National Premier 2016: Karthikeyan is National Champion again!
He had won it in Tamil Nadu in 2015, and today, he won it again, this time in Uttar Pradesh. Murali Karthikeyan is the 2016 National Premier Champion by a full point's margin! Aravindh Chithambaram had taken the early lead. But then his colleague did something he does best: make a comeback.
National Premier 2016: Karthikeyan is National Champion again!
| Round 13 on 2016/11/30 at 10.00AM | |||||||||
| Bo. | No. | Rtg | Name | Result | Name | Rtg | No. | ||
| 1 | 7 | 2494 | GM | Kunte Abhijit | + - - | FM | Praneeth Surya K | 2388 | 14 |
| 2 | 8 | 2565 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | 0 - 1 | GM | Laxman R.R. | 2387 | 6 |
| 3 | 9 | 2384 | IM | Ravi Teja S. | 0 - 1 | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 2689 | 5 |
| 4 | 10 | 2426 | GM | Sriram Jha | 0 - 1 | GM | Bakre Tejas | 2450 | 4 |
| 5 | 11 | 2530 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | 1 - 0 | Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad | 2316 | 3 | |
| 6 | 12 | 2666 | GM | Adhiban B. | 1 - 0 | IM | Nitin S. | 2415 | 2 |
| 7 | 13 | 2307 | IM | Mishra Neeraj-Kumar | - - + | IM | Abhishek Kelkar | 2389 | 1 |
In November 2015, Karthikeyan Murali began with two consecutive losses. But the youngster from Tamil Nadu made a regal comeback, staving off S.P. Sethuraman and Vidit Gujrathi to become the 2015 National Champion.
Aravindh Chithambaram had been leading the National Premier 2016 for most of the tournament. Karthikeyan had a lucky start to his tournament when he won on time against Vidit Gujrathi. But then, he lost to Aravindh.
Karthikeyan is not the one to lose hope. Aravind even won a beautiful endgame against Vidit in the penultimate round. But Karthikeyan kept playing consistently and had caught up with Aravindh going into the final round.
In the final round, had Aravindh won, he would have won the event. Had he drawn and had Karthikeyan won, the latter would become the champion. Had Karthikeyan and Aravindh both lost, Aravindh would still be the winner.
But Aravindh lost. All Karthikeyan needed to win the tournament was to at least gain a draw.
[Site "Renaissance Lucknow Hotel,Gom"]
[Date "2016.11.30"]
[Round "13.2"]
[White "Aravindh, Chithambaram Vr"]
[Black "Laxman, R.R."]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "E21"]
[WhiteElo "2565"]
[BlackElo "2387"]
[PlyCount "156"]
[EventDate "2016.11.17"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[WhiteClock "0:13:02"]
[BlackClock "0:44:19"]
Qc2 O-O 9. g3 f5 10. Bh3 d6 11. O-O Nd7 12. d5 Qf6 13. Rd1 e5 14. b4 a5 15. Be3
g5 16. Bg2 Qg6 17. Ne1 Nef6 18. Bd2 a4 19. c5 bxc5 20. bxc5 Nxc5 21. Bb4 Nfd7
22. Nd3 Na6 23. Qxa4 Nb6 24. Qb3 e4 25. Ne5 Qf6 26. Nc6 Nxb4 27. Nxb4 Na4 28.
Qc2 Nc5 29. a4 Ra5 30. Nc6 Bxc6 31. dxc6 Rfa8 32. g4 Rxa4 33. Rxa4 Rxa4 34.
gxf5 Qxf5 35. f3 Qe5 36. fxe4 Ra1 37. Rxa1 Qxa1+ 38. Kf2 Qf6+ 39. Ke1 Kg7 40.
Qa2 Qc3+ 41. Kf2 Qd4+ 42. Kf1 Nxe4 43. Bxe4 Qxe4 44. Qa5 Qh1+ 45. Kf2 Qxh2+ 46.
Ke1 Qg3+ 47. Kd1 Qg1+ 48. Kd2 Qd4+ 49. Ke1 Qh4+ 50. Kd1 Qh1+ 51. Kd2 Qxc6 52.
Qxg5+ Kf8 53. Qf6+ Kg8 54. Qg5+ Kf7 55. Qf5+ Ke8 56. Qe6+ Kd8 57. Qg8+ Qe8 58.
Qxh7 Qe5 59. Qh3 d5 60. Qh4+ Kd7 61. Qa4+ c6 62. Qa7+ Ke6 63. Qa8 Qb2+ 64. Kd3
Qb5+ 65. Kd2 Qb4+ 66. Kd3 Kd7 67. Qa7+ Kd6 68. Qa8 Qb3+ 69. Kd2 Qb2+ 70. Kd3
Qb5+ 71. Kc3 Qc4+ 72. Kd2 Qd4+ 73. Kc2 Kc7 74. Qf8 Qc4+ 75. Kd2 Kb6 76. Qb8+
Ka5 77. Qa7+ Kb4 78. Qb6+ Ka3 {(Event "54th National Premier Chess
Championship - (Site "Renaissance Lucknow Hotel,Gomti Nagar Lucknow. ")} 0-1
Thus, Murali Karthikeyan has become the National Champion for the second consecutive time.
An important point to note here is that Aravindh played twelve games while Karthikeyan ended up playing eleven games due to the double-withdrawals.
[Site "Renaissance Lucknow Hotel,Gom"]
[Date "2016.11.30"]
[Round "13.5"]
[White "Karthikeyan, Murali"]
[Black "Dhulipalla, Bala Chandra Prasad"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "C85"]
[WhiteElo "2530"]
[BlackElo "2316"]
[PlyCount "130"]
[EventDate "2016.11.17"]
[EventRounds "13"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[SourceDate "2003.06.08"]
[WhiteClock "0:04:38"]
[BlackClock "0:01:57"]
Nbd2 O-O 9. Nc4 f6 10. Nh4 g6 11. Nf3 Nc5 12. h3 Be6 13. Na5 Qd6 14. b4 Na4 15.
Bd2 b6 16. Nb3 Rfd8 17. Qc1 Qd7 18. d4 Bc4 19. Re1 exd4 20. Nbxd4 Bd6 21. a3 c5
22. bxc5 Nxc5 23. Bf4 Re8 24. Bxd6 Qxd6 25. Qh6 Rxe4 26. Rad1 Qf8 27. Qd2 Rd8
28. Rxe4 Nxe4 29. Qf4 Nc3 30. Re1 Qd6 31. Qh4 Bf7 32. Ne6 Bxe6 33. Qxf6 Nd5 34.
Qxe6+ Qxe6 35. Rxe6 Rd6 36. Re8+ Kg7 37. c4 Nf4 38. Re7+ Kf6 39. Rxc7 h6 40. c5
bxc5 41. Rxc5 g5 42. g3 Nd3 43. Ra5 Nc1 44. h4 Nb3 45. Ra4 a5 46. Rc4 Rd5 47.
Rc6+ Kg7 48. h5 Nd4 49. Rg6+ Kh7 50. Nh2 g4 51. Nxg4 Rxh5 52. Rd6 Nf3+ 53. Kg2
Ne1+ 54. Kf1 Rh1+ 55. Ke2 Nc2 56. a4 Ra1 57. Rxh6+ Kg7 58. Rd6 Rxa4 59. Ne3 Na3
60. Kd3 Rb4 61. g4 Rf4 62. Ke2 Nb5 63. Ra6 Nc3+ 64. Kd3 Ne4 65. Nf5+ Kf7 {Kxe4}
1-0
Detailed analysis to follow...
Final Ranking after 13 Rounds
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Club/City | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
| 1 | 11 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | IND | 2530 | T N | 10,5 | 0,0 | 66,75 | 7,0 |
| 2 | 8 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | IND | 2565 | T N | 9,5 | 0,0 | 62,25 | 7,0 |
| 3 | 12 | GM | Adhiban B. | IND | 2666 | PSPB | 9,0 | 0,5 | 57,50 | 4,0 |
| 4 | 5 | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | IND | 2689 | PSPB | 9,0 | 0,5 | 53,50 | 5,0 |
| 5 | 6 | GM | Laxman R.R. | IND | 2387 | RSPB | 8,0 | 0,0 | 49,25 | 4,0 |
| 6 | 7 | GM | Kunte Abhijit | IND | 2494 | PSPB | 7,5 | 1,0 | 47,00 | 1,0 |
| 7 | 4 | GM | Bakre Tejas | IND | 2450 | I A | 7,5 | 1,0 | 44,25 | 3,0 |
| 8 | 9 | IM | Ravi Teja S. | IND | 2384 | RSPB | 7,5 | 1,0 | 42,75 | 5,0 |
| 9 | 2 | IM | Nitin S. | IND | 2415 | RSPB | 6,5 | 0,0 | 36,25 | 5,0 |
| 10 | 1 | IM | Abhishek Kelkar | IND | 2389 | MAH | 5,5 | 0,0 | 30,75 | 2,0 |
| 11 | 3 | Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad | IND | 2316 | A P | 5,0 | 0,0 | 29,50 | 3,0 | |
| 12 | 10 | GM | Sriram Jha | IND | 2426 | L I C | 3,0 | 0,0 | 13,25 | 0,0 |
| 13 | 14 | FM | Praneeth Surya K | IND | 2388 | TEL | 1,0 | 0,0 | 5,00 | 1,0 |
| 14 | 13 | IM | Mishra Neeraj-Kumar | IND | 2307 | JHAR | 0,5 | 0,0 | 3,50 | 0,0 |