1513	0,01
5	11	Chinmay Mehta			IND	1492	Shimla	6,5	36,5	38,5	29,75	0	6	1335	-0,94
6	16	Vipan Kumar			IND	1438	Hamirpur	6	39	41,5	25,00	0	6	1402	-0,12
7	15	Arun Verma			IND	1455	Shimla	6	38,5	41	30,25	0	5	1385	0,15
8	25	Rajat Soni			IND	1310	Hamirpur	6	37	39	27,00	0	6	1414	0,45
9	148	Swastik Tara			IND	0	Sirmour	6	36	39,5	26,00	0	4	1461
10	27	Kritin Sharma			IND	1290	Solan	6	36	37,5	26,00	0	6	1446	0,84
11	1	Smeeru Thakur			IND	1843	Kullu	6	35,5	39	27,50	0	5	1278	-1,88
12	31	Suryanshi Sharma	F17	w	IND	1263	Sirmour	6	35	38,5	27,25	0	5	1502	1,94
13	28	Akash Thakur			IND	1269	Solan	6	33,5	37,5	28,00	0	5	1216	0,39
14	77	Hitesh Azad			IND	0	Shimla	6	32,5	35,5	25,00	0	6	1297
15	38	Arnav Rajneesh Sharma	U17		IND	1185	Kangra	5,5	37,5	40,5	26,75	0	4	1482	1,74

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