All Maharashtra FIDE Rating Chess Tournament
Top-seeded International Master, Vikramaditya Kulkarni from Western Railways justified his billing by winning the SBI Life All Maharashtra FIDE Rating Chess Tournament, which concluded at the Don Bosco High School, Borivali.
Champion IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni (3rd from right) receives the winners’ trophy from Santosh Chacko, Regional Manager, SBI Life. Kulkarni with 9 points from 10 rounds emerged champion of the SBI Life All Maharashtra FIDE Rating Chess Tournament,
In his last round encounter, Kulkarni defeated Vedant Panesar to remain unbeaten with a whopping score 9/10 to win the championship comfortably in a field of 310 players. He became richer by Rs25,000 and was awarded the B.M. Zaveri Memorial Trophy.
The 2nd place was clinched by Chirag Satkar, who defeated Pratik Shenvi in an all-important last round encounter. Chirag also remained unbeaten throughout with a score of 8.5/10. He was awarded Rs20,000.
Ketan Boricha from Mumbai also won his last round game against Rajesh Gupta and was able to tie the score with Chirag Satkar however, his inferior tie-break pushed to the 3rd place and was awarded Rs15,000, while the 4th and 5th place were secured by Amardeep Bartakke from Western Railways and FM Avinash Awate. They were awarded Rs7500 each.
The prize for the youngest participant was awarded to Advay Arora, who had just completed 5-years. The tiny lad from Mumbai scored an impressive 3 points while the youngest girl was Trisha Krishnan.
The best veteran of the tournament Ravindra Nargundkar from Pune who scored an 7/10 while Sangita Jadhav from LIC was declared as the best women player of the tournament
A total cash prize of Rs.1.50 Lakhs and 32 medals were awarded to the winners by Mr.Santosh Chacko, Regional Manager from SBI Life.
The tournament was successfully conducted by the Chief Arbiter, IA Vitthal Madhav under the aegis of Mumbai Suburban District Chess Association
Final Standings (top-10): 1. IM Kulkarni Vikramaditya, 2. Satkar Chirag, 3. Boricha Ketan, 4. Bartakke Amardeep S., 5. FM Awate Avinash S., 6. Gajengi Rajababu, 7. Patil Ketan, 8. Gupta Rajesh R.S., 9. Kumthekar Shubham, 10. Joglekar Abhijit.