Can Aravindh do it in 2018 what he couldn't do in 2017?

by Sagar Shah - 18/12/2018

Aravindh Chithambaram has played an excellent tournament at the National Championship in Jammu. After 12 rounds he is on 9.5/12, half a point ahead of the field. In round 12 he played a wonderful game to beat GM Karthikeyan Murali from the black side of the Sicilian Dragon. Exactly a year ago Aravindh had a chance to become the National Champion 2017. He had lost his nerves and his chance of winning the tournament. If he is able to keep his nerves today he can become the national champion for the first time in his chess career, win Rs.5,00,000 and a spot in the World Cup 2019. Do you think he can do it? The final round has begun at 9 a.m. and Aravindh faces CRG Krishna. You can watch the game live here!

Exactly a year ago Aravindh Chithambaram had a chance to win the National Championship 2017 in Patna Bihar. He went into the final round leading along with Lalith Babu. Lalith quickly drew his game against Swapnil Dhopade. The ball was now in Aravindh's court. If he did beat Debashis Das then he would become the National Champion. The tension, drama and the pressure was all too much for Aravindh to handle. He crashed to a defeat and lost the game.

Amruta Mokal captured the moment right after the game ended. Debashis extends his hand to Aravindh. The Chennai GM gave a nice smile, in spite of having lost the game | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Lalith Babu went home with the title of being the National Champion, Aravindh had to settle for the second place | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Fast forward one year and Aravindh once again has chance to become the National Champion. Going into the final 13th round, this is how things stand at the National Championship 2018.

Rank after round 12

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	4	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2584	TN	9,5	0,0	85,0	91,0	12	9,5	7,66	1,84	10	18,4
2	3	GM	Vaibhav Suri	IND	2589	PSPB	9,0	0,0	86,0	92,0	12	9	8,02	0,98	10	9,8
3	16	IM	Krishna C R G	IND	2464	RSPB	9,0	0,0	78,0	83,5	12	9	8,64	0,36	10	3,6
4	12	IM	Stany G.A.	IND	2509	AAI	8,5	0,0	87,0	92,5	12	8,5	7,23	1,27	10	12,7
5	5	GM	Sengupta Deep	IND	2565	PSPB	8,5	0,0	86,5	93,0	12	8,5	8,42	0,08	10	0,8
6	10	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	IND	2518	TN	8,5	0,0	82,5	88,5	12	8,5	8,02	0,48	10	4,8
7	45		Srijit Paul	IND	2298	WB	8,5	0,0	75,0	80,0	12	8,5	5,61	2,89	20	57,8
8	8	GM	Venkatesh M.R.	IND	2528	PSPB	8,5	0,0	74,5	78,0	12	8,5	10,03	-1,53	10	-15,3
9	7	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	IND	2550	RSPB	8,0	0,0	84,5	90,0	12	8	8,53	-0,53	10	-5,3
10	24	GM	Bakre Tejas	IND	2433	AI	8,0	0,0	83,0	88,0	12	8	7,20	0,80	10	8,0
11	25	GM	Neelotpal Das	IND	2412	PSPB	8,0	0,0	82,5	87,5	12	8	7,43	0,57	10	5,7
12	2	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	IND	2591	PSPB	8,0	0,0	82,0	88,0	12	8	9,44	-1,44	10	-14,4
13	55	FM	Navalgund Niranjan	IND	2240	KAR	8,0	0,0	81,5	86,5	12	8	3,98	4,02	20	80,4
14	18	IM	Vignesh N R	IND	2455	TN	8,0	0,0	81,0	87,0	12	8	7,72	0,28	10	2,8
15	9	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	IND	2527	AP	8,0	0,0	80,0	85,0	12	8	9,23	-1,23	10	-12,3
16	22	IM	Akash G	IND	2443	TN	8,0	0,0	79,5	84,5	12	8	7,74	0,26	10	2,6
17	21	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	IND	2448	RSPB	8,0	0,0	78,0	83,5	12	8	8,72	-0,72	10	-7,2
18	6	GM	Chanda Sandipan	IND	2555	WB	8,0	0,0	77,5	83,0	12	8	9,71	-1,71	10	-17,1
19	32	IM	Gusain Himal	IND	2379	RSPB	8,0	0,0	74,0	79,5	12	8	8,65	-0,65	10	-6,5
20	13	GM	Anurag Mhamal	IND	2491	GOA	7,5	0,0	87,5	94,0	12	7,5	7,12	0,38	10	3,8

Aravindh played a wonderful game in round 12 to beat Karthikeyan Murali. Here's how he did it:

If Aravindh can win his final round against IM CRG Krishna, he becomes the National Champion. If he draws his game and Vaibhav Suri manages to beat Srijit Paul with the White pieces, the Delhi boy could become the Champion. Let's have a look at round 13 pairing:

Round 13 pairing:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	4	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2584	9½		9	IM	Krishna C R G	2464	16
2	3	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2589	9		8½		Srijit Paul	2298	45
3	10	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2518	8½		8½	GM	Sengupta Deep	2565	5
4	8	GM	Venkatesh M.R.	2528	8½		8½	IM	Stany G.A.	2509	12
5	22	IM	Akash G	2443	8		8	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2591	2
6	6	GM	Chanda Sandipan	2555	8		8	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2448	21
7	24	GM	Bakre Tejas	2433	8		8	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2550	7
8	9	GM	Karthik Venkataraman	2527	8		8	GM	Neelotpal Das	2412	25
9	32	IM	Gusain Himal	2379	8		8	IM	Vignesh N R	2455	18
10	55	FM	Navalgund Niranjan	2240	8		7½	GM	Anurag Mhamal	2491	13
11	36	IM	Rathnakaran K.	2366	7½		7½	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2597	1
12	56	FM	Wagh Suyog	2240	7½		7½	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2490	14
13	58		Prasannaa.S	2218	7½		7½	IM	Swayams Mishra	2452	19
14	20	IM	Nitin S.	2450	7½		7½	IM	Satyapragyan Swayangsu	2394	28
15	26	IM	Rajesh V A V	2402	7½		7½		Neelash Saha	2351	37
16	41	IM	Girinath P.D.S.	2313	7½		7½	GM	Thipsay Praveen M	2400	27
17	39		Ritviz Parab	2338	7½		7½		Tiwari Arjun	2218	59
18	54		Saurabh Anand	2246	7		7	GM	Sundararajan Kidambi	2458	17
19	60		Kumar Gaurav	2213	7		7	GM	Laxman R.R.	2436	23
20	62	IM	Gokhale Chandrashekhar	2189	7		7	IM	Viani Antonio Dcunha	2392	30

It's an exciting round and you can watch it LIVE now below!

Final round at 9 a.m. IST. Watch it LIVE!

The Live games are powered by FollowChess.

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