The All India Public Sector Sports Control Board AIPSSP in coordination with Petronet LNG Limited; organized the Chess Tournamentfrom 15th November to 19th November 2014 at the Officers Club of ONGC, Vadodara, Gujarat. Ten teams from Public Sector Organizations participated in the tournament including ONGC, IOC, LIC, Air India, Airports Authority of India, Andhra Bank, Neyveli Lignite Corporation, HPCL, Petronet LNG and BHEL.

The Manager’s Meet held on 15th November 2014 eve wherein the Chief Arbiter Shri R Anantharam IA and Shri Ravi Lanka, Dy. Arbiter shared the rules of the tournament with all the Team Managers of the participating teams. The tournament was decided to be six rounds Swiss event.

The Inaugural Ceremony was graced with the august presence of Guest of Honor Shri GC Katiyar, Basin Manager ONGC Western Region along with the Chief Guest Shri. Hemant Bahura, General Manager – Human Resources and Administration, the Chief Arbiter Shri R Ananthraman and the Dy. Arbiter Shri Ravi Lanka on 16th November 2014. During the Inaugural Ceremony the Padmashri Award Winners along with the Arjuna Award Winners in the sport of Chess were felicitated. Post a friendly match between the guests on dais and the Arjuna Award and Padmashri Award Winners; the Chief Guest Shri Hemant Bahura declared the tournament as open.

The team composition was exciting as ONGC had an all GMs team, IOC was represented by four GMs and one WGM, Air India had one GM and three IMs and LIC fielded a similar team as that of Air India, with an additional WGM.Main attractions of the tournament included Women World Championship finalist Mrs. Koneru Humpy, Former World Under 16 Champions Mr. B Adhiban and Mr. SP Sethuraman, Former World Under 14 Champion Mr. Vidit Santosh Gujrathi, Former World Under 12 Champion Mr. Deep Sengupta, Gold Medallist in the recent Chess Olympiad at Norway and Women National Champion Ms. Padmini Rout, Six Times Consecutive National Champion Mr. SS Ganguly and Former National Champion Mr. Abijit Kunte.

During the 4 days tournament, the stronger teams ruled the roost in earlier rounds. In the third round, IOC grounded Air India and ONGC brought down Airports Authority to lead with 6 match points each. The crucial tie between the top two teams ONGC and IOC ended in a draw in the fourth round and Atanu Lahiri was instrumental for a 2.5 – 1.5 win over Air India. In Round 5, IOC got the better of LIC by a 3 – 1 margin and ONGC overwhelmed NLC 4 – 0. IOC had an easy outing against Petronet LNG in the final round, in which they won all the games. Both ONGC and IOC were tied with 11 match points and 19.5 game points and the third tiebreak Sonneborn Berger score was in favour of ONGC to clinch the title for them. Airports Authority of India, comprising youngsters defeated the experienced LIC team to bag the third place.

The Closing and the Prize distribution ceremony held on 19th November 2014 in the gracious presence of Guest of Honor Shri GC Katiyar, Basin Manager ONGC Western Region along with the Chief Guest Shri. Hemant Bahura, General Manager – Human Resources and Administration, the Chief Arbiter Shri R Ananthraman and the Dy. Arbiter Shri Ravi Lanka. The winners were awarded as per various categories of winning while all the participants of the tournament along with Team Managers were presented with certificate of participation and a memento.

Following are the list of Prize Winners in various categories along with their scores.

Prize List