Kishore Prajith triumphs at 1st Shaastra Classical Rating Open 2025

by R Anantharam - 13/12/2025

Prajith Kishore, Jagajit Sinha, Praneeshwar Madhavan, Goutham Ramesh and Iniyan R S scored 7/8 each at 1st Shaastra Classical Rating Open 2025. Prajith won the tournament on tie-breaks. The remaining four were placed second to fifth respectively. Except Praneeshwar, the remaining four remained undefeated. The total prize fund was ₹500000. The top three prizes were ₹60000 + trophy, ₹50000 and ₹40000 each. The four-day eight round Rating Open tournament was organized by Shaastra IIT Madras at Student Activities Centre, IIT Madras in Chennai, Tamil Nadu from 23rd to 26th November 2025. This is Kishore's fourth overall, first rating tournament triumph of his career. Photo: IA R Anantharam

Kishore's fourth triumph of the yearTop five score 7/8

Kishore Prajith of Hatsun Chess Academy Sivakasi, belonging to Coimbatore, propelled himself ahead of four others who all had seven points to win the 1st Shaastra FIDE Rated Classical Chess Tournament organized by Shaastra, IIT Madras. 13-year-old Kishore won ₹60000 for the first place had the best Buchholz Cut 1 value and had a good record of six wins and two draws.

Kishore Prajith won the 1st Shaastra Classical Chess tournament organised by IIT Madras | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Chief Guest: Prof. Sathyanarayana N Gummadi, Dean of Students, IIT Madras and guest of honour: Prof. Murugaiyan Amirthalingam, Co-Curricular Advisor, IIT Madras.

While another 13-year-old Jagajit Sinha of Assam, also from Hatsun Chess Academy captured the runner-up place and a cash prize of ₹50000, 11-year-old Praneeshwar Madhavan of Tamil Nadu completed the podium standings as second runner-up and won ₹40000.

Another Hatsun Chess Academy boy Jagajit Sinha of Assam is the runner-up | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Praneeshwar Madhavan of Chengalpattu defeated his district mate S V Danish to score seven points and was declared third.

11-year-old Praneeshwar Madhavan (left) scored seven points by beating S V Danish in the final round | Photo: IA R Anantharam

13-year-old Goutham Ramesh of Chennai had a quick draw with Kishore Prajith in the ninth round, to collect seven points and the fourth place.

Goutham Ramesh (white) who starts the game with a prayer, drew with the winner Kishore in the final round to get the fourth place | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Kishore Prajith scored an unbeaten 7/8, won the tournament on tie-breaks and gained 57.2 Elo rating points

15-years aged R S Iniyan of Chennai got the better of Abhinav M B of Kerala in the eighth round was on par with other seven pointers and got the fifth place.

R S Iniyan (left) got the better of M B Abhinav to finish fifth | Photo: IA R Anantharam

L Barath of Chennai had the best Buchholz value among the eight players who scored 6.5 points to be declared the winner of the sixth place. He drew with Perecharla Hariram Saikrishna (USA), who won the tenth place.

L Barath (left) and Perecharla Hariram Saikrishna (USA) drew the last round encounter to win the sixth and tenth positions respectively | Photo: IA R Anantharam

After a fourth round loss to Praneeshwar, former Tamil Nadu state under-17 champion S Gokul Krishna of Tirupur recovered to win the seventh rank.

Former Tamil Nadu under-17 champion S Gokul Krishna of Tirupur had a good win against Aditi Arun of Kerala | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Kerala’s M A Unnikrishnan had steady progress until the sixth round. But his debacle against Goutham put him in the eighth rank.

Unnikrishnan's debacle to Goutham in the seventh round pushed him to eighth place | Photo: IA R Anantharam

B Vishruth of Chennai had the consolation of beating the runner-up Praneeshwar in the sixth round. Anyhow, he ended up with the ninth place.

Vishruth B (right) drew with P Sree Veeramani to accumulate 6.5 points and the ninth place. Veeramani was eleventh | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Second seeded E Kavin lost to Aarush Dolas of Maharashtra in the third round | Photo: IA R Anantharam

E Sarvesh of TN toppled the top seed N S Dhanush Raghav in the fourth round | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Winner Kishore Prajith was held to a draw by S U Mehul in the fifth round | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Praneeshwar's loss to Vishruth (right) was a setback to him in the sixth round | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Jagajit Sinha of Assam defeated E Sarvesh in the seventh round | Photo: IA R Anantharam

L Barath drew with MB Abhinav of Kerala in the penultimate round | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Prof. Veezhinathan Kamakoti, Director, IIT Madras, inaugurated the tournament in presence of Chief Arbiter - IA R Ravikumar

Shaastra is the annual technical festival of IIT Madras. True to its name, the Sanskrit equivalent of science, Shaastra provides the opportunity to catch a glimpse of the latest worldwide trending technologies.

Shaastra Tech Festival

The fest holds the distinction of being the first student-managed event in the world to implement a Quality Management System and earn the ISO 9001:2000 certification.

Besides the tech festival, the theatre arts, musical displays such as Decibels or the laugh-out-loud wackiness of extempore and Just-A-minute, Saarang always has the crowds screaming for more.

The musical extravaganza of Shaastra

For the past seven years, Chess has become one of the regular features of Shaastra activities. GM Pranesh, who defeated Magnus Carlsen in a recent online game, was the winner of the 6th edition of the rapid event.

GM Pranesh M won a thrilling game against GM Srinath Narayanan to become the champion of 2024 Rapid event | Photo: IA R Anantharam

Final standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	Gr	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB5	TB6
1	9		Kishore Prajith	U14	1302CBE2025	IND	1978	Tamil Nadu	7	40,5	45	38,75	6	3
2	14		Jagajit Sinha	U14	Assam	IND	1943	Assam	7	39,5	44	38	6	2
3	35	AFM	Praneeshwar Madhavan	U12	1265CGL2025	IND	1849	Tamil Nadu	7	39,5	43,5	37	7	3
4	25		Goutham Ramesh	U14	2399CHE2025	IND	1884	Tamil Nadu	7	39,5	43,5	37	6	2
5	15		Iniyan R S		7907TLR2025	IND	1942	Tamil Nadu	7	39,5	42	36	6	3
6	11		Barath L		36983CHE2025	IND	1963	Tamil Nadu	6,5	40	44	34,75	5	3
7	3		Gokul Krishna S		7618TPR2025	IND	2043	Tamil Nadu	6,5	39,5	44	34,25	6	2
8	37		Unnikrishnan M A		Kerala	IND	1845	Kerala	6,5	38,5	42,5	33	6	3
9	16	ACM	Vishruth B	U12	3020CHE2025	IND	1940	Tamil Nadu	6,5	38,5	42	31,75	6	3
10	29		Perecharla Hariram Saikrishna	U12	USA	USA	1877	USA	6,5	38	41,5	32,5	5	3
11	40		Sree Veeramani P		4853KAN2025	IND	1838	Tamil Nadu	6,5	37	40	30,25	6	3
12	6	AIM	Christy George	U14	Kerala	IND	2010	Kerala	6,5	35,5	39,5	32,25	6	3
13	7		Shashveen A K	U14	17292CHE2025	IND	1993	Tamil Nadu	6,5	34	37	28,5	6	3
14	56		Abhinav M B	U14	Kerala	IND	1777	Kerala	6	43	46	32,25	5	3
15	24		Danish S V	U12	1564CGL2025	IND	1903	Tamil Nadu	6	42	46	32,25	5	3
16	50		Sunil Dev S		Puducherry	IND	1805	Puducherry	6	39,5	43	30	6	2
17	33		Sarvesh E	U12	6583CHE2025	IND	1856	Tamil Nadu	6	38,5	42,5	29,25	5	2
18	26	ACM	Kavish Palaniappan K	U10	1515CGL2025	IND	1882	Tamil Nadu	6	37,5	41	29	5	3
19	39		Shravan Swaminathan		24620TLR2025	IND	1842	Tamil Nadu	6	37,5	40,5	28,25	5	2
20	49	CM	Dolas Aarush	U14	Maharashtra	IND	1805	Maharashtra	6	37,5	40	28,5	6	4

Details

About the Author

Prof. Rathinam Anantharam is an A-grade international arbiter. Member of FIDE Arbiters’ Commission, Chairman of Titles Commission in All India Chess Federation, Vice President of Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, Chief Arbiter for six world championships, many Asian, International and National Championships. Nominated as one of the top seven arbiters in the world for the past hundred years by FIDE.

The report was edited by Shahid Ahmed