Pranay Akula and Naga Sai Sarthak Karanam are the Telangana Rapid and Blitz 2026 state champions
The Telangana state rapid and blitz 2026 championships were held on the 31st of January and 1st February respectively at the Yoga Hall, Lal Bahadur Stadium, Basheerbagh in Hyderabad. The top two finishers of the rapid - Pranay Akula and Adhyayan Banerjee and blitz - Naga Sai Sarthak Karanam and Shreyan Thipparthi qualified to represent the state of Telangana in the upcoming National rapid and blitz championships respectively. They received cash prize of Rs. 3,000 each. Around 135 players and 120 players participated in the rapid and blitz championship respectively. Photos by Aditya Sur Roy.
The state of Telangana is growing as a powerhouse in the world of chess and it is evident from the pool of talented youngsters and the rising number of participations in chess events. The qualifiers for the National rapid and blitz for the state was organised by the Hyderabad District Chess Association at the Yoga Hall, Lal Bahadur Stadium, Basheerbagh in Hyderabad.
In the rapid championship, 135 players participated which included players from all districts of Telangana. Pranay Akula clinched the title with a perfect score of 7/7. Adhyayan Banerjee scored 6.5/7 to finish as the first-runner up. Both players remained unbeaten to qualify for the National rapid championship 2026 and won cash prizes of Rs. 3000 each.
Divith Reddy Adulla, Dharmik Virat Mylavarapu, Advik Reddy Moate and Yashvi Jain scored 6/7 to finish third, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively as per tie-break rules. They received cash prizes of Rs. 1,000 each. Yashvi Jain, the top woman finisher couldn't attend her first round and got no points but scored six back to back wins in the next six rounds to finish in the sixth place.
As a token of encouragement, trophies were give to all top three finishers of U7, U9, U11, U13 and U15 categories of both boys and girls and all participants received certificates. Vice president T. Punyavathi and General secretary A Jayachandra were present to award the champions.
In the blitz championship, 119 players participated from all districts of Telangana and after seven rounds of intense games, Naga Sai Sarthak Karanam clinched the championship with a score 6.5/7. Ten-year old Shreyan Thipparthi finished second scoring the same points due to tie-breaks. Both the players qualify to represent the state of Telangana at the upcoming National blitz championship. Both the players received R. 3,000 as cash prize. Nidhish Shyamal, Akhil Repalle, Yashvi Jain and Santosh Hariharan scored 6/7 to finish third, fourth, fifth and sixth respectively as per tie-break rules.
The two day event witnessed action-packed games bundles with emotions. Checkout some of the photos from the tournaments
In a first, Aditya Sur Roy from ChessBase India also participated in the two championships. This was the first time Aditya participated in a tournament. Aditya scored two wins and a drew one game to score 2.5/7 in the rapid and won three games in the blitz. We would like to thank the Hyderabad District and Telangana Chess Association for organising the event.
You can check out all the photos of the tournament and prize distribution in this Facebook album
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