Wins prizes sponsored by Singapore Airlines and Singapore Tourism Board
Ascendas, Asia’s leading business space solutions provider, today
announced the winner of its inaugural “The Ascendas Grandmaster” chess tournament. The
competition came to a close on Friday 7 March 2008 after two weeks of exciting chess matches
played between candidates from the four Ascendas IT Parks across India in Bangalore,
Chennai and Hyderabad. Mr G Bakyaraj from SIEMENS, ITPC emerged the winner after
defeating Mr M Sriharsha from The V, Hyderabad in a closely contested tie-breaker final.
Co-sponsors of the event Singapore Airlines and Singapore Tourism Board gave away the top
prize to Mr G Bakyaraj, a return ticket for two and a weekend stay in Singapore. Mr Lim Sin
Tiow, CEO, Ascendas India handed over ‘The Ascendas Grandmaster Trophy’. The runners-up
received trophies and attractive gifts like mobile phones, digital cameras and iPods.
Mr Lim said, “This tournament has been a fantastic experience for all of us as organisers as well
as for the contestants. The tournament really brought everyone together and created a spirit of
unison at each of the parks.”
Mr Kiran Bhandari, Area Director, Southern India, Sri Lanka and Maldives of Singapore Tourism
Board, said, “We are glad for the opportunity to bring the Singapore flavor to the Ascendas’ IT
Parks, and associate with an event of this nature, which adds buzz and excitement to the Park
campuses.”
“The Grandmaster challenge is a novel idea, and a unique opportunity to showcase latent talent
across Ascendas' IT parks. Singapore Airlines is glad to be a part of it", concluded Mr Louis
Arul, Manager, Karnataka, Singapore Airlines.
FIDE Master and Under 10 World Champion Girish Kaushik took on the four Park champs
simultaneously in an exhibition match.
Over 135 professionals represented leading MNCs from the four participating Ascendas IT
parks - International Tech Park Bangalore (ITPB), International Tech Park Chennai (ITPC) and
The V and CyberPearl in Hyderabad. After the Park prelims, the three city finalists representing
their respective Parks came to ITPB for the grand finale. The preliminary rounds were played in
the Swiss format and the semi-final and final stages in the knock-out style. The tournament was moderated by professional arbiters, ensured the games were conducted in a professional
manner and in accordance with international standards.
The finalists from Bangalore, Hyderabad and Chennai:
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International Tech Park Bangalore (ITPB)
Gajanana DS, 30, from Sharp Software Development, will represent ITPB. Gajanana has been with
Sharp for the past one and a half years. At the age of 18 he competed in state level Chess
championships. |
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Hyderabad
Sriharsha M, 25, will represent THE V, Hyderabad. Employed with Cordys for the past 3 & ˝ years,
he was a runner-up in a competitive chess tournament organized by Hyderabad Software Exporters
Association in 2005.
Krishna Kishore B, 27, from Xilinx, will represent CyberPearl, Hyderabad. A Xilinx employee for over
3 years, Krishna is the winner of a chess tournament organized by Ascendas in year 2006 for
resident tenant companies at CyberPearl. |
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International Tech Park Chennai (ITPC)
Bakyaraj G, 32 from SIEMENS will represent ITPC.
With SIEMENS for a couple of years now,
Bakyaraj is an avid Chess enthusiast who once drew with GM Arti Ramasam. |
