Karthik Venkataraman Clinches Second Indian National Title
Karthik Venkataraman won the 61st edition of the Indian National Championship after scoring 9/11 points at the event organised by the Haryana Chess Association. This is the second victory in a national championship for Karthik, who had also won the tournament in 2022. Surya Ganguly and Neelash Saha scored as many points as the champion, but finished in second and third place on tiebreaks.
Karthik’s tie-break score was 78, against Ganguly’s 77.5. A win over Himal Gusain would have given Ganguly his seventh National championship but he had to be content with his fourth draw in a row; he had won his first seven games and been in the sole lead going into the final round.
Karthik, Ganguly and Neelash Saha ended with nine points from 11 rounds at the 61st National chess championship on Tuesday: when the tie was broken at the RPS International School using the Buchholz System, they finished in that order.
Karthik had to win his game against Mitrabha Guha to entertain any hopes of winning his second Nationals (he was the champion at the 59the edition held early last year). He employed Caro-Kann Defence against English Opening and won in 58 moves, converting a superior rook-and-pawn ending.
| Player 1 | Score | Result | Player 2 | Score |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Himal Gusain (RSPB) | 8.5 | Draw | Surya Shekhar Ganguly (PSPB) | 9 |
| Aronyak Ghosh (RSPB) | 8.5 | Draw | M.R. Lalith Babu (PSPB) | 8.5 |
| Mitrabha Guha (RSPB) | 7.5 | Lost | Karthik Venkataraman (AP) | 9 |
| Neelash Saha (RSPB) | 9 | Won | Sammed Shete (Mah) | 7.5 |
| Abhijeet Gupta (PSPB) | 8.5 | Won | N.R. Vignesh (RSPB) | 7.5 |
| Diptayan Ghosh (RSPB) | 8.5 | Won | Sankalp Gupta (Mah) | 7.5 |
| P. Iniyan (TN) | 7.5 | Draw | N.R. Visakh (RSPB) | 8 |
| Deep Sengupta (PSPB) | 7 | Lost | P. Shyaam Nikhil (RSPB) | 8.5 |
| Ajay Karthikeyan (TN) | 8 | Won | Swapnil Dhopade (Mah) | 7.5 |
| Koustuv Dash (Odi) | 7 | Lost | S.P. Sethuraman (PSPB) | 8 |
| Sayantan Das (RSPB) | 8 | Won | Dinesh K. Sharma (LIC) | 7 |
| J. Deepan Chakravarthy (RSPB) | 7.5 | Draw | Vignesh Advait Vemula (TS) | 7.5 |
| Shrayan Majumder (Mah) | 8 | w/o | S. Ravi Teja (RSPB) | 7 |
| Arpith S. Bijoy (Ker) | 7 | Lost | M.R. Venkatesh (PSPB) | 8 |
| Daksh Goyal (Del) | 7 | Lost | Viani D’cunha (Kar) | 8 |
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