AICF CHRONICLE

the official magazine of the All India Chess Federation

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

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

GM Viswanathan Anand WGM Padmini Rout

World Rapid Chess Champion Champion

World Youth Chess Olympiad, Ahmedabad

Team India Green – Silver medal Winner

Standing:IM Praggnanandhaa and IM Nihal Sarin
Sitting: GM Aryan Chopra, IM P.Iniyan, Prasenjit Datta (Coach) and WIM R.Vaishali
AICF CHRONICLE January 2017
Room No. 70,
Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium,
Chennai - 600 003.
Ph : 044-65144966 /Telefax : 044-25382121
E-mail : indianchessfed@gmail.com
Publisher: Bharat Singh Chouhan
Editor : C.G.S. Narayanan
Price: Monthly Rs.25 Annual Rs.300
Inside….
Bhopal International GM Tmt2017,Bhopal
Nguyen Duc Hoa wins at Bhopal
by Dharmendra Kumar IA, Chief Arbiter 1
IWASA 44th National Women Premier Championship,Surat
Padmini Rout is Premier Champion fourth time in a row
by V.Vijayaraghavan IA, Chief Arbiter 6
AICFB - National B Championship 2017.Ambala,Haryana
Kishan Gangolli clinches title
by M.Manjunatha IA, Chief Arbiter 9
9th BRDCA International Open FIDE Rating
GM Deepan Chakkaravarthy is Champion
by FA Saleem Beig, Chief Arbiter 10
Riverside 1st International FIDE Open, Kotagiri
Balasubramanian wins at Kotagiri
by V.Vijayaragahavan IA, Chief Arbiter 12
2nd CPPA Open Rating tournament , Duliajan, Assam
Trailokya Nanda wins title
by Debasish Barua, IA,Chief Arbiter 14
The CSIR-CMERI Diamond Jubilee FIDE Rated Tmt,Durgapur
Suvrajit Saha wins at Durgapur
by Biswanath Banerjee, Chief Arbiter 16
Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam FIDE Rating Open Tmt,Visakhapatnam
Balasubramaniam of Tamilnadu wins
by FA G Venkata Kumar , Chief Arbiter 18
Karnavati Club Open FIDE Rating Tmt,
Deepan Chakravarthi wins title
by IA S Biju Raj, Chief Arbiter 20
Nipani Grand Open Fide Rapid Rating Tmt , Nipani
Sameeer Kathamale wins title
by Bharat Chougule, Chief Arbiter 22
1st Shree Narayana Guru TrophyFIDE Rated Rapid,Udupi
Viani Antonio Dcunha clinches title
by IA Vasanth BH , Chief Arbiter 28
SPIC 1st All India FIDE Rated Tmt(below1600),Thoothukudi
Bala Ganeshan wins SPIC FIDE rated
by Dharmaraj P,Chief Arbiter 30
2nd All India Fide Rating Below 1500 Tmt,Secunderabad
Aragonda Mohan of Telangana wins
by FA S Subba Raju , Chief Arbiter 32
Vardhaman Cup Open Fide Rating Tmt,Hyderabad
B Sekar is Champion
by Promodraj Moree,Chief Arbiter 34
Selected games from National Women Premier,Surat
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron 36
Tactics from master games by S.Krishnan 42
Test your endgame by C.G.S.Narayanan 43
Masters of the past-84
Isaac Kashdan 44
AICF Calendar 48
From the President
At 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
Bhopal International GM Chess Tournament 2017,Bhopal
Nguyen Duc Hoa wins at Bhopal
by Dharmendra Kumar IA, Chief Arbiter
B
hopal 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 , Bhopal
322 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
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-
AICF CHRONICLE
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JANUARY 2018
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
AICF CHRONICLE
2
JANUARY 2018
Education , Bhopal . Org. Secretary cum 1st Shree Narayana Guru Trophy National FIDE Rated Rapid Tournament,Udupi
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 Standing L-R :Gahan MG, VianiDcunha, Anwar Shazuli, Augustin A
good. Associated dignitaries were visited dai- Sitting L-R : IA Vasanth BH Chief Arbiter, Babu J Poojary Secretary Udupi District Chess Association,
ly to tournament hall. All participants were Arvind Shastry Secretary United Karnataka Chess Association, Leeladhar Shetty Kapu Social Worker,
satisfied and had positive and Satisfactory K P Acharya Chairman Vidyaniketan Group of Institution Kapu, Muttu Kumar Proprietor Sri Maruthi
remarks.I would like to mention the great Bakers Bangalore, Harish Poojary Ammembala Industrialist, H B Siddharaju Bangalore, K Srinivas Poojary
President Kalabhimani Sangha Kapu, Sudheer Beedu Udupi, UmanathKapu Tournament coordinator,
sportsmanship of all players they showed
Rathnakar Shetty Bhramavar
during the whole event.
Final ranking
Rk Name FED Pts
3rd master mind open FIDE rated chess tournament, Pammal
1 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 Saravanan (Secretary, TV Malai District), Illankumar, S. Chandrasekar, IM R. Balasubramaniam
16 IM Deshmukh Anup IND 7 (Winner), Mr. Stephen Balasamy, Secy, TNSCA (Chief Guest), Mr. P.R. Dinesh Kumar, R. Srivatsan
17 IM Ravi Teja S. IND 7 (Chief Arbiter), Muthu Kumar (Jt. Secy, TNSCA), Mr. Ebenezer and C. Natarajan, Secretary, Master
Mind Chess Academy
Cont.on p.5 3
 Cont.from p.7
18 FM Erigaisi Arjun IND 7
Captain All Bengal Open FIDE Rated Chess Tournament ,Kolkata 19 IM Rathnakaran K. IND 7
62 CM Aditya Mittal IND 6
63 WIM Pratyusha Bodda IND 6
20 Senthil Maran K IND 7
64 Badrinath S. IND 6
21 Kunal M. IND 7
65 Shiva Pavan Teja S U IND 6
22 Saravana KrishnanP. IND 7
66 Kant Rupesh IND 6
23 FM Gajwa Ankit IND 7
67 WFM Varshini V IND 6
24 Ajay Krishna S IND 7
68 Aryan Abhijeet Shah IND 6
25 Sekar B IND 7
69 Manish Anto C F IND 6
26 Muthaiah Al IND 7
70 Saptorshi Gupta IND 6
27 Ram S. Krishnan IND 7
71 Soham Kamotra IND 6
28 Nayak Rajesh IND 7
72 Polakhare Aryan IND 6
29 Singh Arvinder Preet IND 7
73 WIM Chitlange Sakshi IND 6
30 IM Nitin S. IND 7
74 Chakravarthy Y V K IND 6
31 Panesar Vedant IND 7
75 Aditya Guhagarkar IND 6
32 Saurabh Anand IND 7
76 Tarun Kanyamarala IRL 6
33 Dixit Nikhil IND 7
77 Gokulraj K IND 6
34 WFM Jishitha D IND 7
78 Dinesh Rajan M IND 6
35 GM David Alberto ITA 6½
79 WIM Gokhale Anupama IND 6
36 Patil Pratik IND 6½
80 Panda Sambit IND 6
37 Masango Spencer ZIM 6½
Champion Arpan Das receving the trophy from Chief Guest Raman Pandey,President, INTUC (WB) and IM 81 Rindhiya V IND 6
38 Bharat Kumar Reddy P IND 6½
Atanu Lahiri, Jt.Secretary AICF & Secretary,BCA 82 Alan Diviya Raj IND 6
39 Shelke Sankarsha IND 6½
83 CM Bennett David Michael USA 6
40 Nguyen Phuoc Tam VIE 6½
84 Patil Harshal IND 6
9th BRDCA International Open FIDE Rating Tournament, Bangalore 41 IM Dhulipalla B C Prasad IND 6½
85 Dahale Atul IND 6
42 FM Matta Vinay Kumar IND 6½
86 Sumit Grover IND 6
43 FM Rathanvel V S IND 6½
87 WIM Parnali S Dharia IND 6
44 Himanshu Ranjan IND 6½
88 Shyam Prasad Reddy IND 6
45 Tiwari Arjun IND 6½
89 Punit Indora IND 6
46 Manush Shah IND 6½
90 Pandey Srishti IND 6
47 Moksh Amit Doshi IND 6½
91 Arya Bhakta IND 6
48 Arpan Das (Jr) IND 6½
92 Sa Kannan IND 6
49 CM Karthik Kumar Pradeep IND 6½
93 Sanjeet Manohar IND 6
50 WFM Divya Deshmukh IND 6½
94 Lama Surbir NEP 6
51 FM Ramakrishna J. IND 6½
95 Priyanka Nutakki IND 6
52 Anuj Shrivatri IND 6½
96 Mehta Naitik R IND 6
53 Bhambure Shantanu IND 6½
97 Likhit Chilukuri IND 6
54 Soham Datar IND 6½
98 CM Sharma Bhagawati P NEP 6
55 Snehal Bhosale IND 6½
99 Deepthamsh Reddy IND 5½
56 Barath Kalyan M IND 6½
100 FM Deshpande Aniruddha IND 5½
57 Bhanot Stuti IND 6½
101 Pranesh M IND 5½
58 WIM Chandreyee Hajra IND 6½
102 Gaikwad Siddhant IND 5½
59 IM Abu Sufian Shakil BAN 6½
103 Utsab Chatterjee IND 5½
60 Nagare Akhilesh IND 6½
104 Saranya Y IND 5½
The top three- Manigandan S.S (Runner-up),GM Deepan Chakravarthy (Winner) and N.Sanjay (Third) 61 IM Wohl Aleksandar H. AUS 6
4
AICF CHRONICLE
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JANUARY 2018

IWASA 44th National Women Premier Chess Championship,Surat….
Padmini Rout is Premier Champion fourth time in a row
By V.Vijayaraghavan IA, Chief Arbiter
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
AICF CHRONICLE
6 7
JANUARY 2018
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 round
IM 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 round
Four 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
AICF CHRONICLE
JANUARY 2018
tie-break scores, final round results may cast The exchange of queens had put Meenakshi AICFB - National B Chess Championship 2017.Ambala,Haryana…
the difference. pieces passive in the middle game. Kiran
made inroads on black by winning pawns
Kishan Gangolli clinches title
Defending champion IM Padmini Rout repeat- and won the bishop against knight ending by M.Manjunatha IA, Chief Arbiter
ed the checks against Bhakti to a safe draw in 51 moves.
in 27 moves of the grunfeld defense. Trailing AICFB-National “B” Chess Championship for Mumbai from 03rd feb2018 to 11th feb2018.
in the 2nd spot by half a point a tough tus- The rest day was interesting with a trip to the Visually Challenged 2017 was oragnised
sle was expected between these two. Much Shairu Gems, a diamond cutting factory and by All India Chess Federation for the blind, The event was well contested between the
to the surprise the game ended in a truce Laxmipati Sarees, a famous textile shop in National Federation for the blind and Haryana players of various states after 7th round Kis-
despite, Bhakti having an extra minor piece. Surat. We were shown the intricacies in raw State Chess Association for the blind. The han Gangolli of Karnataka took the lead with
WGM Mary Ann of PSPB had an fairly easy win diamonds, sizing and polishing, costing etc. five day tournament was inaugurated by Shri 6.5points. In eighth round Aryan B joshi of
against Samriddha Ghosh after netting two Each of one were gifted with a silver coin by Karan Singh, Railway Security Officer Ambala Maharashtra joined the leader by defeating
pawns from her favourite fianchetto opening. Mr Ashok Mehta, CMD, Shairu Gems, a truly Haryana, Shri Baba Ajith Singh, Trustee Icha Patra Subendu Kumar of Odissa. At the end of
Mary moves up the ladder with 6 points. amazing experience. Next stop was at the purvak Gurudwara Ambala on 25/12/2017 9th round Kishan Gangolli and Aryan B Joshi
Soumya Swaminathan was back to her ele- Saree shop and as everyone knows it took at NFB Hall, Ambala, Haryana. 108 players scored 7.5points with best tiebreak score
ments with a fine win over Sakshi Chitlange much longer. The organizers gifted the par- represented 18 states. Among them, 70 Kishan Gangolli clinched AICFB National B
in 36 moves. Replying for the Queen pawn ticipants with a saree of their choice at free of were FIDE rated players and 13 were female Chess Championship 2017. Aryan B Joshi is
game chosen by Sakshi, Soumya got a strong cost wishing them to be worn by during the players. 4 times National Champion Kishan first runner up.
pawn on d4 square. The weakness around the prize distribution and it happened!. The prize Gangolli of KAR was the top seed of the tour-
white king was untenable and Soumya netted distribution function was held in the aerobics nament with an ELO rating of 2003, followed The prize distribution function took place at
a valuable point reliving her title chances. hall of the Surat Tennis club with prominent by Aryan B Joshi of MAH 1786. 2.30pm on 29th December2017. Dignitaries
LIC’s Kiran Manisha must be much relieved guest like Vispy Kharadi, two times Guinness present on the occasion were Mr Subhash
when she put a hold on her losses by scor- world record holder alongwith officials of Su- This tournament was conducted in Swiss Shihang, Sub divisional Magistrate. Shri
ing over the leader Air India’s Meenakshi. rat Tennis Club & GSCA were present. league system with 9 rounds. The Top 14 Dhinesh Shastry, commissioner for disabled
players from this tournament were selected Haryana. Professor Miss Tej Pal, Jagieram
Final Ranking for National “A” Chess Championship for the General Secretary NFB, Shri Manisha Thool
Rank Title Name Club Pts Res. SB Vict Vict visually challenged which will be held at Secretary AICFB.
Open Category
1 IM Padmini Rout PSPB 7½ 0 36.25 6 4 Rank Sn Name Rating Club Pts
2 WGM Kulkarni Bhakti AI 7 2 37.00 4 2 1 Kishan Gangolli 2003 KAR 7½
3 WGM Gomes Mary Ann PSPB 7 ½ 35.25 5 4 2 Aryan B Joshi 1786 MAH 7½
3 Makwana Ashvin K 1750 GUJ 7
4 WGM SoumyaSwaminathan PSPB 7 ½ 33.50 5 4
4 Samant Milind 1653 MAH 6½
5 WGM MeenakshiSubbaraman AI 6½ 0 38.50 5 3 5 Prachurya K Pradhan 1561 ODI 6½
6 WIM NandhidhaaPv TN 6 1 30.25 5 3 6 Patra Subhendu Kumar 1630 ODI 6½
7 Krishna Udupa 1710 KAR 6½
7 WGM Swati Ghate LIC 6 0 29.00 4 1
8 Soundarya K Pradhan 1739 ODI 6½
8 WIM ChitlangeSakshi MAH 4½ 1 17.75 4 1 9 Swapanil Shah 1672 MAH 6½
9 BalaKannamma P TN 4½ 0 23.25 1 0 10 Patil Shirish 1698 MAH 6½
10 Ghosh Samriddhaa WB 3½ 1 17.75 1 1 11 Deeptyajeet De 1583 W B 6½
12 Gaurav Gadodia 1750 MAH 6½
11 WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty LIC 3½ 0 19.50 2 1
13 Marimuthu K 1591 T N 6½
12 Pandey Srishti MAH 3 0 16.50 2 1 14 Yudhajeet De 1682 W B 6½

AICF CHRONICLE AICF CHRONICLE

8 9
JANUARY 2018 JANUARY 2018
 9th BRDCA International Open FIDE Rating Chess Tournament
GM Deepan Chakkaravarthy is the Champion
by FA Saleem Beig, Chief Arbiter
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
AICF CHRONICLE
10
JANUARY 2018
27 Sugyan Prakash Maharaj 5½ 70 Hrishikesh R Raghuvaran 5
28 WCM Chopdekar Gunjal 5½ 71 AFM Kaushik G Iyer 4½
29 AIM Abhijit Chutia 5½ 72 Shiva S 4½
30 WCM Swera Ana Braganca 5½ 73 AFM Ravindran R 4½
31 Jagadish P 5½ 74 Yashas Donthi 4½
for chess tournaments in Karnataka. 32 Srikrishnan P 5½ 75 Karthikay C 4½
33 AIM Kohli Pranav 5½ 76 Bipin Raj S 4½
Prize distribution Ceremony took place at 34 AGM Sagar Praveen 5½ 77 Hariharan Subramony 4½
5.30 pm. Mr.Arvind Shastry Secretary UKCA, 35 Vignesh Kasi P L 5½ 78 Adithya A Chullikkad 4½
Mr. Chidananda A secretary BRDCA, Mr. Ha- 36 Keshav Kothari 5½ 79 Devkarvin V U 4½
numantha R, Vice President UKCA, Shashi 37 Tanvi Vasudev Hadkonkar 5½ 80 Jeyanth R 4½
Kumar CEO Akshaykalpa and Mr. Subra- 38 Ramajayam J 5½ 81 Rakshith Srinivasan 4½
manyam CEO Virginia Mall presided over the 39 Devanand Nayak 5 82 Pratik Dinesh Kumar 4½
function.I have attached photo of the winners 40 Darshan V P S 5 83 Abhyuday Santhosh 4½
of the tournament along with the tournament 41 AGM Sa Kannan 5 84 Tejas Cavale 4½
hall photos. 42 Abhinessh S 5 85 Apoorv Kamble 4½
Final ranking 43 Arhan Chethan Anand 5 86 Sanjana Raghunath 4½
Rk Name Pts 44 Jinan Jomon 5 87 Vishwanath Radhakrishnan 4½
1 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. 7½ 45 Ansuman Mohanty 5 88 Suyash Srivastava 4½
2 Manigandan S S 7 46 Anantha Sai S 5 89 Anil Thungesh 4½
3 Sanjay N. 7 47 Surya Prakash J 5 90 Chaitanya Gadgil 4½
4 Sekar B 6½ 48 Aravinda B R 5 91 Kakodkar Joy 4½
5 Balkishan A. 6½ 49 Vivekananda L 5 92 Deekshith J 4½
6 Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri 6½ 50 Jaiswal Avi 5 93 Nachiketh Adiga 4½
7 Yashas D. 6½ 51 Samyukta Banthia 5 94 Radhakrishna S Kavalgi 4½
8 Senthil Maran K 6½ 52 Saypuri Srithan 5 95 Dhrithi Murgod 4½
9 Syed Anwar Shazuli 6½ 53 Pereira Asim Anthony 5 96 Prajwal M Joshi 4½
10 Augustin A 6 54 Samith Reddy I 5 97 Joshi Kedar 4½
11 Arvind Shastry 6 55 Shree Krishna Pranama 5 98 Ajjay R 4½
12 Abhishek A 6 56 Pradeep Sagar 5 99 Rohit Venugopal 4½
13 Varma Shabdhik 6 57 Nithish M 5 100 Bharath M 4½
14 Selvabharathy T 6 58 Vikas Saini 5 101 WCM Shriyana S Mallya 4½
15 Pranav Anand 6 59 Aniruddh Chatterjee 5 102 Pramod S P 4½
16 Raghavendra V. 6 60 Anirudh Ra 5 103 Dharani Srinivas K B 4
17 Sriram B 6 61 AFM Shashidhar B Rai 5 104 Prabhakaran K 4
18 WCM Isha Sharma 6 62 Porob Vraj 5 105 AIM Sushrutha Reddy 4
19 Badrinath S. 6 63 Dhandapani Perumal 5 106 Rishabh Kumara 4
20 Sudarshan Bhat 5½ 64 Neil J 5 107 Umesh N 4
21 Jayachandra Srinivas V 5½ 65 Arnav Muralidhar 5 108 Siddhesh Jayakumar 4
22 Lokesh N. 5½ 66 Laddha Shubh Jayesh 5 109 Vishwa Bala Kumaran M 4
23 Gavi Siddayya 5½ 67 Gargare Prathmesh 5 110 Saket Singh 4
24 Mohamed Anees M 5½ 68 Sanjay Srinivasan R 5 111 Siri Sharma 4
25 IM Hegde Ravi Gopal 5½ 69 Kamatham Balaji 5 112 Amogh Manohar 4
26 Reetish Padhi 5½
AICF CHRONICLE
11
JANUARY 2018
 Riverside 1st International FIDE Open, Kotagiri
Balasubramanian wins at Kotagiri
by V.Vijayaragahavan IA, Chief Arbiter
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,
AICF CHRONICLE
12
JANUARY 2018
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 43 Velavaa Ragavesh 5 86 Aswin Sivakumar 4
Rk. Name Pts. 44 Rajiv A 5 87 Narine Anirudh S 4
1 R Balasubramaniam IM 7 45 Sriram K 5 88 Mohitkumar K S 4
2 Swaraj Palit 6.5
3 Abhishek A 6.5 46 Prakalya Nithish S 5
4 Abhijith M 6.5 47 Shaik Shabaaj 5
5 Yuvan Bharathi K S 6.5 48 Sakthivel Heamish Kanha 5
6 Anilkumar O.T. 6.5 49 Lekhanthika Mathan R 5
7 Manigandan S S 6 50 Avinash Y 5
8 Sivakumar C. 6 51 Babu S. 4.5
9 Sathish Chandra G 6 52 Tejaswi R 4.5
10 Sharsha Backer 6 53 Harsha R 4.5
11 Kathiravan M. 6 54 Jeremiah S V 4.5
12 Madhusoodanan K.R. 6 55 Rajkumar S 4.5
13 Sushrutha Reddy 6 56 Vishwa Dheep D N 4.5
14 Raghuraman N. R. 6 57 Adithya A Chullikkad 4.5
15 Kannan R. 6 58 Shreyas Seshadri Nallore 4.5
16 Vigneshwaran N. 5.5 59 Rethish Puthanpurayil 4.5
17 Sivasankar B. 5.5 60 Ravikumar R 4.5
18 Vinodh Kumar B. 5.5 61 Reno Noel 4.5
19 Binu Sebastian 5.5 62 Mayoogha N 4.5
20 Nandha Kumar K 5.5 63 Pournami S 4.5
21 Aravindaswami T 5.5 64 Chandhan G 4.5
22 Harshad S 5.5 65 Shreya S Pillai 4.5
23 Subramanian T.V. 5.5 66 Sudeep S 4
24 Uma Maheswaran P 5.5 67 Aji Kumar A 4
25 Madhusudan R. 5.5 68 Harish G 4
26 Ranjith Kalaiyarasan 5.5 69 Kaviyarasan T 4
27 Kannan.V 5.5 70 Vinesh R 4
28 Nitin M Pai 5 71 Kaustubh Balaji 4
29 Kabhilan S 5 72 Bala Guhanesh G S 4
30 Hiridik Rajendran 5 73 Adhithyan J 4
31 Gangadhar T 5 74 Sumesh Kabeer 4
32 Yashavishree N 5 75 Rajeeb Mk 4
33 John Christopher 5 76 Pranav Gopi 4
34 Vishnu Bharani S 5 77 Hareesh Ponnappan 4
35 Aakash G 5 78 Srivatsan Karthikeyan 4
36 Kathiravan S 5 79 Rohit Venugopal 4
37 Rathish R 5 80 Aromal S Nair 4
38 Kavitha P L 5 81 Madhesh V 4
39 Vishalraam C S 5 82 Vinoth Kumar M 4
40 Goutham Krishnaraja 5 83 Shreepathi M 4
41 Jaidambareesh N R 5 84 Logesh Sanmugam S 4
42 Madhu Sudhan Chary K 5 85 Vinanthi R S 4
AICF CHRONICLE
13
JANUARY 2018
 2nd CPPA Open Rating chess tournament 2017, Duliajan, Assam
Trailokya Nanda wins title
by 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.
AICF CHRONICLE
14
JANUARY 2018
21 Dhruv Phukan 5½ 64 Ariz Zaman 4
22 Jintu Gogoi 5½ 65 Dikom Newar 4
23 Anuj Boro 5½ 66 Parismita Chutia 4
24 Arijit Amar Saikia 5½ 67 Hitarth Pratim Buragohain 4
25 Abhash Roimya Saikia 5 68 Akash Nibir Kashyap 4
The Chess Players’ Parent’s Association,
26 Tanisha A R Som 5 69 Nahid Amon 4
Duliajan organizer of the tournament has
27 Aarohan Saikia 5 70 Priyanshu Dutta 4
so many young dedicated personalities like
28 Nawab Mukril Zadeed 5 71 Priyanuj Gogoi 4
Mr. Dipanta Kumar Gogoi, Mr D M Baruah,
29 Devabarenya Gogoi 5 72 Abhinab Saikia 3½
MrsJahnabiNeog, Mr. PrabinGogoi, under the
30 Mukul Borah 5 73 Chinmoi Saikia 3½
leadership of Mr.Jayanta Kumar Gogoi Gener-
31 Tripartha Saikia 5 74 Gaurav Nandan Nath 3½
al Secretary of CPPA,D and Mr. PrabinGogoi,
32 Devjit Khanikar 5 75 Arunangshu Raj Dey 3½
President CPPA,Duliajan, Assam.
33 Sumangal Borgohain 5 76 Neerab Dowerah 3½
34 Nandika Sahu 5 77 Pritisha Dutta 3½
Prize Distribution ceremony was held on
35 Abhijit Kurmi 5 78 Sanjiv Prasad 3½
15th December, 2017 at 4 pm at the ven-
36 Ravin Sarkar 5 79 Angaraag Borkakoti 3½
ue. Mr. DipakPatgiri, Secretary Incharge, All
37 Jagadish Gogoi 5 80 Jitul Kurmi 3½
Assam Assam Chess Association, Mr.Kamal
38 Trideep Luchan Thengal 5 81 Yuwan Das 3½
Kumar Das, General Manager, Oil India Ltd
39 Ahiron Kaushik Saikia 5 82 Adhiraj Chetia 3
( Planing), attended the prize distribution
40 Ayush Mahanta 5 83 Antariksh Monoj Gogoi 3
ceremony.
41 Mayukh Abhigyan Das 5 84 Indira Bhorali 3
42 Mrinmoy Gogoi 5
Final ranking
43 Rishi Vishal Gogoi 5
Rk Name Pts
44 Sun Dowerah 5
Puzzle of the month
1 Trailokya Nanda 7½ by C.G.S.Narayanan
45 Tapovrata Handique 5
2 Singh Soram Rahul 7½
46 Hiranya Kaman 4½
3 Cheniram Pegu 7½
47 Bhargav Gogoi 4½
4 Arun Som 7
48 Arnabjyoti Gogoi 4½
5 Santanu Borpatra Gohain 6½
49 Winee Thengal 4½
6 Baruah Utpal 6½
50 Vivek Rajkumar 4½
7 Tuhin Kashyap 6½
51 Das Pragyan Jyoti 4½
8 Pranab Kumar Nath 6
52 Ekanjoli Gogoi 4½
9 Jadav Gogoi 6
53 Lawrence Sonowal 4½
10 Neelabh Jyoti Borthakur 6
54 Samanway Baruah 4½
11 Anuj Protim Boruah 6
55 Mrinmoy Protim Konwar 4½
12 Parashar Debashis 6
56 Md. Ashique 4½
13 Divyanga Spondon Baruah 6
57 Partha Sulabh Hazarika 4½
14 Dhrubajyoti Borpatra 6
58 Bhaskar Paul 4
15 Abinash P Gogoi 6
Tibar Orban
59 Rituraj Saikia 4
16 Ranjan Changmai 6 Comm. Die Schwalbe 1976
60 Netradeep Das 4
17 Jitabrata Nath 6
61 Pulin Borah 4
18 Santosh Giri 6 Proof game in exactly 4 moves
62 Swaraj Jyoti Neog 4
19 Rintu Brahma 5½ (Solution on page 48)
63 Kalpajit Changmai 4
20 Melesayi Dawhuo 5½
AICF CHRONICLE
15
JANUARY 2018
 The CSIR-CMERI Diamond Jubilee All India FIDE Rated Tournament,Durgapur
Suvrajit Saha wins at Durgapur
by 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
AICF CHRONICLE
16
JANUARY 2018
7 FM Dutta Joydeep 6½ 50 Ruchir Sengupta 5
8 Rabindra Kumar Ojha 6½ 51 Gautam Kumar 5
9 Ayush Jha 6½ 52 Nihar Ranjan Banerjee 5
10 Sanket Chakravarty 6 53 Pramit Chanda 5
11 Kaustuv Kundu 6 54 Rajat Garg 5
12 Chattarjee Laltu 6 55 Prasenjit Das 5
a cash prize of Rs. 20,000/- along with tro- 13 Samar Chatterjee 6 56 Debanjan Sasmal 5
phy while IM Neeroj Kr. Mishra of Jharkhand 14 Arijit Mukherjee 6 57 Ashutosh Padhi 5
finished as 2nd runner up and bagged Rs. 15 Arunava Bhattacharjee 6 58 Shankhodip De 5
15000/- in his purse. Earlier in a colourful 16 Basak Bishal 6 59 Abhirup Das 5
Opening ceremony, IM Atanu Lahir , Sec BCA 17 Goutam Das 6 60 Maloy Deb Roy 5
and Jt. Sec AICF delivered his speech and 18 Satya Sekhar Mitra 6 61 Pallab Bala 5
promised to change the Steel City Durgapur 19 Krishna Kumar Mishra 6 62 Mitra Subhanil 5
to a Chess City. The other dignitaries in the 20 Gaurav Das 5½ 63 Mouhurtik Ray 5
Dias were Prof. Harish Hirani, Director, CSIR 21 Basak Sajal 5½ 64 Ananya Bothra 5
CMERI and Dr. S.N. Shome. 22 Bhattacharya N Shekhar 5½ 65 Sandip Debnath 5
23 Rahul Krishna Viswanathan 5½ 66 Kapil Dev Prakash 5
Closing ceremony was held in a befitting 24 Tapan Kumar Dey 5½ 67 Sanjay Kumar Sadhukhan 5
manner. Chief guest was Prof. Harish Irani. 25 Swarnava Biswas 5½ 68 Raj Aryan 5
The research fellow and the scientist Dr. 26 Atreya Nandy 5½ 69 Alok Pal 5
Himadi Ray, Dr. S.N.Shome, Dr. N.Nagaha- 27 Krish Kedia 5½ 70 Kriti Mundhra 5
numaiah and IM Neeraj Kr. Mishra were the 28 Singh Ojasva 5½ 71 Shiladitya Konar 4½
other dignitaries in the podium and gave 29 Bhattacharyya Soham 5½ 72 Krishnamoorthy K 4½
away the prizes to the winner. 30 Md. Shabbir Ali 5½ 73 Singh D K 4½
31 Hemanth Kumar 5½ 74 Kumar Sankalp 4½
We should appreciate the CSIR CMERI Dia- 32 Janardhan Mukherjee 5½ 75 Sourath Biswas 4½
mond Jubilee committee for their wonderful 33 Sankalan Shah 5½ 76 Asmita Das 4½
support and also to the supporting staff 34 Agnivo Ghosh 5½ 77 Swapan Kumar Das 4½
specially Dr. Himadri Roy who worked with 35 Alekhya Mukhopadhyay 5½ 78 Aniruddha Paul 4½
us for the past 7 days. A very good team of 36 Soumen Mondal 5½ 79 Meshram Aditya 4½
arbiters along with a group of dedicated offi- 37 Soham Pal 5½ 80 Ritesh Kumar 4½
cials made the tournament successful. Finally 38 Ajit Kumar Saw 5½ 81 Dibakar Das 4½
I must thank Dr. Himadri Roy and Mr. Atanu 39 Jha R N 5½ 82 Arpan Ghosh 4½
Lahiri , Secretary of Bengal Chess Association 40 Anubhab Gupta 5½ 83 Anurag Banerjee 4½
for given me the chance to work as a Chief 41 Aryan Bandyopadhyay 5 84 Krish Srivastava 4½
arbiter for this wonderful tournament. 42 Pattnayak Nilsu 5 85 Saumya Srivastava 4½
Final ranking 43 Ritwick Pal 5 86 Shresth Mahapatra 4½
Rk Name Pts 44 Mukherjee S.K. 5 87 Avhilash Ghosh 4½
1 IM Suvrajit Saha 7½ 45 Bhoopnath 5 88 Gajendra Kumar 4½
2 Arpan Das 7 46 Ayan Pal 5 89 Bakrewal Vinamra 4½
3 IM Mishra Neeraj-Kumar 7 47 Ankan Saha 5 90 Rohan Nag Chowdhury 4
4 Soumma Chakraborty 6½ 48 Raja Bose 5 91 Shyam Bihari Gupta 4
5 Nath Rupankar 6½ 49 Prithwi Sinha 5 92 Samrat Nandi 4
6 Sandip Dey 6½
AICF CHRONICLE
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JANUARY 2018
 Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam FIDE Rating Open Chess Tournament,Visakhapatnam
Balasubramaniam of Tamilnadu wins
by FA G Venkata Kumar , Chief Arbiter
IM Ramnathan Balasubramanyam of Tamil- kanth, NA Ch.Ramesh Arbiter.
nadu won the Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam FIDE Final standings:
Rating Open Chess Tournament held here Rk Name Pts
at Davinci International School, anakapalle, 1 IM R Balasubramaniam 7½
Visakhapatnam from 15th to 18th Dec 2017. 2 Sri Sai Baswanth P 7
He tied with Sri Sai Baswanth (TEL) and 3 Nandha Kumar K 7
Nandhakumar K (TN), both scoring 7 points 4 Kalyani B 6½
each from 8 rounds. Due to tie break score 5 Mushini Ajay 6½
Sri Sai Baswanth and Nandhakumar K are 6 Vijaya Kumar A.V.S. 6½
placed second and third. 7 Chaitanya Sairam Mogili 6½
8 Bheri Yaswanth 6½
Winner got prize money of Rs. 25,000/- 9 Mahendra Teja Mekala 6
where as Runner up arun received Rs. 10 AGM Mani Bharathy 6
12,000/- and 3rd placed got Rs. 8,000/- 11 Niranjan Mocharla 6
Total Rs. 2 Lakh distributed among 62 prize 12 Cheela Naga Sampath 6
winners.The event attracted 188 participants 13 Sai Kiran Y 6
from Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Tamilnadu, 14 Sai Divya M 6
and Kerala. 15 Vidya Sagar J.B.M. 6
16 Krishna Karthik N 6
The event is organized by Sri Gurukul Chess 17 Pidintla Saikumar 6
Academy under the auspices of Andhra 18 Vijay Kumar Agarwal 6
Pradesh State Chess Association. The event 19 Sanjay Bhargav B 6
was inaugurated on 15th morning by Sri 20 M Tulasi Ram Kumar 6
Devaram Srihari, Secretary-AP State Chess 21 Adireddy Arjun 6
Association and Mr. Sundaryya Director of 22 Nikhil M 5½
Davinci Inernational school, Ch.Ramesh Vice 23 Kalyan Kumar K 5½
President of APCA,Chief Arbiter GV Kumar 24 Goutham Yasodhar B 5½
are also Present . 25 John Christopher 5½
26 Narasimha Raveendra G 5½
In the valedictory function B.B NagendraRao(- 27 Ramana Babu B. 5½
Judge),K.P Naidu(PP), Swami Naidu(SI),Sun- 28 Varahalu S. 5½
darayya and Ramanaji(school Administra- 29 P Srinivas Reddy 5½
tion), Srihari APCA Secretary,GV Kumar Chief 30 Unnikrishnan M A 5½
Arbiter,Ch.Ramesh APCA vice Prsident, and 31 Theju K V 5
Organizers Mallikarjun,Jyoteesh,Veerab- 32 Adirathna Kumar S 5
hadra rao are distributed trophies and cash 33 Nagaraju J 5
awards to the winners.The chief arbiter was 34 Sai Raj Gopal K 5
FA Venkata Kumar G of Rajamundry (Andhra 35 Venkateswara Rao T 5
Pradesh) and deputy Chief Arbiter FA V.Sri- 36 Seethamraju VSai Sathvi 5
AICF CHRONICLE
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JANUARY 2018
37 Aravind P V S 5
38 Karthik N 5
39 Shanmukha Teja P 5
40 B Kishan 5
41 Prasanth K V 5
42 Sri Bhargav Ram B 5
43 Chintada Lakshmi Gayathri 5
44 Sumaneesh Alluru 5
45 Srihari Devaram 5
46 Charishma Yadav Palla 5
47 Boopathi Sairaju V 5
48 Allumalla Lokeswara Rao 5
49 Ch Gopalakrishna Rao 5
50 Laxman Rao M 5
51 Siva Durga Rao P 5
52 Setty Premchand 5
53 Divya Teja P 5
54 Chaitanya Reddy B L 5
55 Martin Luther K. 5
56 Sattiveti Venkatesh 5
57 M Venkata Ruthvik 5
58 Appanna Pilla 5
59 Venkateshwara Rao Koyya 5
60 Babu Rao R. 4½
61 Akhil B V S 4½
62 Dekshitha M V D S 4½
63 Veera Raju G 4½
64 Adireddy Tarun 4½
65 Rushyendra Chowdary K 4½
66 Syed Tarannum 4½
67 Sai Nikhil Y 4½
68 Rama Raju V L V 4½
69 Samuel Kumar 4½
70 Trinadharao S 4½
71 Gnana Prasoon Patnaik B 4½
72 Praval Patel 4½
73 Kundrapu Kushwanth 4½
74 Radha Krishna Devaki 4½
75 Kodela Keerthi Kanth 4½
76 Srinivash Gopal Reddy K 4½
77 K Sri Sai Shashank Raj 4
78 Bhaskara Rao Balaga 4
79 Varshini M 4
80 Prasada Rao Ponnapalli 4
81 Ravi Krishna G 4
82 Upadhyayula Vamsidhar 4
83 Saketh Kumar Reddy C 4
84 Avinash Vvus 4
85 Srimannarayana K S S 4
86 Avaneesh Gupta D C S 4
87 Santosh Reddy T 4
88 Chaandhak P 4
89 Arjun Krishnan Suresh 4
90 Bhavya Sri Ponnaganti 4
91 Kalki Mohan Boda 4
92 Uma Maheswara Rao K 4
93 Harsha Vardhan Gedhala 4
94 Praneet Sasanapuri 4
95 Yaswant D 4
96 Shyamala Joyce D 4
97 Ramanaji Dhulipati 4
98 Patnana Kishore Rajan 4
99 Veji B Sivaji 4
100 Poojitha Battula 4
101 Goutham Boni 4
102 Yamuna M 4
103 AIM Karyasheel P 4
104 Gagan P 4
105 Tollala Prasad 4
106 Anisetty Lokesh Kumar 4
107 Surya Charith P 4
108 Vishwanath Kannam 4
109 Seedi Jairaj 4
110 Sohan Reddy V M 4
111 Sadi Ram Swarup Reddy 4
112 Syamkarni Datta Uppalapati 4
113 Pandram Sai 4
114 Tirumaleswara Rao Atyam 3½
115 Prasanth Kumar K V 3½
116 Swathi A 3½
117 Palla Mohit Yadav 3½
118 Setumadhav Yellumahanthi 3½
119 Gopal Rao P V 3½
120 Butchi Raju S V R 3½
AICF CHRONICLE
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JANUARY 2018
 Karnavati Club Open FIDE Rating Chess Tournament 2017
Deepan Chakravarthi wins title
by IA S Biju Raj, Chief Arbiter
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
AICF CHRONICLE
20
JANUARY 2018
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 Mirashi Shantanu 6
17 Mr.Jayesh Modi, President Karnavati Club, 18 Vikramaditya Mukhija 6
Ahmedabad along with Mr.Bhavesh Patel, 19 IM Shyaamnikhil P 6
Secretary Gujarat State Chess Associa- 20 Sarthak Patel 6
tion, Mr.Mayur Patel, Vice President GSCA, 21 Sinha Santosh Kumar 6
Mr.Niriv, Committee member & Chess Coach, 22 Badavath Anand 6
Mr. Ankit Dalal, Jt.Secretary GSCA, give away23 WIM Gokhale Anupama 6
the prized to the winners. 24 Himanshu S Chhabra 6
25 Sumit Grover 6
The tournament was well organised by Gu- 26 Vrandesh Parekh 6
jarat State Chess Association with great 27 Raj D Vyas 6
support from Sports Authority of Gujarat, 28 Makwana Ashvin K 6
Gandhinagar, The Gujarat State Co-operative 29 Masango Spencer 5½
Bank Ltd, Ahmedabad & Karnavati Club.All 30 Maulik Raval 5½
the boards are provided chess clocks before 31 Saumil Nair 5½
the game started for all rounds. 32 Vigneshwaran S 5½
33 Dave Kantilal 5½
34 Sunny Bedi 5½
On round six Mr Shantanu Nagar (FIDE 35 Aditya P Melani 5½
45041504) made an appeal against the de- 36 Bhaskar N S 5½
cision taken by Section Arbiter and later by 37 Anusha N L V 5½
Chief Arbiter regarding and illegal move.Ap- 38 Pathak Rudra S 5½
peal Committee was assembled (GM Deepan 39 Aswin.P.G 5½
Chakkravarthi, Hemal Tanki, Dave Kanthilal) 40 AGM Bhogal Rupesh 5½
and took the decision in favour of Arbiter. 41 Dave Sneh 5½
Final ranking 42 Aman Sharma 5½
Rk Name Pts 43 Sanjeet Manohar 5½
1 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J 7½ 44 Chudasama Ankit 5½
2 IM Sangma Rahul 7½ 45 Patel Palak 5½
3 IM Ravi Teja S. 7½ 46 Makwana Virendra Sinh 5½
4 Balkishan A. 7 47 Bhagyashree Patil 5
5 IM Praveen Kumar C 7 48 Anirban Basu 5
6 Thanki Hemal Karsanji 7 49 Chauhan Joy 5
7 Likhit Chilukuri 7 50 Joshi Mihir 5
8 Anadkat Kartavya 7 51 Sharma Harsh Yogesh 5
9 Ram S. Krishnan 6½ 52 Kapil Dadhich 5
10 Trivedi Karan R 6½ 53 Charles J 5
11 Jay Kundaliya 6½ 54 Totlani Varun 5
12 Aryan Abhijeet Shah 6½ 55 Upadhyay Prince 5
13 Ahmed Feroz 6½
14 Deepak Singh 6½
15 Bhatt Jalpan 6½
16 AIM Mandloi Mukesh 6½
AICF CHRONICLE
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JANUARY 2018
 Nipani Grand Open Fide Rapid Rating Chess Tournaments , Nipani
Sameeer Kathamale wins title
by 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
AICF CHRONICLE
22
JANUARY 2018
Viswanathan Anand is World Rapid Champion
Viswanathan “Vishy” Anand, born on
11.12.1969, the Indian chess grand-
master, a former five-time World Chess
playing. Also free dormitory Lodging was Champion, has rounded off the year
2017 with a World title. He is now World
provided to players. The prize distribution
Rapid Chess Champion 2017!
function took place jointly at the hand of
Businessman & main sponsor of tournament Anand became India’s first grandmaster
Mr. Popatbhai Shah & Mrs.Malatibai Shah in in 1988. He held the FIDE World Chess
presence of Pravin Shah (president) & Direc- Championship from 2000 to 2002, thus
tors of Nipani Utkarsh Foundation, Nipani. becoming first Asian to do so. He be-
came the undisputed World Champion
Final ranking in 2007 and defended his title against
Rank Name Vladimir Kramnik in 2008 against Topal-
Pts ov in 2010 and against Boris Gelfand in
1 IM Kathmale Sameer 8 2012.In April 2006 Anand became the
2 Verma Rahul 8 fourth player in history to pass the 2800 Elo mark on the FIDE rating list, after Garry Kasparov,
3 Dixit Nikhil 8 Vladimir Kramnik and Veselin Topalov. He occupied the number one position for 21 months, the
6th longest on record.
4 Gandhi Anish 8
5 Sammed Jaykumar Shete 7
Anand was also the first recipient of the Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Award in 1991–92, India’s
6 Patel Mudassar 7
highest sporting honour. In 2007, he was awarded India’s second highest civilian award, the
7 IM Chakravarthi Reddy M 7 Padma Vibhushan, making him the first sportsperson to receive the award.
8 Kulkarni Vinayak 7
9 Himanshu Chabda 7 In October 2003, the governing body of chess, FIDE, organised a rapid time control tournament
10 Rao J. Malleswara 7 in Cap d’Agde and billed it as the World Rapid Chess Championship. Anand won this event ahead
11 Nikam Ravindra 7 of ten of the other top twelve players in the world, beating Kramnik in the final.
12 Ajith M.P. 7
13 Mokashi Rohit 7 FIDE World Rapid Chess Champion 2017
14 Utkarsh Lomate 7 Anand won the 2017 World Rapid Chess Champi-
15 Gajanan D 7 onship in Riyadh by defeating Vladimir Fedoseev
16 Sonecha Raju 7 2-0 in the final tiebreak after he, Fedoseev and
17 Devesh Anand Naik 7 Ian Nepomniachtchi tied for first with 10.5/15
18 Kurle Raju 6½ points. He won the tournament ahead of reigning
19 Bhosale Shriraj 6½ Classical World Champion Magnus Carlsen and
20 M Hemant Kumar 6½ this was his first victory in a world championship
since losing the classical championship to Carlsen
21 Rohan Bharat Joshi 6½
in 2013.
22 Aditya Savalkar 6½
23 Abid Ali Mujawar 6½
AICF felicitates Anand
24 Kazi Nazir 6½
The All India Chess Federation felicitated World Rapid Champion and World Blitz Bronze Medal-
25 Said Mahesh 6½
ist Viswanathan Anand with Rs. 5,00,000 cash prize at M.O.P. Vaishnav College for Women,
26 Yogeesh Bhat 6 Chennai on 5th January 2018.at 4.00 p.m. Apart from the cash award a memento, an exquisite
27 Dasari Dattatreya Rao 6 ornamental chess set, was also presented to Anand.on the occasion.
28 Anchal Rastogi 6
Cont.on p.27 23
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 medal
Russia wins title
India Green- Kazhaksthan:final round
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
24
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.
25

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 2017
GM 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.
26
Cont.from p.22
29 Devasthali Madhav 6 72 Sairaj Dilip Vernekar 5
30 Patil Abhishek 6 73 Savalkar Mayuri 5
31 Kulkarni Prakash 6 74 Sawant Siddhant 5
32 Ritesh Dharmatti 6 75 Tilak Aditya 5
33 Bachikar Girish 6 76 Muchandikar Shrikant 5
34 Samangadkar Rahul 6 77 Neha Vinayak Mulye 5
35 Bhosale Shruti 6 78 Kulkarni Anandrao 5
36 Shreyash, A Kulkarni 6 79 Bondale Shrirang 5
37 Walvekar Praveen 6 80 Magdum Anand 5
38 Jamsandekar Sujal 6 81 Dhembre Dinesh 5
39 Hanagandi Mayur 6 82 Vaibhav Barahate 5
40 Sawardekar Pravin 6 83 Ambi Satyam 5
41 Joshi Sumeet 6 84 Rasal Santosh 5
42 Pratik Sunil Shaha 6 85 Gaonkar Vedant 5
43 Chindake Harikrushan 6 86 Devashish Pore 5
44 Mulla Nihalahamad 6 87 Patil Vishwas 5
45 Mane Kumar 6 88 Shajannavar Sanyukta 5
46 Abhay V Nadgouda 6 89 Vaidya Dhiraj 5
47 Aryan Shamrao Raikar 6 90 Mahabal Vallabh 5
48 Magdum Darshan 6 91 Krishna Murthy 5
49 Mulay Girish 6 92 Bhuvansingh S J 5
50 Patil Harshal U 6 93 Deshpande Manish 5
51 AIM Samarth J Rao 5½ 94 Deodhar Mudit 5
52 Prabhu Trupti 5½ 95 Koparde Omkar Sanjay 5
53 Kavlekar Sanjay R. 5½ 96 Patil Pradip B. 5
54 Malpani Jayesh 5½ 97 Jagushte Aryan 5
55 Pednekar Ayush 5½ 98 Harane Rajesh 5
56 Barde Om 5½ 99 Deshmukh Vikrant 5
57 Bachalkar Sadanand 5½ 100 Daniel Solomon Vs 5
58 Apoorv Kamble 5½ 101 Patole Bharat 5
59 Joshi Sumit 5½ 102 Bartakke Ritesh 5
60 Pednekar Balkrishna 5½ 103 Borkar Shravani 5
61 Repal Santosh 5½ 104 Sabhahit Vighneshwar 5
62 Patil Sarang 5½ 105 Chindak Yash 5
63 Naik B S 5½ 106 Patil D R 5
64 Kulkarni Ashok 5½ 107 Bhosale Aditya 5
65 Shivashankar Bolajadar 5½ 108 Vaidya Sushant 5
66 Bhonsale Gayatri H 5½ 109 Kadam Adarsh 4½
67 Baligar Dr Vishwanath 5½ 110 Alatekar Aditya 4½
68 Tankasale Pranav 5½ 111 Gogate Yash 4½
69 Patil Pranav Prafulla 5 112 Yogaraj Vivek Mahale 4½
70 Mudhale Prajwal 5 113 Lad Pratik 4½
71 Prajwal M Joshi 5 114 Jawale Chandrakant 4½
AICF CHRONICLE
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JANUARY 2018
 1st Shree Narayana Guru Trophy National FIDE Rated Rapid Tournament,Udupi -
IM Viani Antonio Dcunha clinches title
by 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
AICF CHRONICLE
28
JANUARY 2018
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 32 Govardhana C 6.5
Bangalore, K Srinivas Poojary President Kala- 33 Poornesh C Mogaveera 6.5
bhimani Sangha Kapu, Babu J Poojary Secre- 34 Deepak Pai 6.5
tary Udupi District Chess Association, Arvind 35 Pannaga Y S 6.5
Shastry Secretary United Karnataka Chess 36 Sathvik Kumar Bhat 6.5
Association, Leeladhar Shetty Kapu Social 37 Nandan N Prabhu 6.5
Worker, , Sudheer Beedu Udupi, Umanath- 38 Pranav M 6.5
Kapu Tournament coordinator, Rathnakar 39 Nachiketh Adiga 6
Shetty Bhramavar 40 Ravi Prasad S N 6
41 Sakshath U K 6
Final Ranking: 42 Prashanth N 6
Rk. Name Pts. 43 Deepthi Lakshmi K 6
1 IM Viani Antonio Dcunha 8.5 44 Sheron Vishwas 6
2 Gahan M G 8 45 Ajay Krishna D 6
3 Syed Anwar Shazuli 8 46 Swathi Bhat 6
4 Augustin A 8 47 Suresh Ganapati Kattige 6
5 Arvind Shastry 7.5 48 Nihal N Shetty 6
6 WCM Isha Sharma 7.5 49 Shirish Jayaprakash 6
7 Ram S. Krishnan 7.5 50 Vinutha M Devadiga 6
8 AIM Abhijit Chutia 7.5 51 Sharath 6
9 Praveen Kamath 7.5 52 Vindya Sridhar 6
10 Sharan Rao 7 53 ACM Iyer Arvind 6
11 Andria L D`souza 7 54 Prajwal Pradeep Poojari 6
12 Bhat Narayan K 7 55 Aashuthosh S Sharma 6
13 Yashas D. 7 56 Vishruth Sham 6
14 Varma Shabdhik 7 57 Manish G Shriyan 6
15 Prashanth J Naik 7 58 Aditya Menon 6
16 Sudarshan Bhat 7 59 Narayan Lamani 6
17 Shrishanth S Rao 7 60 Chinmay S Bhat 6
18 Prajwal K M 7 61 WCM Shriyana S Mallya 6
19 Rajesh K 7 62 ShriKrishna K S 6
20 Devi Das Suresh Pai 7 63 Jagrut Anand Devadiga 6
21 Hermon Dain Saldanha 7 64 Hariharan Subramony 6
22 Chirag Mudraje 7 65 Khushi M Hombal 6
23 Niranjan Rajeev 7 66 Suhenaa Suma Darshan 6
24 Manvith K 7 67 Sharath Kumar D T 6
25 Panchami Shenoy K 7 68 Prajwal P 6
26 Prasanth K V 6.5 69 Dinesh Rajachar 6
27 Athul Shetty 6.5 70 Yogeesh Bhat 6
28 AGM Harish Kumar 6.5 71 Anush B shetty 6
29 Aravinda B R 6.5 72 Sathwik Prabhu 6
30 Prabhakaran K 6.5 73 Dhruva P 6
31 Siddhanth Prabhu M 6.5 74 Abhilash 6
AICF CHRONICLE
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JANUARY 2018
 SPIC 1st All India FIDE Rated Chess Tournament(below1600),Thoothukudi 47 Krishna Kumar N 6 90 Mohammed Ibrahim 5
48 Rakshitha P 6 91 Sri Saran S 5
Bala Ganeshan wins SPIC FIDE rated 49 Sanjay Sreekandan 6 92 Nellaiappan V 5
by Dharmaraj P,Chief Arbiter 50 Ahalya A 6 93 Suresh Kumar Ashok 5
51 Rajesh L S 6 94 Naresh Krishna S 5
52 Kasi V 6 95 Nagarajan P 5
1st Spic All India Fide rated chess tourna- 9 Sathya Naarayanan S 7
53 Daakshin Arun 6 96 Karthi Ganes M 5
ment(below 1600) was organized by SPIC 10 Gopinath P 7
54 Manuel Inbam 6 97 Divin S V 5
Nagar multi Activity Club on behalf of TDCA 11 Vishnu Ram M 7
55 Karuppasamy C 5½ 98 Jai Priya K 5
at Silver Jubilee Hall, Thoothukudi from 02nd 12 Mithesh M 7
56 Alfien Jessurun 5½ 99 Chendor Varshan P A 5
Dec to 04th Dec 2017. About 267 players par- 13 Satheesh M 7
57 Prawin K 5½ 100 Adityan Kumar 5
ticipated in the tournament. The tournament 14 Sumesh Kabeer 7
58 Palanikumar V 5½ 101 Abishek Ashish Gnanadev 5
was conducted as a 9 rounds Swiss system. 15 Aravind Matthews A C T 6½
59 Achuthan K 5½ 102 Jayakrishna H 5
The top seeds of the below rated tourna- 16 Gowrichander U 6½
60 Sreenivasan N 5½ 103 Dawood.K 5
ment was M. Mithesh (1574) of Tamilnadu, 17 JaiKavin Senthilkumar 6½
61 Sundaralingam A 5½ 104 Pandian R S 5
R.K.Sabarish(1573) of Tamilnadu and S. 18 Rutherford S 6½
62 Meikkum Pugal A 5½ 105 Akash Sundar S 5
Sathyanarayanan (1570) of Tamilnadu. The 19 Radhakrishnan.K.S 6½
63 Ramesh V 5½ 106 Murugesa Pandian P 5
tournament had a grand Inauguration with 20 Koushik Muthesh P 6½
64 Arumugam V 5½ 107 Danish Roy Vinoth Kumar 5
the chief guest Mr. S. P. Sethuraman, Grand 21 Sabarish R K 6½
65 Siddhesvarajith P S 5½ 108 Karthikeyan Panchapakesan 5
Master. He also interacted with the players. 22 Guru Sabari Thirumalai 6½
66 Akshaya R.S. 5½ 109 Sivakumaran V 5
23 Arvind Rajamanohar 6½
67 Jacob Ragland A 5½ 110 Ilakiyan M Xavier Jeen 5
After several well fought games Bala Gane- 24 Sailesh R 6½
68 Subhransu Sekhar Dash 5½ 111 James Edison P 5
shan of Kerala won the tournament title with 25 Ram Kumar R 6
69 Ashok Jayaraman 5½ 112 Harini Shanmugavel 5
8 points out of 9 rounds with better tiebreak 26 Gowtham S G 6
70 Muthuraman Kesavamoorthy 5½ 113 Sriram K 5
than Senthil Kumar Natarajan of Tamilnadu. 27 Prasanth K V 6
71 Krishnasamy Palanivel 5 114 Binu Sebastian 4½
28 Dharshan Venkatachalam 6
72 Karthikeyan S 5 115 Livingston Solomon 4½
Mr. Parthiban, Associate Director, HWP Board, 29 Antony Simethy 6
73 Ramachandran Narayanan 5 116 Dhayanidhi R S 4½
was the Chief Guest for the Valedictory 30 Sai Kiran G V 6
74 Sikkandar Alikhan Abbas Ali 5 117 Sriman Prabhu M K 4½
Function presided by Mr. E. Balu, of Spic 31 Sakthi Subash A S 6
75 Magdalene Roy R 5 118 Senthil Kumar V 4½
Plant Head, Mr. N. R. Ravichandran of Spic, 32 Karthikeyan G 6
76 Hari Sankar V 5 119 Surya Sathiaguru 4½
GM-Projects, Mr. Nema of HWP GM, Mr. A. 33 Pragatheesh Muthukumaran 6
77 Harish G 5 120 Krishna Prasad N 4½
L. Subramanian of TDCA and many others 34 Vigneshwaran K 6
78 Dhivesh Athithya S 5 121 Nabeel M Abubackar 4½
participated in the function 35 Pragadesh P 6
79 Suresh C 5 122 Shashindhar Kumar R 4½
36 Sathish Kumar K 6
80 Darshan Sasthaa M 5 123 Veer Vikas Sethia 4½
Final ranking: 37 Rathish R 6
81 Moses Nishanth D 5 124 Nanthini M 4½
Rk Name Pts 38 Vengatesh Krishnan C 6
82 Renganayaki V 5 125 Sangeth Nivaas S 4½
1 Bala Ganeshan 8 39 Chinnadurai S. 6
83 Devin S V 5 126 Kanish Kumar R 4½
2 Senthil Kumar Natarajan 8 40 Prem Kumar Esakki Muthu 6
84 Moorthy T 5 127 Dhivakar M 4½
3 Prasath K R 7½ 41 Kaviyarasan T 6
85 Pon Perumal S 5 128 Raja Gopal P 4½
4 Bala Murugan G 7½ 42 Unnikrishnan Sasthamkunnel 6
86 Sivasri S 5 129 Alexander P 4½
5 Sham R 7 43 Anirudh V Ramesh Kumar 6
87 Gnana Sakthivel A 5 130 Harris M K 4½
6 Vinoth Kumar M 7 44 Gokulanathan S 6
88 Guruvignesh V 5 131 Saravana Kumar 4½
7 Neha Srinibash D 7 45 Harish Kumar N 6
89 Vedhanayaki K 5 132 Kaushik S 4½
8 Shanmugasundaram G. 7 46 Varunsatyaa Parthasarathy 6

AICF CHRONICLE AICF CHRONICLE

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JANUARY 2018 JANUARY 2018
 2nd All India Fide Rating Below 1500 Chess Tournament, Secunderabad
Aragonda Mohan of Telangana wins
by FA S Subba Raju , Chief Arbiter
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
AICF CHRONICLE
32
JANUARY 2018
36 Vijayendrakumar D N 6½ 79 Thirupatha Chary Pusala 6
37 Kanthi Kiran Katarapu 6½ 80 Rakesh B 6
38 Baleboina Bhanu Mahesh 6½ 81 Chopda Krrish 6
39 Golap Das 6½ 82 Praveen P S 6
40 Sreenandan Babu J 6½ 83 Sai Janani Pothula 6
Tejavath Naresh, NA Sampath Bollam, NA K 41 Akavaram Aashish Reddy 6½ 84 Aarfeen Himany 6
Siva Prasad. 42 Avinash Vvus 6½ 85 Sravan Kumar Narasipuram 6
Final ranking 43 Phani Krishna C H 6½ 86 Karthikeya Sambhangi 6
Rk Name Pts
44 Mohan Sapa 6½ 87 Kolhe Shruti 6
1 Aragonda Mohan 8
45 Mir Maahir Ali 6½ 88 Shaurya Deep 6
2 Hemanth Sankar Reddy Du 8
46 Durga Prasad G 6½ 89 Kalishekar Ponnada 6
3 Gopichand K 8
47 Marri Prakash 6½ 90 Pranay Reddy B 6
4 Veera Phani Sai Teja K 7½
48 Vamsi Krishna A 6 91 Dhanush Reddy A 6
5 Srikanth Myakala 7½
49 Shivakumar D M 6 92 Chetan Rao D 6
6 Ch. Narayana Rao 7½
50 Madhukant Bharti 6 93 Prathamesh Pilkhane S 6
7 Bir Kumar 7½
51 Srinivas Bangarapu 6 94 Nagalakshmi R 5½
8 Satheesh Kumar G 7½
52 Sangappa S Kuntoji 6 95 Thakkar Aniket 5½
9 Nagasri Saikanth 7
53 Shankar Kopparthy 6 96 Dhumal Amit 5½
10 Deshpande Omkar 7
54 Raghuvarun Reddy K 6 97 Sarath M 5½
11 Prateek Atluri 7
55 Aniket Mukherjee 6 98 Abdul Nabi 5½
12 Rushyendra Chowdary K 7
56 Ravindranath A 6 99 Pasula Pradeep Kumar 5½
13 Anil M 7
57 Kagde Shushrut 6 100 Raghu Ram Reddy Seelam 5½
14 Jayanth R 7
58 Rajinesh Chintala 6 101 Mallesh Beerla 5½
15 Ruhaan Mahindru 7
59 Avinash Kumar Yadav 6 102 Chidvilash Sai Surapaneni 5½
16 Prabhav Aggarwal 7
60 Goguloth Malsur 6 103 Manojan Ravi 5½
17 Mahendar B 7
61 Divya Teja P 6 104 Prudvi Raj Pasala 5½
18 Suresh Bondalapati 7
62 Raja Sree Virinchi Vadali 6 105 Satyanarayana Raju D S 5½
19 Sameer C 7
63 Sai Hrushikesh Simhdri 6 106 Karyasheel P 5½
20 Srihari Devaram 7
64 Madhu Sudhan Chary Kolloju 6 107 Sameer Kumar U 5½
21 Suryanarayana Y N 7
65 Suhaas A 6 108 Yashodarshan Kalmanoor 5½
22 Baligar Dr Vishwanath 7
66 Rishi Kumar Pandey 6 109 Mohan Rao Maddala 5½
23 Md Bashiq Imrose 7
67 Pavan Kumar Posa 6 110 Sudhir Vanarase 5½
24 Praneeth R 7
68 Dharmik Banka 6 111 Thakur Chaitanya 5½
25 Sarvade Mihiir 7
69 Sudheer S B 6 112 Janaki Devi M 5½
26 Purushotham Reddy C 7
70 Gawde Prathmesh 6 113 Singh Arun Kumar 5½
27 Sri Santhosh D 6½
71 Sankarshana Goli 6 114 Sanketh Reddi K R K K 5½
28 Srinivasarao Kadiyala 6½
72 Guttula Sai 6 115 Teja Peteti 5½
29 Upendra Punnana 6½
73 Newton Sathyavety 6 116 Varshith Nela 5½
30 Shejal Sahil Sanjay 6½
74 Sreeram Maheswar 6 117 Rahul Gupta H P 5½
31 Sagar Ch 6½
75 Gowtham Dharma K 6 118 Sai Prakash T 5½
32 Aman Kumar 6½
76 Sahu Deepak 6 119 Adithya Krishna Sai Ch 5½
33 Pranav Aggarwal 6½
77 Robinson M G 6 120 Ramachandran. V 5½
34 Umesh Konduru 6½
78 Raghuraman V 6
35 Manoj E T 6½
AICF CHRONICLE
33
JANUARY 2018
 Vardhaman Cup Open Fide Rating Chess Tournament, Hyderabad….
B Sekar is Champion
by Promodraj Moree,Chief Arbiter
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
AICF CHRONICLE
34
JANUARY 2018
31 Basant N 5½ 74 B Kishan 4
32 AGM Sa Kannan 5½ 75 Goutham Yasodhar B 4
33 AIM Pati Spandan 5½ 76 Rishi Kumar Pandey 4
34 M Tulasi Ram Kumar 5½ 77 Seethamraju Venkata Sai 4
35 S Srinivas Eistein Reddy 5½ 78 Jagan Mohan Rao K 4
S Prasad, Hon. Secretary, TSCA, Major
36 Md Ismail Khadar 5½ 79 Pasula Pradeep Kumar 4
Shivaprasad, Vice President, TSCA, Dr Sai
37 Divyan T 5½ 80 Rachita Sabbathi 4
Satyanarayan Reddy, Principal Vardhaman
38 Nikhil M 5 81 Rathi Nitish 4
Engineering college and Likhit Chuilukuri Co
39 AIM Mohammed Shamil A 5 82 Raghu Ram Reddy S 4
-Founder, ChessMine, they distributed the
40 Subhash Kumar M 5 83 Sriram Devulapalli 4
prizes to the winners.
41 Sameer Kumar Y 5 84 Trinadharao S 4
42 Shiek Fayaz 5 85 ACM Mir Maahir Ali 4
Final ranking
43 Jadi Kishan 5 86 Nikunj Buddhawar 4
Rk Name Pts
44 Sannidhanam Anurag 5 87 Naga Laxmi Seelam 4
1 Sekar B 7½
45 Rohith Yadav B R 5 88 AFM Amit Braganza 3½
2 Lokesh N. 7
46 Sreekar J S S 5 89 AFM Advaita Sharma K 3½
3 FM Ramakrishna J. 7
47 Suhaib Ahmad 5 90 Bharathakoti Sneha 3½
4 Masango Spencer 7
48 Nanditha V 5 91 AFM Sankarshana Goli 3½
5 Likhit Chilukuri 7
49 Hemanth Sankar Reddy 5 92 Munna Das Bairagi 3½
6 Bharat Kumar Reddy P 6½
50 Bipin Raj S 5 93 Saipriya K 3½
7 Sibi Visal R 6½
51 Akira Sowmyanatha Reddy 5 94 Rajinikanth G 3½
8 Mushini Ajay 6½
52 Vidya Sagar J.B.M. 5 95 AIM Karyasheel P 3½
9 Balkishan A. 6½
53 Sambamurti P 5 96 Mohmad Ibrahim 3½
10 Selvabharathy T 6½
54 Sai Atchyut B 5 97 Tootia Purna Sai Kumar 3½
11 Singh S. Vikramjit 6½
55 Rama Mohan Rao N 5 98 Karunya Shesha Sai Y 3½
12 WCM Jyothsna L 6½
56 Harini Narahari 5 99 Srivatsa Ananth K 3½
13 Senthil Maran K 6
57 Prerak Darvekar 5 100 Sreenandan Babu J 3½
14 Krishna Karthik N 6
58 Rithvik Raja M 4½ 101 Avinash Kumar Yadav 3
15 Duvvala Suresh 6
59 Saketh Kumar Reddy C 4½ 102 Ramakrishna Reddy M 3
16 Manigandan S S 6
60 Narasimha Raveendra G 4½ 103 Navya Krishna G 3
17 Srinivasa Rao G.V. 6
61 Goguloth Malsur 4½ 104 Sai Sricharitha Varenya 3
18 Karthik Sai Ch 6
62 Md Bashiq Imrose 4½ 105 Durganath Chakravarthy 3
19 Abhirami Madabushi 6
63 Unnikrishnan M A 4½ 106 Yaswant D 3
20 Aswin.P.G 6
64 AIM Kandi Ravi 4½ 107 Sri Krishna Praneeth K 3
21 Sri Sai Baswanth P 6
65 Shwethang K 4½ 108 Dhana R Ch Johnson 2½
22 Shanmukha Teja P 6
66 WCM Chinnam Vyshnavi 4½ 109 Prudvi Raj Pasala 2½
23 Konatham Snehil 6
67 Subramanian T.V. 4½ 110 Harsha Vardhan Gedhala 2½
24 Samal Aditya Ranjan 5½
68 Priyanka Bhatt 4½ 111 Kodanda Ramam P 2½
25 Chilukuri Sai Varshith 5½
69 Ashmita Reddy N 4½ 112 Bhillva Nilaya K E K 2½
26 Badrinath S. 5½
70 Gagan P 4½ 113 Bellala Krishna Vamsi 2½
27 Ruban Sanjay M 5½
71 Charles J 4 114 A Kovidh Kushal Reddy 2½
28 Subba Raju S. 5½
72 Sathishkumar L 4 115 Krishna Varkala 2½
29 Saypuri Srithan 5½
73 Aman Kumar 4 116 Mishra Anjali 2½
30 Sai Kiran Y 5½
AICF CHRONICLE
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JANUARY 2018

Selected games fro National
Women Premier, Surat 2017
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
Soumya,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
AICF CHRONICLE
36
JANUARY 2018
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
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
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.]
AICF CHRONICLE
37
JANUARY 2018
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
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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.
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
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
AICF CHRONICLE
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Rxf7 34.Rxd6 Rc7 35.Nxf6 Bxe4+! 36.Nxe4 Diagram # 15.Nxe5!! A brilliant winning bxc4?? Re1+ 32.Rxe1 Qxf4–+] 31...Ne3
Rxc1+ 37.Kxc1 Rxd6 38.Nxd6+ Qxd6] sacrifice. 15...dxe5 16.d6 Bxd6!? [This goes 32.c3 [If 32.Qg3 Qf6 33.f4 Re4 34.c3 g6µ]
32.Qe1? according to White's scheme of things. Better 32...Nd5 33.Qh4 Diagram #
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
(Position after 43.Rh6?) an advantage, but not a win which she could
have had! Note here that if 18.Bb5?? Qxc3µ]
Swati Ghate (2277) 18...Rad8 19.Qc1 N8d7 20.Bd4 a6 21.Rxe8+
Meenakshi S (2165) [C41] Rxe8 22.Qd2 [Better was: 22.Qb2 ] 22...Ne5
Swati Ghate was the 2006 National Women's 23.Bxe5?! Rxe5 24.Ne2 Diagram #
Champion, a title that Meenakshi has never 33...Qf6 [Black elects to enter the calm of the
Diagram # [White should not let go of her f6
won. But Meenakshi is one of India's most endings rather than hair-raising chess with:
pawn without any reason. Best was to play
creative chess players as this game demon- 33...Nxc3 34.Qg4 Qf8 35.Nf5 Ne2 36.Nxh6+
32.Qf3! Bh6 33.Ng3 Kc7 34.Qf5µ] 32...Bxf6
strates. This game features two piece sacri- Kh7 37.f4 Re6 38.Rg2 Nxf4 39.Qxf4 Rxh6µ]
33.Nxf6 [33.Rf3 Bd8 34.Ng3 (34.Bxf7? allows
fices. The first, on move 15 by White, should 34.Qxf6 Nxf6 35.b4 Nd5 36.Rc1 Re3! White
the black rook to occupy his second rank with
have won the game, but didn't. And the now loses a pawn by force. 37.c4 Nxb4
deadly effect: 34...Rxf7! 35.Rxf7 Rg2!) 34...
second, on move 24 by black, which should 38.Rb1 Nc6! 39.Nxc6 bxc6 40.Rb6 Rxf3!
Bh4! 35.Bd5 Bb5 36.Rc1 Qd4 37.Rd1 Qb6–+]
not have won, but won. Such is competitive 41.Kg2 41...Rf5! Black plays the ending very
33...Rxf6 34.Bd5 Bb5–+ 35.Rg3 Rg6 36.Rc1
chess with the clocks eternally ticking away well. If now 42 Rxc6 Rxa5 winning for black.
Qd4 37.Rd1 Qb6 38.Rxg6 [Exchange of piec-
the seconds! 1.e4 d6 2.d4 Nf6 3.Nc3 e5 4.Nf3 42.Rxa6 Rc5! 43.Rb6 Rxc4 44.a6 Kh7 In this
es should be avoided by white as black has
Nbd7 5.Bc4 Be7 6.0–0 0–0 7.Re1 c6 8.a4 h6 situation, it is necessary for black to keep her
two extra pawns and every exchange takes
9.h3 Re8 10.a5 Qc7 11.b3 Nf8 12.Ba3N [Kon- king off her first rank to prevent white from
black closer to victory. However after 38.Rf3
stantin Aseev 2560 vs M. Bezold 2345, Neu 24...Bxh3!? Black tries to wrest the initiative giving a check and promoting her a-pawn
Rg2 39.Rg3 Rxg3 40.Qxg3 Rc7 41.Bxf7
Isenburg Rapid Op, 1992 went: 12.d5 Ng6 out of white with this imaginative sacrifice, at the right time. 45.Rb7 f6 [45...Ra4! won
Qc6–+ black has multiple threats - Qc2+. ....
13.Be3 Bd7 14.Nd2 Nf4 15.Bxf4 exf4 16.a6 which however, has a hole in it! 25.gxh3 Ne4 comfortably.] 46.Rc7 c5 47.Kg3 Ra4 48.a7 c4
Qxe4+, etc.] 38...hxg6 39.Kb2 Qc5 40.Qd2
.... 37.1–0] 12...Be6 13.d5 cxd5 14.exd5 Bf5 26.Qf4? [This is pure defence, keeping her 49.h4 h5 50.Rxc4?! [She should have tried in
Rc7 41.Rh1 f5 Black is two pawns up on
queen close to her castled position. Better vain for a miracle with: 50.Kf4 c3+ 51.Ke3 c2
the king-side and she plays on that side to
was the aggressive defence with 26.Qd8+! 52.Kd2 Ra2 53.Kc1 Kg6–+] 50...Rxa7 51.Rc6
set herself on the road to victory. 42.Rh8+
Re8 (26...Kh7? 27.Bxf7!) 27.Qd3 Ng5 28.Nd4 Ra3+ 52.Kg2 Ra5 53.Kg3 Rf5 54.Rc7 Kh6
Rc8! 43.Rxc8+ [If 43.Rh6? Diagram # 43...
Qf6 29.Rd1 and black has little to show for 55.Rf7 Rb5 56.Kh3 Rb3+ 57.Kg2 Rb6 58.Rf8
Bd3!! a gem of a move! 44.Qxd3 (or 44.Rxg6
her knight sacrifice.] 26...Ng5! 27.Kh2 [27. g5 59.Rh8+ Kg6 60.Rg8+ Kf5 0–1
Qd4+! mates) 44...Qc1#] 43...Kxc8 44.a4
Qxe5? Nf3+ wins the queen.; stronger was
bxa3+ 45.Ka2 Bc6 46.Be6+ Bd7 47.Bf7 fxe4!
27.Nd4 Nxh3+ 28.Kh2 Nxf4 29.Nxc6 bxc6
48.Bxg6 e3! 49.Qd3
30.Bxa6±] 27...Nf3+ 28.Kh1 Nd2+ 29.f3?
Qc1! [After 49...Qc1 50.Qa6+ Kd8 51.Qa8+
[Upset by the turn of events, white allows her
Ke7 wins.] 0–1
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.

AICF CHRONICLE AICF CHRONICLE

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JANUARY 2018 JANUARY 2018
 Tactics from master games
by S.Krishnan Test your endgame
by C.G.S.Narayanan

Birnov 1947 Liburkin 1949

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

Dr.Alois Wotawa 1948 Birnov 1955

3 4
Black to play and win Black to play and win 3. 4.
Nesterescu 1952 Gerbstman1945

5. 6.
5 6
Black to play and win White to play and win White to play and win in all the six endings above
(Solution on page 47 )
(solutions on p.47)

   
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Masters of the past-84 Isaac Kashdan
Dr.A.P.J Abdul Kalam FIDE Rating Open Tournament,Visakhapatnam
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. (L to R) Sundarayya(Director of Davinci School);Ramanaji(Co-Director of Davinci School);B.B Nagendra
The American team traveled to Moscow in 1946 for a rematch against the Soviet team, and Rao (Judge);Devaram Sri Hari(Secretary of APCA); R. Balasubramanyam (1st Place)
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 Riverside 1st International FIDE Rated Open, Kotagiri
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
(LtoR) Govindan, Sports Coordinator, Jaya Haridas, Vice Principal, Winner IM Balasubramaniam of TN,
Statham. Kashdan was later involved in administration in the United States Chess Federation,
Dr Suresh Belliraj, Governor, Governing Council, Riverside Public School, Kavin Kumar Kandasamy, MD,
serving as a vice-president. Mangalam Educational Trust, Francis Xavier, Principal, Riverside Public School
Courtesy:Wikepedia
45
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 Vardhaman Cup Open Fide Rating Chess Tournament, Hyderabad Solutions to ‘Tactics from master
games’on page 42
1. Martinovici,Ilie (2338)
Toma,Al (2192) [E80]
Alba Iulia ROU Alba Iulia ROU (7.9),
24.11.2017
White 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), 25.11.2017
White 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
KS Prasad, Secretary TSCA, Ms Rupal Chilukuri, 2nd runner up Ramakrishna J, Champion Shekar B, Mr 3. Batyte,D (2220) Maksimovic,Bojan
Vijendar Chairman, Upendar Reddy, Secretary, runner up Lokesh N , Major Shivaprasad , Vice president (2311) [A22]
TSCA, and Satyanarayana Reddy Principal of Vardhaman College. 31st Belgrade Trophy Belgrade SRB (6.18),
29.11.2017
2nd All India Fide Rating Below 1500 Tournament, Secunderabad Black 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),
10.12.2017
Black 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),
07.12.2017
(L -R ) K S Prasad,Secretary-TSCA; Dandu Hemanth Shankar Reddy(2nd Prize); Major K A Shiva Prasad, Vice-Pres- Black to play 33...Rh1+! 34.Kg3 Rh3+!
ident,TSCA; Aragonda Mohan (Winner); Malladi Srikanth Sarma (Organizer); K Gopichand (3rd Place)
46
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), 04.12.2017
White 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 43
1.Birnov
1.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.Liburkin
1.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.Wotawa
1.Rd8+ Ke5 2.Rh1 Rb2+ 3.Kc5 Rb1 4.Rf1
Ke6 5.Re8+ Kd7 6.Rfe1 wins
4.Birnov
1.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.Nasterescu
1.Rc1 Rh8 2.Kg7 Re8 3.Kf7 Rh8 4.Bd4 Rd8
5.Ra1+ Kb8 6.Be5+ Kc8 7.Rc1+ Kd7 8.Rc7#
6.Gerbstman
1.Nf3 Kh6 2.Bg8 Ne7+ 3.Ke6 Nxg8 4.Kf7 Kh7
5.Ng5+ Kh8 6.f3 Nh6+ 7.Kxg6 Ng8 8.Nf7#
AICF CHRONICLE
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AICF Calendar January 2018 IWASA 44th National Women Premier Chess Championship, Surat
Title Date Place
10th 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, AP
Ganesan 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
WGM Bakthi Kulkarni playing
Shri Ram School FIDE Rating open 26 Jan - 29 Jan Villupuram,TN Samriddhi Ghosh
26th The Telegraph schools' FIDE rated 27 Jan - 01 Feb Kolkata
2nd 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 WGM Padmini Rout playing
Open FIDE rating for Visually Challenged 13 Feb - 16 Feb Andheri West, Mumbai Sakshi Chitlange
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

Tariff for advertisement : Monthly (in Rs.) Annual (in Rs.)

Back Cover (Colour) 15,000 1,20,000
Inside Cover (Colour) 15,000 1,00,000 The top three- WGM Banthi
Kulkarni (Runner-up) WGM
Full Page Inside (Colour) 7,000 60,000 Padmini Rout (Winner) and WGM
Full Page Inside (Black & White) 5,000 45,000 Mary Ann Gomes (Third)
Half Page Inside (Black & White) 3,000 30,000

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

49
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 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