Grandmaster Surya Shekhar Ganguly of Petroleum Sports Control Board annexed the national title for the third time on the trot after scoring a memorable victory over teammate S Kidambi in the 21st and final round of the 43rd National 'A' chess championship in Vishakhapatnam on Tuesday.
Woman Grandmaster Swati Ghate of Life Insurance Corporation won the women's section with ease after drawing her 19th and final round game with second finisher Women International Master Mary Ann Gomes.
The third place went to WGM D Harika and these three will now represent the Indian team in the next Women's chess Olympiad along with Grandmaster Koneru Humpy, who has been given a direct seeding in the team.
Against many odds, Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda (PSPB) retained his second spot with a comprehensive victory over erstwhile leader IM Deepan Chakravarthi in his final round game.
The third place went to Jharkhand's Diwakar Prasad Singh, who has been labelled the (Mahendra Singh) Dhoni of Indian chess following his extremely impressive performance here.
In the final round game, Singh defeated Grandmaster R B Ramesh.
The top three will join the elite group of Viswanathan Anand, Krishnan Sasikiran and P Harikrishna in the Olympiad to be held in Turin, Italy, next month.
In case anyone opts out, fourth finisher GM Abhijit Kunte will come in the team.
It was, in fact, a three-way tie at the top with Ganguly, Chanda and Singh finishing on an identical score of 14 points each.
Results final round: R B Ramesh (PSPB, 9) lost to D P Singh (Jha, 14); Sandipan Chanda (PSPB, 14) beat Deepan Chakravarthi (TN, 13.5); M S Thej Kumar (Kar, 9) drew with V Kamble (Mah, 6.5); Sriram Jha (LIC, 6.5) drew with P D S Girinath (AP, 7); M R Venkatesh (PSPB, 13) beat Arghyadip Das (WB, 7); B S Shivanandan (Kar, 7) lost to S Arun Prasad (PSPB, 9); Koneru Humpy (AP, 13.5) beat Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (WB, 11); Abhijit Kunte (PSPB, 13.5) beat Lanka Ravi (PSPB, 8); S Kidambi (PSPB, 10.5) lost to S S Ganguly (PSPB, 14); Abhijeet Gupta (PSPB, 9) drew with Himanshu Sharma (Har, 7); D K Sharma (LIC, 8) had a bye.
Final Standings: 1-3: Ganguly, Chanda, Singh 14 each; 4-6: Kunte, Chakravarthi, Humpy 13.5 each; 7: Venkatesh 13; 8. Chowdhury 11; 9:Kidambi 10.5; 10-13: Ramesh, Arun Prasad, Thej Kumar, Gupta 9 each; 14-15: Sharma, Ravi 8 each; 16-19: Girinath, Himanshu, Shivanandan, Das; 20-21: Jha, Kamble 6.5 each.
Women final round: S Meenakshi (IA, 12) drew with Aarthie Ramaswamy (IA, 9); D Harika (AP, 12.5) beat Maji Supriya (WB, 6.5); Nisha Mohota (PSPB, 12) beat Anupama Gokhale (PSPB, 4); Mary Ann Gomes (WB, 13) drew with Swati Ghate (LIC, 14); Eesha Karavade (Mah, 11) drew with J E Kavitha (TN, 7); Amruta Mokal (Mah, 9) beat Kiran Manisha Mohanty (Ori, 8.5); Alka Das (Jha, 4.5) drew with Soumya Swaminathan (Mah, 5.5); Ishwarya Shobana (TN, 6.5) lost to Swati Mohota (WB, 8.5); Nimmy George (Ker, 7.5) lost to I Ramya Krishna (AP, 8.5); S Vijayalakshmi (IA, 11.5) had a bye.
Final Standings: 1: Ghate 14; 2: Gomes 13; 3: Harika 12..5; 4-5: Meenakshi, Mohota 12 each; 6: Vijayalakshmi 11.5; 7: Karavade 11; 8-9: Ramaswamy, Mokal 9 each; 10-12: Swati Mohota, Mohanty, Ramyakrishna 8.5 each; 13: George 7.5; 14: Kavitha 7; 15-16: Supriya, Shobhana 6.5 each; 17: Swaminathan 5.5; 18: Das 4.5; 19: Gokhale 4.