Railways 'A' emerge champions

Railways 'A' team comprising of Mysuru lad IM M.S. Thejkumar, GM Deepan Chakravarthy, GM Swapnil S. Dhopade, IM P. Karthikeyan and IM Himanshu Sharma won their final 9th round tie against MP 'B' Team 2.5-1.5 and with 9 wins from 9 rounds (18 points) clinched the men's team title in the 37th National Team Chess Championship for men which concluded at Bhopal yesterday. Airports Authority of India team with 14 points (9 played and 7 wins, 2 losses) secured second place while C.A. Viyugam with 13 points (9 played, 6 wins, 1 draw and 2 losses) finished third. IM M.S. Thejkumar played 7 rounds for Railway 'A' and secured 7 points by winning all his matches. He had wins against Pandey Shubham, Vikesh Nadan Kumar, A.R. Harikrishnan, P. Saravana Krishna, Swayams Mishra, GM M. Shyam Sundar and IM Ravi Hegde. Thejkumar (2461) with his performance in this tournament secured 19.4 ELO points and took his points tally to 2480.4 at the end of the tournament. He secured the 3rd place in the 2nd board with 7 points from 7 rounds.