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KOLKATA: Untitled G. Akash, who celebrated his 16th birthday on October 1, the opening day of the Tata National Premier Chess Championship, is the country’s youngest-ever national chess champion. He earned the title with a draw against GM Deep Sengupta in the final round on Sunday. He tallied 9 points out of a possible 13, and at 16 years and 14 days became the youngest-ever champion in the tournament’s history.
Vidit, Akash and Arun on the podium. others from left: IM Atanu Lahiri, Sec. WB Adhoc Committee, R. Anantharam Chief Arbiter, PK Bannerjee former foot ball olympian, Hon. Commerce Minister Partho Chatterjee, DV Sundar, FIDE Vice President, GM Dibyendu Barua, Ambar Singh from TATA
G. Akash studies chess at Chess Gurukul in Chennai. The chess school is nurtured by GM RB Ramesh and his wife WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy. In fact, Ram Aravind of Chess Gurukul has also won the National 9 with a perfect 10/10 score. He won the title with a round to spare.
Both Viswanathan Anand and Dibyendu Barua too had won the Nationals when they were 16, but were older than Akash by a few months. The youngster’s effort earned him Rs 1.75 lakh in prize money and a berth in the World Cup. Akash also picked up a GM norm as well as the IM title. There was a 3-way tie for the second spot with IM Vidit Gujrathi, GM S. Arun Prasad and GM Deep Sengupta all finishing on 8.5 points. But Vidit finished second for having a better ‘buchholzs’ score. Arun Prasad was placed third while Deep had to be content with the 4th position.
“When I came here, I was only thinking of getting an IM norm, but now I have to set new goals,” said Akash after the final round. “I want to dedicate this title to my parents and my coach, Grandmaster RB Ramesh, who has worked hard on my game,” he added. A Class XI student of computer science at Jawahar Higher Secondary School in Chennai, he gets time to play chess for only two hours daily.
Akash, whose previous best performance was a third-place finish in the U-17 National in Kanpur in August, also clinched a straightway IM title and first GM norm as the championship is billed as Zone 3.7 championship. As India is considered as a separate Zone for the world championship qualification matches, Akash will get a direct entry to the World Cup to be held in Tromse, Norway next year. But, aided by a bit of luck, things started turning in his favour from 11th round as M R Venkatesh, who led the pack for four rounds, forfeited his match to the youngster for arriving three minutes late because of traffic.
Akash did not look back after the one-point awarded to him as he upset an under-pressure Venkatesh yesterday in a tough game before settling the issue on Sunday. Playing black, Akash and Sengupta had a Sicilian opening with unusual variation and the latter had the early advantage. But Sengupta blundered with a miscalculation as Akash showed brilliant counter attack to force a draw.
