GM Vaibhav Suri wins 2nd edition of Rotachess

Grandmaster Vaibhav Suri won the second edition of the FIDE-approved rapid chess tournament, ’Rotachess’, organised by the Rotary Club of Madras Industrial City jointly with T Nagar Chess Academy at the YMCA Royapettah in Chennai.

A total of 591 participants took part in the tournament including 44 title players - 9 Grand Masters,15 International Masters, and 3 Women's International Masters.

While Vaibhav won the title, GM Pranesh finished runner-up and IM Illamparthi finished third in the tournament.

It was a traffic jam after the penultimate round with 11 players in the reckoning to win the event, with just 0.5 points separating the leaders.

Vaibhav, Pranesh, and Mitrabha Guha were leading the tournament by collecting 7.5 out of possible 8 points before the final round.

Vaibhav was pitted against Pranesh in the final round with both of them having a shot at the glory.

However, the match ended in a draw and Vaibhav was declared the winner as he was having better margin in the tie-breaks.

The 14-year-old young sensation Illamparthi marched past GM Mitrabha in the final round and secured 3rd place in the tournament.

Illamparthi’s last three games were against the Grand Masters, and he went on to beat two of them (Mitrabha and Iniyan) and drew against Sethuraman.

2023 RotaChess’s champion GM Sethuraman didn’t have a good tournament closing at 38th with a score of 6.5-8.