Karnataka is 1.7 Elo points away from getting its first GM

by C. K. Muralidharan - 31/08/2017

Recently we published an article entitled "Who will be India's 50th grandmaster?" In it we made a strong prediction that IM M.S. Thejkumar has the best chances to become India's 50th and Karnataka's first grandmaster. He recently won the 8th Kandy Open in Sri Lanka and gained valuable 6.40 Elo points. He took his tally to 2498.3 and is now just 1.7 Elo points away from the GM title. A short report on the event by C.K. Muralidharan.

Thejkumar wins 8th Kandy Open in Sri Lanka

Mysuru based IM M.S.Thejkumar, of South Western Railway, Mysuru, took part in the 8th Kandy Open International FIDE rated chess championship 2017. The event was held at National Institute of co-operative Development, Polgolla, Sri Lanka from 25-30th August 2017. Thejkumar won his eleventh and final round tie against Sri Lanka's Kandearachchi Niranga (Rating 1992) and with 10 points from eleven rounds clinched the title.

After eleven rounds, IM M.S.Thejkumar and Sri Lanka's Alahokkon Isuru(2059) tied with 10 points each, but the former's better tie-break score of 76.5 to the latter's 75.5 helped him to clinch the title. It must be mentioned that Thejkumar did not play the first two rounds and hence ended with a score of 10.0/11. He received two half point byes.

Thejkumar's performance similar to what Li Chao did at the 5th Colombo Open in 2012!

Final Ranking after 11 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	w-we
1	1	IM	Thejkumar M. S.	IND	2481	10,0	1,0	76,5	71,0	0,64
2	2		Alahakoon Isuru	SRI	2059	10,0	0,0	79,5	73,5	1,56
3	3		Priyankara Chamil	SRI	2026	9,5	0,0	79,5	73,5	1,13
4	11		Danushka M A N	SRI	1888	9,0	0,0	77,5	71,0	1,01
5	12		Nandan Buragohain	IND	1870	9,0	0,0	74,0	67,5	-0,41
6	5		Kandearachchi Niranga	SRI	1992	8,5	0,0	82,5	76,5	0,31
7	4		Subasinghe K R V R	SRI	2014	8,5	0,0	79,5	73,0	-0,67
8	17		Munasinghe Shanaka	SRI	1821	8,5	0,0	78,0	72,5	0,97
9	25		Ilampoornan Raguparan	SRI	1762	8,5	0,0	78,0	72,0	1,06
10	14		Madushanka Harsha	SRI	1835	8,5	0,0	75,5	69,5	-0,47
11	26		Dissanayake R K T	SRI	1761	8,5	0,0	75,0	69,0	-0,01
12	36		Thawalampola Banuka Neranjan	SRI	1697	8,5	0,0	74,5	69,0	1,09
13	35		Jayaweera C L	SRI	1715	8,5	0,0	74,5	68,5	1,02
14	19		Bandara Dhanushka	SRI	1818	8,5	0,0	74,5	68,0	-0,54
15	16		Herath N N B	SRI	1823	8,5	0,0	74,0	68,0	-0,28

Final Standings

Winner of the Kandy Open 2017: IM M.S. Thejkumar

Thejkumar added 6.40 ELO points to his tally with his performance in this tournament and presently has a live rating of 2498.30. He needs 1.70 Elo points to become India's 50th and Karnataka's first grandmaster.