Southern Railway dominates 34th All India Railway Team Championship after 16 years

While Southern Railway blanked the SECR team by 4-0 margin, Integral Coach Factory, Chennai had a 3.5-0.5 win against the tough South Western Railway team in the first round. ICF had four Grandmasters – former National Rapid and Blitz champion Laxman R R, former Asian Junior champion Deepan J Chakkravarthy, young Visakh N R and Karthikeyan P. The only International Master in the team P Shyaam Nikhil is the second-highest rated player in the tournament.

ICF vs South Western Railway. On the top left, GM Thej Kumar M S is playing on the fourth board | Photo: IA R Anantharam

GM Deepan and IM Ratnakaran K helped ICF and Southern Railway respectively to win their second round encounters against South Central Railway, Hyderabad and Western Railway, Mumbai respectively in the second round.

The loss of former National Blitz champion and GM Laxman R Rof ICF to the IM Vignesh N R in the third round tilted the result and also the course of the championship in favour of Southern Railway, as the other three games between them in the third round were drawn. On the other hand, Eastern Railway swept the match against Northern Railway, Delhi 4-0. In a tough match 3, South Central Railway, Hyderabad defeated Metro Railways of Kolkata with the narrowest margin 2.5-1.5, IMs Mehar Chinna Reddy and Rajesh Vav bringing victory to their team.

Round 3:IM Vignesh N R of Southern Railway (right) defeated GM Laxman R R of ICF to help Southern Railway to win the round as well as the tournament | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Round 3: IM Mehar Chinna Reddy of SCR beat GM Saptarishi Roy Choudhury of Metro | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Round 3: Ram Prakash of Northern Railway lost to IM Arghyadip Das of Eastern Railway | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Round 3: GM Visakh N R of ICF drew with IM Ratnakaran K of Southern Railway | Photo: IA R Anantharam

In a crucial encounter of the fourth round, Southern Railway overcame the stiff resistance from Eastern Railway. ICF had to be content with a draw against the Western Railway, the turning point being the loss of GM Karthikeyan to Amardeep Bartakke. South Western Railway drew with Metro, Kolkata, GM Thejkumar lost to IM Somak Palit.

Round 4: IM Vignesh N R of SR defeated GM Saptarshi Roy of Eastern Railway

 Round 4: GM Karthikeyan P of ICF lost to Amardeep Bartakke of Western Railway

| Photo: IA R Anantharam

Round 4: IM Somak Palit of Metro, Kolkata shocked GM Thejkumar of SWR… | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Round 4: …and his team mate IM Sayantan Das subdued Azimuddin | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Eyeing the title, Southern Railway agreed to split the points with South Central Railway in the fifth round. They had nine match points compared to the second placed ICF and South Central Railway who had seven points each, after five rounds.

Round 5: GM Laxman R R (ICF) drew with Arvinder Preet Singh (Northern Railway)

| Photo: IA R Anantharam

Round 5: IM Sidhant Mohapatra (Eastern Railway) –  IM Himal Gusain (Western Railway): 0.5-0.5 | Photo: IA R Anantharam

In an exciting and exhilarating endgame, Deepan exhibited his prowess to score a critical win over IM Arghyadip Das, enabling ICF to win against the Eastern Railway team. It helped them to secure the runner-up spot. South Central Railway finished third with eight match points.

The championship was inaugurated by Anup Kumar Satpathy, Divisional Manager and president of ECoRSA, Visakhapatnam in the presence of the guest of honour HL Luwan G, Chief Commercial Manager, Bhubaneswar.

Inaugural moves made by Anup Kumar Satpathy, DRM, ECo Railway and GM Visakh N R

| Photo: IA R Anantharam

A total of 67 players including seven GMs and 18 IMs represented 14 teams of various railway divisions of Indian Railways. The four-day six-round Swiss League Team Championship was organized by East Coast Railways at Waltair Stadium in Vizag, Andhra Pradesh from 7th to 10th October 2022. The tournament had a time control of 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.