The Karnataka State U-13 Open and Girls Chess Championship 2023, organised by Mysore Chess Centre, Mysuru, under the aegis of Karnataka State Chess Association, was inaugurated recently by D.P. Anantha, President, Karnataka State Chess Association (KSCA), with Karnataka’s first Grand Master M.S. Thejkumar by moving the chess pawns and by lighting the lamp.

Aravind Shastri, Secretary, KSCA, Manjunath Jain, Treasurer, KSCA, Vikram Das, Proprietor, Dasaprakash Paradise Hotel,  C.K. Muralidharan, Freelance Sports Journalist & office-bearer, MDCA and Nagendra Muralidhar, Vice-President, KSCA and Promoter of Mysore Chess Centre, were present on this occasion.

The three-day Championship attracted more than 300 players from various parts of the State. The Championship was conducted in the Swiss League System consisting of 9 rounds.

A total of 214 players including 99 FIDE rated players took part in the Open Group. Sathvik Adiga was the top-seeded player with a 1754 rating followed by Siddhanth Poonja (1622) and Aarav Saish Amonker (1611).

In the Girl’s group, 89 players participated, Woman Candidate Master (WCM) Shriyana S. Mallya (1502) was the top-seeded player followed by Akshaya Sathi (1,446) and Krupha S. Ukkali.

PRIZE WINNERS

In the Open Category, Siddhanth Poonja of Bengaluru scored 8 points out of 9 rounds. With this, he clinched the Karnataka State Under-13 Open Championship 2023.

Sathvik Adiga of Bengaluru, Sushanth Vaman Shetty of Dakshina Kannada and Bhuvan Krishna Prasanth, who scored 7.5 points with better tie breaks secured 2nd, 3rd and 4th place respectively.

In the Girl’s Category at the end of the 9th round, Shriyana S. Mallya of Dakshina Kannada, Siddhi Rao and Shanjula Senthil, both from Bengaluru, scored 7.5 points and on the better tie breaks, Shriyana Mallya clinched Karnataka State U-13 Girls Championship 2023. Siddhi Rao and Shanjula Senthil secured 2nd and 3rd place respectively.

Siddhanth Poonja, Sathvik Adiga, Shriyana S. Mallya, and Siddhi Rao will represent Karnataka in the forthcoming U-13 Nationals to be held at Telangana.

All the prize winners and U-7, U-9 and U-11 players received attractive trophies.

The prizes were distributed by Mallanna, retd. Professor and Premleela Mallanna, retd. Professor and Founder-Member of Celestial Minds. Vikram Das, Proprietor, Dasprakash Paradise Hotel, Nagendra Muralidhar, Vice-President, KSCA and Promoter, Mysore Chess Centre, were present on this occasion.

The Arbiter team, comprising Deputy Chief Arbiter FA Swapna Shivkumar, SNA N. Prashanth, SNA P. Sagar and SNA R.S. Vijaya Kumar worked hard to complete the Championship successfully without any appeal.