Pics by Mahesh Shetty
Daijiworld Media Network - Mangalore (SP)

Mangalore, Jul 28: Second seeded IM Thejkumar of South Western Railway drew comfortably on the top board against GM Thipsay of Maharastra in 21 moves from a game arising out of Caro Kan defence. Thipsay opted out for a rare 5.Nc5 variation  instead of the popular 5.Ng3 with an expansion on the King side. Thejkumar took up the challenge and reached out 2 Rooks and minor pieces endings with no weaknesses on either side. Thejkumar won the title with an unbeaten performance of 9.5 pts and  after being consistent throughout the tournament.

 
On the second board, IM Rathnakaran of Southern Railway  beat GA Stany of Karnataka convincingly in 29 moves. Stany chose the Nimzovitsch-Rubinstein variation against the IM and was in troubled waters right from the opening. Rathnakaran’s aggressive maneouvres on the h and f  files fetched  him a crucial point. Though Rathnakaran had the same score of 9 pts as Muralikrishnan , his Buchholz tie break score was slightly weaker  than Murali’s , hence he had to settle for the third place.
 
On the third board game between Navalgund Niranjan of  Karnataka and IM B T Muralikrishnan of Southern Railway , the former chose the reverse Blumenfeld move order from the white side. Though he had some decent opening advantage , Murali’s exchange sacrifice on the 14th move changed the scenario,  when Navalgund's dubious moves in the 18th and 19th  moves went in black’s favour. Thereafter, it was cake walk for the former National A Player IM Muralikrishnan to pocket a point and score 9 pts and took the second place.
 
Third seeded GM Praveen Thipsay was placed fourth and the top seed IM Laxman of ICF was placed 12th . Viani ,the surprise of the tournament was once again in his element , this time by outplaying experienced OT Anilkumar of Kerala. Viani was placed a creditable 11th place.  Untitled Syed Anwar Shazuli of ICF beat IM Dinesh Kumar  Sharma of LIC from an equal game of Rook , Bishop and pawns ending. With this victory Anwar succeeded in annexing the fifth place ahead of his ICF team's IM Balasubramaniam.
 
Earlier, on July 26 evening, the organizers entertained the players, parents and other spectators to a wonderful magic show, 'Vismaya Jadoo' by Kudroli Ganesh, who ha several awards to his credit. This was followed by a delicious dinner served free to all. The prize distribution ceremony was held on the evening of Monday July 27.