Sahil Sanjay Shejal convincingly clinches Velammal Hospital 3rd Athens of the East Below 1600 Rating 2023
Sahil Sanjay Shejal scored an unbeaten 8.5/9 to win Velammal Hospital presents 3rd Athens of the East GM Category C Below 1600 Rating Tournament 2023. Sahil finished a half point ahead of the field. Five players - Mohammed Muzammil A, Shashveen A K, Srinivasan Subramaniam, Kavinkumar G and Rishi R scored 8/9 each. They were placed second to sixth respectively according to tie-breaks. . The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹4000000 + trophies + 100 bicycles and eight electric scooty, ₹1000000 for Category C. The top three prizes were ₹100000 + bike, ₹60000 and ₹40000 along with a trophy each. The winner's trophy Chairman MVM trophy was a lifelike human sized, just like it was for the GM and Category B section. Sahil has won quite a few tournaments. However, this was his first rating tournament triumph of his career. Photos: IA R Anantharam
Sahil's second podium finish in a week
Sahil Sanjay Shejal is the outright winner of the C category Velammal Hospital – Athens of the East 3rd international GM tournament, organised by Ananthi Chess Academy at Velammal College of Engineering & Technology, Madurai. He scored 8.5 points from ten games, half a point ahead of Mohammed Muzammil A, Shashveen A K, Srinivasan Subramanian, Kavin Kumar G and Rishi R - all from Tamil Nadu. The tournament attracted 939 players, a record number of entries in Tamil Nadu. The combined strength of the three categories was more than 1900.
In the Pirc Defence game between Sahil and Prawin of Madurai, the latter had to sacrifice his bishop to stop the pawn promotion by Sahil. The firmly rooted bishop outpost helped to pocket the point and win the title for Sahil. Besides one lac rupees as the first prize, he had also earlier won ₹60000 in the B category.
752nd seeded unrated A Mohammed Muzammil of TN sprang a surprise by claiming the runner-up spot scoring eight points. The seventh round long-drawn tussle of 94 moves, with the top seed Mohd. Tabseer Alam gave confidence to Muzammil to win two more games and ₹60000
A Shashveen of TN, the second runner-up, cleverly snatched a bishop from the fifth seeded B U Siddhesh of TN in a Grunfeld defence in the sixth round. After exchanging the queen and the rook, it was a cakewalk for Shashveen to win the game.
Though Srinivasan Subramaniam of TN lost to M Sanjeev of TN in the fifth round, four consecutive wins put him in the fourth rank. Srinivasan was awarded ₹60000 for his best performance among the 1301 to 1450 rating category players.
G Kavin Kumar of TN clinched the fifth place by finishing off Abhinav Anand of Karnataka in style in a short game of the final round.
R Rishi defeated Gowrishankar Jayaraj in the ninth round to get the sixth place.
Vishwanath Kannam of Telangana defeated the fourth seed Dhiman Mitra of West Bengal in the seventh round, which helped him to finish seventh. Dhiman Mitra was placed next to him in the rank list.
K Prawin’s final round loss to the eventual winner Sahil pushed him to the ninth place. He was sharing the lead for most part of the tournament.
Final standings
Rk. | SNo | Name | Typ | sex | FED | RtgI | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | |
---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
1 | 29 | Shejal, Sahil Sanjay | IND | 1475 | 8,5 | 49,5 | 53,5 | 50,50 | 0 | 8 | |||
2 | 752 | Mohammed, Muzammil A | IND | 0 | 8 | 51,5 | 57,5 | 51,25 | 0 | 7 | |||
3 | 20 | Shashveen, A K | U11 | IND | 1500 | 8 | 51,5 | 56 | 49,00 | 0 | 8 | ||
4 | 93 | ACM | Srinivasan, Subramaniam | IND | 1388 | 8 | 51 | 55,5 | 48,00 | 0 | 8 | ||
5 | 22 | Kavinkumar, G | IND | 1499 | 8 | 48 | 52 | 45,75 | 0 | 7 | |||
6 | 69 | Rishi, R | IND | 1417 | 8 | 44,5 | 48,5 | 43,50 | 0 | 7 | |||
7 | 35 | Vishwanath, Kannam | IND | 1461 | 7,5 | 53 | 57 | 45,75 | 0 | 7 | |||
8 | 4 | Dhiman, Mitra | IND | 1580 | 7,5 | 50 | 54 | 43,25 | 0 | 7 | |||
9 | 6 | Prawin, K | IND | 1558 | 7,5 | 50 | 54 | 43,00 | 0 | 7 | |||
10 | 62 | Danvanth, R | U13 | IND | 1425 | 7,5 | 49,5 | 54,5 | 44,50 | 0 | 6 | ||
11 | 19 | Sanjeev, M | IND | 1502 | 7,5 | 49 | 52,5 | 42,00 | 0 | 7 | |||
12 | 26 | Ravi, Palsule | IND | 1490 | 7,5 | 48,5 | 53 | 42,25 | 0 | 7 | |||
13 | 53 | Suman, Maity | IND | 1441 | 7,5 | 48 | 52,5 | 43,25 | 0 | 7 | |||
14 | 107 | Paresh, S | U13 | IND | 1371 | 7,5 | 45,5 | 48,5 | 38,75 | 0 | 7 | ||
15 | 86 | Abhinav, Anand | U09 | IND | 1394 | 7 | 53 | 58 | 42,50 | 0 | 7 | ||
16 | 8 | Aniket, Ranjan | IND | 1556 | 7 | 52,5 | 57,5 | 43,25 | 0 | 6 | |||
17 | 5 | Siddhesh, B U | IND | 1579 | 7 | 52,5 | 56,5 | 41,25 | 0 | 6 | |||
18 | 36 | Manikandan, Tayalan | IND | 1459 | 7 | 51,5 | 55,5 | 41,00 | 0 | 6 | |||
19 | 66 | Arush, A | U11 | IND | 1421 | 7 | 50,5 | 55 | 41,25 | 0 | 6 | ||
20 | 87 | Arun, R | IND | 1394 | 7 | 50,5 | 55 | 40,00 | 0 | 7 | |||
21 | 64 | Kishore, Dev S | IND | 1423 | 7 | 50 | 54 | 39,50 | 0 | 6 | |||
22 | 11 | Gowrishankar, Jayaraj | U15 | IND | 1529 | 7 | 49,5 | 54,5 | 40,00 | 0 | 6 | ||
23 | 24 | Logesh, Kumar R | U15 | IND | 1494 | 7 | 49,5 | 53,5 | 40,50 | 0 | 5 | ||
24 | 55 | Gowsalyan, S | SRI | 1438 | 7 | 49 | 53 | 38,75 | 0 | 6 | |||
25 | 25 | Ajay, Kumar Vemuluri | IND | 1490 | 7 | 49 | 52,5 | 38,00 | 0 | 6 | |||
26 | 110 | AFM | Yuvanesh, A | U11 | IND | 1369 | 7 | 49 | 51 | 36,75 | 0 | 6 | |
27 | 67 | AFM | Shanmathi, Sree S | F13 | w | IND | 1420 | 7 | 48 | 51,5 | 37,00 | 0 | 7 |
28 | 122 | Shanmugasundaram, G. | IND | 1360 | 7 | 47,5 | 50,5 | 36,75 | 0 | 6 | |||
29 | 56 | Prajeesh, B U | U13 | IND | 1438 | 7 | 47 | 50,5 | 37,50 | 0 | 6 | ||
30 | 199 | Preneesh Kumar, C. S. | IND | 1294 | 7 | 46,5 | 50,5 | 36,50 | 0 | 7 | |||
31 | 71 | Srinish, Udhayan M | U15 | IND | 1416 | 7 | 46 | 50 | 37,00 | 0 | 5 | ||
32 | 139 | Rohan, Kumar | IND | 1345 | 7 | 45,5 | 49,5 | 37,50 | 0 | 6 | |||
33 | 242 | Suhaib, Ahmad | IND | 1257 | 7 | 45,5 | 47,5 | 35,00 | 0 | 6 | |||
34 | 130 | Pavithra, R V | F11 | w | IND | 1355 | 7 | 45,5 | 47,5 | 34,50 | 0 | 7 | |
35 | 144 | Eshwar, Veerappan Aiyappan | U11 | IND | 1341 | 7 | 45 | 49,5 | 38,00 | 0 | 6 | ||
36 | 90 | Sovna, Sonali Jena | w | IND | 1393 | 7 | 44,5 | 48,5 | 37,50 | 0 | 6 | ||
37 | 50 | Gopinath, P | IND | 1443 | 7 | 44,5 | 48 | 36,50 | 0 | 7 | |||
38 | 143 | Vishweswaran, N | U15 | IND | 1342 | 7 | 44 | 47,5 | 34,50 | 0 | 6 | ||
39 | 58 | Ramteke, Sumedh | IND | 1435 | 7 | 43,5 | 47,5 | 35,00 | 0 | 7 | |||
40 | 105 | Hariharan, Gandhi | IND | 1372 | 7 | 43,5 | 46 | 35,00 | 0 | 7 |
About the Author
Prof. Rathinam Anantharam is an A-grade international arbiter. Member of FIDE Arbiters’ Commission, Chairman of Titles Commission in All India Chess Federation, Vice President of Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, Chief Arbiter for six world championships, many Asian, International and National Championships.
The report was edited by Shahid Ahmed