Thejkumar, an International master, drew his final round match against Grandmaster Praveen Thipsay of Maharashtra (8.5 points) to clinch the title. Thejkumar, who ended the meet with an unbeaten record, conjured up 9.5 points out of a possible 11 to end the tournament half-a-point ahead of his nearest rivals from Southern Railway Rathnakaran K and Murali Krishnan B T.
Thejkumar opted for Caro Kan defence against a rare Nc5 variation from Thipsay. With only a draw needed for winning the title, Thejkumar kept a tight defence to sign truce in the 21st move.
Rathnakaran beat Karnataka’s Stany G A and Murali Krishnan B T overcame another State player Niranjan Navalgund.
DH News Service
Important results (Round XI):
Praveen M Thipsay (Mah, 8.5) drew Thejkumar MS (SWR, 9.5); Rathnakaran K (SR, 9) bt Stany G A (Kar, 8); Niranjan Navalgund (Kar, 8) lt to Murali Krishnan BT (SR, 9); Dinesh K Sharma (LIC, 7) lt to Syed Anwar Shazuli (ICF, 8.5); Ramnathan Balasubramaniam (ICF, 8.5) bt Anup Deshmukh (Mah, 7.5); Koshy Varugeese (TN, 7.5) lt to Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (WB, 8.5); Shivananda BS (Kar, 8) bt Gahan MG (Kar, 7); Anilkumar OT (Ker, 7) lt to Antonio Viani D'cunha (Kar, 8); Laxman RR (ICF, 8) bt Arvind Shastry (Kar, 7); PK Singh (Bih, 8) bt Phoobalan P (ICF, 7); Linda Rangarajan (Pud, 8) bt Sanjay N (Kar, 7); Sharad S Tilak (Mah, 7.5) drew Vijay Keerthi K (Kar, 7.5); Sudhakar N Babu (TN, 7.5) drew Vikram Saralaya (Kar, 7.5); Gopal Ravi Hegde (Kar, 7.5) drew Praveen Kumar C (TN, 7.5).
Final standings (top 10): Thejkumar 1; Murali 2; Rathnakaran 3; Thipsay 4; Syed Anwar 5; Balasubramania 6; Roy Chowdhury 7; Shivananda 8; Stany 9; Niranjan 10.
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