Sriram Adarsh Uppala and Tejaswini G are the 34th National Under-17 Open and Girls Chess Champions 2024

Telangana and Kerala claim two podium places each

Sriram Adarsh Uppala (TEL) was the sole leader 9/10 heading into the final round. Arpith S Bijoy (KER) was the only player trailing him by a half point at 8.5/10. Sriram drew with FM Jaiveer Mahendru (MAH) to become champion, Jaiveer finished third. Arpith defeated Puneet Verma (PUN) to secure second place. In the Girls event, four players - Narahari Geethika Hasini (TEL), WIM Tejaswini G (TN), Kirthika B (TEL) and Divya Patil (MAH) were the leaders 8/10 each. Tejaswini drew with Kirthika to finish first, Kirthika second. Divya lost to Anupam. Thus Anupam finished third.

Total prize fund of the tournament was ₹450000 in each section. Top three prizes were ₹90000, ₹70000 and ₹58000 along with a trophy each.

Open: Sriram Adarsh Uppala 9.5/11

Sriram Adarsh Uppala (TEL, 2114) did not have the perfect start. He was losing in the very first round against - Aabhas Kumar Srivastava (UP, 1642). Even at the very end, it was a theoretical draw. However, Aabhas blundered a mate in one in a rook vs rook and knight endgame. He won the following round before sharing the point in round 3. Sriram started with only 4/6. Then he won the next four games in-a-row. He had a half point lead over the eventual runner-up, Arpith S Bijoy (KER, 2002). Sriram drew with the second runner-up, FM Jaiveer Mahendru (MAH, 2214) in the final round to become the champion.

Nandish - Sriram, Round 8

What's the first thing that comes to your mind when you see the above position? If 16...Nxd4 is what you are considering then it is correct. Sriram just did that as he was getting three pawns for the piece along with a positional advantage as White's king is stranded at the middle of the board. 17.exd4 Qxd4 18.Nf3 Bxf3 19.Qxf3 Qxb2 22.Nd3 Qxa2 Black now has four pawns for the sacrificed knight. He used his extra pawns to his advantage and went on to win the game. Check out the analysis by Sriram himself in the interview below.

Girls: WIM Tejaswini G 8.5/11

WIM Tejaswini G (TN, 2071) had a steady start. After winning the first two games, she drew the next two. Her score was 3/4. Then she scored 5.5/7 to win the tournament on tie-breaks as three more girls also ended up with the same score.

Tejaswini - Sneha, Round 10

20...a5? was a significant positional mistake by Sneha Halder (WB, 2013). Her opponent, WIM Tejaswini G (TN, 2071) seized her opportunity 21.e5 Ne8 22.d6 e6 the newly formed passed pawn on d6 eventually gained an exchange for White and she went on to score a crucial win in the penultimate round.

Photo Gallery

Thanks to IA NI Dr. Vipnesh Bhardwaj, Organizing Secretary and Secretary of Chandigarh Chess Association for sharing the photographs.

A total of 216 players in the Open and 109 players in the Girls event tournament took part various states and union territories across the country. It was organized by Chandigarh Chess Association at Panjab University in Chandigarh from 15th to 23rd July 2024. The eleven-round Swiss league tournament had a time control of 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.

Replay all available Open games

Replay all available Girls games

Open Round 11 results

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Final standings

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Girls Round 11 results

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Final standings

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