Tadepalligudem (25 Jul 2010): Top seed Grandmaster Neelotpal Das won the ONGC All India Fide Rated Chess Tournament with eight points here at Sri Vasavi Engineering College on Sunday.

Kolkata based Neelotpal started the final round with a crucial half point lead and ensured the title with a comfortable final round victory over CRG Krishna to lift the coveted trophy along with a cash prize of fifty thousand.  Playing with white pieces in Slav Defence, Neelotpal made short work of his Andhra rival in the ninth round and sealed the match and title in 30 moves.

Third seed International Master Praveen Kumar of ICF Chennai defeated Pradip Ghosh of West Bengal to lift runner-up trophy while International Masters DP Singh and K Rathnakaran of Railways agreed to split the points in the final round and tied for the third spot along with other seven players. But better tie break score helped Singh to finish third while Rathnakaran satisfied with fourth spot finish.

In the category prizes, Dhulipala Bala Chandra Prasad and Divya Sree M bagged best sub-junior prizes while B Kranthi Kumar and Sree Lakshmi won the best junior prizes.  P J Naidu and Ramadevi bagged best veteran men and women prizes while Varada Suresh adjudged as best unrated player.

In a colourful closing ceremony Shri. JA Kumar, Support Manager ONGC give away the prizes in presence of Shri. Kottu Satyanaryana, Ex. MLA, Eetakota Bhimashankara Rao, Municipal Chairman Tadepalligudem, Ch ARK Varma, Chariman West Godavari Dist Chess Association.

This two lakh thirty thousand prize money tournament sponsored by Oil and Natural Gas Corporation with the co-sponsorship of State Bank of Hyderabad and National Mineral Development Corporation attracted 147 players including one Grandmaster, six International Masters and 70 International Rated players provided excellent tournament exposure to the upcoming players of the state.


Final Standings (Top 10):          
1.         GM Neelotpal Das of ONGC with 8 points
2.         IM Praveen Kumar C of Railways with 7.5 points
3.         IM Singh DP of Railways with 7 points
4.         IM Rathnakaran K of Railways with 7 points
5.         S Ravi Teja of Andhra Pradesh with 7 points
6.         IM Suvrajit Saha of Railways with 7 points
7.         CM Gopal KN of Andhra Pradesh with 7 points
8.         IM Varugeese Koshy of ONGC with 7 points
9.         WFM Cholleti Sahajasri of Andhra Pradesh with 7 points
10.       CRG Krishna of Andhra Pradesh with 6.5 points


MS Gopakumar,
International Arbiter & Press-in-Charge ONGC All India Fide Rated Chess Tournament