Aravindh Chithambaram becomes the MPL National Rapid Champion 2022
GM Aravindh Chithambaram (TN, 2572) successfully retained his National Rapid title. This is his second National Rapid triumph after 2019. He has only played three of them. So two triumphs out of three is certainly a fantastic endeavor for Aravindh. He has also qualified for the World Rapid 2022 which will take place later this year. Aravindh scored an unbeaten 8.0/9 and finished a half point ahead of the competition. GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (RSPB, 2474) and IM Raahul V S (TN, 2177) scored 7.5/9 each. They were placed second and third according to the tie-breaks. Total prize fund of the tournament was ₹400000, top three prizes were ₹75000, ₹60000 and ₹50000 each respectively. Photo: Aditya Sur Roy
RSPB claims six out of top 10
The last time we had the national rapid championship over the board was in 2019 and the next time was in 2022. The event didn't happen for two years in between because of the pandemic. But things did not change much as far as the winner of the event was concerned. Aravindh Chithambaram managed to win it in 2019 and he managed to win it once again in 2022. "I have taken part in National Rapid thrice in my career and have won two times till date", says Aravindh. The 22-year-old soft spoken GM from Chennai raced to a 7.0/7 start and then drew his remaining two games to emerge as the champion with half a point margin.
Ankit - Aravindh, Round 5
Instead of taking a draw by repeating Qh3-Qg3+, Aravindh went all-in with 43...Rc3. Since both players were in time trouble, it paid off immediately as White blundered 44.Rd2 and it was all over after 44...Nf3.
Aravindh - Vishnu, Round 6
Aravindh scored a clinical victory over GM Vishnu Prasanna in just 23 moves.
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A total of 179 players including 14 GMs, 10 IMs, a WGM and a WIM took part in this three-day nine-round Swiss League Rapid Rating tournament. It was organized by Nashik District Chess Association from 27th to 29th April 2022 at Maharashtra Environmental Engineering Training and Research Academy (MEETRA), Nashik, Maharashtra.
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Final Standings in Rapid
| Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Club/City | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
| 1 | 1 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | IND | 2572 | Tamil Nadu | 8,0 | 49,5 | 54,0 | 46,75 |
| 2 | 4 | GM | Deepan Chakkravarthy J. | IND | 2474 | RSPB | 7,5 | 50,0 | 54,0 | 43,50 |
| 3 | 32 | IM | Raahul V S | IND | 2177 | Tamil Nadu | 7,5 | 42,5 | 45,5 | 35,75 |
| 4 | 19 | IM | Gusain Himal | IND | 2319 | RSPB | 7,0 | 52,0 | 56,0 | 41,50 |
| 5 | 31 | IM | Sidhant Mohapatra | IND | 2183 | RSPB | 7,0 | 49,0 | 53,0 | 40,25 |
| 6 | 22 | GM | Mitrabha Guha | IND | 2265 | West Bengal | 7,0 | 48,0 | 53,0 | 38,50 |
| 7 | 30 | GM | Karthik Venkataraman | IND | 2192 | Andhra Pradesh | 7,0 | 47,5 | 52,0 | 39,75 |
| 8 | 9 | IM | Krishna C R G | IND | 2378 | RSPB | 7,0 | 44,5 | 48,0 | 35,25 |
| 9 | 21 | IM | Ratnakaran K. | IND | 2298 | RSPB | 7,0 | 43,5 | 47,0 | 36,00 |
| 10 | 16 | GM | Neelotpal Das | IND | 2338 | PSPB | 7,0 | 42,5 | 46,5 | 33,50 |
| 11 | 6 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | IND | 2419 | PSPB | 6,5 | 48,5 | 52,0 | 35,00 |
| 12 | 20 | IM | Mehar Chinna Reddy C.H. | IND | 2305 | RSPB | 6,5 | 47,5 | 52,0 | 35,75 |
| 13 | 17 | GM | Arjun Kalyan | IND | 2334 | Tamil Nadu | 6,5 | 47,5 | 51,5 | 36,25 |
| 14 | 36 | IM | Sammed Jaykumar Shete | IND | 2086 | Maharashtra | 6,5 | 47,0 | 50,5 | 33,25 |
| 15 | 7 | GM | Sriram Jha | IND | 2384 | LIC | 6,5 | 46,0 | 51,0 | 37,00 |
| 16 | 59 | Vaibhav Jayant Raut | IND | 1734 | Maharashtra | 6,5 | 46,0 | 48,5 | 33,00 | |
| 17 | 23 | IM | Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad | IND | 2265 | Andhra Pradesh | 6,5 | 45,5 | 50,5 | 36,00 |
| 18 | 42 | FM | Wagh Suyog | IND | 1942 | Maharashtra | 6,5 | 45,5 | 48,5 | 32,50 |
| 19 | 3 | GM | Vishnu Prasanna. V | IND | 2521 | Tamil Nadu | 6,0 | 53,0 | 58,0 | 35,75 |
| 20 | 37 | FM | Aradhya Garg | IND | 2074 | Delhi | 6,0 | 49,0 | 52,0 | 32,75 |
| 21 | 41 | FM | Ayush Sharma | IND | 1943 | Madhya Pradesh | 6,0 | 49,0 | 52,0 | 32,50 |
| 22 | 46 | FM | Jeet Jain | IND | 1895 | Gujarat | 6,0 | 49,0 | 52,0 | 32,25 |
| 23 | 11 | GM | Sankalp Gupta | IND | 2362 | Maharashtra | 6,0 | 47,5 | 52,0 | 31,00 |
| 24 | 5 | GM | Ghosh Diptayan | IND | 2466 | West Bengal | 6,0 | 46,5 | 50,5 | 30,75 |
| 40 | IM | Neelash Saha | IND | 1959 | West Bengal | 6,0 | 46,5 | 50,5 | 30,75 |
