A grand finale at the National Schools 2017

by Niklesh Jain - 10/01/2017

The National Schools 2017 was a grand event with over 800 participants gathering in Nagpur. Maharashtra state performed admirably winning 15 medals out of the total tally of 36. Syna International from Katni was adjudged as the best school. Only one player was able to finish with a 100% score. He won a special ChessBase prize! All this and much more in our final report from the National Schools 2017.

Maharashtra wins maximum medals, Syna International is the best school.

It was an exciting end to the National Schools 2017. Maharashtra became the best state winning five gold medals, while Syna International from Katni, Madhya Pradesh was adjudged as the best school. The arrangements of the tournament were perfect as we mentioned in our previous report. The closing ceremony was a festive affair, and all the winners and participants went back home with a smile of their face.

If there was one thing that can definitely be improved at the National Schools, it would definitely be the time control. One hour to each player without any increment is not a great idea. It leads to finishes like the following:

The boy with the white pieces played a nearly flawless endgame but didn't have enough time to crown his excellent play.

Just like last year ChessBase products were given as prizes to the winners. First place in each of the twelve categories would get ChessBase 14 and three Fritztrainer DVDs of their choice.

As the last round began, the tension among the parents was quite tangible

Beautiful trophies and medals waited for the winners

In all there were 36 (12x3) medals at stake. Maharashtra won five gold, three silver and seven bronze medals. 15 medals in all, quite an impressive tally.

For all those who arrived late for the Prize ceremony, it was quite difficult to find a spot to sit!

To take care of 800 kids is no small task. A huge congratulations to the arbiters and the entire team

While the prize ceremony was in progress R. Anantharam and arbiter Anurag were busy trying to calculate the final details about which school would win the "best school prize." To conduct three rounds everyday and then calculate the results of 800 kids in one hour is no easy task. But with R. Anantharam's experience this was not all an issue.

The prize distribution ceremony

The prize giving ceremony took place in the presence of Chess in Schools Chairman of India Ravindra Dongre, IM Chandrashekhar Gokhale, Income Tax commissioner Sanjay Dhivare, IAS officer Bhagyashree Dhivare, Chetan Kulkarni and Vidharbha head Manoj Itkewar.

Winners of Under 7 Open group

Under-7 Open - Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	5	Adireddy Arjun	IND	1089	8,0	1,0	8,0	52,0
2	2	Kiaan Agrawal	IND	1168	8,0	1,0	8,0	52,0
3	3	Sadbhav Rautela	IND	1155	8,0	1,0	8,0	51,0

Under-7 girls

Under-7 Girls - Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo	Name	sex	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	K	rtg+/-
1	50	Shriyana S Mallya	w	IND	0	KAR	8,0	0,0	8,0	51,0	54,5	47,50
2	2	Kamalini Haradhana Nimban K	w	IND	1015	PON	7,0	0,0	7,0	48,5	49,5	35,50	40	23,2
3	49	Shriya Patil	w	IND	0	GOA	7,0	0,0	7,0	44,5	47,5	33,00

Under - 9 girls

Under-9 Girls Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	5	Anupam M Sreekumar	IND	1140	KER	8,5	0,0	8,0	48,5
2	2	Sruthi Naya B	IND	1194	TN	7,0	0,0	7,0	51,0
3	11	Aditi Yogesh Kayal	IND	1091	MAH	7,0	0,0	7,0	48,5

Under-9 Open. You might be wondering why are there four kids on the stage? Well, the four year old in the picture is second place Shreyas Payyappat's brother. He too wanted a medal!

Under-9 Open - Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	3	Bagwe Gaurang	IND	1357	MAH	8,0	1,0	8,0	53,5
2	2	Sreyas Payyappat	IND	1369	KER	8,0	0,0	8,0	48,5
3	6	Arhan Chethan Anand	IND	1307	KAR	7,5	0,0	7,0	45,0

Under-11 open winners

Under-11 Open - Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	CM	Gukesh D	IND	2236	9,0	0,0	9,0	51,5
2	4	CM	Dev Shah	IND	1778	7,5	0,0	7,0	50,5
3	3		Sreeshwan Maralakshikari	IND	1968	7,0	0,0	7,0	52,5

D. Gukesh scored 9.0/9 and won the ChessBase India special prize of Komodo 9 signed by Vishy Anand!

Under-11 girls

Under-11 Girls - Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	9	Ananya Arumbakkam	IND	1292	7,5	0,5	7,0	49,0
2	8	Kaamyaa Negi	IND	1331	7,5	0,5	6,0	47,0
3	28	Meenatchi Rajam V	IND	1095	7,0	0,0	7,0	46,5

Under 13 Open winners

Under-13 Open - Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2		Mehta Naitik R	IND	1928	8,0	0,5	7,0	51,5
2	1	CM	Raja Rithvik R	IND	1991	8,0	0,5	7,0	51,0
3	14		Rohnit G Amin	IND	1510	7,0	0,0	7,0	48,5

Under 13 girls

Under-13 Girls - Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	3		Bhagyashree Patil	IND	1735	MAH	8,5	0,0	8,0	48,0
2	1	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	IND	1923	MAH-NGP	8,0	0,0	7,0	50,5
3	2		Eesha Ajay Sarda	IND	1765	MAH	7,0	0,0	6,0	51,0

Nagpur talent Mrudul Dehankar analyzes her victory over Dhyana Patel

Under 15 open winners

Under-15 Open - Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	9	Yash Dhoke	IND	1830	7,5	0,5	6,0	49,0
2	8	Joy Pankaj Shah	IND	1847	7,5	0,5	6,0	49,0
3	5	Ayush Pattanaik	IND	1886	7,0	0,0	7,0	45,5

Under-15 girls winners

Under-15 Girls - Final Ranking after 7 Rounds

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	6	Parakh Niyati	IND	1569	6,0	0,0	5,0	28,5
2	3	Tejasvi M	IND	1706	5,5	0,0	5,0	28,5
3	1	Sanskriti Goyal	IND	1839	5,5	0,0	5,0	27,0

Under-17 Open winners

Under-15 Open - Final Ranking after 7 Rounds

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	Harikrishnan.A.Ra	IND	2259	6,0	0,0	5,0	27,5
2	3	Dhananjay S	IND	2183	5,5	0,0	5,0	28,0
3	4	Pruthu Deshpande	IND	2063	5,0	1,0	5,0	28,5

Under-17 girls winners

Under-17 Girls - Final Ranking after 7 Rounds

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	Pandey Srishti	IND	1829	5,5	0,0	5,0	26,5
2	5	Kavisha S Shah	IND	1570	5,0	0,0	4,0	25,0
3	3	Ananya Rishi Gupta	IND	1655	4,5	0,0	4,0	26,5

All 36 medal winners and future stars captured in one frame

Syna International from Katni was the best school at the event. They scored 24 points to edge out Velammal school from Chennai, who finished second with 23. Urmi School from Vadodra, Gujrat, finished third. The winning school is decided by adding the points of the top four performers from that school. For Syna it was Ayush Pattanaik (7.0), Aman Khanna (6.5), Prakhar Bajaj (5.5) and Siddhanth Shaw (5.0). The Sya International school was third last year, but this year went back with the Champion's trophy.

A moment of pride for yours truly, who was the coach of the Syna International, as the kids along with dignitaries celebrate the victory

By organizing two National Schools in two consecutive years Dilip Pagay has proved that he is a very able organizer. When I congratulated him for this wonderful arrangement, he told me that he would like to play a tournament soon! Once a chess player, always a chess player!

ChessBase India co-founder Sagar Shah was present at the venue and cleared all the doubts that anyone had regarding the usage of ChessBase softwares

The workshops on ChessBase Account and ChessBase 14 were attended by people in huge numbers

Sagar Shah with the author of these lines. We are wearing the ChessBase India shirt that says "Powering chess in India".

Just by looking at the sheer number of people who attend this tournament, it is clear that the National Schools is an extremely important event in the Indian chess calendar. However, there are certain things that need to be improved at this event. First of all the number of rounds per day should be reduced, and there should be increment time control. Second of all, it is important to make this event a rated one. Currently the Elo ratings are not affected at the National Schools. And lastly many of our top players in their age category must participate so that we have chances of winning more medals at the World level.