Adhiban wins title, becomes 2nd youngest champion

Even as other parents left for the day, Mrs Leela Baskaran was pacing the table tennis hall at the Goregaon Sports Club. She would repeatedly cast a glance on the top board where her son Adhiban was engaged in a battle with former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta in the 12th and penultimate round of the 47th Premier National Chess Championship.

Sriram Jha, in second position overnight, had lost to SP Sethuraman to finish with eight points. Adhiban was fighting to avoid a similar fate, as it would have left him with 8.5 points and complicated his final round.

The former u-16 world champion however, capitalised on Gupta’s poor play and won the title with a round to spare, becoming the second youngest national champion after Viswanathan Anand.

The victory took Adhiban to 9.5 points and gave him an unbeatable one-and-half points lead over the second placed Sriram Jha, Sethuraman and Vidit Gujrathi of Maharashtra.

“It is nice to win the National Championship in this manner. I am happy with the standard of my game as I won five games in a row,” said Adhiban said.

Gujrathi played out a draw with S Kidambi while Abhijit Kunte maintained his chances of finishing in top three by beating top seed GN Gopal.