Rathnakaran emerges champion

International Master K Rathnakaran of Kerala emerged as champion in the third UKCA Cup all-India Open FIDE-rating chess tournament here on Saturday. He beat Praveen Prasad P of Andra Pradesh in the ninth and final round to clinch the title with seven-and-a-half points.

International Master Nitin S, Kunal M, IM Himanshu Sharma, IM Thejkumar M S, IM Dinesh Kumar Sharma, IM Shyam Nikil P and Ritviz Parab scored seven points each and were placed second to eighth respectively according to better tie score.

Important results (Round IX): Shyam Nikil P (TN, 7) drew Nitin S (TN, 7); Thejkumar M S (Kar, 7) drew Kunal M (TN, 7); Rathnakaran K (Ker, 7.5) bt Praveen Prasad P (AP, 6.5); Himanshu Sharma (SWR, 7) bt Augustin A (Kar, 6.5); Raghunandan K S (Kar, 6) lt to Dinesh Kumar Sharma (LIC, 7); Aniruddha Deshpande (Mah, 6) lt to Ritviz Parab (Goa, 7);  Chinmay Kulkarni  (Mah, 6.5) bt Sandhya G (AP, 6); Surendran N (TN, 6.5) bt Gavi Siddayya (Kar, 5.5); Abhishek A (Ker, 5.5) lt to Sekar B (TN, 6.5); O T Anilkumar (Ker, 6.5) bt Anirudh V Bhat (Goa, 5.5); Muralidharan R (TN, 5.5) lt to Lokesh N  (TN, 6.5); Madhusoodanan K R (Ker, 6) drew Lakshmi Krishna Bhushan D (AP, 6); Rajesh V N (Ker, 6) drew Arjun Satheesh (Ker, 6); Jyothilal N (Ker, 5.5) drew Audi Ameya (Goa, 5.5); Vinayak Kulkarni (Kar, 6) bt Krishna V Shinde (Kar, 5); Rohan Ahuja (Goa, 6) bt Rahul Srivatshav P (AP, 5); Gopalkrishna P (Kar, 6) bt Nelson Clement (Ker, 5); Ajeesh Antony (Ker, 5.5) drew Sachin Pradeep (Ker, 5.5); Rajeev V M (Ker, 6) bt Ravindra Teja Muttineni (AP, 5).