Volume : 12 Issue : 6 Price Rs. 25 January 2018

A I C F C H R O N I C L Ethe official magazine of the All India Chess Federation

World Rapid Chess Championships, Riyadh IWASA 44th National Women Premier Chess Championship,Surat

WGM Padmini Rout Champion

World Youth Chess Olympiad, Ahmedabad

GM Viswanathan AnandWorld Rapid Chess Champion

Team India Green – Silver medal WinnerStanding:IM Praggnanandhaa and IM Nihal Sarin

Sitting: GM Aryan Chopra, IM P.Iniyan, Prasenjit Datta (Coach) and WIM R.Vaishali

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Room No. 70,Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium,Chennai - 600 003.Ph : 044-65144966 /Telefax : 044-25382121E-mail : indianchessfed@gmail.comPublisher: Bharat Singh ChouhanEditor : C.G.S. Narayanan

AICF CHRONICLE January 2017

Price: Monthly Rs.25 Annual Rs.300 Bhopal International GM Chess Tourna-ment- 2017 was organized by Sports & Youth Welfare DepartmentMP & Acad-

emy of Chess Education , Bhopal under the auspices of AICF from 21st to 28th December 2017 at Hotel Kanta Shrawan Palace , Bhopal322 players from 17 federation has partici-pated in Bhopal International GM Chess Tour-nament -2017 . If we go through the statistics , 8 GM ,12 IM , 7 WIM , 8 FM , 5 WFM and 8 CM participated in the tournament . 275 out of 322 were rated players. Tournament was played on open Swiss system format and total No. of round was 10. Program used for the pairing was Swiss manager.90 minutes each with 30 sec. increment/move from move 1.It was decided during the techni-cal meeting that default time 15 minutes.As per regulation published on fide website and confirmed during the technical meeting , following tiebreak were used :i) Direct En-counter ii) Buchholz Cut 1 iii) Buchholz iv) Sonneborn Berger and v) Greater number of wins (Including forfeit )

There were two tournament halls. The first one was on top floor(4th) with first 76 Boards while the 2nd one was at the ground floor with remaining boards. Both the Halls were centrally air conditioned . Both The playing halls were good with enough space for play-ers but with limited spectators. All basic facilities were provided by the Organizers in the playing venue i.e. water, coffee and tea for the players and officials, smoking area and analysis area.

Chief Arbiter IA Dharmendra Kumar was ably

Bhopal International GM Chess Tournament 2017,Bhopal

Nguyen Duc Hoa wins at Bhopalby Dharmendra Kumar IA, Chief Arbiter

assisted by Deputy Chief Arbiter IA Sethura-man BT and a team of arbiters i.e IA Anandh Babu VL ,(Live Games Incharge), IA Anurag Singh, FA Rao PN, FA Alankar Bhivgade, FA Pravin Pantawane ,FA Vikas Sahu, NA Sunil Soni.All Arbiters were very good and efficient and I had an excellent cooperation with them. They ably assisted me during the tournament.I am thankful to Dy. Chief Arbiter IA Sethuraman BT who ably assisted me and look after especially 2nd hall , independently. At the same time I would like to mention IA Anandh Babu V L who was taking care of live games . He did good job and broadcast all 22 game uninterrupted.

A common appeal committee was formed for both the event. No appeal was submitted for hearing. First 22 games were played on DGT Board and live games were beamed in the internet . Every game was played with Electronic clocks ( DGT 2010 & DGT 3000) and standard chess boards were used for all other games .

All players and officials stayed in official Hotel Kanta Shrawan Palace. Conditions provided by the hotel were excellent. Arrangement of stay for all the players & official was at the same Hotel. Dinning hall was situated at 2nd floor while 2nd and 3rd floor was accommo-dation area.

Tournament was inaugurated by Mr. Rishi Shukla , Director General of Police , Madhya Pradesh. He lighted the auspicious lamp and made a move on Chess board with top Seed GM Gareyev Timur of USA. On this auspi-

Inside….Bhopal International GM Tmt2017,BhopalNguyen Duc Hoa wins at Bhopal by Dharmendra Kumar IA, Chief Arbiter 1IWASA 44th National Women Premier Championship,SuratPadmini Rout is Premier Champion fourth time in a row by V.Vijayaraghavan IA, Chief Arbiter 6AICFB - National B Championship 2017.Ambala,HaryanaKishan Gangolli clinches title by M.Manjunatha IA, Chief Arbiter 99th BRDCA International Open FIDE RatingGM Deepan Chakkaravarthy is Champion by FA Saleem Beig, Chief Arbiter 10Riverside 1st International FIDE Open, Kotagiri Balasubramanian wins at Kotagiri by V.Vijayaragahavan IA, Chief Arbiter 122nd CPPA Open Rating tournament , Duliajan, Assam Trailokya Nanda wins title by Debasish Barua, IA,Chief Arbiter 14The CSIR-CMERI Diamond Jubilee FIDE Rated Tmt,Durgapur Suvrajit Saha wins at Durgapur by Biswanath Banerjee, Chief Arbiter 16Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam FIDE Rating Open Tmt,Visakhapatnam Balasubramaniam of Tamilnadu wins by FA G Venkata Kumar , Chief Arbiter 18Karnavati Club Open FIDE Rating Tmt, Deepan Chakravarthi wins title by IA S Biju Raj, Chief Arbiter 20Nipani Grand Open Fide Rapid Rating Tmt , Nipani Sameeer Kathamale wins title by Bharat Chougule, Chief Arbiter 221st Shree Narayana Guru TrophyFIDE Rated Rapid,Udupi Viani Antonio Dcunha clinches title by IA Vasanth BH , Chief Arbiter 28SPIC 1st All India FIDE Rated Tmt(below1600),Thoothukudi Bala Ganeshan wins SPIC FIDE rated by Dharmaraj P,Chief Arbiter 302nd All India Fide Rating Below 1500 Tmt,Secunderabad Aragonda Mohan of Telangana wins by FA S Subba Raju , Chief Arbiter 32Vardhaman Cup Open Fide Rating Tmt,HyderabadB Sekar is Champion by Promodraj Moree,Chief Arbiter 34Selected games from National Women Premier,SuratAnnotated by IM Manuel Aaron 36Tactics from master games by S.Krishnan 42Test your endgame by C.G.S.Narayanan 43Masters of the past-84Isaac Kashdan 44AICF Calendar 48

From the PresidentAt the outset I wish the members of chess fraternity a very happy New year! It is time we reminisce with pride some of the notable achievements of our players in the World level events in the year gone by. It was a spectacular show by the young Indian Grandmasters at

the World Junior Chess Championships in Italy. GM Aravindh Chithambaram did India proud bagging the bronze on tie break. Twelve-year old Praggnanandaa, World’s youngest IM, competing against players much elder to him, played amazing chess to beat the top seed Jorden van Foreest of Netherlands on his way to gaining maiden GM norm in this event and also finished a creditable fourth.

At the World Cadets at Brazil, Divya Deshmukh won gold and in the World Youth Championships in Uruguay, India did one better garnering three medals. Andhra girl Jishitha clinched the gold in the Under-14 Girls category. Erigaisi Arjun and Sakshi Chitlange won silver medals in the under-14 Open and Under-18 Girls category.

At the 17th IPCA World Chess Championships Shashikant Kutwal became the World Disabled Champion 2017 and also became an International Master. Woman International Master Jenitha Anto of Tiruchi won her fifth world title for women. Sammarth J Rao who won bronze in the junior event bagged the gold in the blitz junior section

The year 2017 ended on a high as Indian Green team won silver medal in the World Under-16 Youth Olympiad excellently hosted at Ahmedabad. P.Iniyan and Nihal Sarin won gold for their board performances. Five-time World Champion GM Viswanathan Anand rounded off a memorable and eventful year winning the World Rapid Chess Championship title besides claiming the bronze in the World Blitz Championship as well.

I understand that for the first time India will be hosting the World Youth (under 12,14 & 16) Chess Championship in 2019 which will go a long way in promoting the game among the youth in the country.

P.R.Venketrama Raja

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1st Shree Narayana Guru Trophy National FIDE Rated Rapid Tournament,Udupi

3rd master mind open FIDE rated chess tournament, Pammal

Cont.on p.5

Saravanan (Secretary, TV Malai District), Illankumar, S. Chandrasekar, IM R. Balasubramaniam (Winner), Mr. Stephen Balasamy, Secy, TNSCA (Chief Guest), Mr. P.R. Dinesh Kumar, R. Srivatsan (Chief Arbiter), Muthu Kumar (Jt. Secy, TNSCA), Mr. Ebenezer and C. Natarajan, Secretary, Master Mind Chess Academy

Standing L-R :Gahan MG, VianiDcunha, Anwar Shazuli, Augustin ASitting L-R : IA Vasanth BH Chief Arbiter, Babu J Poojary Secretary Udupi District Chess Association, Arvind Shastry Secretary United Karnataka Chess Association, Leeladhar Shetty Kapu Social Worker, K P Acharya Chairman Vidyaniketan Group of Institution Kapu, Muttu Kumar Proprietor Sri Maruthi Bakers Bangalore, Harish Poojary Ammembala Industrialist, H B Siddharaju Bangalore, K Srinivas Poojary President Kalabhimani Sangha Kapu, Sudheer Beedu Udupi, UmanathKapu Tournament coordinator, Rathnakar Shetty Bhramavar

cious occasion , other dignitaries presents on the Dais were , Retired IAS, Mr. S N Rupla , President of Madhya Pradesh State Chess Association, Mr. Sunil Bansal, , Secretary of Madhya Pradesh State Chess Association Mr. Kapil Saxena and Chief Arbiter of the Tour-nament Mr. Dharmendra Kumar

The Grand Master Tournament Bhopal GM International 2017, which was the first of Grand Master Circuit had its run for eight days, This tournament got the name of Viet-nam's Nguyen Duc Hoa as its champion. He defeated Russia's Grand Master Rozum Ivan at the first table in the final round. Having the honor of being the winner with 8.5 points, winning a cash prize of 2 lakh rupees along with a shining trophy. He also made a new record of winning three consecutive Grand Master tournaments in India in a year, before this tournament he won the title of Kit Inter-national in Bhubaneswar in May and Mumbai International in June.

Prize distribution ceremony was held in pres-ence of Madhya Pradesh Director Sports Mr. Upendra Jain, President of Madhya Pradesh State Chess Association, Mr. Sunil Bansal, Re-tired IAS, Mr. S N Rupla, DGM (Union Bank Of India) Mr. Gurtej Singh , Secretary of Madhya Pradesh State Chess Association Mr. Kapil Saxena and Chief Arbiter of the Tournament Mr. Dharmendra Kumar. A total of 10 lakh 18 thousand rupees along with brilliant shining trophies and medals were distributed to the prize winners. The Organizing Committee did an excellent work and showed a great ability in organiz-ing a chess event of such a high level with full of enthusiasm.As thi9s GM level event was jointly organized by Sports & Youth Welfare DepartmentMP & Academy of Chess

Education , Bhopal . Org. Secretary cum Tournament Director Mr. Kapil Saxena was very active and instrumental in handling all the organizational needs with his organizing team. There were no any title norm produced in this tournament.

There were four International Arbiters Norms and 1 Fide Arbiter Norm awarded to the ar-biters ( names mentioned below) who ren-dered their services during the tournament : FA Rao PN,FA Alankar Bhivgade, FA Pravin Pantawane, FA Vikas Sahu, NA Sunil Soni Bhopal International GM Chess Tournament was well organized tournament . All neces-sary support were provided to Players and Arbiters team . Media coverage was also very good. Associated dignitaries were visited dai-ly to tournament hall. All participants were satisfied and had positive and Satisfactory remarks.I would like to mention the great sportsmanship of all players they showed during the whole event.Final ranking Rk Name FED Pts1 GM Nguyen Duc Hoa VIE 8½ 2 IM Yeoh Li Tian MAS 8 3 GM Tran Tuan Minh VIE 8 4 GM Atalik Suat TUR 8 5 FM Shailesh Dravid IND 8 6 CM Gukesh D IND 8 7 GM Tukhaev Adam UKR 8 8 GM Rozum Ivan RUS 7½ 9 GM Gareyev Timur USA 7½ 10 IM Sangma Rahul IND 7½ 11 IM Girish A. Koushik IND 7½ 12 GM Himanshu Sharma IND 7½ 13 Harshavardhan G B IND 7½ 14 Prakash Ram IND 7½ 15 IM Khusenkhojaev Md TJK 7 16 IM Deshmukh Anup IND 7 17 IM Ravi Teja S. IND 7

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Captain All Bengal Open FIDE Rated Chess Tournament ,Kolkata

9th BRDCA International Open FIDE Rating Tournament, Bangalore

Cont.from p.7

The top three- Manigandan S.S (Runner-up),GM Deepan Chakravarthy (Winner) and N.Sanjay (Third)

Champion Arpan Das receving the trophy from Chief Guest Raman Pandey,President, INTUC (WB) and IM Atanu Lahiri, Jt.Secretary AICF & Secretary,BCA

18 FM Erigaisi Arjun IND 7 19 IM Rathnakaran K. IND 7 20 Senthil Maran K IND 7 21 Kunal M. IND 7 22 Saravana KrishnanP. IND 7 23 FM Gajwa Ankit IND 7 24 Ajay Krishna S IND 7 25 Sekar B IND 7 26 Muthaiah Al IND 7 27 Ram S. Krishnan IND 7 28 Nayak Rajesh IND 7 29 Singh Arvinder Preet IND 7 30 IM Nitin S. IND 7 31 Panesar Vedant IND 7 32 Saurabh Anand IND 7 33 Dixit Nikhil IND 7 34 WFM Jishitha D IND 7 35 GM David Alberto ITA 6½ 36 Patil Pratik IND 6½ 37 Masango Spencer ZIM 6½ 38 Bharat Kumar Reddy P IND 6½ 39 Shelke Sankarsha IND 6½ 40 Nguyen Phuoc Tam VIE 6½ 41 IM Dhulipalla B C Prasad IND 6½ 42 FM Matta Vinay Kumar IND 6½ 43 FM Rathanvel V S IND 6½ 44 Himanshu Ranjan IND 6½ 45 Tiwari Arjun IND 6½ 46 Manush Shah IND 6½ 47 Moksh Amit Doshi IND 6½ 48 Arpan Das (Jr) IND 6½ 49 CM Karthik Kumar Pradeep IND 6½ 50 WFM Divya Deshmukh IND 6½ 51 FM Ramakrishna J. IND 6½ 52 Anuj Shrivatri IND 6½ 53 Bhambure Shantanu IND 6½ 54 Soham Datar IND 6½ 55 Snehal Bhosale IND 6½ 56 Barath Kalyan M IND 6½ 57 Bhanot Stuti IND 6½ 58 WIM Chandreyee Hajra IND 6½ 59 IM Abu Sufian Shakil BAN 6½ 60 Nagare Akhilesh IND 6½ 61 IM Wohl Aleksandar H. AUS 6

62 CM Aditya Mittal IND 6 63 WIM Pratyusha Bodda IND 6 64 Badrinath S. IND 6 65 Shiva Pavan Teja S U IND 6 66 Kant Rupesh IND 6 67 WFM Varshini V IND 6 68 Aryan Abhijeet Shah IND 6 69 Manish Anto C F IND 6 70 Saptorshi Gupta IND 6 71 Soham Kamotra IND 6 72 Polakhare Aryan IND 6 73 WIM Chitlange Sakshi IND 6 74 Chakravarthy Y V K IND 6 75 Aditya Guhagarkar IND 6 76 Tarun Kanyamarala IRL 6 77 Gokulraj K IND 6 78 Dinesh Rajan M IND 6 79 WIM Gokhale Anupama IND 6 80 Panda Sambit IND 6 81 Rindhiya V IND 6 82 Alan Diviya Raj IND 6 83 CM Bennett David Michael USA 6 84 Patil Harshal IND 6 85 Dahale Atul IND 6 86 Sumit Grover IND 6 87 WIM Parnali S Dharia IND 6 88 Shyam Prasad Reddy IND 6 89 Punit Indora IND 6 90 Pandey Srishti IND 6 91 Arya Bhakta IND 6 92 Sa Kannan IND 6 93 Sanjeet Manohar IND 6 94 Lama Surbir NEP 6 95 Priyanka Nutakki IND 6 96 Mehta Naitik R IND 6 97 Likhit Chilukuri IND 6 98 CM Sharma Bhagawati P NEP 6 99 Deepthamsh Reddy IND 5½ 100 FM Deshpande Aniruddha IND 5½ 101 Pranesh M IND 5½ 102 Gaikwad Siddhant IND 5½ 103 Utsab Chatterjee IND 5½ 104 Saranya Y IND 5½

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IM Padmini Rout of PSPB, defended her title in IWASA 44th National Women Premier Chess Championship by scoring 7.5 points out of 11 rounds. This is her 4th consecutive National Women Premier title. She was half a point ahead of Bhakti Kulkarni of AI, Mary Ann Gomes and Soumya Swaminathan of PSPB who were placed 2nd, 3rd& 4th respectively.

The National Women Premier Chess Champi-onship was organized by Gujarat State Chess Association at The Surat Tennis Club, Surat, from 24th November to 6th of December 2017. Twelve participants comprising of 6 WGM’s, including the defending champion IM Padmini Rout & 2 Women International Mas-ters vied for this coveted title. The champion-ship was conducted in a round robin format, with each player meeting all the other once. It was a Category 6 event with average rating of 2188. The winner gets a prize amount of Rs.1.75 lakhs in a prize fund of Rs.6 Lakhs. The tournament was inaugurated by Mr.Niraj of IWASA, Bhavesh Patel, Secy, GSCA and other office bearer. The lots of tournament was quite innovatively done Ankit Dalal, Jt-Secy, GSCA. What we used to call as Housie, known as Tambola also, tickets printed with numbers where used. Various combinations like 1st line, full house, unlucky 7, letter T etc were used to pick the start number.

The Surat Tennis Club is one of the oldest club in Surat, established since 1927. The club promotes lot of activities like badminton, swimming, snooker, cricket nets, aerobics etc. Surat was once a seaport and much

known nowadays for Diamond cutting,pol-ishing and Textiles. The players were pro-vided with accommodation and food in the club premises making their stay much more comfortable and safer.

The last round had enough drama with 4 players Padmini, Meenakshi, Bhakti &Soumya tied on 6.5 points. Meenakshi’s tie break was better than others and looked like one to win as she had won the individual encounter with Padmini. Alas Meenakshi fumbled at the post and lost to Srishti Pandey and quit the race. Meanwhile Soumya was getting better of BalaKannamma in the middle game only enough to draw. Soumya’s dream of regain-ing her title which she won in 2010 has to wait. Bhakti was very close to win against a defiant Samriddha Ghosh, but missed her way too, much to relief of Padmini Rout.

Bhakti had to be contend with 2nd place after having the best chance in SB scores if tied with Padmini and she tried her best till the 5th hour against Ghosh but the advantage faded somehow.

Mary Ann’s 3rd place was due to her late resurgence with 3.5 points out of 4 in the last 4 rounds. Her earlier losses to Bhakti & Swati Ghate messed up her chances but final assault was good enough. 4th placed SoumyaSwaminathan had a shot at the title but missed a possible winin the final round. Her unlucky loss to Bhakti in a problem like mate was quite scary when she had winning possibilities.

Meenakshi was placed 5th on list with 6.5 points , followed by Nandhidhaa and Swati Ghate on 6 points at 6 & 7th respectively. Meenakshi loss in last 2 roundscost dearly her a maiden National Premier title despite having opponents lowly placed. Nandhidhaa was leading with Padmini in the 8th round and with good wins over Swati Ghate&Soumy-aSwaminathan in the 4th& 5th rounds. She lost her last 3 rounds much to surprise and went out of the race. Swati Ghate played her usual brand of chess and got better in the 2ndhalf with 4.5 out of 6 rounds. 8th& 9th placed Sakshi and BalaKannammacould’nt prove much and 10th placed Samriddha Ghosh put brakes on Meenakshi& Bhakti. 11th placed Kiran Manisha had a forgettable tournament with 6 losses, but she was able to beat Meenakshi with a beautiful move of Qa3!. One would use to say “The last one but not the least one”. True to the phraseSrishti Pandey seem to decide the winner by scor-ing wins over Nandhidhaa and Meenakshi in 10th& 11th round.

Final roundIM Padmini Rout of PSPB successfully de-fended her title in the IWASA 44th National Women Premier Chess Championship here at the Surat Tennis Club. She scored 7.5 points out of 11 rounds followed by Bhakti Kulkarni of Air India, Mary Ann Gomes of PSPB & Soumya Swaminathan of PSPB all on 7 points.Padmini won her game against Sakshi and waited for other results. When Soumya was held by Bala Kannamma, the onus was on Bhakti who had better Sonneborn Berger scores than Padmini. But Bhakti could only muster a draw and it was once again Padmini the winner.

The king’s Indian attack by Padmini was well held by Sakshi only to mess up in the endgame were former rooks invasion was

quite threatening. The game ended in 59 moves when black was to lose the third pawn and nothing to show up.Bhakti’s advantage against Samriddha Ghosh from the black side of closed Guico piano petered out into a drawn minor piece ending after a battle of 75 moves. Had Bhakti won this game she would have been the champion.

Mary Ann Gomes of PSPB mobilized her major pieces around Nandhidhaa’ss king to score a point in 40 moves. In a Modern defense game, Mary decided to throw her pieces against white and succeeded, though Nan-dhidhaa could have defended better.Srishti was placed at the bottom of the table, but her wins against Nandhidhaa in the penultimate round and Meenakshi in the last round cannot be taken lighter.The girl from Maharashtra defending the queen pawn game equalised early and even won a pawn in the 21st move. The endgame part was well played by Srishti who won the game in 41 moves. Meenakshi’s nerve has failed her with 2 losses in the last rounds, despite tie-breaks favouring her.Swati Ghate drew here LIC teammate Kiran Manisha in 61 moves after missing a winning tactic 28.Rxd5 due to time pressure. Two of Swati’s queenside passed pawns failed to make to 8th rank and Kiran sacrificed a knight to retreat the king to wrong corner and draw was on cards.

Penultimate roundFour players Padmini, Soumya, Meenakshi & Bhakti are leading the 6.5 points at the end of 10th round in the IWASA 44th National Women Premier Chess Championship here at Surat. In an interesting day leader Meenak-shi lost to Kiran, Padmini & Bhakti who were in 2nd spot drew, Soumya caught up with leader and Nandhidhaa lost making the final round open. Though Meenakshi has better

IWASA 44th National Women Premier Chess Championship,Surat….

Padmini Rout is Premier Champion fourth time in a rowBy V.Vijayaraghavan IA, Chief Arbiter

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tie-break scores, final round results may cast the difference.

Defending champion IM Padmini Rout repeat-ed the checks against Bhakti to a safe draw in 27 moves of the grunfeld defense. Trailing in the 2nd spot by half a point a tough tus-sle was expected between these two. Much to the surprise the game ended in a truce despite, Bhakti having an extra minor piece.WGM Mary Ann of PSPB had an fairly easy win against Samriddha Ghosh after netting two pawns from her favourite fianchetto opening. Mary moves up the ladder with 6 points.Soumya Swaminathan was back to her ele-ments with a fine win over Sakshi Chitlange in 36 moves. Replying for the Queen pawn game chosen by Sakshi, Soumya got a strong pawn on d4 square. The weakness around the white king was untenable and Soumya netted a valuable point reliving her title chances.LIC’s Kiran Manisha must be much relieved when she put a hold on her losses by scor-ing over the leader Air India’s Meenakshi.

The exchange of queens had put Meenakshi pieces passive in the middle game. Kiran made inroads on black by winning pawns and won the bishop against knight ending in 51 moves.

The rest day was interesting with a trip to Shairu Gems, a diamond cutting factory and Laxmipati Sarees, a famous textile shop in Surat. We were shown the intricacies in raw diamonds, sizing and polishing, costing etc. Each of one were gifted with a silver coin by Mr Ashok Mehta, CMD, Shairu Gems, a truly amazing experience. Next stop was at the Saree shop and as everyone knows it took much longer. The organizers gifted the par-ticipants with a saree of their choice at free of cost wishing them to be worn by during the prize distribution and it happened!. The prize distribution function was held in the aerobics hall of the Surat Tennis club with prominent guest like Vispy Kharadi, two times Guinness world record holder alongwith officials of Su-rat Tennis Club & GSCA were present.

Final RankingRank Title Name Club Pts Res. SB Vict Vict

1 IM Padmini Rout PSPB 7½ 0 36.25 6 42 WGM Kulkarni Bhakti AI 7 2 37.00 4 23 WGM Gomes Mary Ann PSPB 7 ½ 35.25 5 44 WGM SoumyaSwaminathan PSPB 7 ½ 33.50 5 45 WGM MeenakshiSubbaraman AI 6½ 0 38.50 5 36 WIM NandhidhaaPv TN 6 1 30.25 5 37 WGM Swati Ghate LIC 6 0 29.00 4 18 WIM ChitlangeSakshi MAH 4½ 1 17.75 4 19 BalaKannamma P TN 4½ 0 23.25 1 010 Ghosh Samriddhaa WB 3½ 1 17.75 1 111 WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty LIC 3½ 0 19.50 2 112 Pandey Srishti MAH 3 0 16.50 2 1

AICFB-National “B” Chess Championship for the Visually Challenged 2017 was oragnised by All India Chess Federation for the blind, National Federation for the blind and Haryana State Chess Association for the blind. The five day tournament was inaugurated by Shri Karan Singh, Railway Security Officer Ambala Haryana, Shri Baba Ajith Singh, Trustee Icha purvak Gurudwara Ambala on 25/12/2017 at NFB Hall, Ambala, Haryana. 108 players represented 18 states. Among them, 70 were FIDE rated players and 13 were female players. 4 times National Champion Kishan Gangolli of KAR was the top seed of the tour-nament with an ELO rating of 2003, followed by Aryan B Joshi of MAH 1786.

This tournament was conducted in Swiss league system with 9 rounds. The Top 14 players from this tournament were selected for National “A” Chess Championship for the visually challenged which will be held at

Mumbai from 03rd feb2018 to 11th feb2018.

The event was well contested between the players of various states after 7th round Kis-han Gangolli of Karnataka took the lead with 6.5points. In eighth round Aryan B joshi of Maharashtra joined the leader by defeating Patra Subendu Kumar of Odissa. At the end of 9th round Kishan Gangolli and Aryan B Joshi scored 7.5points with best tiebreak score Kishan Gangolli clinched AICFB National B Chess Championship 2017. Aryan B Joshi is first runner up.

The prize distribution function took place at 2.30pm on 29th December2017. Dignitaries present on the occasion were Mr Subhash Shihang, Sub divisional Magistrate. Shri Dhinesh Shastry, commissioner for disabled Haryana. Professor Miss Tej Pal, Jagieram General Secretary NFB, Shri Manisha Thool Secretary AICFB.

AICFB - National B Chess Championship 2017.Ambala,Haryana…

Kishan Gangolli clinches titleby M.Manjunatha IA, Chief Arbiter

Open Category Rank Sn Name Rating Club Pts 1 Kishan Gangolli 2003 KAR 7½ 2 Aryan B Joshi 1786 MAH 7½ 3 Makwana Ashvin K 1750 GUJ 7 4 Samant Milind 1653 MAH 6½ 5 Prachurya K Pradhan 1561 ODI 6½ 6 Patra Subhendu Kumar 1630 ODI 6½ 7 Krishna Udupa 1710 KAR 6½ 8 Soundarya K Pradhan 1739 ODI 6½ 9 Swapanil Shah 1672 MAH 6½ 10 Patil Shirish 1698 MAH 6½ 11 Deeptyajeet De 1583 W B 6½ 12 Gaurav Gadodia 1750 MAH 6½ 13 Marimuthu K 1591 T N 6½ 14 Yudhajeet De 1682 W B 6½

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9TH BRDCA International Open FIDE rating chess tournament was held at Virginia Mall, Bangalore from 1st to 4th December 2017. This is the 9th Open fide rating chess tour-nament conducted by Bangalore rural District Chess Association. The event attracted 234 players from all over India, including major states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Haryana, Orissa, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Goa, Pondicherry and two players from USA. Top seed of the event was Grandmaster Deepan Chakkaravarthy J of Tamil Nadu. The 8 round event was conducted in 4 days. Total cash prize was RS. 506000/-

Top seed of the tournament GM Deepan Chakkaravarthy J of TN with an Elo of 2473 is the winner with 71/2 points. He remained undefeated with 7 wins and a draw in the final round. In the last round he shared the point with Manigandan S S of TN. He is the current champion of ‘National B Challenger’, Former Commonwealth Bronze medalist, Former Asian Junior Champion, Runner up in National ‘A’ twice and from past 7 years representing Indian National Team. It was easy sailing for him. He bagged the prize money of RS. 61000 and a glittering trophy. The first runner up is Manigandan S S of TN with 7 points and the second runner up is Sanjay N of KAR with 7 points.

This is the first chess tournament organ-ized at this venue. All facilities required for smooth conduct of a chess tournament were available at the venue. It was well ventilat-ed with centralized AC and parents seating arrangements. It is one of the best venues

for chess tournaments in Karnataka.

Prize distribution Ceremony took place at 5.30 pm. Mr.Arvind Shastry Secretary UKCA, Mr. Chidananda A secretary BRDCA, Mr. Ha-numantha R, Vice President UKCA, Shashi Kumar CEO Akshaykalpa and Mr. Subra-manyam CEO Virginia Mall presided over the function.I have attached photo of the winners of the tournament along with the tournament hall photos.Final ranking Rk Name Pts 1 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. 7½ 2 Manigandan S S 7 3 Sanjay N. 7 4 Sekar B 6½ 5 Balkishan A. 6½ 6 Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri 6½ 7 Yashas D. 6½ 8 Senthil Maran K 6½ 9 Syed Anwar Shazuli 6½ 10 Augustin A 6 11 Arvind Shastry 6 12 Abhishek A 6 13 Varma Shabdhik 6 14 Selvabharathy T 6 15 Pranav Anand 6 16 Raghavendra V. 6 17 Sriram B 6 18 WCM Isha Sharma 6 19 Badrinath S. 6 20 Sudarshan Bhat 5½ 21 Jayachandra Srinivas V 5½ 22 Lokesh N. 5½ 23 Gavi Siddayya 5½ 24 Mohamed Anees M 5½ 25 IM Hegde Ravi Gopal 5½ 26 Reetish Padhi 5½

9th BRDCA International Open FIDE Rating Chess Tournament

GM Deepan Chakkaravarthy is the Championby FA Saleem Beig, Chief Arbiter

27 Sugyan Prakash Maharaj 5½ 28 WCM Chopdekar Gunjal 5½ 29 AIM Abhijit Chutia 5½ 30 WCM Swera Ana Braganca 5½ 31 Jagadish P 5½ 32 Srikrishnan P 5½ 33 AIM Kohli Pranav 5½ 34 AGM Sagar Praveen 5½ 35 Vignesh Kasi P L 5½ 36 Keshav Kothari 5½ 37 Tanvi Vasudev Hadkonkar 5½ 38 Ramajayam J 5½ 39 Devanand Nayak 5 40 Darshan V P S 5 41 AGM Sa Kannan 5 42 Abhinessh S 5 43 Arhan Chethan Anand 5 44 Jinan Jomon 5 45 Ansuman Mohanty 5 46 Anantha Sai S 5 47 Surya Prakash J 5 48 Aravinda B R 5 49 Vivekananda L 5 50 Jaiswal Avi 5 51 Samyukta Banthia 5 52 Saypuri Srithan 5 53 Pereira Asim Anthony 5 54 Samith Reddy I 5 55 Shree Krishna Pranama 5 56 Pradeep Sagar 5 57 Nithish M 5 58 Vikas Saini 5 59 Aniruddh Chatterjee 5 60 Anirudh Ra 5 61 AFM Shashidhar B Rai 5 62 Porob Vraj 5 63 Dhandapani Perumal 5 64 Neil J 5 65 Arnav Muralidhar 5 66 Laddha Shubh Jayesh 5 67 Gargare Prathmesh 5 68 Sanjay Srinivasan R 5 69 Kamatham Balaji 5

70 Hrishikesh R Raghuvaran 5 71 AFM Kaushik G Iyer 4½ 72 Shiva S 4½ 73 AFM Ravindran R 4½ 74 Yashas Donthi 4½ 75 Karthikay C 4½ 76 Bipin Raj S 4½ 77 Hariharan Subramony 4½ 78 Adithya A Chullikkad 4½ 79 Devkarvin V U 4½ 80 Jeyanth R 4½ 81 Rakshith Srinivasan 4½ 82 Pratik Dinesh Kumar 4½ 83 Abhyuday Santhosh 4½ 84 Tejas Cavale 4½ 85 Apoorv Kamble 4½ 86 Sanjana Raghunath 4½ 87 Vishwanath Radhakrishnan 4½ 88 Suyash Srivastava 4½ 89 Anil Thungesh 4½ 90 Chaitanya Gadgil 4½ 91 Kakodkar Joy 4½ 92 Deekshith J 4½ 93 Nachiketh Adiga 4½ 94 Radhakrishna S Kavalgi 4½ 95 Dhrithi Murgod 4½ 96 Prajwal M Joshi 4½ 97 Joshi Kedar 4½ 98 Ajjay R 4½ 99 Rohit Venugopal 4½ 100 Bharath M 4½ 101 WCM Shriyana S Mallya 4½ 102 Pramod S P 4½ 103 Dharani Srinivas K B 4 104 Prabhakaran K 4 105 AIM Sushrutha Reddy 4 106 Rishabh Kumara 4 107 Umesh N 4 108 Siddhesh Jayakumar 4 109 Vishwa Bala Kumaran M 4 110 Saket Singh 4 111 Siri Sharma 4 112 Amogh Manohar 4

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IM R Balasubramaniam of TN won the Riv-erside 1st International FIDE Rated Open Chess Tournament with 7 points. The event was held from 22nd to 25th December and 2 lakh rupees of cash prize was distribut-ed among various rating categories. Apart from the cash prizes around 100 trophies were given to young talents of different age groups. The tournament has been one of its kind and the first ever rated tournament in this lovely hill station of Nilgris District. 160 players ranging from Maharashtra to West Bengal and Jharkand to all southern states eagerly participatedin this event.

The event was inaugurated by the Chair-man of Mangalam Educational Trust C. K. Kandasamy, along with the Secretary Mrs. Selvamani Kandasamy, Chief Administrative Officer Arangasamy, Mr. Kavin Kumar Kan-dasamy, the Managing Director, Mr. Fran-cis Xavier, the Principal of Riverside Public School, Mrs. Jaya Haridas the Vice Principal, Chief Arbiter V. Vijayaraghavan&Mr. Bashir Ahmed Secretary of the Nilgiris District Chess Association. The Chief Guest Mr. C. K.Kan-dasamy inaugurated the event by cutting the ribbon followed by playing the first move in the tournament.

True to their motto of strive to excel,River-side Public Schooldid excel in organizing this wonderful event, that too for a first timer in chess event of this magnitude. A good playing hall, LED displayfor pairings, decent accom-modation battling the chill weather, delicious food, daily tours to the nearby scenic places for parents & participants. Special mention to Govindan, chief sports coordinator and Vivek,

the chess coach for leaving no stone unturned in this event. All the staff including the train-ers of various sports discipline showed much involvement to make the event hassle free.

Each round was inaugurated by important people & sport achievers of Nilgris districts. Special invitees like Hittukkal Bojarajan, a philanthropist and charter president of Lions club of Kotagiri, H.T.Kumar, District Sports Officer, J.R.Natarajan and B.Ganesh, Inter-national Hockey Players, Rajesh Nahar, MD, Nahar group of hotels, H S Moorthy, Coach of Indian Deaf & Dumb, Table Tennis Olympics Team 2017,Chandramohan an International volleyball player, visited the tournament hall and inaugurated the rounds.

SS Manigandan of TN took the sole lead with 5 points from 5 rounds, while IM Bala was on 4.5 points. In their 6th round individual encounter Bala outplayed Manigandan to take the lead and continued it till the final round. In a 5 way tie for the 2nd place on 6.5 points Swaraj Palit of Jharkand finished runner up followed by A Abhishek & MAbhijith of Ker-ala, Yuvan Bharathi of TN & OT Anil Kumar of Kerala.

The prize distribution function started with a Bharatnatyam dance by the home brewn talents of Riverside, followed by distribution of prizes by Kavin Kumar Kandasamy, Man-aging Director, Mangalam Educational Trust.

Final standings Rk. Name Pts. 1 R Balasubramaniam IM 7 2 Swaraj Palit 6.5

3 Abhishek A 6.5 4 Abhijith M 6.5 5 Yuvan Bharathi K S 6.5 6 Anilkumar O.T. 6.5 7 Manigandan S S 6 8 Sivakumar C. 6 9 Sathish Chandra G 6 10 Sharsha Backer 6 11 Kathiravan M. 6 12 Madhusoodanan K.R. 6 13 Sushrutha Reddy 6 14 Raghuraman N. R. 6 15 Kannan R. 6 16 Vigneshwaran N. 5.5 17 Sivasankar B. 5.5 18 Vinodh Kumar B. 5.5 19 Binu Sebastian 5.5 20 Nandha Kumar K 5.5 21 Aravindaswami T 5.5 22 Harshad S 5.5 23 Subramanian T.V. 5.5 24 Uma Maheswaran P 5.5 25 Madhusudan R. 5.5 26 Ranjith Kalaiyarasan 5.5 27 Kannan.V 5.5 28 Nitin M Pai 5 29 Kabhilan S 5 30 Hiridik Rajendran 5 31 Gangadhar T 5 32 Yashavishree N 5 33 John Christopher 5 34 Vishnu Bharani S 5 35 Aakash G 5 36 Kathiravan S 5 37 Rathish R 5 38 Kavitha P L 5 39 Vishalraam C S 5 40 Goutham Krishnaraja 5 41 Jaidambareesh N R 5 42 Madhu Sudhan Chary K 5 43 Velavaa Ragavesh 5 44 Rajiv A 5 45 Sriram K 5

46 Prakalya Nithish S 5 47 Shaik Shabaaj 5 48 Sakthivel Heamish Kanha 5 49 Lekhanthika Mathan R 5 50 Avinash Y 5 51 Babu S. 4.5 52 Tejaswi R 4.5 53 Harsha R 4.5 54 Jeremiah S V 4.5 55 Rajkumar S 4.5 56 Vishwa Dheep D N 4.5 57 Adithya A Chullikkad 4.5 58 Shreyas Seshadri Nallore 4.5 59 Rethish Puthanpurayil 4.5 60 Ravikumar R 4.5 61 Reno Noel 4.5 62 Mayoogha N 4.5 63 Pournami S 4.5 64 Chandhan G 4.5 65 Shreya S Pillai 4.5 66 Sudeep S 4 67 Aji Kumar A 4 68 Harish G 4 69 Kaviyarasan T 4 70 Vinesh R 4 71 Kaustubh Balaji 4 72 Bala Guhanesh G S 4 73 Adhithyan J 4 74 Sumesh Kabeer 4 75 Rajeeb Mk 4 76 Pranav Gopi 4 77 Hareesh Ponnappan 4 78 Srivatsan Karthikeyan 4 79 Rohit Venugopal 4 80 Aromal S Nair 4 81 Madhesh V 4 82 Vinoth Kumar M 4 83 Shreepathi M 4 84 Logesh Sanmugam S 4 85 Vinanthi R S 4 86 Aswin Sivakumar 4 87 Narine Anirudh S 4 88 Mohitkumar K S 4

Riverside 1st International FIDE Open, Kotagiri

Balasubramanian wins at Kotagiriby V.Vijayaragahavan IA, Chief Arbiter

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2nd CPPA Open Rating chess tournament 2017, Duliajan, Assam

Trailokya Nanda wins titleby Debasish Barua, IA,Chief Arbiter

The CPPA Open Rating chess tournament 2017 organized by Chess Players’ Parent’s Association and Recognized by All Assam Chess Association and All India Chess Feder-ation from 10th to 15th December, 2017 at Oil India ltd, Bihutoli, Duliajan, Assam.

On 10th December, 2017 inauguration cer-emony started at 3 pm where Mr.Narendra-Vashisht, President Organizing Committee, preside over the function, Mr.Dipankar Malla Baruah, Chief Advisor Organizing Committee, MrDebasish Barua International Arbiter, chief Arbiter of the tournament were present on the dais, after brief welcome address, Chief Guest Mr. Pranjit Deka, ED (HR&A )Oil India Ltd. officially announcing the tournament open by making move on the chess board. Thereafter first round started at 5 pm.

Total 101 players from 3 different North Eastern states, among which 50FIDE rated players, participated in the Championship. Time control was 90 minutes with 30 second increment from move one. Tournament hall was good and well illuminated and ventilated. After tough fight Trailokya Nanda of Assam became the Champion, Rahul Soram Singh of Assam was Runner-up.Cheniram Pegu stood third. All the three of them tied at 7.5 out of 9 points.

Organizers provided all players and parents free accommodation.Arbiter team headed by Mr. DebasishBarua, IA, Chief Arbiter, Mr. M Arun Singh, Senior National Arbiter, Deputy Chief Arbiter, Mr. DipakPatgiri, NA, conducted the championship successfully without single appeal and dispute.

The Chess Players’ Parent’s Association, Duliajan organizer of the tournament has so many young dedicated personalities like Mr. Dipanta Kumar Gogoi, Mr D M Baruah, MrsJahnabiNeog, Mr. PrabinGogoi, under the leadership of Mr.Jayanta Kumar Gogoi Gener-al Secretary of CPPA,D and Mr. PrabinGogoi, President CPPA,Duliajan, Assam.

Prize Distribution ceremony was held on 15th December, 2017 at 4 pm at the ven-ue. Mr. DipakPatgiri, Secretary Incharge, All Assam Assam Chess Association, Mr.Kamal Kumar Das, General Manager, Oil India Ltd ( Planing), attended the prize distribution ceremony.

Final ranking Rk Name Pts 1 Trailokya Nanda 7½ 2 Singh Soram Rahul 7½ 3 Cheniram Pegu 7½ 4 Arun Som 7 5 Santanu Borpatra Gohain 6½ 6 Baruah Utpal 6½ 7 Tuhin Kashyap 6½ 8 Pranab Kumar Nath 6 9 Jadav Gogoi 6 10 Neelabh Jyoti Borthakur 6 11 Anuj Protim Boruah 6 12 Parashar Debashis 6 13 Divyanga Spondon Baruah 6 14 Dhrubajyoti Borpatra 6 15 Abinash P Gogoi 6 16 Ranjan Changmai 6 17 Jitabrata Nath 6 18 Santosh Giri 6 19 Rintu Brahma 5½ 20 Melesayi Dawhuo 5½

21 Dhruv Phukan 5½ 22 Jintu Gogoi 5½ 23 Anuj Boro 5½ 24 Arijit Amar Saikia 5½ 25 Abhash Roimya Saikia 5 26 Tanisha A R Som 5 27 Aarohan Saikia 5 28 Nawab Mukril Zadeed 5 29 Devabarenya Gogoi 5 30 Mukul Borah 5 31 Tripartha Saikia 5 32 Devjit Khanikar 5 33 Sumangal Borgohain 5 34 Nandika Sahu 5 35 Abhijit Kurmi 5 36 Ravin Sarkar 5 37 Jagadish Gogoi 5 38 Trideep Luchan Thengal 5 39 Ahiron Kaushik Saikia 5 40 Ayush Mahanta 5 41 Mayukh Abhigyan Das 5 42 Mrinmoy Gogoi 5 43 Rishi Vishal Gogoi 5 44 Sun Dowerah 5 45 Tapovrata Handique 5 46 Hiranya Kaman 4½ 47 Bhargav Gogoi 4½ 48 Arnabjyoti Gogoi 4½ 49 Winee Thengal 4½ 50 Vivek Rajkumar 4½ 51 Das Pragyan Jyoti 4½ 52 Ekanjoli Gogoi 4½ 53 Lawrence Sonowal 4½ 54 Samanway Baruah 4½ 55 Mrinmoy Protim Konwar 4½ 56 Md. Ashique 4½ 57 Partha Sulabh Hazarika 4½ 58 Bhaskar Paul 4 59 Rituraj Saikia 4 60 Netradeep Das 4 61 Pulin Borah 4 62 Swaraj Jyoti Neog 4 63 Kalpajit Changmai 4

64 Ariz Zaman 4 65 Dikom Newar 4 66 Parismita Chutia 4 67 Hitarth Pratim Buragohain 4 68 Akash Nibir Kashyap 4 69 Nahid Amon 4 70 Priyanshu Dutta 4 71 Priyanuj Gogoi 4 72 Abhinab Saikia 3½ 73 Chinmoi Saikia 3½ 74 Gaurav Nandan Nath 3½ 75 Arunangshu Raj Dey 3½ 76 Neerab Dowerah 3½ 77 Pritisha Dutta 3½ 78 Sanjiv Prasad 3½ 79 Angaraag Borkakoti 3½ 80 Jitul Kurmi 3½ 81 Yuwan Das 3½ 82 Adhiraj Chetia 3 83 Antariksh Monoj Gogoi 3 84 Indira Bhorali 3

Puzzle of the monthby C.G.S.Narayanan

Tibar OrbanComm. Die Schwalbe 1976

Proof game in exactly 4 moves

(Solution on page 48)

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The CSIR-CMERI Diamond Jubilee All India FIDE Rated Tournament,Durgapur

Suvrajit Saha wins at Durgapurby Biswanath Banerjee, Chief Arbiter

The CSIR-CMERI Diamond Jubilee All India Open FIDE Rated Chess Tournament was held at CSIR CMERI HALL at Durgapur from 29th Nov-03rd Dec 2017. A total number of 231 players which includes two International Master, one FIDE Master and 130 Internation-al rated players from different parts of the country were participated in the event which was spread over five days with a time control of 90 minutes and 30 seconds increment from move 1. Digital Chess Clocks were use in all the boards.

The total prize fund of the event was Rs.1,50,000. The Tournament was played under Swiss System with 8 rounds and had Kaustuv Kundu of West Bengal as the top seed. With Round one starting on time and the players went into their business mode from the start itself in the beautiful venue, which was provided by CSIR CMREI celebra-tion Committee. The tournament progressed on expected lines as seeded players regis-tered comfortable victories on earlier part of the event. In the eight round Suvrajit Saha of W.B. drew with Arpan Das also from W.B. to take the sole lead and bagged the Cham-pionship crown along with Rs. 30,000/- and a beautiful champions trophy. Previously Suvrajit Saha outplayed top seed Kaustuv Kundu in round 6 in the end game. Friendly encounters and hard fought battles ensured a thrilling end to the event. Suvrajit Saha bagged the championship with 7.5 point. 2 players tied for the pole position with seven points. With better tie break score, Arpan Das of WB emerged as 1st Runner up to pocket

a cash prize of Rs. 20,000/- along with tro-phy while IM Neeroj Kr. Mishra of Jharkhand finished as 2nd runner up and bagged Rs. 15000/- in his purse. Earlier in a colourful Opening ceremony, IM Atanu Lahir , Sec BCA and Jt. Sec AICF delivered his speech and promised to change the Steel City Durgapur to a Chess City. The other dignitaries in the Dias were Prof. Harish Hirani, Director, CSIR CMERI and Dr. S.N. Shome.

Closing ceremony was held in a befitting manner. Chief guest was Prof. Harish Irani. The research fellow and the scientist Dr. Himadi Ray, Dr. S.N.Shome, Dr. N.Nagaha-numaiah and IM Neeraj Kr. Mishra were the other dignitaries in the podium and gave away the prizes to the winner.

We should appreciate the CSIR CMERI Dia-mond Jubilee committee for their wonderful support and also to the supporting staff specially Dr. Himadri Roy who worked with us for the past 7 days. A very good team of arbiters along with a group of dedicated offi-cials made the tournament successful. Finally I must thank Dr. Himadri Roy and Mr. Atanu Lahiri , Secretary of Bengal Chess Association for given me the chance to work as a Chief arbiter for this wonderful tournament.Final ranking Rk Name Pts 1 IM Suvrajit Saha 7½ 2 Arpan Das 7 3 IM Mishra Neeraj-Kumar 7 4 Soumma Chakraborty 6½ 5 Nath Rupankar 6½ 6 Sandip Dey 6½

7 FM Dutta Joydeep 6½ 8 Rabindra Kumar Ojha 6½ 9 Ayush Jha 6½ 10 Sanket Chakravarty 6 11 Kaustuv Kundu 6 12 Chattarjee Laltu 6 13 Samar Chatterjee 6 14 Arijit Mukherjee 6 15 Arunava Bhattacharjee 6 16 Basak Bishal 6 17 Goutam Das 6 18 Satya Sekhar Mitra 6 19 Krishna Kumar Mishra 6 20 Gaurav Das 5½ 21 Basak Sajal 5½ 22 Bhattacharya N Shekhar 5½ 23 Rahul Krishna Viswanathan 5½ 24 Tapan Kumar Dey 5½ 25 Swarnava Biswas 5½ 26 Atreya Nandy 5½ 27 Krish Kedia 5½ 28 Singh Ojasva 5½ 29 Bhattacharyya Soham 5½ 30 Md. Shabbir Ali 5½ 31 Hemanth Kumar 5½ 32 Janardhan Mukherjee 5½ 33 Sankalan Shah 5½ 34 Agnivo Ghosh 5½ 35 Alekhya Mukhopadhyay 5½ 36 Soumen Mondal 5½ 37 Soham Pal 5½ 38 Ajit Kumar Saw 5½ 39 Jha R N 5½ 40 Anubhab Gupta 5½ 41 Aryan Bandyopadhyay 5 42 Pattnayak Nilsu 5 43 Ritwick Pal 5 44 Mukherjee S.K. 5 45 Bhoopnath 5 46 Ayan Pal 5 47 Ankan Saha 5 48 Raja Bose 5 49 Prithwi Sinha 5

50 Ruchir Sengupta 5 51 Gautam Kumar 5 52 Nihar Ranjan Banerjee 5 53 Pramit Chanda 5 54 Rajat Garg 5 55 Prasenjit Das 5 56 Debanjan Sasmal 5 57 Ashutosh Padhi 5 58 Shankhodip De 5 59 Abhirup Das 5 60 Maloy Deb Roy 5 61 Pallab Bala 5 62 Mitra Subhanil 5 63 Mouhurtik Ray 5 64 Ananya Bothra 5 65 Sandip Debnath 5 66 Kapil Dev Prakash 5 67 Sanjay Kumar Sadhukhan 5 68 Raj Aryan 5 69 Alok Pal 5 70 Kriti Mundhra 5 71 Shiladitya Konar 4½ 72 Krishnamoorthy K 4½ 73 Singh D K 4½ 74 Kumar Sankalp 4½ 75 Sourath Biswas 4½ 76 Asmita Das 4½ 77 Swapan Kumar Das 4½ 78 Aniruddha Paul 4½ 79 Meshram Aditya 4½ 80 Ritesh Kumar 4½ 81 Dibakar Das 4½ 82 Arpan Ghosh 4½ 83 Anurag Banerjee 4½ 84 Krish Srivastava 4½ 85 Saumya Srivastava 4½ 86 Shresth Mahapatra 4½ 87 Avhilash Ghosh 4½ 88 Gajendra Kumar 4½ 89 Bakrewal Vinamra 4½ 90 Rohan Nag Chowdhury 4 91 Shyam Bihari Gupta 4 92 Samrat Nandi 4

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IM Ramnathan Balasubramanyam of Tamil-nadu won the Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam FIDE Rating Open Chess Tournament held here at Davinci International School, anakapalle, Visakhapatnam from 15th to 18th Dec 2017. He tied with Sri Sai Baswanth (TEL) and Nandhakumar K (TN), both scoring 7 points each from 8 rounds. Due to tie break score Sri Sai Baswanth and Nandhakumar K are placed second and third.

Winner got prize money of Rs. 25,000/- where as Runner up arun received Rs. 12,000/- and 3rd placed got Rs. 8,000/- Total Rs. 2 Lakh distributed among 62 prize winners.The event attracted 188 participants from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, and Kerala.

The event is organized by Sri Gurukul Chess Academy under the auspices of Andhra Pradesh State Chess Association. The event was inaugurated on 15th morning by Sri Devaram Srihari, Secretary-AP State Chess Association and Mr. Sundaryya Director of Davinci Inernational school, Ch.Ramesh Vice President of APCA,Chief Arbiter GV Kumar are also Present .

In the valedictory function B.B NagendraRao(-Judge),K.P Naidu(PP), Swami Naidu(SI),Sun-darayya and Ramanaji(school Administra-tion), Srihari APCA Secretary,GV Kumar Chief Arbiter,Ch.Ramesh APCA vice Prsident, and Organizers Mallikarjun,Jyoteesh,Veerab-hadra rao are distributed trophies and cash awards to the winners.The chief arbiter was FA Venkata Kumar G of Rajamundry (Andhra Pradesh) and deputy Chief Arbiter FA V.Sri-

kanth, NA Ch.Ramesh Arbiter.Final standings:Rk Name Pts1 IM R Balasubramaniam 7½2 Sri Sai Baswanth P 73 Nandha Kumar K 74 Kalyani B 6½5 Mushini Ajay 6½6 Vijaya Kumar A.V.S. 6½7 Chaitanya Sairam Mogili 6½8 Bheri Yaswanth 6½9 Mahendra Teja Mekala 610 AGM Mani Bharathy 611 Niranjan Mocharla 612 Cheela Naga Sampath 613 Sai Kiran Y 614 Sai Divya M 615 Vidya Sagar J.B.M. 616 Krishna Karthik N 617 Pidintla Saikumar 618 Vijay Kumar Agarwal 619 Sanjay Bhargav B 620 M Tulasi Ram Kumar 621 Adireddy Arjun 622 Nikhil M 5½23 Kalyan Kumar K 5½24 Goutham Yasodhar B 5½25 John Christopher 5½26 Narasimha Raveendra G 5½27 Ramana Babu B. 5½28 Varahalu S. 5½29 P Srinivas Reddy 5½30 Unnikrishnan M A 5½31 Theju K V 532 Adirathna Kumar S 533 Nagaraju J 534 Sai Raj Gopal K 535 Venkateswara Rao T 536 Seethamraju VSai Sathvi 5

37 Aravind P V S 538 Karthik N 539 Shanmukha Teja P 540 B Kishan 541 Prasanth K V 542 Sri Bhargav Ram B 543 Chintada Lakshmi Gayathri 544 Sumaneesh Alluru 545 Srihari Devaram 546 Charishma Yadav Palla 547 Boopathi Sairaju V 548 Allumalla Lokeswara Rao 549 Ch Gopalakrishna Rao 550 Laxman Rao M 551 Siva Durga Rao P 552 Setty Premchand 553 Divya Teja P 554 Chaitanya Reddy B L 555 Martin Luther K. 556 Sattiveti Venkatesh 557 M Venkata Ruthvik 558 Appanna Pilla 559 Venkateshwara Rao Koyya 560 Babu Rao R. 4½61 Akhil B V S 4½62 Dekshitha M V D S 4½63 Veera Raju G 4½64 Adireddy Tarun 4½65 Rushyendra Chowdary K 4½66 Syed Tarannum 4½67 Sai Nikhil Y 4½68 Rama Raju V L V 4½69 Samuel Kumar 4½70 Trinadharao S 4½71 Gnana Prasoon Patnaik B 4½72 Praval Patel 4½73 Kundrapu Kushwanth 4½74 Radha Krishna Devaki 4½75 Kodela Keerthi Kanth 4½76 Srinivash Gopal Reddy K 4½77 K Sri Sai Shashank Raj 478 Bhaskara Rao Balaga 479 Varshini M 4

80 Prasada Rao Ponnapalli 481 Ravi Krishna G 482 Upadhyayula Vamsidhar 483 Saketh Kumar Reddy C 484 Avinash Vvus 485 Srimannarayana K S S 486 Avaneesh Gupta D C S 487 Santosh Reddy T 488 Chaandhak P 489 Arjun Krishnan Suresh 490 Bhavya Sri Ponnaganti 491 Kalki Mohan Boda 492 Uma Maheswara Rao K 493 Harsha Vardhan Gedhala 494 Praneet Sasanapuri 495 Yaswant D 496 Shyamala Joyce D 497 Ramanaji Dhulipati 498 Patnana Kishore Rajan 499 Veji B Sivaji 4100 Poojitha Battula 4101 Goutham Boni 4102 Yamuna M 4103 AIM Karyasheel P 4104 Gagan P 4105 Tollala Prasad 4106 Anisetty Lokesh Kumar 4107 Surya Charith P 4108 Vishwanath Kannam 4109 Seedi Jairaj 4110 Sohan Reddy V M 4111 Sadi Ram Swarup Reddy 4112 Syamkarni Datta Uppalapati 4113 Pandram Sai 4114 Tirumaleswara Rao Atyam 3½115 Prasanth Kumar K V 3½116 Swathi A 3½117 Palla Mohit Yadav 3½118 Setumadhav Yellumahanthi 3½119 Gopal Rao P V 3½120 Butchi Raju S V R 3½

Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam FIDE Rating Open Chess Tournament,Visakhapatnam

Balasubramaniam of Tamilnadu winsby FA G Venkata Kumar , Chief Arbiter

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Karnavati Club Open FIDE Rating Chess Tournament 2017 was conducted by Gujarat State Chess Association under the aegis of All India Chess Federation from 15th to 19th December 2017 at the prestigious Karnavati Club (air conditioned) Ahmedabad.

The event attracted 159 Players from 15 States and 4 Special units from India and two of the players came from Bangladesh and Zimbabwe. The event was very strong in the way of quality of players, includes 1 GM, 4 IM & 1 WIM. Total 138 FIDE rated players took part, in that 16 players are above 2000 rating points. A Total of 9 rounds were played in five days with a time control of 90 Minutes with additional 30 Seconds increment was given from move No.1.Jayesh Modi, Vice –President of Gujarat State Chess Association &Chair-man, Karnavati Club inaugurated the event by making the customary first move over the chess board in the presence of Mr.Bhavesh Patel – Secretary, GSCA other GSCA office bearers and Players, their Parents.

All clocks sprung into action mode sharply at 10:00 AM. The entire tournament witnessed lots of ups and downs and was filled with lot of drama, thrill and suspense till the end. GM Deepan Chakkravarthi J of RSPB stated as top seed and dominated against his lesser rated opponents till round six and registered 6 consecutive victories but his seamless follow came to a pause when he tried to confuse IM Praveen Kumar C of ICF with his opening in the round seven. The International Master found loopholes in Deepan’s opening and reached to an unclear position, after that both players signed a peace treaty. He also settled

for quick draws in round-8 and 9 against IM Ravi Teja and IM Sangma Rahul and reached the score of 7.5 out of a possible 9.

Second seeded IM Ravi Teja also had a good start. He registered four consecutive wins and settled down for draws with Mirashi Shantanu and Masango Spencer of Zimbabwe in round 5and 6 and won the round 7 against the local favourite Maulik Rawal. In the round 8 he offered a quick draw to GM Deepan Chak-kravarthi and the same was accepted. In the final round in an exciting game he defeated Jaykundaliya and also reached 7.5 out of a possible 9.

For the third seed Rahul Sangma the journey was not so smooth. In the round 2 he faced a shocking defeat against Saumil Nair of Guja-rat when he blundered in a plus position. But the IM kept his nerves calm and won next 6 games and settled with draw in final round with Deepan and also reached 7.5.

When the equality was resolved by tie-breaks GM Deepan Chakkravarthi J become champi-on, IM Rahul Sangam became first runner-up and IM Ravi became the second runner-up.

WIM Gokhale Anupama of Maharashtra be-came the best female player. Dave Kanthilal of Rajasthan became the best Veteran; Sinha Santhosh Kumar became the best Gujarat player. Rating category Anadkat Kartavya of Gujarat, Deepak Singh of Delhi, Raj D Vyas of Gujarat, Kanjar Kirtan Ketanbhai of Gujarat became winners in rating category Bellow-2000,1600 and 1400 respectively.

In a colourful Closing Cerimony on 19 Dec 17 Mr.Jayesh Modi, President Karnavati Club, Ahmedabad along with Mr.Bhavesh Patel, Secretary Gujarat State Chess Associa-tion, Mr.Mayur Patel, Vice President GSCA, Mr.Niriv, Committee member & Chess Coach, Mr. Ankit Dalal, Jt.Secretary GSCA, give away the prized to the winners.

The tournament was well organised by Gu-jarat State Chess Association with great support from Sports Authority of Gujarat, Gandhinagar, The Gujarat State Co-operative Bank Ltd, Ahmedabad & Karnavati Club.All the boards are provided chess clocks before the game started for all rounds. On round six Mr Shantanu Nagar (FIDE 45041504) made an appeal against the de-cision taken by Section Arbiter and later by Chief Arbiter regarding and illegal move.Ap-peal Committee was assembled (GM Deepan Chakkravarthi, Hemal Tanki, Dave Kanthilal) and took the decision in favour of Arbiter. Final ranking Rk Name Pts 1 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J 7½ 2 IM Sangma Rahul 7½ 3 IM Ravi Teja S. 7½ 4 Balkishan A. 7 5 IM Praveen Kumar C 7 6 Thanki Hemal Karsanji 7 7 Likhit Chilukuri 7 8 Anadkat Kartavya 7 9 Ram S. Krishnan 6½ 10 Trivedi Karan R 6½ 11 Jay Kundaliya 6½ 12 Aryan Abhijeet Shah 6½ 13 Ahmed Feroz 6½ 14 Deepak Singh 6½ 15 Bhatt Jalpan 6½ 16 AIM Mandloi Mukesh 6½

Karnavati Club Open FIDE Rating Chess Tournament 2017

Deepan Chakravarthi wins titleby IA S Biju Raj, Chief Arbiter

17 Mirashi Shantanu 6 18 Vikramaditya Mukhija 6 19 IM Shyaamnikhil P 6 20 Sarthak Patel 6 21 Sinha Santosh Kumar 6 22 Badavath Anand 6 23 WIM Gokhale Anupama 6 24 Himanshu S Chhabra 6 25 Sumit Grover 6 26 Vrandesh Parekh 6 27 Raj D Vyas 6 28 Makwana Ashvin K 6 29 Masango Spencer 5½ 30 Maulik Raval 5½ 31 Saumil Nair 5½ 32 Vigneshwaran S 5½ 33 Dave Kantilal 5½ 34 Sunny Bedi 5½ 35 Aditya P Melani 5½ 36 Bhaskar N S 5½ 37 Anusha N L V 5½ 38 Pathak Rudra S 5½ 39 Aswin.P.G 5½ 40 AGM Bhogal Rupesh 5½ 41 Dave Sneh 5½ 42 Aman Sharma 5½ 43 Sanjeet Manohar 5½ 44 Chudasama Ankit 5½ 45 Patel Palak 5½ 46 Makwana Virendra Sinh 5½ 47 Bhagyashree Patil 5 48 Anirban Basu 5 49 Chauhan Joy 5 50 Joshi Mihir 5 51 Sharma Harsh Yogesh 5 52 Kapil Dadhich 5 53 Charles J 5 54 Totlani Varun 5 55 Upadhyay Prince 5

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Nipani Grand Open Fide Rapid Rating Chess Tournaments , Nipani

Sameeer Kathamale wins titleby Bharat Chougule, Chief Arbiter

The above tournament was organized suc-cessfully By Nipani Utkarsh Foundation,Nipa-ni on 10th and 11th December 2017. Total number of entries were 239 from various State of India.

The opening ceremony of the tournament took place in the presence sponsors, co-spon-sors and other dignitaries. Shri.Sunil Patil ex.Vice-President(Nipani Nagarpalika) & Subodh Shah (Treasurer of Janata Shikshan Mandal) both inaugurated the tournament. Alongside him members Mr.Pravin Shah (President of Utkarsh Foundation),Dayanand Sajannavar,Babasaheb Magdum,Shivaji Bhi-lugade & Aravind Bedekar graced the occa-sion with their prominent presence.

The Tournament was smoothly conducted by the team of arbiters Shri. Bharat Chougule( Chief Arbiter),Shri.Deepak Vaychal (Dy Chief Arbiter),Karan Parit ,Datta Saravade & Smt. Jayashri Patil (Asst. Arbiter) and team of volunteers from organizers. All the play-ers including 113 rated players played with sporting spirit and in discipline. The event concluded without any protests and com-plaints.

Top seeded IM Sameer Kathamale,Mahar-ashtra secured 8 points out of 9 rounds & became champion of the tournament. Rahul Varma of Maharashtra secured 8 points & stood runner up in the tournament. List of prize winners enclosed .A prize fund of rupees one lakh distributed Rs. One lac cash prizes amongst the winners).All the players were provided decent hall for

playing. Also free dormitory Lodging was provided to players. The prize distribution function took place jointly at the hand of Businessman & main sponsor of tournament Mr. Popatbhai Shah & Mrs.Malatibai Shah in presence of Pravin Shah (president) & Direc-tors of Nipani Utkarsh Foundation, Nipani.

Final ranking Rank Name Pts 1 IM Kathmale Sameer 8 2 Verma Rahul 8 3 Dixit Nikhil 8 4 Gandhi Anish 8 5 Sammed Jaykumar Shete 7 6 Patel Mudassar 7 7 IM Chakravarthi Reddy M 7 8 Kulkarni Vinayak 7 9 Himanshu Chabda 7 10 Rao J. Malleswara 7 11 Nikam Ravindra 7 12 Ajith M.P. 7 13 Mokashi Rohit 7 14 Utkarsh Lomate 7 15 Gajanan D 7 16 Sonecha Raju 7 17 Devesh Anand Naik 7 18 Kurle Raju 6½ 19 Bhosale Shriraj 6½ 20 M Hemant Kumar 6½ 21 Rohan Bharat Joshi 6½ 22 Aditya Savalkar 6½ 23 Abid Ali Mujawar 6½ 24 Kazi Nazir 6½ 25 Said Mahesh 6½ 26 Yogeesh Bhat 6 27 Dasari Dattatreya Rao 6 28 Anchal Rastogi 6

Viswanathan Anand is World Rapid ChampionViswanathan “Vishy” Anand, born on 11.12.1969, the Indian chess grand-master, a former five-time World Chess Champion, has rounded off the year 2017 with a World title. He is now World Rapid Chess Champion 2017!

Anand became India’s first grandmaster in 1988. He held the FIDE World Chess Championship from 2000 to 2002, thus becoming first Asian to do so. He be-came the undisputed World Champion in 2007 and defended his title against Vladimir Kramnik in 2008 against Topal-ov in 2010 and against Boris Gelfand in 2012.In April 2006 Anand became the fourth player in history to pass the 2800 Elo mark on the FIDE rating list, after Garry Kasparov, Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov. He occupied the number one position for 21 months, the 6th longest on record.

Anand was also the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991–92, India’s highest sporting honour. In 2007, he was awarded India’s second highest civilian award, the Padma Vibhushan, making him the first sportsperson to receive the award.

In October 2003, the governing body of chess, FIDE, organised a rapid time control tournament in Cap d’Agde and billed it as the World Rapid Chess Championship. Anand won this event ahead of ten of the other top twelve players in the world, beating Kramnik in the final.

FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion 2017Anand won the 2017 World Rapid Chess Champi-onship in Riyadh by defeating Vladimir Fedoseev 2-0 in the final tiebreak after he, Fedoseev and Ian Nepomniachtchi tied for first with 10.5/15 points. He won the tournament ahead of reigning Classical World Champion Magnus Carlsen and this was his first victory in a world championship since losing the classical championship to Carlsen in 2013.

AICF felicitates Anand The All India Chess Federation felicitated World Rapid Champion and World Blitz Bronze Medal-ist Viswanathan Anand with Rs. 5,00,000 cash prize at M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women, Chennai on 5th January 2018.at 4.00 p.m. Apart from the cash award a memento, an exquisite ornamental chess set, was also presented to Anand.on the occasion.

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third positions respectively intact.

The ninth round climax was only to identify the team emerging runner up. In the final round, the Red team from India did what others could not do – beating Russia 2.5 – 1.5, the victories registered by E Arjun and Mitrabha Guha. Irrespective of the loss, Russia won the champion-ship with 14 match points India Green conceded half a point to Kazakhstan to collect 13 match points and finished runner up.Iran showed no mercy to Belarus, decimating them to a 4 – 0 defeat, to win the bronze medal.

While Russia won the Gold and 1250 Euro, India Green took the Silver and 1000 Euro. Iran took the Bronze with 800 Euro.

Individual board Gold for IM Nihal Sarin and IM P Iniyan

Nihal Sarin’s fantastic play on the third board earned him the Gold Medal on the third board for Team India Green. P Iniyan of the Green team scored 7.5 points from 8 games and took the Gold on the Fourth Board.

Shri DV Sundar, Vice Prsident FIDE, Shri Bharat Singh, Hon. Secretary, All India Chess Federation and Shri Ajay Patel were the chief guests in the closing ceremony and distributed the medals and trophies. But the real excitement was not so much

for the clash on the first board, as much for the clash of the tournament — India vs. Iran. The two powerhouses when it comes to talented young chess players.

GM Aryan Chopra, the only grandmaster of the tournament, was facing IM. Amin Tabatabaei, rated 2573, the highest rated player in the tournament. The Iranian was clearly holding a great position and he eventually converted his chance to a win.Orimi Mahdi Gholami was clearly better against IM P. Iniyan, rated 2452. Iniyan was very close to losing the game but in the very end, under time pressure, the Iranian player committed a double blunder and Iniyan got a checkmating net around Orimi’s King. India had equalized!

IM Alireza Firouzja, rated 2526, is clearly one of the few ‘chosen ones’ in today’s chess world. He is a super talent of his own right, and the greatest hope for Iran in its chess history. He was facing the Indian super-talent IM Praggnanandhaa R.The game remained equal for a very long time before Praggnanandhaa went under time pressure and began to lose the thread. Eventually, the pressure was just too much for the Indian youngster and Firouzja won. Iran had pulled ahead yet again.

Nihal was playing black against IM Aryan Gholami, rated 2479.Aryan had the white pieces and played the London System and Nihal went to a setup he knew to be all right for Black. It was equal position for a long time when towards the end, Aryan went for ambitious play. Nihal grabbed his chance with both the hands and counterattacked with all his powers and a dose of luck.Fortunately for India Green, Nihal was ahead by a tempo in his counter and Aryan was forced to resign.

Earlier speaking to IANS, Bharat Singh Chauhan, Secretary of the All India Chess Federation,AICF said, “He is the living legend of the Indian sport.”“We believe in Anand’s ability. I was tracking Anand at the world rapid tournament from round one. After his win against World Champion Magnus Carlsen, we were confident that Anand would win the title,” the Secretary had said.Among the dignitaries who offered felicitations to Anand were D.V.Sundar, Vice President FIDE, Bharat Singh Chouhan,Secretary AICF, P.R.Venketrama Raja,President AICF,IM Manuel Aaron and Smt.Dr.Lalitha Balakrishnan, Principal, MOP College for Women.Other dignitaries present were J..C.D.Prabhakar,former PresidentAICF, R.M.Dongre, President, Asian Zone 3.7, and Kishor Bandekar,Treasurer AICF. B.Murugavel, Chairman Organizing Committee, welcomed the gath-ering and Stephen Balasamy, Secretary TNSCA proposed vote of thanks.

World Youth Chess Olympiad 2017, Ahmedabad….

India Green wins Silver medalRussia wins title

India added one more feather to its cap by organising the World Youth Chess Olympiad 2017 organised by Gujarat State Chess Association on behalf of All India Chess Federation and FIDE at Karnavati Club, Ahmedabad from 10th to 18th December 2017. This is clearly the biggest chess event of India for the year 2017. The prestigious and mega event attracted 30 teams from 25 (including Uganda, which did not turn up at the last minute) countries from all continents – three from India, two from South Africa, two from Kenya, two from Nepal and other federations fielding one team each. The nine round Swiss team event had 9 rounds, with a time control of 90 minutes to each player, with an increment of 30 seconds per move.

Over the years, this tournament has jumped leaps and bounds in quality, with one GM, 14 IMs, 4 WIMs, 29 FMs and 7 WFMs, providing ample opportunities for IM and WIM norm seekers. The strongest ever team in Youth chess Olympiad was fielded by India in the name of India Green which had an average rating of 2503. Russia were assured of the title at the end of the eighth round with one round to spare, when they outsmarted Armenia 3 – 1 to continue the relentless march. India Green and Iran also had victories with identical results to keep their second and

India Green- Kazhaksthan:final round

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Cont.from p.2229 Devasthali Madhav 6 30 Patil Abhishek 6 31 Kulkarni Prakash 6 32 Ritesh Dharmatti 6 33 Bachikar Girish 6 34 Samangadkar Rahul 6 35 Bhosale Shruti 6 36 Shreyash, A Kulkarni 6 37 Walvekar Praveen 6 38 Jamsandekar Sujal 6 39 Hanagandi Mayur 6 40 Sawardekar Pravin 6 41 Joshi Sumeet 6 42 Pratik Sunil Shaha 6 43 Chindake Harikrushan 6 44 Mulla Nihalahamad 6 45 Mane Kumar 6 46 Abhay V Nadgouda 6 47 Aryan Shamrao Raikar 6 48 Magdum Darshan 6 49 Mulay Girish 6 50 Patil Harshal U 6 51 AIM Samarth J Rao 5½ 52 Prabhu Trupti 5½ 53 Kavlekar Sanjay R. 5½ 54 Malpani Jayesh 5½ 55 Pednekar Ayush 5½ 56 Barde Om 5½ 57 Bachalkar Sadanand 5½ 58 Apoorv Kamble 5½ 59 Joshi Sumit 5½ 60 Pednekar Balkrishna 5½ 61 Repal Santosh 5½ 62 Patil Sarang 5½ 63 Naik B S 5½ 64 Kulkarni Ashok 5½ 65 Shivashankar Bolajadar 5½ 66 Bhonsale Gayatri H 5½ 67 Baligar Dr Vishwanath 5½ 68 Tankasale Pranav 5½ 69 Patil Pranav Prafulla 5 70 Mudhale Prajwal 5 71 Prajwal M Joshi 5

72 Sairaj Dilip Vernekar 5 73 Savalkar Mayuri 5 74 Sawant Siddhant 5 75 Tilak Aditya 5 76 Muchandikar Shrikant 5 77 Neha Vinayak Mulye 5 78 Kulkarni Anandrao 5 79 Bondale Shrirang 5 80 Magdum Anand 5 81 Dhembre Dinesh 5 82 Vaibhav Barahate 5 83 Ambi Satyam 5 84 Rasal Santosh 5 85 Gaonkar Vedant 5 86 Devashish Pore 5 87 Patil Vishwas 5 88 Shajannavar Sanyukta 5 89 Vaidya Dhiraj 5 90 Mahabal Vallabh 5 91 Krishna Murthy 5 92 Bhuvansingh S J 5 93 Deshpande Manish 5 94 Deodhar Mudit 5 95 Koparde Omkar Sanjay 5 96 Patil Pradip B. 5 97 Jagushte Aryan 5 98 Harane Rajesh 5 99 Deshmukh Vikrant 5 100 Daniel Solomon Vs 5 101 Patole Bharat 5 102 Bartakke Ritesh 5 103 Borkar Shravani 5 104 Sabhahit Vighneshwar 5 105 Chindak Yash 5 106 Patil D R 5 107 Bhosale Aditya 5 108 Vaidya Sushant 5 109 Kadam Adarsh 4½ 110 Alatekar Aditya 4½ 111 Gogate Yash 4½ 112 Yogaraj Vivek Mahale 4½ 113 Lad Pratik 4½ 114 Jawale Chandrakant 4½

India’s second team, India Red, had FM Rajdeep Sarkar, rated 2406, on the top table. India Red was facing Israel. Rajdeep, unfortunately, lost to Israel’s top seed FMBronstein,rated2335.But the rest of India Red team did well…S. Jayakumaar, rated 2254, beat FM Nisim Iliaguev, rated 2294. FM Arjun Erigaisi, rated 2359, also defeated FM Dan Poleg, rated 2268. FM Mitrabha Guha, rated 2315, won a nice game against Alexander Zlatin, rated 2227.

For Team Russia, after bulldozing through the previous five rounds, the defending champion Iran was the final serious challenge. Except for the fourth board, second seed Iran was clearly higher rated than third seed Russia. The sixth round was to decide if Russia coasts to the Gold medal, or would Iran blow the competition open.India Green defeated the Reds 3.5-0.5.

In round 7 it was another match of demolition for Russia.This time the victim was Team Turkey.While the first board saw a quick draw between IM Sergei Lobanov and FM Deniz Ozen. On the fourth board, too, there was a not so special draw. On the second and the third board, FM Artur Gaifullin and FM Timur Fukhritdinov came out victorious.The second table saw India Green beat Belarus 3-1.

Aravindh Chithambaram wins Sunway Sitges 2017GM Aravindh Chithambaram yet again showed his supremacy by winning the Sunway Sitges In-

ternational chess Festival 2017 and received a trophy and a cash prize of 5000 euros. The tournament was not an easy cake for Aravindh to slice. With the 26 GMs and 35 IMs it was a very strong event. For Aravindh the year has ended on a high. He very nearly won the National Premier, secured a bronze at the World Junior and now clinched the gold at this super strong open event. What's more the boy will be 2600 on the published rating list on 1st of January!

It all hinged on the final round encounter between Aravindh who had the white piec-es and Zdenko Kozul. Last rounds have not been Aravindh's forte in the past. But the youngster from Chennai is fast improving.

After his last round debacle against Debashis Das at the National Premier 2017, he came back strongly to win against Xu Xinagyu and clinch the bronze. At the Sunway Chess Festival, this is how things looked at the start of the final round:

There was a pack of hungry ten players on six points waiting to pounce on Aravindh and Kozul in case they made a draw. However, the Chennai lad was not going to have any of these compli-cations. He played a fine game of chess, sacrificed a rook towards the end and checkmated the black king! With it, he was able to take the sole first spot at the Sunway Sitges Chess Festival 2017.

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1st Shree Narayana Guru Trophy National FIDE Rated Rapid Tournament,Udupi -

IM Viani Antonio Dcunha clinches titleby IA Vasanth BH , Chief Arbiter

1st Shree Narayana Guru Trophy National Open FIDE Rated Rapid Chess Tournament- 2017 jointly organized by Kalabhimani Sangha ® Kaup and Vidyaniketan Group of Institutions, Kaup under the aegis of the United Karnataka Chess Association and Udupi District Chess Association on 9th and 10th December 2017 at Vidyaniketan Group of Institutions Kaup, NH 66,Udupi District, Karnataka

The tournament was inaugurated by Mr Suresh Shetty Gurme, Industrilist by lighting the lamp and moving a pawn in the chess board with WCM Isha Sharma, a prominent player of the region. MrUmanathKapu, Tour-nament Co-ordinator, MrV K Udyavar, CAO Vidyaniketan Group of Institution Kapu, MrK P Acharya, Chairman Vidyaniketan Group of Institution Kapu, MrArvind Shastry, Secre-tary UKCA , Dr. Rajgopal Shenoy, President Udupi District Chess Association, MrKishore Alva Executive Director Adani UPCL, Dr. Kailash Poojary, ENT Specialist KMC Manipal, MrSrinivas Poojary President Kalabhimani Sangha Kapuwere present on the occasion.

318 players from different states namely Karnataka, Goa, AndhraPradesh, Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Delhi Maharashtra took part in the tournament.IM Viani Antonio Dcunha (Airport Authorityof India 2334) was top-seed and followed by Gahan MG (KAR-2310), Ram S Krishnan (TN-2284), Arvind Shastry (KAR- 2250),Syed Anwar Shazuli (ICF – 2183)

The tournament carried a total cash fund of

Rs.2 lakhs. A total of 158trophies were given for the U-7, U-9, U-11, U-13 & U-15 (boys & girls) sections. Cash prize and Trophy were given to the Best Veteran (Above 60 years). Tournament was conducted in spacious area. Breakfast, Coffee Tea with Biscuits and lunch was provide for all the players and accompa-nying persons on both days.

IM Viani Antonio Dcunha of Airport Authority of India drew with Arvind Shastry on topboard in the final round and clinched title with eight and half points from nine rounds. The winner took home a cash prize of Rs.30,000/- and a trophy. Gahan MG (KAR), Syed Anwar Sha-zuli (ICF) and Augustin A (KAR) tied up for second place with 8 points each, but based on their better tie-break scores secured they were placed from second to fourth places. The winners from 2nd place to 4th place took home a cash prize of 20,000/-, 10,000/- and 8,000/- /- along with a trophy.

There were five cash prizes for each rating categories of 1600-1799, 1400-1599, 1200-1399, 1000-1199 and unrated categodry. Trophies for the first ten places were given for U-15, U-13, U-11, U-9, U-7 (boys & girls).Accommodation were provided to the officials and the IM's by the organisers. Food was made available at the venue with a food stall with reduced rates.

The prizes to the winners were given away by K P Acharya Chairman Vidyaniketan Group of Institution Kapu, Muttu Kumar Proprietor Sri Maruthi Bakers Bangalore, Harish Poojary

Ammembala Industrialist, H B Siddharaju Bangalore, K Srinivas Poojary President Kala-bhimani Sangha Kapu, Babu J Poojary Secre-tary Udupi District Chess Association, Arvind Shastry Secretary United Karnataka Chess Association, Leeladhar Shetty Kapu Social Worker, , Sudheer Beedu Udupi, Umanath-Kapu Tournament coordinator, Rathnakar Shetty Bhramavar

Final Ranking: Rk. Name Pts. 1 IM Viani Antonio Dcunha 8.5 2 Gahan M G 8 3 Syed Anwar Shazuli 8 4 Augustin A 8 5 Arvind Shastry 7.5 6 WCM Isha Sharma 7.5 7 Ram S. Krishnan 7.5 8 AIM Abhijit Chutia 7.5 9 Praveen Kamath 7.5 10 Sharan Rao 7 11 Andria L D`souza 7 12 Bhat Narayan K 7 13 Yashas D. 7 14 Varma Shabdhik 7 15 Prashanth J Naik 7 16 Sudarshan Bhat 7 17 Shrishanth S Rao 7 18 Prajwal K M 7 19 Rajesh K 7 20 Devi Das Suresh Pai 7 21 Hermon Dain Saldanha 7 22 Chirag Mudraje 7 23 Niranjan Rajeev 7 24 Manvith K 7 25 Panchami Shenoy K 7 26 Prasanth K V 6.5 27 Athul Shetty 6.5 28 AGM Harish Kumar 6.5 29 Aravinda B R 6.5 30 Prabhakaran K 6.5 31 Siddhanth Prabhu M 6.5

32 Govardhana C 6.5 33 Poornesh C Mogaveera 6.5 34 Deepak Pai 6.5 35 Pannaga Y S 6.5 36 Sathvik Kumar Bhat 6.5 37 Nandan N Prabhu 6.5 38 Pranav M 6.5 39 Nachiketh Adiga 6 40 Ravi Prasad S N 6 41 Sakshath U K 6 42 Prashanth N 6 43 Deepthi Lakshmi K 6 44 Sheron Vishwas 6 45 Ajay Krishna D 6 46 Swathi Bhat 6 47 Suresh Ganapati Kattige 6 48 Nihal N Shetty 6 49 Shirish Jayaprakash 6 50 Vinutha M Devadiga 6 51 Sharath 6 52 Vindya Sridhar 6 53 ACM Iyer Arvind 6 54 Prajwal Pradeep Poojari 6 55 Aashuthosh S Sharma 6 56 Vishruth Sham 6 57 Manish G Shriyan 6 58 Aditya Menon 6 59 Narayan Lamani 6 60 Chinmay S Bhat 6 61 WCM Shriyana S Mallya 6 62 ShriKrishna K S 6 63 Jagrut Anand Devadiga 6 64 Hariharan Subramony 6 65 Khushi M Hombal 6 66 Suhenaa Suma Darshan 6 67 Sharath Kumar D T 6 68 Prajwal P 6 69 Dinesh Rajachar 6 70 Yogeesh Bhat 6 71 Anush B shetty 6 72 Sathwik Prabhu 6 73 Dhruva P 6 74 Abhilash 6

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SPIC 1st All India FIDE Rated Chess Tournament(below1600),Thoothukudi

Bala Ganeshan wins SPIC FIDE ratedby Dharmaraj P,Chief Arbiter

1st Spic All India Fide rated chess tourna-ment(below 1600) was organized by SPIC Nagar multi Activity Club on behalf of TDCA at Silver Jubilee Hall, Thoothukudi from 02nd Dec to 04th Dec 2017. About 267 players par-ticipated in the tournament. The tournament was conducted as a 9 rounds Swiss system. The top seeds of the below rated tourna-ment was M. Mithesh (1574) of Tamilnadu, R.K.Sabarish(1573) of Tamilnadu and S. Sathyanarayanan (1570) of Tamilnadu. The tournament had a grand Inauguration with the chief guest Mr. S. P. Sethuraman, Grand Master. He also interacted with the players.

After several well fought games Bala Gane-shan of Kerala won the tournament title with 8 points out of 9 rounds with better tiebreak than Senthil Kumar Natarajan of Tamilnadu.

Mr. Parthiban, Associate Director, HWP Board, was the Chief Guest for the Valedictory Function presided by Mr. E. Balu, of Spic Plant Head, Mr. N. R. Ravichandran of Spic, GM-Projects, Mr. Nema of HWP GM, Mr. A. L. Subramanian of TDCA and many others participated in the function

Final ranking:Rk Name Pts 1 Bala Ganeshan 8 2 Senthil Kumar Natarajan 8 3 Prasath K R 7½ 4 Bala Murugan G 7½ 5 Sham R 7 6 Vinoth Kumar M 7 7 Neha Srinibash D 7 8 Shanmugasundaram G. 7

9 Sathya Naarayanan S 7 10 Gopinath P 7 11 Vishnu Ram M 7 12 Mithesh M 7 13 Satheesh M 7 14 Sumesh Kabeer 7 15 Aravind Matthews A C T 6½ 16 Gowrichander U 6½ 17 JaiKavin Senthilkumar 6½ 18 Rutherford S 6½ 19 Radhakrishnan.K.S 6½ 20 Koushik Muthesh P 6½ 21 Sabarish R K 6½ 22 Guru Sabari Thirumalai 6½ 23 Arvind Rajamanohar 6½ 24 Sailesh R 6½ 25 Ram Kumar R 6 26 Gowtham S G 6 27 Prasanth K V 6 28 Dharshan Venkatachalam 6 29 Antony Simethy 6 30 Sai Kiran G V 6 31 Sakthi Subash A S 6 32 Karthikeyan G 6 33 Pragatheesh Muthukumaran 6 34 Vigneshwaran K 6 35 Pragadesh P 6 36 Sathish Kumar K 6 37 Rathish R 6 38 Vengatesh Krishnan C 6 39 Chinnadurai S. 6 40 Prem Kumar Esakki Muthu 6 41 Kaviyarasan T 6 42 Unnikrishnan Sasthamkunnel 6 43 Anirudh V Ramesh Kumar 6 44 Gokulanathan S 6 45 Harish Kumar N 6 46 Varunsatyaa Parthasarathy 6

47 Krishna Kumar N 6 48 Rakshitha P 6 49 Sanjay Sreekandan 6 50 Ahalya A 6 51 Rajesh L S 6 52 Kasi V 6 53 Daakshin Arun 6 54 Manuel Inbam 6 55 Karuppasamy C 5½ 56 Alfien Jessurun 5½ 57 Prawin K 5½ 58 Palanikumar V 5½ 59 Achuthan K 5½ 60 Sreenivasan N 5½ 61 Sundaralingam A 5½ 62 Meikkum Pugal A 5½ 63 Ramesh V 5½ 64 Arumugam V 5½ 65 Siddhesvarajith P S 5½ 66 Akshaya R.S. 5½ 67 Jacob Ragland A 5½ 68 Subhransu Sekhar Dash 5½ 69 Ashok Jayaraman 5½ 70 Muthuraman Kesavamoorthy 5½ 71 Krishnasamy Palanivel 5 72 Karthikeyan S 5 73 Ramachandran Narayanan 5 74 Sikkandar Alikhan Abbas Ali 5 75 Magdalene Roy R 5 76 Hari Sankar V 5 77 Harish G 5 78 Dhivesh Athithya S 5 79 Suresh C 5 80 Darshan Sasthaa M 5 81 Moses Nishanth D 5 82 Renganayaki V 5 83 Devin S V 5 84 Moorthy T 5 85 Pon Perumal S 5 86 Sivasri S 5 87 Gnana Sakthivel A 5 88 Guruvignesh V 5 89 Vedhanayaki K 5

90 Mohammed Ibrahim 5 91 Sri Saran S 5 92 Nellaiappan V 5 93 Suresh Kumar Ashok 5 94 Naresh Krishna S 5 95 Nagarajan P 5 96 Karthi Ganes M 5 97 Divin S V 5 98 Jai Priya K 5 99 Chendor Varshan P A 5 100 Adityan Kumar 5 101 Abishek Ashish Gnanadev 5 102 Jayakrishna H 5 103 Dawood.K 5 104 Pandian R S 5 105 Akash Sundar S 5 106 Murugesa Pandian P 5 107 Danish Roy Vinoth Kumar 5 108 Karthikeyan Panchapakesan 5 109 Sivakumaran V 5 110 Ilakiyan M Xavier Jeen 5 111 James Edison P 5 112 Harini Shanmugavel 5 113 Sriram K 5 114 Binu Sebastian 4½ 115 Livingston Solomon 4½ 116 Dhayanidhi R S 4½ 117 Sriman Prabhu M K 4½ 118 Senthil Kumar V 4½ 119 Surya Sathiaguru 4½ 120 Krishna Prasad N 4½ 121 Nabeel M Abubackar 4½ 122 Shashindhar Kumar R 4½ 123 Veer Vikas Sethia 4½ 124 Nanthini M 4½ 125 Sangeth Nivaas S 4½ 126 Kanish Kumar R 4½ 127 Dhivakar M 4½ 128 Raja Gopal P 4½ 129 Alexander P 4½ 130 Harris M K 4½ 131 Saravana Kumar 4½ 132 Kaushik S 4½

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Aragonda Mohan of Telangana won the 2nd All India Fide Rating Below 1500 Chess Tour-nament held here at Arya Vysya Abhudaya Sangam, Secunderabad from 1st to 3rd Dec 2017. He tied with Hemanth Sankar Reddy (AP) ana K Gopichand (Telangana) , all scor-ing 8 points each from 9 rounds. Due to tie break score Hemanth and Gopichand are placed 2nd and 3rd .

Winner got prize money of Rs. 40,000/- where as Runner up arun received Rs. 30,000/- and 3rd placed got Rs. 20,000/- Total Rs. 3 Lakh distributed among 40 prize winners.The event attracted 472 participants from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Chattisgarh,Goa, Haryana,Jharkhand, Maha-rashtra,Madhya Pradesh,Orissa, Tamilnadu, Kerala, Karnataka.

The event is Organized by South Mumbai Chess Academy under the auspices of Telan-gana State Chess Association. The event was inaugurated by Sri K S Prasad, Secretary-Tel-angana State Chess Association. Sri Devaram Srihari, Secretary-AP State Chess Association and Mr. Surya of SMCA also present.

In the valedictory function Major K A Shiva Prasad, Vice President –TSCA, Sri K Siva Prasad, Secretary-TSCA,Sri G Balaji, SMCA, Malladi Srikanth Sarma, Organizer distributed trophies and cash awards to the winners.

The chief arbiter is FA S Subba Raju, of Hyderabad, the deputy chief arbiter is FA G V Kumar of Rajamundry (Andhra Pradesh) and deputies are IA J N Padmarao, FA Vi-jaykumar Agarwal, NA G Navya Krisna, NA

Tejavath Naresh, NA Sampath Bollam, NA K Siva Prasad.Final ranking Rk Name Pts 1 Aragonda Mohan 8 2 Hemanth Sankar Reddy Du 8 3 Gopichand K 8 4 Veera Phani Sai Teja K 7½ 5 Srikanth Myakala 7½ 6 Ch. Narayana Rao 7½ 7 Bir Kumar 7½ 8 Satheesh Kumar G 7½ 9 Nagasri Saikanth 7 10 Deshpande Omkar 7 11 Prateek Atluri 7 12 Rushyendra Chowdary K 7 13 Anil M 7 14 Jayanth R 7 15 Ruhaan Mahindru 7 16 Prabhav Aggarwal 7 17 Mahendar B 7 18 Suresh Bondalapati 7 19 Sameer C 7 20 Srihari Devaram 7 21 Suryanarayana Y N 7 22 Baligar Dr Vishwanath 7 23 Md Bashiq Imrose 7 24 Praneeth R 7 25 Sarvade Mihiir 7 26 Purushotham Reddy C 7 27 Sri Santhosh D 6½ 28 Srinivasarao Kadiyala 6½ 29 Upendra Punnana 6½ 30 Shejal Sahil Sanjay 6½ 31 Sagar Ch 6½ 32 Aman Kumar 6½ 33 Pranav Aggarwal 6½ 34 Umesh Konduru 6½ 35 Manoj E T 6½

36 Vijayendrakumar D N 6½ 37 Kanthi Kiran Katarapu 6½ 38 Baleboina Bhanu Mahesh 6½ 39 Golap Das 6½ 40 Sreenandan Babu J 6½ 41 Akavaram Aashish Reddy 6½ 42 Avinash Vvus 6½ 43 Phani Krishna C H 6½ 44 Mohan Sapa 6½ 45 Mir Maahir Ali 6½ 46 Durga Prasad G 6½ 47 Marri Prakash 6½ 48 Vamsi Krishna A 6 49 Shivakumar D M 6 50 Madhukant Bharti 6 51 Srinivas Bangarapu 6 52 Sangappa S Kuntoji 6 53 Shankar Kopparthy 6 54 Raghuvarun Reddy K 6 55 Aniket Mukherjee 6 56 Ravindranath A 6 57 Kagde Shushrut 6 58 Rajinesh Chintala 6 59 Avinash Kumar Yadav 6 60 Goguloth Malsur 6 61 Divya Teja P 6 62 Raja Sree Virinchi Vadali 6 63 Sai Hrushikesh Simhdri 6 64 Madhu Sudhan Chary Kolloju 6 65 Suhaas A 6 66 Rishi Kumar Pandey 6 67 Pavan Kumar Posa 6 68 Dharmik Banka 6 69 Sudheer S B 6 70 Gawde Prathmesh 6 71 Sankarshana Goli 6 72 Guttula Sai 6 73 Newton Sathyavety 6 74 Sreeram Maheswar 6 75 Gowtham Dharma K 6 76 Sahu Deepak 6 77 Robinson M G 6 78 Raghuraman V 6

79 Thirupatha Chary Pusala 6 80 Rakesh B 6 81 Chopda Krrish 6 82 Praveen P S 6 83 Sai Janani Pothula 6 84 Aarfeen Himany 6 85 Sravan Kumar Narasipuram 6 86 Karthikeya Sambhangi 6 87 Kolhe Shruti 6 88 Shaurya Deep 6 89 Kalishekar Ponnada 6 90 Pranay Reddy B 6 91 Dhanush Reddy A 6 92 Chetan Rao D 6 93 Prathamesh Pilkhane S 6 94 Nagalakshmi R 5½ 95 Thakkar Aniket 5½ 96 Dhumal Amit 5½ 97 Sarath M 5½ 98 Abdul Nabi 5½ 99 Pasula Pradeep Kumar 5½ 100 Raghu Ram Reddy Seelam 5½ 101 Mallesh Beerla 5½ 102 Chidvilash Sai Surapaneni 5½ 103 Manojan Ravi 5½ 104 Prudvi Raj Pasala 5½ 105 Satyanarayana Raju D S 5½ 106 Karyasheel P 5½ 107 Sameer Kumar U 5½ 108 Yashodarshan Kalmanoor 5½ 109 Mohan Rao Maddala 5½ 110 Sudhir Vanarase 5½ 111 Thakur Chaitanya 5½ 112 Janaki Devi M 5½ 113 Singh Arun Kumar 5½ 114 Sanketh Reddi K R K K 5½ 115 Teja Peteti 5½ 116 Varshith Nela 5½ 117 Rahul Gupta H P 5½ 118 Sai Prakash T 5½ 119 Adithya Krishna Sai Ch 5½ 120 Ramachandran. V 5½

2nd All India Fide Rating Below 1500 Chess Tournament, Secunderabad

Aragonda Mohan of Telangana winsby FA S Subba Raju , Chief Arbiter

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Chess Mine and Vardhaman College of Engi-neering organized the Vardhaman Cup Open Fide Rating Chess Tournament from 5th to 9th of December 2017. The college and Venue is located on Shamshabad Road , Hyderabad. This is the 1st Rating Tournament conducted at Vardhaman college. The event attracted 128 players from all over India, including major states like Andrapradesh, Maharastra, Telangana, Kerala, Karnataka, Orissa, Uttar Pradesh, Tamil Nadu, Pondichery, Bihar and one player from Zimbabwe. Top seed of the event was Sekar B (2274) of Tamil Nadu. The Prize money of the tournament was 6 lakh, with 60000 for the 1st Prize.

The Inaguration took place on 5th December at 12 noon the dignitaries present on the occasion were Dr Sai Sathyanaryana Reddy, Principal of Vardhman Engineering College, Mr K S Prasad, Hon. Secretary (Telangana State Chess Association), Likhit Chilukuri and Priyadarshan Banjan both co- Founders of ChessMine.

Sekar B of Tamil Nadu secured the first prize by winning 6 games and drawing 3 games out of 9 rounds. Before the final round Sekar B was in lead with 7.5 points, he drew his game with Lokesh N of Tamil Nadu to secure the 1st prize and secured prize money of Rs 60000 with a glittering trophy.

The Prize distribution function took place at 2.30pm on 9th December 2017. Dignitaries present on the occasion were T Vijendar Reddy, Chairman, Mr T Upendar Reddy, Secretary, Mr E Prabhakar Reddy, Tresurer of Vardhaman Engineering College, Mr K

S Prasad, Hon. Secretary, TSCA, Major Shivaprasad, Vice President, TSCA, Dr Sai Satyanarayan Reddy, Principal Vardhaman Engineering college and Likhit Chuilukuri Co -Founder, ChessMine, they distributed the prizes to the winners.

Final ranking Rk Name Pts1 Sekar B 7½2 Lokesh N. 73 FM Ramakrishna J. 74 Masango Spencer 75 Likhit Chilukuri 76 Bharat Kumar Reddy P 6½7 Sibi Visal R 6½8 Mushini Ajay 6½9 Balkishan A. 6½10 Selvabharathy T 6½11 Singh S. Vikramjit 6½12 WCM Jyothsna L 6½13 Senthil Maran K 614 Krishna Karthik N 615 Duvvala Suresh 616 Manigandan S S 617 Srinivasa Rao G.V. 618 Karthik Sai Ch 619 Abhirami Madabushi 620 Aswin.P.G 621 Sri Sai Baswanth P 622 Shanmukha Teja P 623 Konatham Snehil 624 Samal Aditya Ranjan 5½25 Chilukuri Sai Varshith 5½26 Badrinath S. 5½27 Ruban Sanjay M 5½28 Subba Raju S. 5½29 Saypuri Srithan 5½30 Sai Kiran Y 5½

31 Basant N 5½32 AGM Sa Kannan 5½33 AIM Pati Spandan 5½34 M Tulasi Ram Kumar 5½35 S Srinivas Eistein Reddy 5½36 Md Ismail Khadar 5½37 Divyan T 5½38 Nikhil M 539 AIM Mohammed Shamil A 540 Subhash Kumar M 541 Sameer Kumar Y 542 Shiek Fayaz 543 Jadi Kishan 544 Sannidhanam Anurag 545 Rohith Yadav B R 546 Sreekar J S S 547 Suhaib Ahmad 548 Nanditha V 549 Hemanth Sankar Reddy 550 Bipin Raj S 551 Akira Sowmyanatha Reddy 552 Vidya Sagar J.B.M. 553 Sambamurti P 554 Sai Atchyut B 555 Rama Mohan Rao N 556 Harini Narahari 557 Prerak Darvekar 558 Rithvik Raja M 4½59 Saketh Kumar Reddy C 4½60 Narasimha Raveendra G 4½61 Goguloth Malsur 4½62 Md Bashiq Imrose 4½63 Unnikrishnan M A 4½64 AIM Kandi Ravi 4½65 Shwethang K 4½66 WCM Chinnam Vyshnavi 4½67 Subramanian T.V. 4½68 Priyanka Bhatt 4½69 Ashmita Reddy N 4½70 Gagan P 4½71 Charles J 472 Sathishkumar L 473 Aman Kumar 4

74 B Kishan 475 Goutham Yasodhar B 476 Rishi Kumar Pandey 477 Seethamraju Venkata Sai 478 Jagan Mohan Rao K 479 Pasula Pradeep Kumar 480 Rachita Sabbathi 481 Rathi Nitish 482 Raghu Ram Reddy S 483 Sriram Devulapalli 484 Trinadharao S 485 ACM Mir Maahir Ali 486 Nikunj Buddhawar 487 Naga Laxmi Seelam 488 AFM Amit Braganza 3½89 AFM Advaita Sharma K 3½90 Bharathakoti Sneha 3½91 AFM Sankarshana Goli 3½92 Munna Das Bairagi 3½93 Saipriya K 3½94 Rajinikanth G 3½95 AIM Karyasheel P 3½96 Mohmad Ibrahim 3½97 Tootia Purna Sai Kumar 3½98 Karunya Shesha Sai Y 3½99 Srivatsa Ananth K 3½100 Sreenandan Babu J 3½101 Avinash Kumar Yadav 3102 Ramakrishna Reddy M 3103 Navya Krishna G 3104 Sai Sricharitha Varenya 3105 Durganath Chakravarthy 3106 Yaswant D 3107 Sri Krishna Praneeth K 3108 Dhana R Ch Johnson 2½109 Prudvi Raj Pasala 2½110 Harsha Vardhan Gedhala 2½111 Kodanda Ramam P 2½112 Bhillva Nilaya K E K 2½113 Bellala Krishna Vamsi 2½114 A Kovidh Kushal Reddy 2½115 Krishna Varkala 2½116 Mishra Anjali 2½

Vardhaman Cup Open Fide Rating Chess Tournament, Hyderabad….

B Sekar is Championby Promodraj Moree,Chief Arbiter

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Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron

Selected games fro National Women Premier, Surat 2017Annotated by IM Manuel AaronSoumya,Swaminathan (2320) - Kulkarni Bhakti (2311) [E04]

1.d4 d5 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 a6 6.0–0 Be7 7.a4 Nc6 8.e3 [Andrew Mar-tin 2345 vs G.Botterill, 5th Lloyds Bank Op, 1981 went: 8.Be3 Rb8 9.Na3 Na5 10.Ne5 Nd5 11.Naxc4 Nxc4 12.Nxc4 Nxe3 13.fxe3 0–0 14.e4 Qd7= ....35.1–0] 8...Na5! She is not going to part with her c4 pawn with-out a struggle, making black worry. 9.Nbd2 c5 10.dxc5 Qc7 11.b4 cxb3 12.Nxb3 Nxb3 13.Qxb3 Bxc5= The position is approximately equal though black has an extra pawn but lags in development. 14.Bb2 0–0 15.Rac1 Qe7 16.Rfd1 b6!? A bold decision throwing open the long white diagonal and daring white's Bg2 to find a refutation. 17.Ne5?! [This is what most of us would play, advance the knight to the centre of the board and attack the rook at the same time. But white misses: 17.Bxf6!! Qxf6 18.Nd2! Ra7 19.a5! e5 20.Ne4 Qe6 21.Qxe6 Bxe6 22.Nxc5 bxc5 23.Rxc5 f6 24.Rd6± white has got back her pawn and has a vastly superior game thanks to her aggressively placed pieces controlling the board.] 17...Nd5! 18.Nc6? [Again, white goes for the routine advance of her knight instead of the deep strategy of undermining the base of the Bc5 with: 18.a5! Bb7 19.axb6 a5 20.e4 Nxb6 21.Qb5 Rfc8 22.Rxc5 Rxc5 23.Qxb6 Qc7 24.Nd7²] 18...Qe8 19.Nb4= It looks as though black is in grave danger but black is a fighter and makes a fight out of this situation. 19...Nxb4 20.Bxa8 e5 With a rook for a knight and pawn, white has a slight advantage. But now the black forces spring to life and quickly call the tune. 21.Bg2 Be6 22.Qc3 f6 Now black threatens .. .Na7

winning back the exchange as well as ....Qxa4. 23.Ra1 a5 24.Rd2 Kh8 25.Kh1 Qe7 26.f4? [This allows white good counter-play which is not availed of! Better was: 26.h3 Rc8 27.Rad1 Qe8 28.Bb7 Rb8 29.Kh2=] 26...Bd6?

Diagram # [Black misses the best rejoinder: 26...e4! 27.Bxe4 Bg4 28.Bg2 Bxe3 29.Re1 Bxd2 30.Rxe7 Bxc3 31.Bxc3 Rd8! 32.Bd4! Kg8!³] 27.Rad1! Rc8? [This counter-attack leads to an immediate loss. Better was: 27...Bb8 28.Ba3 Bg4 29.Rc1 Bd6 30.h3 Bh5 31.Qb3 Bf7 32.Qd1±] 28.Qxc8+! Bxc8 29.Rxd6 The threat of mate, wins anoth-er bishop for white. 29...h5 30.Rd8+ Kh7 31.Rxc8 exf4 32.exf4 Qe2 [Also, white's win is assured after: 32...Nd3 33.Bd4! Qd7 34.Rxd3 Qxc8 35.Bxb6! White's king is safe and his rook and two bishops should easily prevail over the black queen.] 33.Rb1 h4! Black is losing but she makes the only move that could fluster white and present her with chances of getting back into the game. 34.Bc3 Diagram # [Best was to nip the little terror in the bud with: 34.gxh4 Nd3 35.Bd4 Nxf4 36.Rg1 Nxg2 37.Rxg2 Qd1+ 38.Bg1 Qxa4 39.Rc7 Qe4 40.Bxb6 and white should win.]

34...h3! 35.Bb7 [35.Bxh3?? Qe4+ 36.Kg1 Qxb1+ and black is winning!] 35...Nd3 36.Bd4 Ne1 37.Rbc1 [The best here was 37.Rxe1 Qxe1+ 38.Bg1 Qe6 39.Rc7 when white has a big advantage but no clear win in sight.] 37...Qf1+ 38.Bg1 Qg2+!! [An amazing finish to the game! After 38...Qg2+ 39.Bxg2 hxg2#

Diagram # A fairy tale finish!] 0–1

Bala Kannamma P (2058) Padmini,Rout (2324) [C01]

1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.exd5 exd5 4.Nf3 Nf6 5.Bd3 Be7 6.h3 0–0 7.0–0 Re8 8.c4 Nc6N [8...c6 was played in an European game in 2003 and quickly drawn in 11 moves.] 9.Nc3 Nb4! Ask-ing the bishop whether he wants to defend c4 with Be2 or hide the bishop on b1 in the hope of a future king-side attack. 10.Be2 Be6

11.a3 [11.c5!=] 11...Nc6 12.c5 Ne4 13.Be3!? [It was too early to decide where this bish-op ought to be posted. Better seems to be 13.Re1 ] 13...a6 14.Rc1 f5 15.Nxe4? Again 15 Re1= 15...dxe4 16.Ne5 [This leads to an isolated pawn on e5 for white and becomes ultimately the root cause of her defeat. If 16.Ne1 Bf6 17.Nc2 Qd7 18.Qd2 Rad8 and black has a slight advantage.] 16...Nxe5 17.dxe5 Rf8 18.f4? Diagram #

With this move to bolster her e5 pawn, white misses her chance to equalise with 18.Bc4! Bxc4 19.Rxc4 Qxd1 20.Rxd1 Rad8 21.Rxd8 Rxd8 22.e6 Re8 23.g4 g6 24.gxf5 gxf5 25.Bf4 c6 26.Rc3=] 18...exf3 19.Bxf3 Qxd1 20.Rfxd1 c6 21.b4 Rad8 22.Rxd8 Rxd8 23.Rd1 Kf7! Black uses every opportunity to inch forward. The king plans to get to e6, blockade white's e5 pawn and eventually eat it. 24.Kf2 Bb3 25.Rxd8 Bxd8 26.g4 Diagram # [the weakness of the e5 pawn is so over-powering that if it is held, something else gives way as could be seen in the following variation: 26.Bd4 Ke6 27.g4 g6 28.Kg3 Bd5 29.gxf5+ gxf5 30.Be2 Bg5 (threat Bc1) 31.Bb2 Bd2 32.Bd3 a5! and white's queen-side collapses.]

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Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron

26...Bh4+ 27.Kg2 g6 28.gxf5 gxf5 29.Bd4 Ke6 30.Bc3 [30.Bb2 was better though black is definitelhy on the back foot as the black bishops are more mobile as compared to white's and the black king is well posted, threatening the e5 pawn.] 30...Bg5! Threat 31...Bc1 winning a pawn. 31.Bb2 Bf4 The pawn on e5 is lost. 32.Bh5 Bd5+ 33.Kf2 Bxe5 34.Bxe5 Kxe5 35.Ke3

Diagram # 35...Be4! 36.h4 [There is no counter left for white. If 36.Be8 (to attack b7 from the rear) 36...f4+! 37.Ke2 Bg6 38.Bd7 Bf5 39.Be8 Bxh3–+] 36...f4+ 37.Kf2 Kd4 38.Bg4 Kc3 [38...Kc3 39.Bc8 Kb3 40.Bxb7 Kxa3 41.Bxa6 Kxb4 to be followed by ...Kxc5 winning.] 0–1

Pandey Srishti (1885) Gomes,Mary Ann (2333)White is a 16-year old, inexperienced girl

from Maharashtra. She had struggled through the opening and early middle game to reach this pawn-up middle-game. But her king-side is weak with 'holes' on f3 and h3. Watch how the former champion from Bengal, Gomes (National Woman Champion in 2011, 2012 and 2013!), wraps up the game. The final sacrifice ....Qxh3+ has been met before in tournament practice, the most illustrious example being the classic encounter, Averbakh vs Kotov in the 1953 Zurich Candidates Tournament. There Kotov played ...Qxh3 and won after complicated, but forced, moves. It is a classic and is classified as a 'King Hunt' and given as an exercise in tactical calculations. If you have not studied that so far, you must study it now! All classics teach us important aspects of chess.

20...Nf3! 21.h3 [21.Nxf3?? exf3+ wins the queen.] 21...Nge5 22.Nc2 Ra6! 23.Bc3? Diagram # [White has no inkling of the thunder stroke prepared against her. But she was anyway lost for if 23.Rh1 Nxd2 24.Qxd2 Nd3 and f2 falls as both white rooks are busy defending their pawns, for example, if. 25.Raf1 (25.Rhf1 Rh6 26.h4 Rxh4! 27.gxh4 Qg4+ 28.Kh2 Rf3! mates.) 25...Rxa2 wins.]

23...Qxh3+!! After 24 Kxh3 Rh6+ 25 Kg2 Rh2# 0–1

Kiran,Manisha Mohanty (2159) Soumya,Swa-minathan (2320) [B67]

1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 Nc6 6.Bg5 e6 7.Qd2 a6 8.0–0–0 Bd7 9.f4 b5 10.Bxf6 gxf6 11.Kb1 Qb6 12.Nxc6 Bxc6 13.f5 b4 14.Ne2 e5 15.Ng3 Qc5 16.Bd3 Ke7 In the blocked central position, the black king is quite safe. The strategy of deliberately keeping the king uncastled in the centre is also found in the game quoted in the commentary to white's 20th move. 17.Nh5 Rg8 18.Qe2 Bh6 19.Rhe1 a5 20.h4N [Vujakovic 2375 vs Dahl, Porz Op, 1986, went: 20.b3 a4 21.Bc4 axb3 22.Bxb3 Ra3 23.g4 Bb5 24.Qf3 Bc4 25.h4 Bxb3 26.cxb3 Rxa2! 27.Qd3 (27.Kxa2? Qc2+ mates.) 27...Rga8 28.Qc4 Ra1+ 29.Kc2 R8a2+ 30.Kd3 Rxd1+ 31.Rxd1 Qe3#] 20...a4 21.Bc4 Ra7 [21...Rac8 was also good for black.] 22.g4 Diagram # White probably believed that the threat of g4-g5 would crush white. It does not. Better was 22 g3.

22...Rc7 Threat 23...Bxe4! 23.b3 axb3 24.cxb3 Ra7= Having induced white to play b2-b3, the rook returns to the a-file. With 25....Rga8 threatening a2 and the defence of Rd1d2 being unavailable because of the black bishop on h6, white is hustled into advancing his g-pawn to block out the Bh6, without much preparation. 25.g5 [Played under the belief that attack is the best form of defence. However, better was 25.Qf3 Ra3 (threat Qxc4!) 26.Qg2 Be3= with slightly better chances for black.] 25...fxg5 26.f6+ Kd8 27.Rg1? [White pins the g5 pawn, but black gets it immediately unpinned. White would have better chances in the variation: 27.Ng3 gxh4 28.Nf5 Bf8 29.Qh5? (29.Ng7 Bxg7 30.fxg7 Rxg7 31.Rc1 Qb6 32.Qf3 Ke8 33.Qf6 Rg6 34.Qxh4 h6 blacks two extra pawns would win the endgame.) 29...Qf2! 30.Re2 Bxe4+ 31.Ka1 Qxf5–+] 27...Rg6! 28.hxg5 Bxg5 29.Rg3 Rd7µ Black plans to take her king out of harms way to b8 and then work on her pawn advantage. 30.Rf3 Kc8 31.Rfd3 Kb8 [The f6 pawn can wait! Black does not relish the built-in uncer-tainties of a pawn-up Queen ending which results from 31...Bxf6 32.Rc1 Qb6 33.Bxf7

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Rxf7 34.Rxd6 Rc7 35.Nxf6 Bxe4+! 36.Nxe4 Rxc1+ 37.Kxc1 Rxd6 38.Nxd6+ Qxd6] 32.Qe1?

Diagram # [White should not let go of her f6 pawn without any reason. Best was to play 32.Qf3! Bh6 33.Ng3 Kc7 34.Qf5µ] 32...Bxf6 33.Nxf6 [33.Rf3 Bd8 34.Ng3 (34.Bxf7? allows the black rook to occupy his second rank with deadly effect: 34...Rxf7! 35.Rxf7 Rg2!) 34...Bh4! 35.Bd5 Bb5 36.Rc1 Qd4 37.Rd1 Qb6–+] 33...Rxf6 34.Bd5 Bb5–+ 35.Rg3 Rg6 36.Rc1 Qd4 37.Rd1 Qb6 38.Rxg6 [Exchange of piec-es should be avoided by white as black has two extra pawns and every exchange takes black closer to victory. However after 38.Rf3 Rg2 39.Rg3 Rxg3 40.Qxg3 Rc7 41.Bxf7 Qc6–+ black has multiple threats - Qc2+. ....Qxe4+, etc.] 38...hxg6 39.Kb2 Qc5 40.Qd2 Rc7 41.Rh1 f5 Black is two pawns up on the king-side and she plays on that side to set herself on the road to victory. 42.Rh8+ Rc8! 43.Rxc8+ [If 43.Rh6? Diagram # 43...Bd3!! a gem of a move! 44.Qxd3 (or 44.Rxg6 Qd4+! mates) 44...Qc1#] 43...Kxc8 44.a4 bxa3+ 45.Ka2 Bc6 46.Be6+ Bd7 47.Bf7 fxe4! 48.Bxg6 e3! 49.Qd3 Qc1! [After 49...Qc1 50.Qa6+ Kd8 51.Qa8+ Ke7 wins.] 0–1

(Position after 43.Rh6?)

Swati Ghate (2277)Meenakshi S (2165) [C41]Swati Ghate was the 2006 National Women's Champion, a title that Meenakshi has never won. But Meenakshi is one of India's most creative chess players as this game demon-strates. This game features two piece sacri-fices. The first, on move 15 by White, should have won the game, but didn't. And the second, on move 24 by black, which should not have won, but won. Such is competitive chess with the clocks eternally ticking away the seconds! 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 Nbd7 5.Bc4 Be7 6.0–0 0–0 7.Re1 c6 8.a4 h6 9.h3 Re8 10.a5 Qc7 11.b3 Nf8 12.Ba3N [Kon-stantin Aseev 2560 vs M. Bezold 2345, Neu Isenburg Rapid Op, 1992 went: 12.d5 Ng6 13.Be3 Bd7 14.Nd2 Nf4 15.Bxf4 exf4 16.a6 .... 37.1–0] 12...Be6 13.d5 cxd5 14.exd5 Bf5

Diagram # 15.Nxe5!! A brilliant winning sacrifice. 15...dxe5 16.d6 Bxd6!? [This goes according to White's scheme of things. Better was 16...Qc6 17.dxe7 Ng6 18.Nd5! Rac8± when black is just hanging on while white is very likely to win.] 17.Bxd6? [The interro-gation mark is to indicate that white miss-es the killing move: 17.Nb5! Qc6 18.Nxd6 Red8 19.Bxf7+ Kh8 20.Rxe5+-] 17...Qc6 18.Bxe5± [So white has an extra pawn and an advantage, but not a win which she could have had! Note here that if 18.Bb5?? Qxc3µ] 18...Rad8 19.Qc1 N8d7 20.Bd4 a6 21.Rxe8+ Rxe8 22.Qd2 [Better was: 22.Qb2 ] 22...Ne5 23.Bxe5?! Rxe5 24.Ne2 Diagram #

24...Bxh3!? Black tries to wrest the initiative out of white with this imaginative sacrifice, which however, has a hole in it! 25.gxh3 Ne4 26.Qf4? [This is pure defence, keeping her queen close to her castled position. Better was the aggressive defence with 26.Qd8+! Re8 (26...Kh7? 27.Bxf7!) 27.Qd3 Ng5 28.Nd4 Qf6 29.Rd1 and black has little to show for her knight sacrifice.] 26...Ng5! 27.Kh2 [27.Qxe5? Nf3+ wins the queen.; stronger was 27.Nd4 Nxh3+ 28.Kh2 Nxf4 29.Nxc6 bxc6 30.Bxa6±] 27...Nf3+ 28.Kh1 Nd2+ 29.f3? [Upset by the turn of events, white allows her position to go to pieces. Better was: 29.Kh2 Nxc4 30.Nd4 Qe4 31.Qxe4 Rxe4 32.Nf5 Ne5=] 29...Nxc4 30.Nd4 Qd6!³ 31.Rg1 [31.

bxc4?? Re1+ 32.Rxe1 Qxf4–+] 31...Ne3 32.c3 [If 32.Qg3 Qf6 33.f4 Re4 34.c3 g6µ] 32...Nd5 33.Qh4 Diagram #

33...Qf6 [Black elects to enter the calm of the endings rather than hair-raising chess with: 33...Nxc3 34.Qg4 Qf8 35.Nf5 Ne2 36.Nxh6+ Kh7 37.f4 Re6 38.Rg2 Nxf4 39.Qxf4 Rxh6µ] 34.Qxf6 Nxf6 35.b4 Nd5 36.Rc1 Re3! White now loses a pawn by force. 37.c4 Nxb4 38.Rb1 Nc6! 39.Nxc6 bxc6 40.Rb6 Rxf3! 41.Kg2 41...Rf5! Black plays the ending very well. If now 42 Rxc6 Rxa5 winning for black. 42.Rxa6 Rc5! 43.Rb6 Rxc4 44.a6 Kh7 In this situation, it is necessary for black to keep her king off her first rank to prevent white from giving a check and promoting her a-pawn at the right time. 45.Rb7 f6 [45...Ra4! won comfortably.] 46.Rc7 c5 47.Kg3 Ra4 48.a7 c4 49.h4 h5 50.Rxc4?! [She should have tried in vain for a miracle with: 50.Kf4 c3+ 51.Ke3 c2 52.Kd2 Ra2 53.Kc1 Kg6–+] 50...Rxa7 51.Rc6 Ra3+ 52.Kg2 Ra5 53.Kg3 Rf5 54.Rc7 Kh6 55.Rf7 Rb5 56.Kh3 Rb3+ 57.Kg2 Rb6 58.Rf8 g5 59.Rh8+ Kg6 60.Rg8+ Kf5 0–1

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Tactics from master games by S.Krishnan

1 2 White to play and win White to play and win

3 4 Black to play and win Black to play and win

5 6 Black to play and win White to play and win

(solutions on p.47)

 

Test your endgame by C.G.S.Narayanan

Birnov 1947 Liburkin 1949

1. 2.

Dr.Alois Wotawa 1948 Birnov 1955

3. 4. Nesterescu 1952 Gerbstman1945

5. 6.

White to play and win in all the six endings above (Solution on page 47 )

 

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45

Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam FIDE Rating Open Tournament,Visakhapatnam

Riverside 1st International FIDE Rated Open, Kotagiri

(L to R) Sundarayya(Director of Davinci School);Ramanaji(Co-Director of Davinci School);B.B Nagendra Rao (Judge);Devaram Sri Hari(Secretary of APCA); R. Balasubramanyam (1st Place)

(LtoR) Govindan, Sports Coordinator, Jaya Haridas, Vice Principal, Winner IM Balasubramaniam of TN, Dr Suresh Belliraj, Governor, Governing Council, Riverside Public School, Kavin Kumar Kandasamy, MD, Mangalam Educational Trust, Francis Xavier, Principal, Riverside Public School

Masters of the past-84 Isaac Kashdan

Isaac Kashdan (1905-1985) was an American chess grandmaster and chess writer. He was twice U.S. Open champion (1938, 1947). He played five times for the United States in chess Olympiads, winning a total of nine medals, and his Olympiad record is the all-time best among American players. At New York City 1931, Kashdan took second place with 8.5/11, behind José Raúl Capablanca.

Kashdan was often called 'der Kleine Capablanca' (German for "The little Capablanca") in Europe because of his ability to extract victories from seem-ingly even positions. Alexander Alekhine named him one of the most likely players to succeed him as World Champion. Kashdan could not, however, engage seriously in a chess career for financial reasons; his peak chess

years coincided with the Great Depression. He resorted to earning a living as an insurance agent and administrator in order to support his family.

Kashdan was U.S. Open Champion in 1938 (jointly with Al Horowitz) at Boston, and in 1947 at Corpus Christi. Kashdan also tied 2nd-4th places in the U.S. Open at Baltimore 1948 with 9/12, half a point behind Weaver Adams.

The American team traveled to Moscow in 1946 for a rematch against the Soviet team, and Kashdan partially avenged his result against Kotov from the previous year, winning 1.5-0.5. In a Master event organized by the Manhattan Chess Club in 1948, Kashdan scored 5.5/7 to place 2nd behind George Kramer. But in the 1948 New York International, Kashdan made just 4/9 for a tied 7-8th place, with Fine winning.In the U.S. Open Chess Championship, Fort Worth 1951, Kashdan scored 8/11, with Larry Evans winning. At Hollywood 1952, Kashdan scored 4/9 for 7th place, with Svetozar Gligorić winning. Kashdan's final competitive event was the 1955 match in Moscow against the USSR, where he scored 1.5/4 against Mark Taimanov.

Kashdan was awarded the Grandmaster title in 1954, and the International Arbiter title in 1960. Kashdan captained the American Olympiad team for Leipzig 1960 to a silver medal finish. Brady praised Kashdan's contribution: "Possibly the most valuable member was a non-player, Isaac Kashdan. As team captain, he brought to our players an incomparable knowledge not only of the complications of international team chess, but also of the zest and confidence of the Thirties that had seen him front and center in an unbroken succession of American victories."

In 1933, Kashdan, in partnership with Horowitz, founded Chess Review, a magazine that was purchased by the United States Chess Federation in 1969. He edited the tournament book for the 1966 Piatigorsky Cuptournament.Kashdan was the longtime editor of the Los Angeles Times chess column, from 1955 until 1982, when he suffered a disabling stroke.

In his role as an arbiter he directed many chess tournaments, including the two Piatigorsky Cuptournaments of 1963 (at Los Angeles) and 1966 (at Santa Monica). Kashdan also helped to organize the series of Lone Pine tournaments in the 1970s, which were sponsored by Louis Statham. Kashdan was later involved in administration in the United States Chess Federation, serving as a vice-president.

Courtesy:Wikepedia

AICF CHRONICLE47

JANUARY 2018

46

Vardhaman Cup Open Fide Rating Chess Tournament, Hyderabad

2nd All India Fide Rating Below 1500 Tournament, Secunderabad

KS Prasad, Secretary TSCA, Ms Rupal Chilukuri, 2nd runner up Ramakrishna J, Champion Shekar B, Mr Vijendar Chairman, Upendar Reddy, Secretary, runner up Lokesh N , Major Shivaprasad , Vice president TSCA, and Satyanarayana Reddy Principal of Vardhaman College.

(L -R ) K S Prasad,Secretary-TSCA; Dandu Hemanth Shankar Reddy(2nd Prize); Major K A Shiva Prasad, Vice-Pres-ident,TSCA; Aragonda Mohan (Winner); Malladi Srikanth Sarma (Organizer); K Gopichand (3rd Place)

Solutions to ‘Tactics from master games’on page 421. Martinovici,Ilie (2338)

Toma,Al (2192) [E80]Alba Iulia ROU Alba Iulia ROU (7.9), 24.11.2017White To play. 21.Qh6! Ne6 [21...Bxf6 22.Nxf6+ Kh8 23.Qxh7#; 21...Bxh6 22.Ne7#] 22.Bxg7 [22.Bxg7 Nxg7 23.Nf6+ Kh8 24.Qxh7#] 1–0

2. Skatchkov,Valery (2284) Goganov,A (2579) [E11]13th Ugra Governor's Cup Khanty-Mansiysk RUS (9.9), 25.11.2017White to play 19.Bxc6! Rd8 [19...bxc6 20.Nxc6+-; 19...Bd7 20.Bxb7+-] 20.Bg2 Rh5 21.Nb5 Ne8 22.Nxd6! Nxd6 23.Bxd6 Rxd6 24.Rxd6 Qxd6 25.c5+- 1–0

3. Batyte,D (2220) Maksimovic,Bojan (2311) [A22]31st Belgrade Trophy Belgrade SRB (6.18), 29.11.2017Black to play. 24...Rf8! 25.Qxf8 [25.Qd3+ Bf5 26.Qe2 (26.Qf3 Be4) 26...Be4+; 25.Qe2 Bxd5+–+] 25...Bxd5+ 26.Rf3 Qc8! [26...Qc8 27.Qxc8 Bxf3#] 0–1

4. Kamody,M (2254)Bagi,M (2456) [A15]TCh-SVK 2017–18 Slovakia SVK (6.3), 10.12.2017Black to play. 20...Bg2+! 21.Bxg2 [21.Rxg2 Nxg2 22.Kxg2 Qxh2+ 23.Kf1 Bg3 24.Qe3 Qh1+ 25.Qg1 Rxf3+ 26.exf3 Qxf3+ Wins] 21...Nd3! [21...Nd3 22.h3 (22.Qxd3 Qxh2#; 22.Bh3 Qe4+ 23.Bg2 Nf2#) 22...Nf2#] 0–1

5. Grela,K (2293)Sieciechowicz,M (2387) [C01]33rd Voivoda Cup 2017 Legnica POL (1.3), 07.12.2017Black to play 33...Rh1+! 34.Kg3 Rh3+!

35.gxh3 Qg1+ [35...Qg1+ 36.Kf4 Qxf2+ 37.Kg5 Qxf5+ 38.Kh6 Qxe6+ Wins] 0–1

6.Yoon,Jacob D (2045)Lochte,S (1850) [B42]London Classic Open 2017 London ENG (4.102), 04.12.2017White to play. 16.Ne6! fxe6 [16...Qe7 17.Nxg7+ Kf8 18.Bxc5 Qxc5 19.Qd8+ Kxg7 20.f6+ Kg6 21.Qxh8+-; 16...Qd7 17.Nxc5+-] 17.Bh5+ [17.Bh5+ Ke7 (17...g6 18.fxg6 hxg6 19.Bxg6+ Ke7 20.Bg5#) 18.Bg5+ Kf8 19.fxe6+ Kg8 20.Qf3! Idea 21 e7 wins 20...Nc6 (20...h6 21.e7 Qc6 22.Qf7+ Kh7 23.Qf5+ Kg8 (23...g6 24.Qf7#) 24.Bf7#) 21.e7 Wins] 1–0

Solutions to ‘Test your endgame’ on page 431.Birnov1.Rg7+ Kb6 2.a8N+ Ka6 3.Nc7+ Ka5 4.Rg1 Bg5 5.Rxg5+ d5+ 6.Rxd5+ Ka4 7.Nb5 c1Q+ 8.Nc3+ Ka3 9.Ra5+ Kb2 10.Ra2#

2.Liburkin1.b8Q Bh4+ 2.Kd2 Bg5+ 3.Kc3 Bf6+ 4.Kb4 Be7+ 5.Ka5 Bd8+ 6.Kb5 Bd7+ 7.Kc4 Be6+ 8.Kd3 Bf5+ 9.Ke2 Bg4+ 10.Kf1 Bh3+ 11.Kg1 wins

3.Wotawa1.Rd8+ Ke5 2.Rh1 Rb2+ 3.Kc5 Rb1 4.Rf1 Ke6 5.Re8+ Kd7 6.Rfe1 wins

4.Birnov1.Rc4 Ne5 2.Rc5 Nd7 3.Rd5 Nf6 4.Rd6 Ne8 5.Re6 Ng7 6.Re7 Nf5 7.Re5 Bc2 8.Kb2 Nd4 9.Kc3 wins

5.Nasterescu1.Rc1 Rh8 2.Kg7 Re8 3.Kf7 Rh8 4.Bd4 Rd8 5.Ra1+ Kb8 6.Be5+ Kc8 7.Rc1+ Kd7 8.Rc7#

6.Gerbstman1.Nf3 Kh6 2.Bg8 Ne7+ 3.Ke6 Nxg8 4.Kf7 Kh7 5.Ng5+ Kh8 6.f3 Nh6+ 7.Kxg6 Ng8 8.Nf7#

JANUARY 2018

AICF CHRONICLE48

Tariff for adverTisemenT :

Back Cover (Colour)Inside Cover (Colour)Full Page Inside (Colour)Full Page Inside (Black & White)Half Page Inside (Black & White)

Monthly (in Rs.)

15,00015,000 7,000 5,000 3,000

Annual (in Rs.)

1,20,0001,00,000

60,000 45,000 30,000

49

IWASA 44th National Women Premier Chess Championship, Surat

WGM Bakthi Kulkarni playing Samriddhi Ghosh

AICF Calendar January 2018Title Date Place10th Chennai Open Grandmaster Tournament 18 Jan - 25 Jan Arumbakkam, Chennai Captain All WB Rated Amateur below 2000 22 Jan - 25 Jan Kolkata 3rd Karur FIDE Rating chess tmt below 1600 26 Jan - 28 Jan Karur ,TN Sri Gurukul FIDE Rating Tmt 26 Jan - 28 Jan Visakhapatnam, APGanesan Memorial FIDE Rated Open 26 Jan - 29 Jan Nagercoil Suraj FIDE Rating Open Chess tournament 26 Jan - 30 Jan Sangli,MH Karippaparambil KC Sebastain mem 1500 26 Jan - 28 Jan Kottayam Shri Ram School FIDE Rating open 26 Jan - 29 Jan Villupuram,TN 26th The Telegraph schools' FIDE rated 27 Jan - 01 Feb Kolkata2nd Nithm all India Open FIDE Rating Tmt 28 Jan - 01 Feb Hyderabad, Telangana National Schools 2018 28 Jan - 01 Feb Bhubaneshwar,Orissa 18th North East Chess Championship 29 Jan - 03 Feb Shillong 1st Ankit Sakshi Memorial Open FIDE Rating 29 Jan - 02 Feb Jaipur Dombivali Kalyan All India FIDE Rating 30 Jan - 04 Feb Kalyan West 4th Teekay FIDE Chess Tournament 31 Jan - 03 Feb Thoothukudi 3rd Nithm All India below 1400 FIDE Rating 02 Feb - 04 Feb Hyderabad, Telangana AICFB National "A" for Visually Challenged 03 Feb - 11 Feb Mumbai National Team 2018 07 Feb - 14 Feb Bhubaneshwar,Orissa 10th BRDCA FIDE Rating Rapid 10 Feb - 11 Feb Bangalore Open FIDE rating for Visually Challenged 13 Feb - 16 Feb Andheri West, Mumbai Shri Dakshinamurthy Rating below 1500 23 Feb - 25 Feb Tindivanam,TN 4th Kanyakumari FIDE Rated below 1500 23 Feb - 25 Feb Nagercoil KCA 16th Open FIDE Rating 29 Mar - 01 Apr Kottayam 2nd Holi Cup Lakecity open FIDE Rating 29 Mar - 01 Apr Udaipur,RJ 3rd Don Bosco FIDE Rated 07 Apr - 10 Apr Irinjalakuda,KL Karnataka State Rated Open Championship 14 Apr - 18 Apr Koramangala 1st ARMS Open Rapid FIDE Rating 21 Apr - 22 Apr Thane TN State Open Chess Championship 2018 26 Apr - 30 Apr Dharmapuri 4 Queens 1st open FIDE Chess Tournament 28 Apr - 01 May Ernakulam Kerala

The top three- WGM Banthi Kulkarni (Runner-up) WGM Padmini Rout (Winner) and WGM Mary Ann Gomes (Third)

WGM Padmini Rout playing Sakshi Chitlange

Solution to puzzle of the month on page 15 : 1.e4 e6 2.Bb5 Ke7 3.Bd7 c6 4.Be8 Kxe8

Bhopal International GM Chess Tournament 2017,Bhopal

Lighting the traditional lamp (L-R) Dharmendra Kumar CA Sunil Bansal President MPCA Rishi Shukla IPS Director General Of Police Govt. Of MP Chief guest for inauguration,,Kapil Saxena Sec.MPCA,S N Rupla IAS

(L-R) Gurtej Singh DGM Union Bank,S N Ruola IAS, Upendra jain IPS Add.DGP & Director Sports & youth walefare Govt. of MP,Winner Duc Hoa holding trophy,Sunil Bansal President MPCA Kapil Saxena Sec. MPCA Dharmendra Kumar.Chief Arbiter