Blitz title welcome relief for Laxman

For the Chennai-based Laxman it was a good result because he was in the thick of things in the other forms of chess. Both Laxman and IM P Karthikeyan were fighting for the championship and won their respective last rounds but the former sealed the top spot by 0.5 point. 

Having upset by a lower-seeded player in the initial round, the top seed kept his cool and emerged as champion after winning nerve-wracking battles against experts of blitz format of chess. Bengal’s National Under-25 runner-up FM Mitrabha Guha finished third. IM Anwesh Upadhyay claimed the Rapid Championship. 

Chess Gurukul coach RB Ramesh said Laxman was good in blitz. “Arvindh Chithambaram, Krishnan Sasikiran, Karthikeyan Murali, Praggnandhaa, Baskaran Adhiban are good in blitz,” the Grandmaster said. Laxman who works for the Integral Coach Factory had won won the Xtra Time All India Open Rapid FIDE Rating Chess Tournament in Kolkata in May this year. 

There he had scored 9.5/10 points and won the championship with a round to spare. His only draw was against GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury in the penultimate round.