In a tournament of turnarounds and surprises, eighth seed Shanmukha Pulli, who was never favoured to be in contention for the crown, emerged the champion of the 6th SBI Life All India FIDE Rating Chess Championship, which concluded at the Russian Cultural Center. Starting the last round as the joint overnight leader with the favourite, Arnav Kheredekar, this 24-year old from Andhra Pradesh drew his last round quickly with Darsh Shetty and ended in a three-way tie at the top with the remaining results going his way. Kheredekar lost to IM Viramaditya Kulkarni and Aayush Shirodkar lost to Sauravh Khhedekar.
Vikramaditya, Sauravh and Shanmukha finished with a score of 7.5/9, however, the tie-breaker favoured Shanmukha and he was declared the champion of the tournament. He bagged the glittering SBI Life trophy and a cash award of Rs.75,000. The second and third prizes were won by IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni and FM Sauravh Khherderkar, who took home Rs.50,000 and Rs 30,000 respectively.
Arnav Kherderkar, who missed the championship by a whisker had to be content with fourth place and an award of Rs.20,000, while the fifth prize went to Darsh Shetty who bagged Rs.15,000. The best female prize was awarded to Mysha Perwez and the best-unrated player prize was won by Divyesh Bhattacharya.
A total cash award of Rs.3.00 lakh and 30 trophies were awarded to the winners by Nishikant Shukla, Regional Manager of SBI Life. The tournament was conducted by Indian Chess School under the aegis of the All India Chess Federation and Maharashtra Chess Association. The performance of the players would be taken into account by FIDE to determine their ratings.