Swara Lakshmi S Nair clinches 7th ICA Below 1700 Rating Chess Tournament 2022

by Shahid Ahmed - 04/05/2022

15-year-old Swara Lakshmi S Nair scored an unbeaten 8.5/9 to win 7th ICA Below 1700 Rating Chess Tournament 2022. It is certainly an amazing feat because a female player winning an open event is not a common occurrence. She finished a half point ahead of the competition. Mrityunjay Kumar and Adithya A Chullikad scored 8.0/9 each. They were placed second and third respectively according to tie-breaks. Swara won ₹50000 cash and trophy, Runner-up Mrityunjay got ₹40000 and Second Runner-up Adithya earned ₹25000 cash each as their prize. Total prize fund of the tournament was ₹599000. This was the final event of the four consecutive rating tournaments organized by Innovators Chess Academy at GEAR Innovative International School, Bangalore, Karnataka. Photo: Sushruta Reddy

Swara's first below 1700 rating tournament victory

Innovators Chess Academy organized four consecutive rating tournaments in three different formats and two different categories in total. The backbone behind all these tournaments is FI NA Sushruta Reddy. He himself played in this event and finished at ninth place, despite starting with a loss.

Champion - Swara Lakshmi S Nair 8.5/9 | Photo: Sushruta Reddy

Swara scored an unbeaten 8.5/9 and gained 78 Elo rating points

Newly crowned National Under-12 Girls champion scored an unbeaten 7.5/9 to finish eighth | Photo: Sushruta Reddy

After winning MPL 34th National Under-12 Girls Chess Championship 2022, Shubhi Gupta went to 7th ICA Below 1700 Rating tournament. She had to miss the first round, however she scored 7.5 points in the remaining eight rounds which is definitely an incredible performance.

The tournament director FI NA Sushruta Reddy scored 7.5/9 and finished at ninth place after starting the tournament with a loss

We wanted to know Sushruta's thoughts on organizing four consecutive rating tournaments in three different formats and two different categories. Also how he managed to do so well as an organizer and play some great chess at the very same time, which we all know is certainly not an easy task. Sushruta shared, "Breaking free has lately become a challenge. Mental drain is something that usually has an effect on my performances. Physical drain usually doesn't. I was able to separate the issues off the Board and was able to focus clearly when I was in front of the Board in all the rounds from Day 2 (Round 4) of the Below 1700 event. I was short on sleep until that point. I fell asleep during Rounds 2 and 3 and yet managed to win both those games. A week after the events, I still feel stressed and I am still trying to come out of whatever I got sucked into for 22 days :-) "

The four consecutive rating tournaments organized by Innovators Chess Academy from 9th to 17th April 2022 | Photo: Sushruta Reddy

Players and accompanying persons at the GEAR Innovative International School | Photo: Sushruta Reddy

The trophies which were given away as prizes | Photo: Sushruta Reddy

For more photos, please click here.

A total of 623 players took part from various parts of the country. The three-day nine-round Swiss league Rating tournament was organized by Innovators Chess Academy at GEAR Innovative International School from 15th to 17th April 2022. The time control of the tournament was 60 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.

Final Standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	52		Swara Lakshmi S Nair	F18	w		IND	1490	Ka	8,5	51,0	54,5	51,00	0,0	8
2	27		Mrityunjay Kumar				IND	1556	Br	8,0	52,0	56,0	48,75	0,0	7
3	24		Adithya A Chullikkad	U15			IND	1562	Kl	8,0	44,5	48,0	44,00	0,0	8
4	19		Arunkumar Muthukumar				IND	1586	Tn	7,5	54,5	58,5	46,00	0,0	7
5	113		Lavyaajyoti Routray	U15			IND	1380	Ct	7,5	51,0	56,0	46,25	0,0	6
6	14		Kushal O				IND	1605	Ap	7,5	51,0	55,5	44,25	0,0	7
7	5		Mithun Anand V				IND	1676	Tn	7,5	50,5	55,5	44,25	0,0	7
8	11	AFM	Shubhi Gupta	F13	w		IND	1610	Up	7,5	44,0	48,0	40,25	0,0	7
9	58	AIM	Sushrutha Reddy				IND	1482	Ka	7,5	42,0	44,5	36,25	0,0	7
10	47	AFM	Narayan Joshi				IND	1500	Rj	7,0	53,0	58,0	42,75	0,0	6
11	13		Unnikrishnan M A				IND	1607	Kl	7,0	51,5	57,0	42,00	0,0	6
12	3	AGM	Prashanth J Naik				IND	1684	Ka	7,0	50,5	54,0	38,75	0,0	6
13	2		Majumder Shrayan				IND	1686	Mh	7,0	50,0	54,0	39,00	0,0	7
14	215		Vihaan Karthikeya N	U13			IND	1237	Tg	7,0	49,0	53,0	38,50	0,0	7
15	16		Abhijith U				IND	1595	Kl	7,0	49,0	52,5	38,25	0,0	6
16	131		Vivek Kumar				IND	1353	Dl	7,0	49,0	52,5	37,50	0,0	7
17	101		Boominathan Lalitaditaayyanar	U13			IND	1392	Mh	7,0	48,5	50,5	36,25	0,0	6
18	15		Sathyanarayanan S.				IND	1603	Tn	7,0	48,0	52,5	40,00	0,0	6
19	50		Sanjay Ganesh Pandi				IND	1491	Tn	7,0	47,5	51,5	38,00	0,0	6
20	242		Soham Roy	U13			IND	1210	Wb	7,0	47,0	50,5	37,50	0,0	6
21	42		Ebin Benny				IND	1508	Kl	7,0	46,5	50,5	37,75	0,0	6
22	71		Ujjawal Bansal				IND	1442	Gj	7,0	45,5	49,5	37,00	0,0	6
23	211		Niranjan J Warrier	U13			IND	1240	Ka	7,0	45,5	48,5	36,00	0,0	5
24	45		Maskepatil Kaustubh				IND	1506	Mh	7,0	45,0	49,0	38,00	0,0	6
25	116		Tanmay Srinath				IND	1377	Ka	7,0	44,5	47,5	34,75	0,0	6
26	51		Yogesh Selvam				IND	1491	Tn	7,0	44,0	48,0	36,50	0,0	7
27	43		Ajay Santhosh Parvathareddy	U13			IND	1507	Up	7,0	44,0	48,0	35,50	0,0	6
28	78		Anil Kumar S				IND	1433	Kl	7,0	44,0	46,5	36,25	0,0	6
29	60		Hrishikesh Rupesh Raghuvaran				IND	1472	Ka	7,0	43,5	47,5	36,50	0,0	7
30	66		Rohit Rahulkumar J				IND	1454	Gj	7,0	43,5	47,0	36,00	0,0	5