The Russian Grand Master, Boris Savchenko, aced to the top in the 13th Chennai Open International Chess Tournament 2022. Savchenko tightened his reins when the Indian International Master, Nitin Senthivel, who was on the lead until then gave in to a draw against Grandmaster Fedorov Alexai (Belarus).
Earlier, it was Boris who opened the tournament’s first victory, when he played his match against Thapa Ganesh Bahadur. The Russian Grandmaster was undeniably at his best after having won the GITAM University Chess Tournament at Visakhapatnam on 17th June 2022.
Boris bagged the Chennai Open International Chess trophy and prize money of Rs.300,000. The tournament had 275 players and 10 rounds. 11 Grandmasters, 14 International Masters and 37 title winners played at the tournament. For most International players, the first round of the championship was easy turf to scale but for many Indian players, it was not so.
Nitin Senthivel v/s Boris Savchenko: Chennai Open Finals
Boris, fresh from his victory at the GITAM championship, seemed to be in his best form. At GITAM, the Grandmaster had beaten Farruk Amonatov of Tajikistan and gained 8.5 points. He had played his knight at the 19th move in order to move to a secure position and then went on to win the match after the 34th move, clinching the Rs. 3 lakh cash reward.
For the Indian master Nitin Senthivel, everything was going smooth in the Chennai Open, with a lead of 8.5 points with Boris closely behind. Nitin had the top ranking in the tournament until the 10th round. He clung on to his one-point lead after the 8th round and up to on to the 10th. Nitin brilliantly calculated his moves with his back pieces when he played against Grandmaster, GM Baghdasaryan Vahe from Armenia in round 6 of the tournament. The 6th round game lasted for 50 moves. He started to scale his points correctly after the 6th round, going on to take the sole lead until the 10th.
Nitin took an early draw when he played against Grandmaster Alexai Federov. Nitin's decision to call it a draw was what really helped Boris to take the lead at the championship. The Russian master didn't wait to lose his chance to get into the winning tracks. Boris Savchenko, had his win against International Master, Aroyank Ghosh. Boris closed in his win at 8.5 points after the 10th round. Nitin won the first runner-up trophy and a cash reward of 2.5 lakh.
Chennai International Open Chess Championship 2022: Behind the Scenes
The prestigious Arjuna award winner and India’s first International Master, Manuel Aaron inaugurated the 13th Chennai International Open Chess Championship held at the Dynasty hall at Hotel Ambassador Pallava, Chennai on 19th June 2022.
The championship was sponsored by Sakthi Group of Companies. The rolling trophy was dedicated to the late philanthropist, Dr. N. Mahalingam. The chess legend spoke of how Dr.Mahalingam was one of the main people in creating a national-level chess learning centre in Chennai which later contributed many International Masters and Grandmasters to the country. Manual Aaron also said that the philanthropist gave cash rewards to every International and Grandmasters from Chennai and later to all Chess Champions from India. Dr. Mahalingam continued to show his support to Indian chess players after he retired as the President of the Indian Chess Federation.
The other Indian Masters, who participated in the championship were Grandmasters Deepan Chakkravathy, Laxman R R, Karthikeyan P and International Masters Aronyak Ghosh, Ajay Karthikeyan, Srihari L R, Srijit Paul, Gusain Himal, Girinath PDS, Rajesh V A V, Ravichandrtan Siddharth, Konguvel Ponnuswamy, Saravana Krishnan P, Murali Krishnan B T and Balasubramaniam R.
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