Airports Authority of India flies high at MPL National Team Open and Women Chess Championship 2022

by Shahid Ahmed - 15/04/2022

Airports Authority of India dominated MPL 41st National Team Open and 19th National Team Women's championship 2022. They won both Open and Women event without losing a single match. In the Open event, AAI, RSPB A and RSPB B, all three teams scored 16.0/18. They drew their games against each other. AAI and RSPB A had the same match and game points. Thus, the third tie-break decided the championship in favor of AAI. RSPB A and RSPB B were placed second and third respectively. In the Women's event, AAI finished two points ahead of the competition 12.0/12, PSPB secured second place 10.0/12 and Maharashtra A third 8.0/12. Photo: All Bihar Chess Association

AAI ends PSPB's reign

In the 41st edition of National Team Open, PSPB did not take part. Thus, they forfeited the opportunity to continue their championship reign. It lasted three consecutive years from 2018-2020 in both Open and Women section. The last time Airports Authority of India won National Team in the Women event was in 2012. In the Open event, this is their first ever triumph in over a decade.

MPL 41st National Team Open and 19th National Team Women Champion - Airports Authority of India | Photo: All Bihar Chess Association

All members of each Airports Authority of India team members were not only undefeated throughout the tournament, but also won a board prize each. This is certainly going to be a tough record to break for other teams in the years to come.

MPL 19th National Women's Team Champion - Airports Authority of India 12.0/12 (L to R) - WIM Arpita Mukherjee, IM Vaishali R, WIM Priyanka K, WGM Priyanka Nutakki and WGM Divya Deshmukh

The AAI Women's team had two reigning National champions - WGM Priyanka Nutakki (National Junior Girls) and WGM Divya Deshmukh (National Women).

Runner-up Railway Sports Promotion Board A 16.0/18 (L to R) - GM Visakh N R, IM Vignesh N R, Anand Kumar, GM Deepan Chakkravarthy, Sureshkumar Janardhanan, GM Swapnil Dhopade and IM P Shyam Nikhil

Runner-up Petroleum Sports Promotion Board 10.0/12 (L to R) - WGM Mary Ann Gomes, IM Eesha Karavade, GM Abhijit Kunte, IM Lanka Ravi, IM Nisha Mohota and IM Soumya Swaminathan

Second Runner-up Railway Sports Promotion Board B 16.0/18 (L to R) - GM Laxman R R, IM Arghyadip Das, IM C R G Krishna, Anand Kumar, Sureshkumar Janardhanan, IM Sayantan Das and GM Thej Kumar M S

RSPB B is another team whose each member remained invincible throughout the tournament.

The entire Railway Sports Promotion Board team with the managers

Board prize winners

Board #1 first prize - IM Vignesh N R of RSPB A 6.5/7 92.9% | Photo: IA Vivek Sohani

Board #1 first prize - IM Soumya Swaminathan of PSPB 5.0/6 83.3% | Photo: IA Vivek Sohani

Board #1 second prize - IM C R G Krishna of RSPB B 6.5/8 81.3% | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

IM C R G Krishna also won the same board prize with the exact same score in National Team Chess Championship 2020.

Board #1 second prize - WFM Bhagyashree Patil of Maharashtra A 4.5/6 75%

Board #1 third prize - GM Aravindh Chithambaram of AAI 5.5/7 78.6%

Board #1 third prize - WIM Arpita Mukherjee of AAI 3.0/4 75% | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Board #2 first prize - IM Sayantan Das of RSPB B 8.0/8 88.9% | Photo: IA Vivek Sohani

Board #2 first prize -WIM Sakshi Chitlange of Maharashtra A 5.5/6 91.7% | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Board #2 second prize - GM Deepan Chakkravarthy of RSPB A 6.0/7 85.7% | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Board #2 second prize - WGM Divya Deshmukh of AAI 5.0/6 83.3% | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Board #2 third prize - GM Abhimanyu Puranik of AAI 6.0/7 85.7% | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Board #2 third prize - WIM Tejaswini Sagar of Gujarat 3.5/7 70%

Board #3 first prize - GM Swapnil Dhopade of RSPB A 7.0/8 87.5%

Board #3 first prize - IM Eesha Karavade of PSPB 5.5/6 91.7% | Photo: IA Vivek Sohani

Board #3 second prize - GM Harsha Bharathakoti of AAI 6.5/8 81.3% | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Board #3 second prize - WGM Priyanka Nutakki of AAI 4.0/5 80% | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Board #3 third prize - GM Sriram Jha of LIC 7.0/9 77.8% | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Board #3 third prize - WIM Parnali Dharia of Maharashtra A 4.5/6 75% | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Board #4 first prize - GM Sankalp Gupta of AAI 6.5/7 92.9% | Photo: IA Vivek Sohani

Board #4 first prize - IM Vaishali R of AAI 4.5/6 90% | Photo: IA Vivek Sohani

Board #4 second prize - GM Laxman R R of RSPB B 6.5/8 81.3% | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Board #4 second prize - IM Nisha Mohota of PSPB 5.0/6 83.3%

Board #4 third prize - GM Visakh N R of RSPB A 5.5/7 78.6%

Board #4 third prize - Vishwa Shah of Maharashtra A 3.5/5 70% | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Board #5 first prize - GM Raja Rithvik R of AAI 6.5/7 92.9% | Photo: IA Vivek Sohani

Board #5 first prize - WIM Priyanka K of AAI 3.5/4 87.5% | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Board #5 second prize - IM P Shyam Nikhil of RSPB A 6.0/7 85.7%

Board #5 second prize - WIM Mounika Akshaya Bommini of Andhra Pradesh 3.5/5 70% | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Board #5 third prize - GM Thej Kumar M S of RSPB B 5.0/6 83.3%

Replay Open games

Replay Women games

Round 9 results in Open

No.	Team	Team	Res.	:	Res.
1	Services Sports Control Board	Airports Authority of India	0	:	4
2	Railway Sports Promotion Board A	Bihar Men B	4	:	0
3	Maharashtra A	Railway Sports Promotion Board B	0	:	4
4	Rajasthan B	LIC of India	2	:	2
5	Rajasthan C	Tamilnadu A	½	:	3½
6	Bihar Men A	Maharashtra C	3	:	1
7	Gujrat A	Rajasthan A Team	½	:	3½
8	Maharashtra D	Madhya Pradesh Chess	2	:	2
9	Himachal Pradesh B	Andhra Pradesh Men	0	:	4
10	Himachal Pradesh A	All India Reserve Bank Sports and Cultur	½	:	3½
11	Kerala State A	Jammu & Kashmir	3½	:	½

Complete results

Final standings in Open

Rk.	SNo	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	1	Airports Authority of India	9	7	2	0	16	2	31,0	322,0	77,0
2	2	Railway Sports Promotion Board A	9	7	2	0	16	2	31,0	318,0	78,0
3	3	Railway Sports Promotion Board B	9	7	2	0	16	2	29,5	294,0	74,0
4	5	Tamilnadu A	9	5	1	3	11	0	19,5	185,0	43,5
5	4	LIC of India	9	4	2	3	10	0	20,5	199,0	53,5
6	6	Bihar Men A	9	4	2	3	10	0	20,5	175,5	55,0
7	9	Rajasthan A Team	9	4	2	3	10	0	19,5	159,0	45,0
8	10	Andhra Pradesh Men	9	4	1	4	9	0	19,5	130,0	52,0
9	14	Rajasthan B	9	2	5	2	9	0	17,5	137,0	43,0
10	17	Bihar Men B	9	3	3	3	9	0	16,5	120,0	35,0

Complete standings

Round 6 results in Women

No.	Team	Team	Res.	:	Res.
1	Gujarat Women Team	Airport Authority of India	0	:	4
2	Andhra Pradesh Women Team	PSPB Women Team	½	:	3½
3	Odisha Women Team	Maharashtra Women A Team	0	:	4
4	Maharashtra Women C Team	Himachal Pradesh Women A Team	4	:	0
5	Himachal Pradesh Women B Team	Rajasthan Women A Team	0	:	4
6	Bihar Women A Team	bye	2	:

Complete results

Final standings in Women

Rk.	SNo	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	1	Airport Authority of India	6	6	0	0	12	0	20,0	130,0	50,0
2	2	PSPB Women Team	6	5	0	1	10	0	19,5	114,5	48,0
3	3	Maharashtra Women A Team	6	4	0	2	8	0	19,0	113,0	48,0
4	4	Andhra Pradesh Women Team	6	3	1	2	7	1	14,0	82,0	32,5
5	9	Maharashtra Women C Team	5	2	1	2	7	1	12,5	65,0	29,0
6	6	Rajasthan Women A Team	5	2	0	3	6	0	10,5	54,0	23,5
7	5	Gujarat Women Team	6	3	0	3	6	0	10,5	53,5	24,0
8	8	Bihar Women A Team	5	2	0	3	6	0	9,0	41,0	17,0
9	7	Odisha Women Team	5	1	0	4	4	0	7,0	29,5	11,5
10	11	Himachal Pradesh Women B Team	5	0	1	4	3	1	5,0	26,0	5,5
11	10	Himachal Pradesh Women A Team	5	0	1	4	3	1	5,0	23,0	11,0

Complete standings