Hat trick win for Chennai's Ramki at Indian Crossword League

Ramki Krishnan of Chennai emerged the winner at the grand finale of the Indian Crossword League (IXL) 2016 and clinched the national champion crossword trophy for the third time in a row in Bengaluru on Sunday.

Ramki had won the last two editions in 2015 and 2014 as well. Vinoo Sanjay of Mumbai came a close second.

The Sunday event was the climax of the 4th edition of the contest that was launched by Nasscom president R Chandrasekhar at the Civil Services Officers’ Institute in New Delhi on September 11 this year.

IXL is an effort to provide a competitive platform for Indians across the globe to test their mental mettle and popularise crosswords.

Last round

The grand finale comprised a written preliminary round. The top six qualified for the onstage final which was in a Powerpoint format. Besides Ramki and Vinoo, the finalists included Srividya Krishnaswamy (Singapore), Arvind Ramaswamy (Pune), Abhay Phadnis (Chennai) and Jose Abreu (Mumbai).

Ochintya Sharma, former head of Samsung’s mobile phone division in India and an avid quizzer, was the Cross Master who conducted the onstage round.

As many as 16 qualifiers from the online preliminary rounds reached the venue on time to make a bid for the trophy.

In an online-offline format, top-of-the-board contestants after online weekly rounds slug it out at an offline grand finale in the IT capital of India. The winners of the two offshore offline rounds in Toronto and New Jersey get direct entry to the finale.