Odisha International Master Anwesh Upadhyaya captured the title in the National Rapid Chess Championship, which was organised by Bengal Chess Association at Bhowanipur Education Society College in Kolkata from August 1 to 3, 2017. Despite losing to top seed Grand Master R R Laxman, 25-year-old emerged champion, scoring nine points out of a possible 11.

Seeded tenth, Anwesh won eight games and drew two. He defeated Rithwik Raaj Anand, Shrutarshi Ray, Anustoop Biswas, Niladri Shekhar Bhattacharya (all Bengal); WGM Soumya Swaminathan (PSPB), Dinesh K Sharma (LIC), Baivab Mishra (Odisha) and S Nitin (Railways). Anwesh drew his seventh and eighth games against Saravana Krishna P (TN) and K Rathnakaran (Railways) respectively.

The National Rapid Championship attracted six GMs, one WGM (Soumya), 11 IMs and 188 players in all. The tournament director was IM Atanu Lahiri.

FINAL PLACINGS: 1. IM Anwesh Upadhyaya (Odi) 9/11; 2-6. P Saravanakrishnan (TN), GM R.R. Laxman (Rly), GM Neelotpal Das (PSPB), GM Sriram Jha (LIC), GM Deep Sengupta (PSPB) 8.5 each; 7-14. Koustav Chatterjee (WB), IM K Ratnakaran (Rly), IM D K Sharma (LIC), IM P Shyaamnikhil (TN), IM S Nitin (Rly), CM Aronyak Ghosh (WB), GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury (Rly) 8 each.
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PHOTO: Anwesh Upadhyaya after winning the National Rapid title in Kolkata on August 3, 2017.