Samarth J Rao wins back-to-back titles at Tata Steel Chess Championship

Samarth J Rao of Karnataka clinched back-to-back titles at the Tata Steel 4th All India Specially-abled Chess Championship held in Jamshedpur, Jharkhand, on Friday.

Samarth previously won the 3rd edition of this tournament back in 2022.

The tournament, which witnessed 68 players from across the country, consisted of 9 rounds and was played using the Swiss system, which is commonly used when a large number of participants are involved, without the need for each player to play against every other participant.

Samarth’s golden double

Samarth J Rao, seeded 3rd with an ELO rating of 1770, had big names ahead of him, such as Venkata Krishna Karthik, who was seeded 2nd with an ELO rating of 1889, and Naveen Kumar, the top seed with an ELO rating of 1986.

However, Samarth J Rao won the pairing against the top seed Naveen Kumar in Round 6 comfortably and remained unbeaten until the penultimate round, where he lost to the tournament’s second seed, Venkata Krishna Karthik.

Samarth redeemed himself in the last round by winning the pairing against 9th-seeded Suresh Agarwal to reclaim the title and secure consecutive tournament victories. Samarth scored 7.5/9 points in the tournament with 1 loss, 1 draw and 7 wins. 

What's the champion's prize?

The tournament's top prize of Rs. 25,000 goes to the champion of the open section, which encompasses players with locomotor disabilities, the deaf, and the mute.

Additional categories such as Wheelchair, Unrated, Women, U19 Junior Open, and Girls each feature dedicated prize pools. In total, the tournament offers a prize fund amounting to Rs. 3,17,000.