Swara Lakshmi and Jagadish P bag titles at the Karnataka State under-15

Jagadish P and Swara Lakshmi emerge champions in Karnataka State under-15

All photos provided by Nagendra Muralidhar

Swara Lakshmi Nair, who started as 21st seed with an elo of 1177 in Under 15 Girls category showed consistent performance in all 9 rounds by standing unbeaten to clinch her maiden title. When the final round results was declared she was tied with Commonwealth U8 Girls Champion WCM Shefali A N and Deepthi Lakshmi with 7.5/9 points each. But Swara Laksmi was one point ahead of Shefali's Tie break score with 50.5 which helped her to emerge victorious. She has also raised her FIDE rating by 136 points!.

In the open category, Jagadish P was the top seed with a FIDE rating of 1894 and he was joined in the race by Arhan Chethan Anand, Shree Krishna Pranama and Rakshith Srinivasan for the title. All the 4 players scored 7.5/9 points each but with better buchholz score of 54.5, Jagadish P became the champion by drawing his last round game against Kalki Eshwar.

All the top 4 players Jagadish P, Arhan Chethan Anand, Shree Krishna Pranama and Rakshith Srinivasan in Open section and Swara Lakshmi Nair, Shefali A N, Deepthi Lakshmi and Hemadri Satish in Girls section are selected to represent Karnataka state in the upcoming National Sub-Juniors Open and Girls Chess Championship 2018.

The championship was organized by Mysore Chess Centre under the aegis of United Karnataka Chess Association from 20th to 22nd April 2018 at Hotel Paradise, Mysuru. The FIDE Rated event attracted a record setting 360 chess enthusiasts from all over Karnataka.

Kavyashree Mallanna, founder director of Celestial Minds, USA inaugurated the tournament along with Mr. Sriram, Director of GSS Properties and Girish M of Chickmagalur District Chess Association. Out of 135 girls participants, 44 were rated while in the open section with a total tally of 229 participants, 89 were rated.

Kavyashree Mallanna has been a player and a coach for the past 3 decades and she is also the highest rated female chess player in New Hampshire!

Here is a game by the 8th Seed Arhan Chethan Anand who finished runners-up in the open section surprised everyone by defeating tourney's second seed Keshav Kothari in the 6th round. Arhan playing with black pieces choose to decline the Queens Gambit against his opponent and had a brilliant victory. He also split the point with Jagadish P, Shree Krishna Pranama and Rakshith Srinivasan in 7th, 8th and 9th rounds respectively.

Here is one more game of the final round of girls section where Swara Lakshmi had an easy win over Anya Seth Syed. Playing Sicilian defense she crushed her opponent in just 36 moves.

The championship carried Rs.60,000 as cash prize (30K for Open and 30k for girls) along with 90 trophies for winners in different categories. Prize distribution was accompanied by Mr. Arvind Shastry, Secretary, United Karnataka Chess Association, Mr. Chethan Vishwanth, Secretary, Rotary Club of Mysore and Mr. Nagendra Muralidhar, Director, Mysore Chess Centre.

FIDE Arbiter Mr. Karthik R served as the chief arbiter of the championship with his deputies being FA Somanath Krishnarao, NA Lakshmi N, FA Raghavendra M V and FA Babita B. The event was supported by Karnataka bank, Rotary Club of Mysore and Nurtr.

Final Standings (Girls):

Final Standings (Open):

About the author:

Nagendra Muralidhar is the director of the Mysore Chess Centre. He is a keen chess lover and one of the biggest promoters of chess in Karnataka.