Airports Authority of India clinch MPL National Team 2023 Open and Women for the second consecutive year
AAI had won MPL 42nd National Team Chess Championship 2023 Open at the conclusion of the eighth round. Even, a last round loss against Tamil Nadu B could not deter their championship hopes, as they had already beaten PSPB in the fifth round. Despite playing with one less member in the last two rounds, AAI managed to win the tournament on tie-breaks. Undefeated RSPB A scored sole 14/18 to finish third, a point behind AAI and RSPB. In the Women's event, both AAI and PSPB won their final round matches. They secured first and second place respectively. Maharashtra also won the last round. They secured third place 10/13. Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
RSPB A remains undefeated in the Open
In both Open and Women's event, Airports Authority of India played with only four players. Since they had no reserve members, there was no possibility of creating a surprise, changing the board order. Their opponents knew whom they were going to face in each round. Yet, AAI still managed to prevail. AAI Women's team registering six 4-0 victories out of seven matches is the sign of dominance and they won three individual Golds and one Silver. It will be quite difficult to match their performance, let alone better it in the years to come. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹500000 in each section. Top three prizes were ₹125000, ₹100000 and ₹75000 each..
L to R: Rajesh (Manager), GM Abhimanyu Puranik, IM Harshavardhan G B and GM Aravindh Chithambaram.
L to R: Rajesh (Manager), WIM Priyanka K, WGM Vantika Agrawal, WGM Divya Deshmukh and WIM Arpita Mukherjee.
L to R: IM P Konguvel (Manager), GM Karthikeyan Murali, GM G N Gopal, GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly, GM Adhiban B and GM Vaibhav Suri.
L to R: IM P Konguvel (Manager), IM Eesha Karavade, WIM Isha Sharma, WGM Mary Ann Gomes, IM Padmini Rout and IM Soumya Swaminathan.
L to R: GM Karthikeyan P, GM Swapnil Dhopade, GM Visakh N R and IM Aronyak Ghosh.
L to R: WFM Vishwa Shah, WIM Sakshi Chitlange, WIM Mrudul Dehankar, WIM Aashna Makhija and WFM Bhagyashree Patil.
Open Round 9: Tamil Nadu B - AAI: 3-1
AAI was once again playing with only three members in the last round. They had already won the tournament in the previous round. A last round loss did not change their championship chances as they had already beaten PSPB in the fifth round.
Tamil Nadu B - AAI: 3-1
Odisha - PSPB: 1.5-2.5
PSPB just needed to win the match against Odisha to finish at second place. They had no chance of winning the tournament. Odisha was certainly motivated to score an upset. Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (2371) managed to do so against GM Adhiban B (2610). The former was lost for the better part of the endgame. Yet, he did not give up and fought till the very end.
Utkal - Adhiban
59....Qd2 and it would have been over for White. However, Black blundered 59...dxe4?? 60..Qh3 g4 61.Qxh4 and White won the game.
Women Round 7: PSPB - Andhra Pradesh: 4-0
PSPB started and ended the tournament in the same way, by scoring a 4-0 victory. They scored their second whitewash of the event against Andhra Pradesh in the final round.
AAI - Tamil Nadu B: 4-0
AAI registered their sixth 4-0 victory over Tamil Nadu B in the final round. Although, WGM Divya Deshmukh (2363) was in grave danger against Sunyuktha C M N (1910) at one point, the latter missed her opportunity and it was enough for Divya to turn things around.
Individual Board prizes
Srihari L is the only Gold medal winner among the top four boards who is not part of medal winning team. He scored an unbeaten 7.5/9
IM Eesha Karavade won Gold on Board #3 last year.
IM Vignesh N R remained undefeated for the second consecutive year for RSPB A.
GM Aravindh Chithambaram won Bronze on Board #1 for the second year in-a-row.
The reigning National Women's champion, WGM Divya Deshmukh won Silver on Board #2 last year.
GM Abhimanyu Puranik won Bronze last year on the same board. He improved his medal to Silver.
Currently, the highest rated IM of India, Aronyak Ghosh made his debut for RSPB A and remained undefeated.
WIM Sakshi Chitlange won Gold on Board #1 last year.
GM Visakh N R won Bronze on Board #3 last year.
WIM Arpita Mukherjee secured Bronze on Board #1 last year.
GM Sriram Jha secured Bronze on Board #3 last year.
Last year IM Sayantan Das won Gold on Board #2.
WIM Priyanka K won Gold on Board #5 last year.
WFM Bhagyashree Patil won Silver on Board #1 last year.
For more photos, please click at the respective links: Round 9 Open and Round 7 Women, Prize distribution ceremony.
Replay Round 9 Open games
Replay Round 7 Women games
Round 9 Open results
| No. | SNo | Team | MP | Res. | : | Res. | MP | Team | SNo |
| 1 | 4 | Tamil Nadu B | 10 | 3 | : | 1 | 15 | AAI | 2 |
| 2 | 6 | Odisha A | 11 | 1½ | : | 2½ | 13 | PSPB Men | 1 |
| 3 | 14 | Kerala A | 9 | 1 | : | 3 | 12 | RSPB A | 3 |
| 4 | 5 | RSPB B | 11 | 3½ | : | ½ | 10 | Tamil Nadu D | 10 |
| 5 | 9 | Tamil Nadu C | 10 | 3 | : | 1 | 9 | LIC | 8 |
| 6 | 13 | Kerala B | 9 | 1½ | : | 2½ | 8 | Pondicherry | 16 |
| 7 | 20 | Haryana A | 8 | 2 | : | 2 | 8 | Telangana | 7 |
| 8 | 19 | DASCB | 8 | 1½ | : | 2½ | 8 | Bihar A | 12 |
| 9 | 21 | Bihar B | 8 | 0 | : | 4 | 8 | Tamil Nadu A | 18 |
| 10 | 23 | SSCB | 7 | 0 | : | 4 | 7 | Karnataka B | 11 |
| 11 | 15 | Madhya Pradesh | 7 | 3 | : | 1 | 7 | Karnataka A | 25 |
| 12 | 24 | Andhra Pradesh B | 7 | 3½ | : | ½ | 0 | Himachal C | 29 |
| 13 | 22 | Tamil Nadu E | 6 | 4 | : | 0 | 6 | Himachal B | 30 |
| 14 | 27 | Andhra Pradesh A | 6 | 4 | : | 0 | 4 | Himachal A | 26 |
| 15 | 28 | Haryana B | 2 | 1 | : | 3 | 6 | BSNL | 17 |
Final standings after Round 9
| Rk. | SNo | Team | Games | + | = | - | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 |
| 1 | 2 | AAI | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 2 | 25 | 516,5 | 63,5 |
| 2 | 1 | PSPB Men | 9 | 7 | 1 | 1 | 15 | 0 | 24,5 | 507 | 59,5 |
| 3 | 3 | RSPB A | 9 | 5 | 4 | 0 | 14 | 0 | 25,5 | 522,8 | 67 |
| 4 | 5 | RSPB B | 9 | 6 | 1 | 2 | 13 | 0 | 23,5 | 494,5 | 57 |
| 5 | 4 | Tamil Nadu B | 9 | 5 | 2 | 2 | 12 | 0 | 23,5 | 492,3 | 57,5 |
| 6 | 9 | Tamil Nadu C | 9 | 6 | 0 | 3 | 12 | 0 | 20,5 | 384,5 | 51,5 |
| 7 | 6 | Odisha A | 9 | 5 | 1 | 3 | 11 | 0 | 22 | 414,8 | 57 |
| 8 | 18 | Tamil Nadu A | 9 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 0 | 19,5 | 333 | 46,5 |
| 9 | 12 | Bihar A | 9 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 0 | 19,5 | 310,8 | 46,5 |
| 10 | 10 | Tamil Nadu D | 9 | 5 | 0 | 4 | 10 | 0 | 19 | 338,3 | 47 |
Round 7 Women results
| No. | SNo | Team | MP | Res. | : | Res. | MP | Team | SNo |
| 1 | 1 | PSPB Women | 11 | 4 | : | 0 | 7 | Andhra Pradesh Women | 11 |
| 2 | 2 | AAI Women | 11 | 4 | : | 0 | 7 | Tamil Nadu Women B | 4 |
| 3 | 8 | Tamil Nadu Women D | 6 | 0 | : | 4 | 8 | Maharashtra Women A | 3 |
| 4 | 9 | Kerala Women | 6 | ½ | : | 3½ | 6 | Tamil Nadu Women A | 6 |
| 5 | 5 | Telangana Women | 6 | 4 | : | 0 | 1 | Himachal Women A | 14 |
| 6 | 12 | Himachal Women B | 4 | 1 | : | 3 | 5 | Tamil Nadu Women C | 10 |
| 7 | 7 | Odisha Women A | 5 | 4 | : | 0 | 1 | Himachal Women C | 13 |
Final standings after Round 7
| Rk. | SNo | Team | Games | + | = | - | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 |
| 1 | 2 | AAI Women | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 1 | 26 | 420 | 64,5 |
| 2 | 1 | PSPB Women | 7 | 6 | 1 | 0 | 13 | 1 | 22 | 355,8 | 56 |
| 3 | 3 | Maharashtra Women A | 7 | 5 | 0 | 2 | 10 | 0 | 19,5 | 299 | 48 |
| 4 | 5 | Telangana Women | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 17 | 181,8 | 42,5 |
| 5 | 6 | Tamil Nadu Women A | 7 | 4 | 0 | 3 | 8 | 0 | 16 | 166,3 | 40,5 |
