Chess is a traditional sport and has a very good following in the Indian scene. Our city’s and state’s highest ranked chess player IM M.S. Thejkumar, has been consistently doing well in the International and National-level. He recently took part in the 51st Challengers Chess Tournament (National ‘B’) held at Bhopal and won the coveted title with 10.5 points from 13 rounds. He is the first Karnataka player to win the National ‘B’ Championships. He is our ‘Star This Week.’
Triple Grand Master norm holder Thejkumar presently has a ELO rating of 2452 and he needs 48 more points to get his Grand Master title. Ranked 35th in the country and 1573 in the World this South Western railway employee, has been a consistent performer.
In the 26th Inter Railway Chess Championships held at Hubli, representing South Western Railways was instrumental in his team finishing runner-up in the team event. He also fared well in the individual event and secured the fifth place.
He is sponsored by M/s.Saanvi Technologies, USA and www.mysoresport.com. Being 20th seed in the National ‘B’ tournament, Thejkumar drew his last round with GM Deepan Chakravarthy and that was enough to give him his maiden National ‘B’ title. He gained 30.5 points from this tournament and also qualified for the National ‘A’ Championships scheduled to be held at Jalgaon, Maharashtra, in December 2013.
His superior tie-break score earned this hard working International Master from Mysore to win the title after Ashwin Jayaram matched his winning tally. Significantly, the top four seeds, Deep Sengupta, B. Adhiban, M.R. Lalith Babu and S.P. Sethuraman failed to make the top 9 bracket. It was the strongest field ever in a National ‘B’ Chess Championship with 8 GM’s and 38 IM’s taking part.
Thejkumar intends to do well in the days to come and support forthcoming from of the Government of Karnataka and his sponsors he aims to work hard and reach his goal of becoming a Grand Master in the days to come.
source: http://www.starofmysore.com / Star of Mysore / Home> Sports / November 03rd, 2013