School boy Hari Ganesh lifts 21st Adyar Times Rating Open 2023 Trophy
15-year-old Hari Ganesh T and FM Vinoth Kumar M scored an unbeaten 7.5/8 at 21st Adyar Times Rating Open 2023. The teenager won the tournament due to better tie-breaks and Vinoth secured second place. Six players - Kavishvaran P, Malla Nooka Raju, Selvamurugan B, Sridhar C S, Raghav V and IM Ramnathan Balasubramaniam scored 7/8 each. Kavishvaran was adjudged third among them. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹250000. The top three prizes were ₹35000 + trophy, ₹25000 and ₹15000 each respectively. This is Hari's first Rating and overall second tournament triumph of his career. His first tournament victory happened earlier this year when he won Changalpattu District Under-17 Boys Tournament 2023. Check out Hari's two of the best games selected and annotated by the boy himself. Photos: IA and FI S Paul Arokia Raj
Hari Ganesh's first rating tournament triumph
The Adyar Times FIDE rated open chess tournament is one among the very few tournaments in the Indian chess circuit that has been organized regularly for more than 20 years. Flagged off in the year 2001 as a small event with a meagre 135 participants, has now roped in 508 entries because of its growing popularity. The inaugural edition namely Adyar Times New Millennium FIDE Rated Open Chess Tournament was held in July 2001 at St. John’s Matriculation School, Beasant Nagar, Chennai right opposite to the legendary hero Viswanathan Anand’s residence. I still remember a parent of a player from Coimbatore telling that they have travelled all the way to play in this event to have a glimpse of GM Vishy Anand’s home. GM Dronavalli Harika also featured in the event as a ten-year-old girl! I was also one among that 135 participants and figured in the prize list too. Next year onwards my role changed from that of player to Chief Arbiter which I have been doing earnestly without for the last two decades continuously.
Sponsored by Adyar Times a famous neighborhood newspaper in South Chennai and therefore the event is always organized in and around South Chennai. Excepting the two years 2020 and 2021 due to Covid impact, the tournament has marked a permanent place in the annual calendar of the AICF. Tamil Nadu State Chess Association is the organizer of this famous event. The 21st edition held between August 25th and 28th this year at the centrally located Bala Vidya Mandir Senior Secondary School, Adyar had a representation from five national federations namely Bangladesh, England, New Zealand, USA and of course India.
Hari Ganesh - Lukesh, Round 6
Find out the fantastic winning continuation for White which Hari Ganesh T (1740) executed in the game against Lukesh A (1549).
In a simple ceremony Indian’s first IM and Arjuna awardee, Manuel Aaron flagged off the four days event by making a formal move against Commodore Vijesh Kumar Garg, VSM the correspondent of BVM school.
It was school boy Hari Ganesh of Vellammal Vidyalaya, Guduvancherry, Chennai who emerged as the champion after scoring 7.5 points out of eight rounds after conceding only one draw against ninth seeded Haridev also from Chennai. The champion was always in the company of leaders by recording six straight victories and drawing the seventh round. Even though Hari Ganesh was only eighth seed of the tournament, his remarkable victories from initial six rounds put him on the top ahead of other higher seeds.
At the end of the seventh and the penultimate round, five players namely T Hari Ganesh, M Vinodh Kumar, S Haridev, Sivan S Roshan and Navin M S were in the top spot with 6.5 points each. While Hari accounted for Nawin, Vinodh scored over Sivan. However, one more leader Haridev met his waterloo at the hands of Selvamurugan B and was halted at 6.5. This helped Hari and Vinodh to sit pretty with 7.5 points each and tied for the first place. Curiously, both did not meet with each other as Vinodh settled for a draw in the fourth round against a lesser known opponent Anuj Narayanan and went down to play in the lower tables in the successive rounds. But Vinodh well known trainer from Chennai proved his consistency by inflicting defeat over his remaining five opponents to catch up Hari. In a two-way tie Hari Ganesh relegated FM Vinodh Kumar to the second spot by virtue of his better Buchholz score. The champion became richer by 35000 Rupees apart from lifting the Adyar Times trophy. For the third place there were six contestants all with 7 points each. But it was P Kavishvaran who finished third, ahead of everyone via his better tie-break score.
Adyar Times is a regional newspaper published from South Chennai and it is the pioneer among the regional newspapers in the Chennai city. Founded by Mr. A J Ambrose, I A S (Retd.). The newspaper was established in the year 1993 and now it is being nurtured by his son - J P Janakan. In a glittering closing ceremony held on the evening of 28th August, J P Janakan, Managing Editor, Adyar Times felicitated the winners in the presence of Dr. Srinivasa Raghavan and other officials from the Tamil Nadu State Chess Association.
Final Standings
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
| 1 | 8 | Hari, Ganesh T | IND | 1740 | 7,5 | 41 | 45 | 42,25 | |
| 2 | 1 | FM | Vinoth, Kumar M. | IND | 1940 | 7,5 | 38,5 | 42 | 39,50 |
| 3 | 34 | Kavishvaran, P | IND | 1487 | 7 | 40,5 | 44,5 | 37,00 | |
| 4 | 7 | AGM | Malla, Nooka Raju | IND | 1824 | 7 | 38,5 | 43,5 | 37,50 |
| 5 | 2 | Selvamurugan, B | IND | 1928 | 7 | 38,5 | 42 | 36,00 | |
| 6 | 6 | Sridhar, C S | IND | 1833 | 7 | 38 | 42 | 36,00 | |
| 7 | 22 | Raghav, V | IND | 1551 | 7 | 37 | 40,5 | 34,00 | |
| 8 | 3 | IM | Ramnathan, Balasubramaniam | IND | 1925 | 7 | 36 | 40 | 34,00 |
| 9 | 12 | Haridev, S | IND | 1653 | 6,5 | 42 | 46 | 35,25 | |
| 10 | 18 | Sivan, S Roshan | IND | 1611 | 6,5 | 40 | 44 | 34,00 | |
| 11 | 9 | Nawin, M S | IND | 1731 | 6,5 | 39,5 | 42,5 | 33,00 | |
| 12 | 5 | Vijay, Shreeram P | IND | 1845 | 6,5 | 38,5 | 43 | 34,00 | |
| 13 | 16 | Soumyajit, Das | IND | 1620 | 6,5 | 37 | 40 | 31,50 | |
| 14 | 52 | AIM | Premshankar, B U | IND | 1397 | 6,5 | 36,5 | 40 | 25,25 |
| 15 | 11 | Ajjesh, J R | IND | 1671 | 6,5 | 34,5 | 37,5 | 30,50 | |
| 16 | 35 | Rahul, Ramakrishnan | IND | 1486 | 6,5 | 34 | 37 | 29,00 | |
| 17 | 46 | Subramanian, V | IND | 1445 | 6,5 | 33 | 36 | 29,00 | |
| 18 | 26 | Medhansh, Rathi | IND | 1519 | 6 | 42 | 45,5 | 32,00 | |
| 19 | 23 | Lukesh, A | IND | 1549 | 6 | 42 | 44,5 | 28,00 | |
| 20 | 27 | WFM | Rajasurya, J. | IND | 1515 | 6 | 41,5 | 44 | 30,25 |
| 21 | 14 | Jaivant, R | IND | 1626 | 6 | 40 | 45 | 32,50 | |
| 22 | 21 | Vaidyanathan, Kannan | USA | 1560 | 6 | 39,5 | 43 | 26,75 | |
| 23 | 76 | ACM | Srinivasan, Subramaniam | IND | 1327 | 6 | 39,5 | 42,5 | 28,00 |
| 24 | 38 | Ananya, Raman | IND | 1467 | 6 | 38 | 41,5 | 28,00 | |
| 25 | 32 | Sanjay, Ganesh Pandi | IND | 1489 | 6 | 38 | 40,5 | 29,00 | |
| 26 | 60 | Sanchith, Sundararam K | IND | 1365 | 6 | 38 | 39 | 25,25 | |
| 27 | 30 | Bhuvan, Krishna Prasanth | IND | 1504 | 6 | 37 | 41 | 29,75 | |
| 28 | 25 | Gopal, Aravamuthan Iyengar | IND | 1526 | 6 | 37 | 40,5 | 27,25 | |
| 29 | 59 | AIM | Rishiadithya, Murali | IND | 1370 | 6 | 37 | 39,5 | 27,00 |
| 30 | 70 | Goutham, Ramesh | IND | 1341 | 6 | 36,5 | 39,5 | 26,00 | |
| 31 | 82 | Ivan, George E | IND | 1296 | 6 | 36,5 | 38,5 | 25,50 | |
| 32 | 37 | Divesh, G | IND | 1476 | 6 | 35,5 | 39 | 28,00 | |
| 33 | 24 | AIM | Banik, Hrishikesh Kumar | IND | 1531 | 6 | 35,5 | 38,5 | 27,50 |
| 34 | 132 | Prithiv, Arokiadass | IND | 1208 | 6 | 35,5 | 37,5 | 25,00 | |
| 35 | 20 | Richard, Solomon M | IND | 1567 | 6 | 35 | 38,5 | 26,75 | |
| 36 | 57 | Lakshmi, Narasimhan V S | IND | 1379 | 6 | 34,5 | 38,5 | 28,00 | |
| 37 | 10 | Anirudh, R | IND | 1679 | 6 | 34 | 38 | 26,50 | |
| 38 | 36 | Rashmika, Maringanti | IND | 1485 | 6 | 33,5 | 37 | 27,00 | |
| 39 | 53 | Anirudh, Rajan P | IND | 1394 | 6 | 33,5 | 35,5 | 23,50 | |
| 40 | 61 | Nishant, T.R. | IND | 1361 | 6 | 33 | 35,5 | 24,25 |
About the Author
Paul Arokia Raj is a Grade-A International Arbiter. He is one of the most reputed arbiters of India. He has officiated many top events. He is a former National Sub-Junior champion and his career high rating was 2205. He was also the coach of University of Madras for nearly 20 years. Best among his products is GM Sundararajan Kidambi. He is now working as Assistant Traffic Manager in Chennai Port Authority and he was All India Major Ports Chess Champion for nearly 20 years.
The article was edited by Shahid Ahmed
