Integral Coach Factory reclaims All India Railway Team Championship 2022

by Shahid Ahmed - 13/01/2022

There are two secret chess tournaments that take place in Indian chess. One is between the Petroleum board and the other one is among chess players of Indian Railways. It goes without saying that both are strong events. To understand how strong the field was, a total of 17 teams comprising 84 players including 8 GMs and 19 IMs took part in the event, i.e. 32% of the participants were IMs or above. Integral Coach Factory won the 33rd edition of All India Railway Team championship. Eastern Railway secured the second place and defending champion Metro finished third. IM Vignesh N R of Southern Railway won the individual event, IM P Shyam Nikhil and GM Visakh N R of ICF secured second and third place respectively. Photo: Sureshkumar Janardhanan

Vignesh N R wins All India Railway Individual Championship 2022

Integral Coach Factory regained their All India Railway Team championship winner title after Metro Railway won the previous edition in 2019. A decade ago, ICF won the same event and went on to win the championship four more times (2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018) in the last decade (2011-20). Eastern Railway repeated their 2018 performance by securing a second place finish. Defending champion, Metro became the only team without a reserve player to make a podium finish this year. IM Vignesh N R of Southern Railway won the individual event, scoring 6.0/7. Integral Coach Factory claimed the remaining two podium places in the form of IM P Shyam Nikhil 6.0/7 and GM Visakh N R 5.5/7.

Champion - Integral Coach Factory 10.0/12 | Photo: FA FT Sureshkumar Janardhanam

Integral Coach Factory won the team event as every member in the team made an important contribution. GM Visakh N R was the top scorer of his team 4.5/6, followed by GM Deepan Chakkravarthy 4.0/6. GM Laxman R R 1.5/2 and IM P Shyam Nikhil 3.5/5 also remained undefeated. GM P Karthikeyan scored an important 2.5/5.

GM Visakh N R and GM Deepan Chakkravarthy anchored team Integral Coach Factory

Top 3 team (L to R) - 3rd Metro, 2nd Eastern Railway and 1st Integral Coach Factory

Integral Coach Factory (L to R) - GM Laxman R R, GM Visakh N R, FA FT Sureshkumar Janardhanan, IM P Shyam Nikhil, IM Praveen Kumar C and GM P Karthikeyan

Runner-up - Eastern Railway 9.0/12, L to R - IM Arghyadip Das, IM Sidhant Mohapatra, Pradip Ghosh, GM Saptarshi Roy and IM Suvrajit Saha

Debutant IM Sidhant Mohapatra scored an impressive unbeaten 5.0/6. IM Suvrajit Saha also scored a crucial 4.0/5 and also remained undefeated. IM Arghyadip Das and making a return to the team for the first time since 2012 - GM Saptarshi Roy contributed a valuable 3.5/6 and 3.0/6 each respectively. Well experienced Pradip Ghosh drew the sole game he played.

IM Sidhant Mohapatra and IM Suvrajit Saha steered Eastern Railway to a second place finish

Second Runner-up - Metro 9.0/12, L to R - FM Joydeep Dutta, GM Saptarshi RoyChowdhury, IM Somak Palit and IM Sayantan Das

IM Sayantan Das was the top scorer of his team Metro. He made an unbeaten 5.5/6, followed by FM Joydeep Dutta who also remained undefeated 4.0/6. IM Somak Palit and GM Saptarshi RoyChowdhury scored an indispensable 3.5/6 and 3.0/6 each respectively.

Defending champion Metro maintained their podium place

All India Railway Individual winner - IM Vignesh N R 6.0/7 of Southern Railway | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Vignesh scored an impressive double hat-trick of wins, a last round did not deter his championship chances

2nd IM P Shyam Nikhil 6.0/7 of Integral Coach Factory

3rd GM Visakh N R 5.5/7 of Integral Coach Factory | Photo: Amruta Mokal

IM Akshat Khamparia conducted a chess quiz among railway officials

GM Saptarshi Roy, GM Thej Kumar, GM Saptarshi RoyChowdhury, Sureshkumar Janardhanan and more can be seen here

Railway officials enjoying a game of chess

The tournaments were organized by WCR Sports Association from 4th and 10th January 2022 at Railway Stadium, Jabalpur, Madhya Pradesh. The team event took place from 4th to 6th and the individual championship went from 7th to 10th January. The time control for each tournament was 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment each from move no.1.

Team final standings

Rk.	SNo	Team	Games	+	=	-	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	Integral Coach Factory	6	4	2	0	10	16,0	216,0
2	4	Eastern Railway	6	4	1	1	9	16,0	216,5
3	6	METRO	6	4	1	1	9	16,0	216,0
4	5	South Central RaIlway	6	3	2	1	8	15,5	181,5
5	2	Western Railway	6	2	4	0	8	14,0	193,5

Complete standings

Individual final standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	7	IM	Vignesh N R	IND	2444	Southern Railway	6,0	28,5	31,0	25,00
2	8	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	IND	2442	Integral Coach Factory	6,0	27,0	30,0	25,75
3	1	GM	Visakh N R	IND	2522	Integral Coach Factory	5,5	27,0	30,0	21,50
4	12	IM	Mehar Chinna Reddy C.H.	IND	2422	South Central RaIlway	5,0	27,5	31,0	21,50
5	15	GM	Karthikeyan P.	IND	2396	Integral Coach Factory	5,0	27,5	31,0	21,25
6	3	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	IND	2495	Central Railway	5,0	27,5	31,0	20,50
7	5	IM	Krishna C R G	IND	2466	South Western Railway	5,0	27,0	30,0	20,75
8	23	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	IND	2287	METRO	5,0	26,5	29,5	20,25
9	20	IM	Ratnakaran K.	IND	2316	Southern Railway	5,0	24,5	27,0	18,25
10	34	FM	Mari Arul S.	IND	2136	Southern Railway	5,0	22,5	25,0	16,75

Complete standings

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