Srihari L R convincingly clinches 4th Athens of the East GM 2024, Nitin second

by R Anantharam - 01/01/2025

IM Srihari L R scored an unbeaten 8/10 to win 4th Athens of the East GM Tournament 2024. He started the year 2024 by winning 14th Chennai GM Open 2023. Now he ended by winning this event. Srihari won both events convincingly. Six players scored 7.5/10 each. Out of them, IM Nitin S and IM Uurtsaikh Agibileg (MGL) secured second and third place respectively according to tie-breaks. The champion drew with both eventual runners-up. The total cash prize fund in the festival is ₹4400000 + two cars, six bikes and 100 cycles, for Category A (>2000) it is ₹2000000. The top three prizes were ₹300000, ₹200000 and ₹150000 each. This was Srihari's fifth tournament triumph in 2024. Photos: IA R Anantharam

Srihari starts and ends 2024 in the same way

Tamil Nadu’s IM Srihari L R won the Athens of the East 4th International GM Chess Tournament, organised by Ananthi Chess Academy, at Amika Hotel Madurai. With a quick draw with grandmaster P Karthikeyan, he scored eight points to be declared as the outright winner. Besides winning a cash prize of three lacs rupees, Srihari gained a valuable ten rating points, inching towards the coveted 2500 rating.

Champion - IM Srihari L R 8/10

IM Srihari L R drew with GM P Karthikeyan to become the champion

IM Srihari L R scored an unbeaten 8/10, finished a half point ahead of the field and gained 10 Elo rating points

IM Nitin S drew with the top seed IM Aronyak Ghosh to head the 7.5 score bracket players to be the runner-up. After beating the fourth seeded IM-elect Md. Imran, Nitin never looked back.

Runner-up - IM Nitin S 7.5/10

Round 4: IM Nitin S - FM Md. Imran: 1-0

On the second board IM Uurtsaikh Agibileg (MGL) drew with IM Raahul V S to win the third place. Nitin and Agibileg received two lacs and one lac fifty thousand rupees respectively. Agilibeg’s seventh round win over IM Srihari L helped him to climb up.

Second Runner-up - IM Uurtsaikh Agibileg (MGL) 7.5/10

IM Agilibeg drew with IM Raahul VS to finish third

The fourth and fifth places went to the Grandmasters Duc Hoa Nguyen (VIE) and P Karthikeyan who also collected 7.5 points each. Playing the black pieces, Duc Hoa, the Grandmaster from Vietnam outwitted the French International Master Sevan Buscara by threatening to promote his pawn on the 43rd move, forcing the latter to resign. He also defeated Vaidyanathan Kannan (USA) in the ninth round.

4th GM Duc Hoa Nguyen (VIE) 7.5/10

GM Duc Hoa Nguyen (VIE) had successive wins in the last two rounds. He defeated Vaidyanathan Kannan (USA) in the ninth round

Karthikeyan also scored two wins in the eighth and ninth rounds over the reigning National Junior champion Arjun Adireddy and Nithin Babu respectively.

5th GM P Karthikeyan 7.5/10

GM P Karthikeyan defeated FM Arjun Adireddy in the eighth round and Nithin Babu in the ninth round

IM Srihari L won against Naitik Mehta who needed half a point to get his IM-norm

After the sixth round victory over GM Manik Mikulas (SVK), the top seed IM Aronyak Ghosh had four consecutive draws, which pushed him out of contention.

After the sixth round win against GM Manik Mikulas (SVK), IM Aronyak Ghosh was held to four draws

After a promising start, IM-elect Md. Imran faltered to finish ninth

IM Semetei Tologon Tegin (KGZ) was unfortunate to blunder under time pressure to lose to the eventual winner. His win against GM Duc Hoa Nguyen (VIE) in Round 8, was a consolation for him.

IM Semetei Tologon Tegin (KGZ) had unfortunate loss against the eventual winner IM Srihari L R in the ninth round

Kalyani Sirin defeated GM Cristhian Camilo Rios Gomez (COL) to achieve her maiden WIM-norm

WFM Kalyani Sirin scored 6/10, performed at 2237 en route her maiden WIM-norm and gained 79.6 Elo rating points

WIM Diajeng Theresa Singgih (INA) sizzling in the traditional Indian saree on the eve of the new year

Vaidyanathan Kannan (USA) increased his rating by 172.4 points, Nihal Swarna 166.4, Jval Saurin Patel 164.8 and Jai Sankar Subramanaian 149.6 points.

Mr. Velmurugan, Regional Sports Manager, Sports Development Authority of Tamil Nadu and Dr. Raja, District Sports Officer, Madurai were the chief guests and distributed the prizes in the presence of P Pragadesh, Tournament Director and Mr. Vpnesh Bhardwaj, Chief Arbiter. Pragadesh, the bold and dynamic organiser, has assured to have a bigger tournament next year. This year the tournament has provided 44 lacs of rupees, two cars, six bikes and one hundred cycles, an astonishing achievement.

Tournament Director - P Pragadesh

A total of 156 players including 10 GMs, 23 IMs and 3 WIMs took part from 19 countries across the world in Category A (>2000). The tournament was organized by Ananthi Chess Academy at Amika Hotel in Madurai, Tamil Nadu from 24th to 31st December 2024. The ten-round Swiss league Rating tournament had a time control of 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.

Replay Round 9-10 games

Round 10 results

Bo.	No.		White	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Black	Rtg	Club/City	No.
1	28	GM	Karthikeyan, P.	2290	ICF	7	½ - ½	7½	IM	Srihari, L R	2484	TN	3
2	9	IM	Agibileg, Uurtsaikh	2392	MGL	7	½ - ½	6½	IM	Raahul, V S	2378	TN	11
3	18	IM	Nitin, S.	2341	S.Rlys	7	½ - ½	6½	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh	2547	RSPB	1
4	16	IM	Tologon Tegin, Semetei	2358	KGZ	6½	½ - ½	6½	FM	Md, Imran	2430	AP	5
5	20		Sriram, Adarsh Uppala	2340	TEL	6½	1 - 0	6½	GM	Fedorov, Alexei	2385	BLR	10
6	14	IM	Srihari, L	2360	PUD	6½	1 - 0	6½		Jval, Saurin Patel	2002	GUJ	125
7	48	IM	Buscara, Sevan	2185	FRA	6½	0 - 1	6½	GM	Nguyen, Duc Hoa	2358	VIE	15
8	21	FM	Adireddy, Arjun	2336	TEL	6	½ - ½	6	IM	Gochelashvili, David	2269	RUS	32
9	36	FM	Dhananjay, S	2233	CHT	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Manik, Mikulas	2326	SVK	22
10	39		Saurabh, Anand	2223	BIH	6	0 - 1	6		Nithin, Babu	2282	KER	29

Details

Final standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	3	IM	Srihari, L R			IND	2484	TN	8	64,5	67,5	52,75	0	6	10	8	7,00	1,00	10	10
2	18	IM	Nitin, S.			IND	2341	S.Rlys	7,5	60,5	63	44,75	0	5	10	7,5	5,23	2,27	10	22,7
3	9	IM	Agibileg, Uurtsaikh			MGL	2392	MGL	7,5	58,5	62	43,75	0	5	10	7,5	6,08	1,42	10	14,2
4	15	GM	Nguyen, Duc Hoa			VIE	2358	VIE	7,5	57	61,5	42,75	0	7	10	7,5	7,06	0,44	10	4,4
5	28	GM	Karthikeyan, P.			IND	2290	ICF	7,5	56	59	41,75	0	6	10	7,5	5,83	1,67	10	16,7
6	20		Sriram, Adarsh Uppala			IND	2340	TEL	7,5	55	59,5	43,50	0	6	10	7,5	6,78	0,72	20	14,4
7	14	IM	Srihari, L			IND	2360	PUD	7,5	53,5	57	40,50	0	6	10	7,5	7,57	-0,07	10	-0,7
8	1	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh			IND	2547	RSPB	7	64	66,5	44,25	0	4	10	7	7,78	-0,78	10	-7,8
9	5	FM	Md, Imran			IND	2430	AP	7	59,5	63	41,25	0	5	10	7	7,29	-0,29	10	-2,9
10	11	IM	Raahul, V S			IND	2378	TN	7	59	62,5	39,75	0	6	10	7	6,32	0,68	10	6,8
11	16	IM	Tologon Tegin, Semetei			KGZ	2358	KGZ	7	55,5	60	40,75	0	5	10	7	6,58	0,42	10	4,2
12	30		Vignesh, Advaith Vemula			IND	2276	TEL	7	53,5	57	36,00	0	6	10	7	6,04	0,96	40	38,4
13	29		Nithin, Babu			IND	2282	KER	7	53,5	56,5	36,25	0	6	10	7	5,80	1,20	20	24
14	22	GM	Manik, Mikulas			SVK	2326	SVK	7	52	56	37,50	0	5	10	7	6,85	0,15	10	1,5
15	43		Jihan, Tejas Shah			IND	2205	GUJ	7	44	47	33,75	0	4	10	7	6,52	0,48	40	19,2

Details

About the Author

Prof. Rathinam Anantharam is an A-grade international arbiter. Member of FIDE Arbiters’ Commission, Chairman of Titles Commission in All India Chess Federation, Vice President of Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, Chief Arbiter for six world championships, many Asian, International and National Championships. Nominated as one of the top seven arbiters in the world for the past hundred years by FIDE.

The report was edited by Shahid Ahmed

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