National U-18 chess from Monday

The champions at this event will represent India in the World Youth championship

The MPL 31 st National under-18 open and girls’ chess championship, jointly organised by the Dr. Mahalingam CET and the Coimbatore District Chess Association, will be held at the MCET campus in Pollachi from April 18 to 23.

The CDCA is celebrating its 80 th year and, it takes pride in organising this championship as a tribute to Dr. N. Mahalingam, who has contributed much to the game in India, in his birth centenary year.

The six-day event has attracted 238 players of which 143 will compete in the open section. Fourteen-year-old IM H. Bharath Subramaniyam of Tamil Nadu, who will be conferred the GM title later this month, is seeded at the top with a rating of 2503. IM L.R. Srihari (2398), IM-elect Avinash Ramesh (2369), S. Harshad (2272), Manish Anto Cristiano (2129) and A.R. Ilamparithi (all Tamil Nadu) and FM Ayush Sharma (2311) from Madhya Pradesh are the other strong contenders.

WFM L. Jyothsana (Neyveli), Bhagyashree Patil (Maharashtra) and Kheerthi Ganta (Telangana) are the leading players in the girls’ category.

Dr. M. Manickam, the TNSCA President and Chairman of MCET, is confident of the host State doing well. “Our boys and girls have always dominated and, I expect a strong performance from them this year as well. I am grateful to the AICF for allocating this championship to Pollachi.”

The champions at this event will represent India in the World Youth championship to be held later this year.

The championship, which carries a total prize money of Rs. 9 lakh, will be played under the Swiss system with each having 11 rounds. The top 20 games are also slated to be shown live on popular websites.