International Master S. Ravi Teja ensured the Amity National Challengers chess title much before the fierce battles on the leading boards threw up a few surprises among the nine qualifiers for the National championship here on Tuesday.
Ravi and Surya Praneeth drew their top-board encounter in just 14 moves before an untitled Chandra Prasad signed off his brilliant campaign by annihilating an unsuspecting GM Vishnu Prasanna in 29 moves.
Ravi (10 points) took the winner’s cup and Rs. 1.50 lakh, followed by runner-up Prasad who collected Rs. 87,500 and Surya, whose unbeaten performance was worth Rs. 62,500.
The results (13th and final round): S. Ravi Teja (10) drew with Surya Praneeth (9.5); Abhijit Kunte (9.5) drew with Aravindh Chithambaram (9); Abhishek Kelkar (9.5) bt S.L. Narayanan (8.5); Chandra Prasad (9.5) bt Vishnu Prasad (8.5); R.R. Laxman (9) drew with Tejas Bakre (9); Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (9) drew with Sriram Jha (9); Shardul Gagare (9) bt Santu Mondal (8); B. Harsha (8.5) drew with Himal Gusain (8.5); Neeraj Kumar Mishra (9) bt G. Akash (8); S. Nitin (9) bt Ramnath Bhuvanesh (8).
Final placings (top 13): 1. Ravi (Rlys), 2-5. Prasad (AP), Surya (TS), Kunte (Pet), Kelkar (Mah); 6-13. Nitin (Rlys), Laxman (Rlys), Shardul (Mah), Aravindh (TN), Jha (LIC), Bakre (AI), Mishra (Jhar) and Sahoo (Odi).
