AICF CHRONICLE

the official magazine of the All India Chess Federation

Volume : 12 Issue : 8 Price Rs. 25 March 2018

38th National Team Chess Championship &16th National Women Team Chess Championship, Bhubaneshwar
DOUBLE TRIUMPH FOR PSPB!

PSPB Open Team

Winner

Story on page 1
PSPB Women Team
Winner
AICF CHRONICLE March 2018
Room No. 70,
Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium,
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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...
38th National Team Championship &
16th National Women Team Championship
Double triumph for PSPB
by IA R Srivatsan, Chief Arbiter 1
13th AICFB National “A” Championship
for the Visually Challenged
Kishan Gangolli lifts the cup for fifth time
by IA Manjunatha. M ,Chief Arbiter 6
10th BRDCA Open FIDE rapid rating tmt, Bangalore
Girish A Koushik is the Champion
by Promodraj Moree IA ,Chief Arbiter 7
3rd NITHM below 1400 FIDE rated tmt, Hyderabad
Ahirwar Aniket is the Champion
by FA Saleem Beig,Chief Arbiter 9
1st Ankit Sakshi Mem.FIDE Rated Tmt, Jaipur
Sriram Jha is Champion
by IA Gopakumar MS, Chief Arbiter 11
2nd NITHM All India fide rating tmt, Hyderabad
Rahul Srivastav wins title
by Promodraj Moree,Chief Arbiter 13
Shri Dhakshinamurthy Mem.FIDE Rated tmt,Tindivanam
Karthikeyan wins title
by S.Balaraman IA ,Chief Arbiter 15
1st All India Dombivali Kalyan Open ,Mumbai
Vikramaditya Kulkarni wins title
by Vitthal B Madhav IA, Chief Arbiter 17
4th Kanyakumari FIDE Rated Below 1500 Tmt, Nagercoil
Nagasri Saikanth wins title
by FA Vinothkumar T, Chief Arbiter 19
2ndShaastra FIDE Rated Rapid Tmt, Chennai
Deepan Chalravarthi wins Shaastra Rapid
by IA Prof.R.Anantharam, Chief Arbiter 21
26th Telegraph Schools’ FIDE rated, Kolkata
Srijit Paul lifts trophy
by IA & FI S.Paul Arokia Raj, Chief Arbiter 27
Sri Gurukul Below 1600 Fide Rating Open ,Visakhapatnam
Saikat Nath Of Delhi wins
by FA G Venkata Kumar , Chief Arbiter 29
Selected games from Delhi Open Readers are invited to offer their feedback on the
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron 31
Tactics from master games by S.Krishnan 42
Test your endgame by C.G.S.Narayanan 43
Masters of the past-86 Arthur Dake 44
AICF Calendar 48
From the Editor’s desk
After his scintillating title winning
performance at the World Rapid a
couple of months ago at Riyadh,
Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand yet
again proved his mettle in the rapid time
control winning the strong Tal Memorial
2018 in Moscow, Russia. In an exciting game in the
penultimate round over GM Grischuk, Anand won with
consummate ease sacrificing two pieces and weaving
a mating net. Another resounding success was by the
young Grandmaster Baskaran Adhiban winning Reykjavik
Open.This year’s edition of the tournament incidentally
was hosted as the “Bobby Fischer Memorial” marking the
75th birth anniversary of the American chess legend. This
issue carries, in its centre pages, reports on the above
two events together with a game each from the crucial
penultimate rounds of these events.
It was clean and convincing sweep of titles for PSPB
at the 38th National Team Chess Championship & 16th
National Women Team Chess Championship held at
Bubaneshwar with 100% match points and with a round
to spare. Kishan Gangolli of Karnataka continued his
dream run to clinch a straight fifth National title for the
Blind at Andheri,Mumbai. He along with the other four
-Makwana Ashvin Soundarya Kumar Pradhan,Aryan B
Joshi and Patra Subhendu Kumar will be representing
India at the World Team Chess Championship for visually
challenged. Reports on these events, final standings and
photographs of the above events along with those of
FIDE rated tournaments held during February 2018 are
presented in this issue.
Selected games from Chennai Open and Delhi Open
lucidly annotated by IM Manuel Aaron are carried in this
issue.American chess master Arthur Dake is featured in
the ‘Masters of the past series’.
C.G.S.Narayanan
regular features in the AICF Chronicle and are
also invited to send interesting articles, annotated
games and chess anecdotes to the Editor at ‘www.
indianchessfed@gmail.com’ or ‘cgsnarayanan
@hotmail.com.
38th National Team Chess Championship &16th National Women Team Chess Championship, Bhubaneshwar
Double triumph for PSPB
by IA R Srivatsan, Chief Arbiter

T
he 38th National team Chess Championship and 16th National Women team Chess
Championship wereorganised by All Odisha Chess Association along with KIIT Uni-
versity, at International Chess Hall, KIIT University, Bhubaneswar from8th to 14th
February. Thirty five teams in the Open section and thirteen teams in the women category
participated in the event. Nine rounds were held for the open and seven for the women
teams, with a time control of 90 minutes plus 30 seconds increment from move 1. It was a
very strong tournament, as all players of the top four seeded teams in the Open category
were either grandmasters or international masters. In total, there were 15 GMs, 15 IMs in
the Open and 5 IMS, 7 WGMs, 4 WIMs and 4 WFMs in the women championship, indicating
the strength of the championship.

Three teams viz. Petroleum Sports Promotion Board, Airport Authority of India and Rail-
ways Sports Promotion Board – A are with the average of above 2500. The top seed of
open section Petroleum Sports Promotion Board was with the average of 2618. Two more
teams Air India and Railway Sports Promotion Board - B had and average rating of 2453
and 2429 respectively.

In the open section first round Trivedi Karan of Gujarat held to a draw with GM Surya Seka-
rGanguly of PSPB and Nayak Sanjeeban of Odisha-MCF-2 also drew with GM TejasBakre of
Air India were the highlight of the event. All the seeded teams won the event comfortably.
In the women section also all the seeded teams won their opponents with 4-0 points. In
the The top six teams had overwhelming victories in the first two rounds. In the second
round Hemal Thanki of BSNL drew his game against GM Himanshu Sharma of Railway A and
unfancied player Rishab Nishad of Uttar Pradesh drew his game against IM Dinesh Sharma
of LIC. In the women section second round witnessed an upset in two boards between
Odisha-KIIT and LIC. Smaraki Mohanty defeated WGM Bhakti Kulkarni and Salonika Saina
defeated IM Vijayalakshmi S that resulted in a draw between these two teams. In the third
round, Utkal Ranjan Sahoo of Odisha-KIIT defeated GM Swapnil Dhopade of Railways – A.

In the women section Petroleum Sports Promotion Board gained a lead at the end of the
third round and continued to win all their opponents and became the winner with a round
to spare of the 16th Edition with 100% match point of 14. They were followed by Air India
with 11 points and Airport Authority with 10 points. In the 6th round Tamilnadu defeated
LIC by 2.5-1.5 that helped Tamilnadu team to finish ahead of LIC and they both finished
fourth and fifth respectively.

In the final round of the open section It was a revenge of the last year between Railways
and Airport Authority. Airport Authority team defeated Railways – A by 3-1. It was a draw
on the top two boards between IM Stany and GM Deepan Chakravarthy and between GM
S.L. Narayanan and GM P.Karthikeyan. In the third board GM Shyam Sundar defeated GM

AICF CHRONICLE
1
March 2018
Swapnil Dhopade and on the fourth board IM N.R. Visakh defeated GM Thejkumar. In the
open section gained a lead at the end of the fourth round and dominated over all their
opponents and became the winner with a round to spare with 100% match points of 18.

Petroleum Sports Promotion Board team won both the open and women event convincingly.
Earlier the event was inaugurated by Prof. A. Samantha, Founder, KIIT University on 8-2-
2018. Shri. Ranjan Mohanty and Dr.Gaganendu Dash, Director Sports, KIIT University were
also present at the inaugural function. At the prize distribution function Shri. Rakesh Rao,
Dy. Editor, The Hindu was the Chief guest. Mr. Ranjan Mohanty, Vice President AOCA, IM
Sekhar Chandra Sahoo, President. AOCA, were also present and distributed the prizes. Mr.
K.K. Sharma, Secretary, AOCA welcomed the gathering and Dr.Gaganendu Das, Director
Sports, KIIT University proposed vote of thanks.
Final standings: Open
Rk Team Gam. MP Res. Pts.
1 Petroleum Sports Promotion Board 9 18 0 32
2 Airport Authority of India 9 14 0 28
3 Railway Sports Promotion Board - B 9 13 1 25
4 Railway Sports Promotion Board - A 9 13 1 24
5 Air India 9 12 0 23
6 Life Insurance Corporation 9 12 0 19½
7 Bengal Chess-B 9 11 0 19
8 Odisha-A 9 11 0 19
9 Odisha-KIIT 9 11 0 18
10 Bihar 9 10 0 21
Board 1
Rk Name Rtg % Games Pt.
1 Trivedi Karan R 1880 87.5 8 7
2 Nitin S. 2402 72.2 9 6½
3 Kaustuv Kundu 2336 72.2 9 6½
Board 2
Rank Name Rtg % Games Pt.
1 Adhiban B. 2643 88.9 9 8
2 Swayams Mishra 2439 77.8 9 7
3 Rishabh Nishad 1854 72.2 9 6½
Board 3
Rank Name Rtg % Games Pt.
1 Gopal G.N. 2593 85.7 7 6
2 Shyam Sundar M. 2521 78.6 7 5½
3 Karthikeyan P. 2464 75 8 6
Board 4
Rank Name Rtg % Games Pt.
1 Ajay Kumar Rai 1859 88.9 9 8

AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
 1st Anand Chess Wings Open FIDE Rating, Visakhapatnam

L to R. M Gopinadh, Organising Secretary,. Ch Ravindra Raju, Treasure APCA, K N Gopal, Secretary

APCA, B Sekhar TN Winner, Y D Ramarao, President APCA, N Bangarraju, SAAP MD, Grand Master M
R Lalith Babu, V Vidhya Sagar, Chairman VVIT Engineering College, FA Venkata Kumar, Chief Arbiter

26th Telegraph Schools’ Chess FIDE rated tournament, Kolkata

Winner Srijit Paul with trophy

3
 2nd NITHM All India fide rating chess tournament, Hyderabad

Chief Guest Sri. A. Dinakar Babu IAS, VC & Managing Director of Sports Authority of Telangana
State along with Playing Chess with International Master Llaneza Vega, Marcos. Spain and guest of
honor, Mr. K.S. Prasad, Secretary Dr.S.Chinnam Reddy, Director NITHM. Syed Fayaz ,Tournament
Organizing Secretary, Principal V. Naredra Kumar, and N.Yadagiri, tournament Coordinator.

(L-R) Sheik Fayaz, Tournament Director, Chinam Reddy, Director, NITHM, Champion Rahul Srivastava
And Major Shiva Prasad, Vice President TSC

4
2 Karthikeyan Murali 2585 87.5 8 7
3 Visakh N R 2457 85.7 7 6
Board 5
Rank Name Rtg % Games Pt.
1 Sengupta Deep 2572 100 6 6
2 Rajesh V A V 2315 100 6 6
3 Raghvendra Kumar Mishra 1699 72.2 9 6½
Final Standing: Women
Rk Team Gam. MP Res. Pts.
1 Petroleum Sports Promotion Board 7 14 0 23
2 Air India 7 11 0 21½
3 Airport Authority of India 7 10 0 19½
4 Tamilnadu 7 8 2 15
5 Life Insurance Corporation 7 8 0 19
Board 1
Rk Name Rtg % Games Pt.
1 WGM Swati Ghate 2222 100 7 7
2 IM Karavade Eesha 2386 91.7 6 5½
3 IM Tania Sachdev 2402 91.7 6 5½
Board 2
Rank Name Rtg % Games Pt.
1 WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty 2101 78.6 7 5½
2 WGM Kulkarni Bhakti 2290 71.4 7 5
3 WGM Soumya Swaminathan 2349 66.7 6 4
Board 3
Rank Name Rtg % Games Pt.
1 WIM Chitlange Sakshi 2089 83.3 6 5
2 WGM Gomes Mary Ann 2329 66.7 6 4
3 IM Vijayalakshmi S 2352 66.7 6 4
Board 4
Rank Name Rtg % Games Pt.
1 IM Padmini Rout 2325 100 5 5
2 WIM Srija Seshadri 2252 83.3 6 5
3 WGM Meenakshi S 2193 75 6 4½
Board 5
Rank Name Rtg % Games Pt.
1 IM Mohota Nisha 2256 90 5 4½
2 Sarangi Yashaswini 1149 87.5 4 3½
3 WFM Varshini V 2103 50 4 2

AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
 13th AICFB National “A” Chess Championship for the Visually Challenged 2018, Andheri, Mumbai
Kishan Gangolli lifts the cup for fifth time
by IA Manjunatha. M ,Chief Arbiter
T
he 13th AICFB National “A” Chess Cham-
pionship for the Visually Challenged
2018 was inaugurated on 03/02/2018 at
Shahaji Raje Sports Complex Andheri, Mum-
bai. The 9 days tournament was oragnised by
All India Chess Federation for the blind, Co
supported by Hindustan Petroleum and Chess
Base India. Sri Ravindra Dongre Asian Zone
President, IM Sagar Shah CEO Chess Base In-
dia, Dr Charudutta Jhadav President AICFB and
IBCA, inaugurated this elite chess championship
in which the top fourteen selected players from
National “B” are vying for honours. Four times
consecutive National “A” Champion for Visually
Challenged Kishan Gangolli of KAR was the top
seeded player of the tournament with ELO of
1996. This tournament was conducted in Round
Robin system with 13 rounds. The top 5 players
from this tournament will represent India in the
Visually Challenged World Team to be held in
Bulgaria in the month of July, 2018.
Kishan gangolli continued his form and took the
lead from the third round he was closely chased
by Ashwin Makwana. The tournament became
interesting regards to the title in the eleventh
round when Ashvin Makwan and Kishan Gan-
golli faced each other Ashvin required a win to
threaten Kishan’s title. The match saw change
of fortunes Ashvin having a good position and
Kishan fighting back to hold Ashvin for draw.
There after Kishan maintained his lead and took
a draw in the last round to set his own record
clinch the title for the fifth time consecutively.
The young talents of India performed well in
the tournament and created several upsets to
be a part of Indian team.
The tournament was also highlighted by
the meet with World Champion our own GM
Vishwanath Anand. During the tournament
the players were visited by GM Vidit Gujarati
and GM Abhijit Kunte. The players also enjoyed
AICF CHRONICLE
6
March 2018
friendly Blitz tournament for the first time
where they discovered they can play lighting
matches equally well. The tournament also
featured conference for the development of
Blind chess by use of friendly technology. This
tournament is unique as for as the first time
blind players became known in the chess circles
and public in general by the constant effort of
Sagar Shah and Amrutha who represent Chess
Base India. They stirred and excitement in the
people by making the game live and covering
the entire tournament and players.
Ashvin Makwana K of Gujarat, Soundarya
Kumar Pradhan of Odisha, Aryan B Joshi of
Maharashtra and Patra SubhenduKumar of
Odisha secured the 2 to 5th places respec-
tively and qualified to represent India in the
world team chess championship for visually
challenged. The prize distribution ceremony
was presided over by Dr.Charudutta Jhadav
president IBCA and AICFB, Dignitaries on
the dais were Sri Raghuanandan Gokhale
Dronacharya Awardee, IM Sagar Shah CEO
Chess Base India, Sri Sushir Lohya Manag-
ing director Barclays Capital. Dignitaries
awarded prizes to winners and participants.
Final standings:
Rk Name Sta Pts
1 Kishan Gangolli KAR 10½
2 Makwana Ashvin K GUJ 9½
3 Soundarya Kumar Pradhan ODI 9
4 Aryan B Joshi MAH 8½
5 Patra Subhendu Kumar ODI 7½
6 Prachurya Kumar Pradhan ODI 7
7 Marimuthu K T N 6½
8 Krishna Udupa KAR 5½
9 Yudhajeet De W B 5½
10 Patil Shirish MAH 5½
11 Samant Milind MAH 4½
12 Swapanil Shah MAH 4½
13 Deeptyajeet De W B 4
14 Gaurav Gadodia MAH 3
10th BRDCA Open FIDE rapid rating chess tournament, Bangalore
Girish A Koushik is the Champion
by Promodraj Moree IA ,Chief Arbiter.

10th BRDCA Open FIDE rapid rating chess 6 Prasannaa.S 7½

tournament was held at Virginia Mall, Kodi 7 IM Llaneza Vega Marcos 7½
Circle, Bangalore on 10th and 11th of Feb 8 Muthaiah Al 7½
2018. The two day event attracted 405 play- 9 Phoobalan P. 7
ers from all over India including major states 10 Abhishek Das 7
like Telangana, Andhra Pradesh, Maharastra, 11 Ashwath R. 7
Kerala, Tamil Nadu, West Bengal, Orissa Etc. 12 FM Sauravh Khherdekar 7
The two-day event started on time at 10.30
13 Sammed Jaykumar Shete 7
on 10th May. The top seed of the event was
14 Sriram Sarja 7
International Master Llaneza Vega Marcos
15 Gahan M G 7
with a rating of 2421 from Spain. This was
the 2nd FIDE rating event conducted at this 16 Emil Sebastian 7
venue.The event started on time on 1st day 17 Balkishan A. 7
at 10.30 am, the event went on smoothly for 18 Yashas D. 7
2 days without delay. 19 Duvvala Suresh 7
20 Parthasarathy R 7
In the final Round International Master Girish 21 Gunasekaran K. 7
Koushik of Karnataka won against Kunal M 22 Vishwanath Kannam 7
of Tamilnadu to lift winner’s trophy along 23 Gandhi Anish 7
with Rs.30,000. 3 players were tied for 2nd 24 Santoshkashyap Hg 7
place with 8 points each, but according to 25 Sri Sai Baswanth P 6½
tie-breakers IM Rathnakaran K of Kerala, 26 Senthil Maran K 6½
Praveen Kumar of Tamilnadu and Ravi Teja
27 Reetish Padhi 6½
of Andra were declared 2nd, 3rd and 4th
28 AGM Sa Kannan 6½
respectively. Prize distribution took place on
29 Nayak Biswajit 6½
11th Feb at 6 pm as per schedule. Mr Vinod
CEO of Virigina Mall was present as Chief 30 Raghav Srivathsav V 6½
Guest who gave away the prizes to winners. 31 Anusha N L V 6½
Mr Upendra K, veteran player was honoured 32 Ravi Kumar K 6½
for his services in field of chess by Mr Chi- 33 AIM Abhijit Chutia 6½
dananda , Secretary BRDCA. 34 Samith Reddy I 6½
35 FM Ramakrishna J. 6½
Final ranking 36 Saikat Nath 6½
Rk Name Pts 37 Jayachandra Srinivas V 6½
1 IM Girish A. Koushik 8½ 38 AIM Sushrutha Reddy 6½
2 IM Rathnakaran K. 8 39 Yashas Donthi 6½
3 IM Praveen Kumar C 8 40 Konatham Snehil 6½
4 IM Ravi Teja S. 8 41 Mahajan Ayush 6½
5 Kunal M. 7½ 42 Vignesh N 6½

AICF CHRONICLE
7
March 2018
43 Ekantha Raju 6½ 84 Gad Tanay 5½
44 Ojas Kulkarni 6½ 85 Darshan V P S 5½
45 Ajith M.P. 6 86 Muthu Palaniappan P L 5½
46 Manigandan S S 6 87 Vikas Saini 5½
47 IM Hegde Ravi Gopal 6 88 Halkude Nagnath 5½
48 Gavi Siddayya 6 89 Srinadh Madhavarapu 5½
49 Shiva S 6 90 Prasanna B M 5½
50 Likhit Chilukuri 6 91 Aarvi Jain 5½
51 Ramachandra Bhat 6 92 Abhin A S 5½
52 AGM Karthikeyan J. 6 93 Athithya J 5½
53 Rishabh Kumara 6 94 Raghavendra V. 5½
54 Rakshith Srinivasan 6 95 Sathya Naarayanan S 5½
55 Manasa H R 6 96 Roshan Abendhra R 5½
56 Sudarshan Bhat 6 97 Nitin M Pai 5½
57 AFM Binni Boyina P Pratap 6 98 Siddhartha S Srivastava 5½
58 Rutherford S 6 99 Bhagwat S.M. 5½
59 Jibin Varghese John 6 100 Apoorv Kamble 5½
60 Tamizh Selvan Ganesan 6 101 AFM Aruna Dinakara 5½
61 AIM Kaushik G Iyer 6 102 Shreekanth N 5½
62 Bhagyashree G Patil 6 103 Hariharan Subramony 5½
63 Swara Lakshmi S Nair 6 104 Nagaraj Naik 5½
64 Dharani Srinivas K B 6 105 AIM Rohan Nachnani 5½
65 Kalki Eshwar D 6 106 Sachin A S 5½
66 Mahalingappa N C 6 107 ACM Anil Thungesh 5½
67 Arhan Chethan Anand 6 108 Medhansh Rathi 5½
68 Tejes Suresh Kumar 6 109 Logesh V 5½
69 Dilip Kumar Pedda 6 110 Nikilesh G K 5½
70 Karthikay C 6 111 Varunsatyaa Parthasarathy 5½
71 Hrishikesh RRaghuvaran 6 112 Mitul K H 5½
72 Anjishnu Mondal 6 113 Gagan B R 5½
73 Rakesh Kumar Sinha 6 114 Krish Pradip Kerkar 5½
74 AFM Renganayaki V 6 115 Joshi Kedar 5½
75 Yogesh Bharat Mahamuni 6 116 Sachith Katti 5½
76 Murahari A H 6 117 Kumar Prasanna 5½
77 Sathish Chandra G 6 118 Sankha Ghosh 5½
78 Upendra K 6 119 Sriram N 5½
79 Rajashekara N 6 120 Ruthvik R 5
80 Vivek Kumar 6 121 Venkatesh S 5
81 Umesh Nair 6 122 Sneha R 5
82 Binu Sebastian 5½ 123 AFM Nirupam Gogoi 5
83 Tejas Cavale 5½ 124 Abhiman Urs R 5

AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
3rd NITHM below 1400 FIDE rated Chess tournament, Hyderabad
Ahirwar Aniket is the Champion
by FA Saleem Beig,Chief Arbiter

3rd NITHM below 1400 FIDE rated Chess 8 Varadharajan S 7½

tournament was held at Nithm Campus, 9 Ved Prakash 7½
Gachibolwli, Hyderabad from 2nd to 4th Feb- 10 Murugan V 7½
ruary 2018. The event attracted 844 players 11 Rajendra Dhote 7½
from all over India, including major states 12 Praveen K B 7½
like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala, Andhra 13 Srinivas Siddanth 7½
Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra, Haryana, 14 Dinesh Rajachar 7
Orissa, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh, Bihar,
15 Yasar Abdullah 7
Chhattisgarh, Delhi, Goa, Gujarat, Himachal
16 Doshi Khush 7
Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, Punjab, Rajast-
17 Senthil Kumaran N.S 7
han, Pondicherry and one player from USA.
Top seed of the event was Siddiq Akbar of 18 Prasanth K V 7
Tamil Nadu. The 9 round event was conducted 19 Manvith K 7
in 3 days. Total cash prize was RS. 499999/- 20 Someswara Battu W 7
21 Siddik Akbar 7
Ahirwar Aniket from Tamil Nadu emerged the 22 Sanjay Bhargav B 7
Champion with 8 wins and a draw. It was easy 23 Sathwik Shivananda P.S 7
sailing for him. In the final round 2 players 24 Vasistha Ramana Rao K V 7
tied for the 1st place with 8 and half points . 25 Sancheria Vishal 7
Ahirwar Aniket got the 1st prize with a better 26 Kapil Dev Prakash 7
tie break score. He bagged a prize money of 27 Singh Dinesh Pratap 7
RS 50000 with a glittering trophy. The 2nd 28 Vamsi Krishna A 7
prize went to Suman Maity while Yashodaran
29 Koushek V 7
Kalmanoor secured the 3rd prize.
30 Gautam Gondaliya 7
31 Mohan Sapa 7
Prize distribution Ceremony took place at
6.00 pm and was presided over by Mr. K Siva 32 Priyanka Bhatt 7
Prasad Secretary TSCA. 33 Laxman Kumar Panda 7
34 Gyaneshwar B 7
Final ranking 35 Shankar Kopparthy 7
Rk Name Pts 36 Kumar M Sankar 7
1 Ahirwar Aniket 8½ 37 Kheerthi Ganta 7
2 Suman Maity 8½ 38 Keshavendra Mishra 7
3 Yashodarshan Kalmanoor 8 39 Ilanchezhiyan M 7
4 Anil M 8 40 Siva Prasad A T 7
5 Saurav Sharma 8 41 Arnav Pradhan 7
6 Nimbole Sarvesh 8 42 Dalal Aashi 7
7 Shubham B Chourasiya 8 43 Uma Harsha P 7

AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
44 Rajput Vilas 7 85 Asain L 6
45 Koteswara Rao K. 7 86 Rathish K R 6
46 Somdeb Mazumder 7 87 Anurag Banerjee 6
47 Kartik Jitendra Tetwar 7 88 Sumaneesh Alluru 6
48 Shende Manthan 7 89 K Venkata Lakshmi Narayan 6
49 Pulekar Nikhil 7 90 Bhagyashree G Patil 6
50 Raghvendra Kumar 7 91 Neeraj Rawat 6
51 Vasantha Kumar M 7 92 Dharanidhar S. 6
52 Sudhakar T 7 93 Prateek Kumar Singh 6
53 Mandakani Mishra 7 94 D.N. Mallick 6
54 Mahesh Adra 6½ 95 Khuje Maithili 6
55 Nandan Masu Saketh 6½ 96 Rittik Chakraborty 6
56 Dileep Kumar 6½ 97 Bhuwanraj Singh Parihar 6
57 Raja Sree Virinchi Vadali 6½ 98 Divya Teja P 6
58 Vijayendrakumar D N 6½ 99 Guna Sekhar G (Chittoor) 6
59 Mareda Damodaradev 6½ 100 Anil Pradhan 6
60 Mithun P M 6½ 101 Shaik Shavali 6
61 Syed Fazil Asgar Hassan 6½ 102 Aniket Mukherjee 6
62 Bharath Kumar Jaladanki 6½ 103 Shamkumar Malayil 6
63 Md Bashiq Imrose 6½ 104 Chandrani Shlok 6
64 G Yaswanth Naveen 6½ 105 Subba Rao D.V. 6
65 S Venkata Sai Sathvik 6½ 106 Rangaraju Sanhith 6
66 Sanjay Kumar Choudhary 6½ 107 Karpagakumar S V S 6
67 Karyasheel P 6½ 108 Partha Majumder 6
68 Shrivastava Kushagra 6½ 109 Kamal Gera 6
69 Rishiraj P 6½ 110 Rajinesh Chintala 6
70 Suresh Bondalapati 6½ 111 Geetesh Mishra 6
71 Gupta Mayur A 6½ 112 Kumbhar Tejas R 6
72 Gutthe Vaibhav P 6½ 113 Parmar Shalim 6
73 Advait Prashant Patil 6½ 114 Nikunj Buddhawar 6
74 Sarvade Mihiir 6½ 115 Dhanala Abhinav 6
75 Ananda Raj M 6½ 116 Advaita Sharma K 6
76 Rushyendra Chowdary K 6½ 117 Shreya Das 6
77 Umesh Konduru 6½ 118 Soumya Das 6
78 Midhun G 6½ 119 Thejasvi N 6
79 Lilhare Rohit 6½ 120 Bobade Jayant 6
80 Prerak Darvekar 6½ 121 Vivaan Sunil Ballikar 6
81 Pannada Pretipu Rao 6½ 122 Anjaneyulu 6
82 Goguloth Malsur 6½ 123 Raghavan R 6
83 Shubham Gupta 6½ 124 Chandrasekar N Krishna Pillai 6
84 Nikhil Mahajan 6 125 Karthik P S R 6

AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
1st Ankit Sakshi Memorial FIDE Rated Chess Tournament, Jaipur
Sriram Jha is Champion
by IA Gopakumar MS, Chief Arbiter
The 1st Ankit Sakshi Memorial Open FIDE
Rated Chess Tournament was held at Ma-
harishi Bhrigu Sadan, Jaipur from 29 Jan to
02 Feb 2018. A total number of 420 players
which included four grandmasters, three
International Masters and 262 International
rated players from different parts of the coun-
try 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. The total prize fund of the event was
Rs.5,00,000.
The Tournament was played under Swiss Sys-
tem with nine rounds and had Grandmaster
Himanshu Sharma of Railways as the top
seed. With Round one starting on time and
the players went into their business mode.
The tournament progressed on expected lines
as seeded players registered comfortable
victories on earlier part of the event.
Hard fought battles ensured a thrilling end to
the event as three players tied for the pole
position with eight points. With better tie
break score, Grandmaster Sriram Jha of LIC
emerged as champion to pocket a cash prize
of Rs. 81,000/- along with winner’s trophy
while Grandmaster Saptarshi Roy Chowdhary
of Railways finished as first runner up and
International Master Sayantan Das of West
Bengal as second runner up.
In the rating category of Below 1600, Rit-
uraj Singh of Uttar Pradesh secured first
prize while in Below 1200 category, Avinash
Srivastava of LIC finished first.
Siddhali Shetye of Maharasthra adjudged
as best female player while Gautam Jangid
of Rajasthan become best among unrated
players. Harshit Arya of Haryana, Shah
Moxit J of Gujarat, Harshit Pawar of Delhi,
Aditya Maderana of Rajasthan finished best
among Under-15, Under-13, Under-11 and
Under-9 age categories respectively. Kapil
Dadhich and Raghav Bagri become Best Ra-
jasthan player and Best Jaipur player respec-
tively. The veteran prize bagged by season
campaigner Kantilal Dave of Rajasthan and
Rudradaman Mertia was the youngest player
of the event.
In a colourful closing ceremony, Shri. Rajen-
dra Singh Rathore, Hon’ble Minister of Rajast-
han, gave away the cash prizes and trophies
to the winners along with Shri. Ajay Ajmera,
President ARCA and Shri. Ashok Bhargava,
Secretary ARCA.
Final ranking
Rk Name Pts
1 GM Sriram Jha 8
2 GM Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi 8
3 IM Das Sayantan 8
4 GM Thipsay Praveen M 7½
5 IM Suvrajit Saha 7½
6 IM Sharma Dinesh K. 7½
7 Sher Singh 7½
8 Rathore Sonakshi 7½
9 Prakash Ram 7
10 Vinay Raj Bhatt 7
11 Sinha Santosh Kumar 7
12 Punit Indora 7
13 Kant Rupesh 7
14 Dubey Sanchay 7
15 Rituraj Singh 7
AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
16 GM Himanshu Sharma 7 57 Avinash Ch. Srivastava 6
17 Rathore S.K. 7 58 Pushpendra 6
18 AFM Choubey Saurabh 7 59 Agarwal Brajesh 6
19 Shetye Siddhali 7 60 AFM Pawar Harshit 6
20 Puneet Manchanda 7 61 Sandeep 6
21 Sharma Rajjan 6½ 62 Kumar Sanu 6
22 Shubham 6½ 63 Om Chauhan 6
23 Dave Kantilal 6½ 64 Chauhan Narayan 6
24 Harshit Arya 6½ 65 Vaishant Kumar Gangwani 6
25 Sumit Grover 6½ 66 Gourav Nigam 6
26 Deepak Katiyar 6½ 67 Kumar Prince 6
27 Joshi Manish 6½ 68 Shami Vipin K. 6
28 Saumil Nair 6½ 69 Mehul Gupta 6
29 Rawat R.S. 6½ 70 Aryan Pankaj Kasera 6
30 Kapil Dadhich 6½ 71 Naman Shrivastava 6
31 Joy Pankaj Shah 6½ 72 Tejashwi Sharma 6
32 Gajendra Singh 6½ 73 Singh Abhimanyu 6
33 Sharma Suyash 6½ 74 Vishnu Sharma 6
34 Raghav Bagri 6½ 75 Singh Ojasva 6
35 Bhupendra Kumar 6½ 76 Divyanshu Hasija 6
36 Trivedi Karan R 6½ 77 Jakar Akhilesh 6
37 Alok Mishra 6½ 78 Shreetu Bhavikbhai Nandi 5½
38 Suthar Pradip 6½ 79 Sarthak Rawat 5½
39 AGM Chandrajeet Singh Rajawat 6½ 80 Kritika Pal 5½
40 Arnav Kushwaha 6½ 81 J M Baisakh 5½
41 Bhoopnath 6½ 82 Ayush Sharma 5½
42 Yadav Narayan 6½ 83 Nitul Khare 5½
43 Aishwin Daniel 6 84 Uttam Prakash Sharma 5½
44 Shah Moxit J 6 85 Umer S.M 5½
45 Mishra Uttam 6 86 Gupta R K 5½
46 Sangeen Mandre 6 87 Negi D.S. 5½
47 Ahmed Feroz 6 88 Deepender Sangwan 5½
48 Saxena Arpit 6 89 Sharma Harsh Yogesh 5½
49 Patil Ketan Anil 6 90 Kavya Aggarwal 5½
50 Sankit Swami 6 91 Amit Dalal 5½
51 Chetan Sharma 6 92 Mahabir Parshad Verma 5½
52 Shahab Ahmad Farooqui 6 93 Manoj Kumar Singh 5½
53 Rathore Mahendra Singh 6 94 Abhilash Kumar 5½
54 Bhatt Pradip P. 6 95 Patel Suyogkumar M 5½
55 Vraj N Shah 6 96 Alim Khan 5½
56 Raj Prakhar 6 97 Priyadarshi Alok 5½

AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
2nd NITHM All India fide rating chess tournament, Hyderabad
Rahul Srivastav wins title
by Promodraj Moree,Chief Arbiter.
2nd NITHM All India fide rating chess tour-
nament was organized for 5 days from 28th
January to 1st February 2018 with 9 rounds.
The event attracted 250 Players from all over
India including major states like Karnataka,
Maharastra, Madhya Pradesh, Tamil Nadu,
Andrapradesh, Orissa, West Bengal, Bihar,
Jharkhand, Chattisgadh, Assam and all parts
of Telangana. Total 16 states participated in
the event and also two players belonging to
foreign National. Total 163 Fide rated play-
ers played in this tournament including two
International Masters. Top seed of the event
was International Master Llaneza Vega Mar-
cos with a rating of 2421 from Spain.
In the Inauguration which was held at 10.30
am on 28th January 2018.The Chief Guest
was Sri. A. Dinakar Babu IAS, Vice Chairman
& Managing Director of Sports Authority of
Telangana State along with guest of honor
Mr. K.S. Prasad, Secretary – TSCA Tourna-
ment Director, Dr.S. chinnam Reddy, Direc-
tor NITHM, Organizing Committee Director.
Shaik Fayaz, Organizing Secretary, A. Janard-
han Reddy Media In charge.
After the 9 rounds Rahul Srivastav P of
Telangana emerged the clear winner with 8
points and bagged a cash prize of rs 40000
and Trophy . Top seed International Master
Llaneza Vega Marcos secured the 2nd place
with 7.5 points while Ashutosh Kumar of Bi-
har secured the 3rd Prize.
The Prize distribution function took place at
4pm on 1st February. Dignitaries present on
the occasion were Mr K S Prasad, Secretary,
TSCA, Major Shivaprasad, Vice President,
TSCA, Mr Chinnam Reddy Director, NITHM,
and Mr Sheik Fayaz, Tournament Director.
Final ranking
Rk Name Pts
1 Rahul Srivatshav P 8
2 IM Llaneza Vega Marcos 7½
3 Ashutosh Kumar 7½
4 Varun V 7½
5 CM Prraneeth Vuppala 7½
6 FM Sai Agni Jeevitesh J 7
7 Singh S. Vikramjit 7
8 Bharat Kumar Reddy P 7
9 FM Ramakrishna J. 7
10 IM Chakravarthi Reddy M 7
11 Mishra Manoj 7
12 Leeladhar Kachroo 7
13 Pande Nikhil N 7
14 Sri Sai Baswanth P 6½
15 Vishwanath Prasad 6½
16 Mushini Ajay 6½
17 Sahil Tickoo 6½
18 Gupta Bhola Nath 6½
19 Gaurav Das 6½
20 Akash Tiwari 6½
21 Surya Raghava I 6½
22 Sai Krishna S. 6½
23 Sarma R S R 6½
24 Niranjan Mocharla 6
25 AIM Kalur Nikhil 6
26 Chilukuri Sai Varshith 6
27 Srinivasa Rao G.V. 6
28 Venkata Ramana J 6
29 Chakravarthi S.V.C. 6
30 Konatham Snehil 6
31 Abdul Azeez S.K. 6
32 Krishnamoorthy K 6
AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
33 Buxy Rajanikant 6
34 Menon Padmanand 6
35 AIM Kandi Ravi 6
36 Swapnil Raj 6
37 AIM Pati Spandan 6
38 Velpula Sarayu 6
39 Sambamurti P 6
40 Narasimha Raveendra G 6
41 Srinivas Damera 6
42 Shanmukha Pulli 6
43 Bhaskar Teja K V 6
44 Sathishkumar L 6
45 Neeraj Anirudh K 6
46 Suresh Kolavapalli 6
47 Theju K V 6
48 Subbarao T V 6
49 Pogul Yuvraj 5½
50 Ramanujacharyulu N C 5½
51 Sarvade Mihiir 5½
52 Mrityunjay Kumar 5½
53 Amer Basha Sk 5½
54 Soumen Mondal 5½
55 Sirsat Shekhar V. 5½
56 Duvvala Suresh 5½
57 AGM Akavaram Aashish Reddy 5½
58 Rao K. Damodar 5½
59 Gaur H C 5½
60 Natura Bethi 5½
61 Satyanarayana M 5½
62 Saketh Kumar Reddy C 5½
63 Anil M 5½
64 Ramendra Ranjan 5½
65 Thirupatha Chary Pusala 5½
66 Sridatta M V 5½
67 Joshi Kedar 5½
68 Praveen K B 5
69 Sai Atchyut B 5
70 Govind Kumar 5
71 Jakir Hussain 5
72 Vasistha Ramana Rao K V 5
73 Anurag Banerjee 5
AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
74 Deepak Chaurasia 5
75 Pandharkar Chaitanya 5
76 Prasada Rao G 5
77 Bharath Venugopal 5
78 M Tulasi Ram Kumar 5
79 Atul Bihari Sharan 5
80 Rishiraj P 5
81 Chothe Sadanand 5
82 Dasika V V Satyanarayana 5
83 Jadhav Pratik 5
84 Swethitha C 5
85 Guru Dayal Prajapati 5
86 Senthil Kumaran N.S 5
87 Md Bashiq Imrose 5
88 AFM Mir Maahir Ali 5
89 Shubham B Chourasiya 5
90 Shreya Das 5
91 Mishra Ravi Pratap 5
92 Amarnath Gupta 5
93 Prerak Darvekar 5
94 Rama Mohan Rao N 5
95 Sreenandan Babu J 5
96 Harish Venugopal 5
97 Salunke Pramod 5
98 Viswak Sen M 5
99 Mandakani Mishra 5
100 Kalaiarasi D Pasubathi 5
101 Bonu Ravi Kumar 5
102 Goguloth Malsur 5
103 Rathod Sachin 5
104 Trinadharao S 5
105 Shewale Teerth 5
106 Subhash Kumar M 5
107 AFM Advaita Sharma K 5
108 Pardeshi Gayatri 5
109 Ravi Madduru 5
110 Ganesh Sai Siddarth S 5
111 Mukund Tushar Marthu 5
112 Janaki Devi M 5
113 Mahesh T 5
114 Sai Varshini Thantarapalli 5
Shri Dhakshinamurthy Memorial Intl.FIDE Rated chess tournament, Tindiavanam
Karthikeyan wins title
by S.Balaraman IA ,Chief Arbiter
Shri Dhakshinamurthy International FIDE
Rated chess tournament 2018 being organ-
ized by King Maker Chess Academy here in
this beautiful Sri Dharamchand Jain School
(CBSE), Karuvambakkam, hall from February
23 to February 25, 2018. Totally 401 Players
from Andhra Pradesh, Pondicherry, Mahar-
ashtra, Bihar, Chattisgar, Karnataka, Kerala,
West Bengal, Himachala Pradesh, Odissa,
Jharkhand, Misoram and Host Tamil Nadu
have participated in this prestigious tourna-
ment with the 5,00,000/- Lac. Cash prize.
Earlier Shri Dhakshnamurthy International
FIDE Rated chess tournament 2018 was
inaugurated by the correspondent Mr. Jin
Raj of Sri Dharamchand Jain School (CBSE),
Karuvambakkam, in the Augustus presence
of Mr. L.Balachander, Principal, Sri Dharam-
chand Jain School, Mrs.B.Shanti Balachander,
Principal, Aakruti School and the Chief Arbi-
ter Mr.S.Balaraman I A and the organizers,
Mr.S.Gowri Karthikeyan, A.David Doss and
Mr.R.Anbhazhagan.
We should appreciate the Sri Dharamchand
Jain School, Management for their wonderful
support and also to the supporting staff spe-
cially, Principal of the School, Mr.L.Balachan-
der and his wife Mrs. B.Shanti Balachander,
Principal, Aakrutii School who worked with
us for the past 3 days. A very good team of
arbiters along with a group of dedicated King
chess Academy officials made the tourna-
ment grand successful. Finally, I must thank
Mr.P.Stephen Balasamy, Secretary, Tamil
Nadu State Chess Association and Mr. Bharat
Singh Chouhan, Secretary, All India Chess
federation for given me the charge to work
as Chief arbiter for this tournament.
Prize distribution Ceremony took place at
6.30 pm. Mr.Jin Raj, Correspondent and Sec-
retary, Chief Guest of the Valedictory function
in the august presence of Mr.S.Balaraman,
Jt.Secretary of Tamil Nadu State Chess
Association and Chief Arbiter, Mr.Abslam ,
Secretary, VDCA, Mr.Gowri Karthykeyan,
Secy. Kingmaker Chess Academy, A. David
Doss , M.Vinothkumar and Mr.Anbhazhagan
distributed the prizes to the winners. All
players have shown their brilliance with true
game sprit.
Final standings:
Rk Name Pts
1 Karthikeyan G 8½
2 Raj Kumar R 8
3 Wagh Varun 7½
4 Mahendar B 7½
5 Prem Anantha Rajan V. 7½
6 Surya Thangavel 7½
7 Kavi Samrat P 7½
8 Satheesh Kumar G 7
9 Varunsatyaa Parthasarathy 7
10 Gokula Vishnu R 7
11 Siddik Akbar 7
12 Gupta Anshurup 7
13 Natarajan M 7
14 Kaustubh Balaji 7
15 Adithya Ramesh 7
16 Lakshmi Narayanan R 7
17 Nandish V S 7
18 Jakir Hussain 7
19 Gopichand K 7
20 Varadharajan I. 7
AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
21 Robinson M G 6½
22 Ssathyan S R 6½
23 Aragonda Mohan 6½
24 Susheel Reddy P 6½
25 Pragadesh P 6½
26 Mrithyunjay Mahadevan 6½
27 Arul Prakash N 6½
28 Prathesh Kumar R 6½
29 Navalkar Amit 6½
30 Pruthivirajan M 6½
31 Venuprasath G 6½
32 Lenin A G 6½
33 Mithun Raj A 6½
34 Senthil Kumaran N.S 6½
35 Surya Raghava I 6½
36 Satheesh M 6½
37 Baraneedharan S 6½
38 Dhineshwar R S 6½
39 Harish Kumar N 6½
40 Benson Baby 6½
41 Ramesh Kumar Sonker 6½
42 Yuvaraju K 6
43 Vasantha Kumar M 6
44 Arockkianathan M 6
45 Guna Sekhar G (Chittoor) 6
46 Praveen Kumar D 6
47 Govindarajan Suganthi 6
48 Jaikavin Senthilkumar 6
49 Rajesh K Raman 6
50 Praksanna A.S. 6
51 Arul Saravanan S 6
52 Raj Kamal S 6
53 Sailesh R 6
54 Ashok G Ramaswamy 6
55 Monisha S 6
56 Saravanan Jaganathan 6
57 Trisha B 6
58 Velmurugan S 6
59 Ponnu Durai Thangapandi 6
60 B Nedunchezian 6
61 Pragathesvaran S 6
AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
62 Kishore V 6
63 Sugumaran P 6
64 Lokesh Varmaa K 6
65 Vinoth Kumar V 6
66 Priyanka Bhatt 6
67 Yashwant Bapat 6
68 Rajendran Sambandam 6
69 Varun Sasikumar 6
70 Bhoir Pandit 6
71 Nishad A 6
72 H Karthik Manikandan 6
73 Nitesh Bhat 6
74 Rohan M 6
75 Jaivant R 6
76 Nishanth Jayabalan 6
77 Hema Priya M 6
78 Abilash G 5½
79 Vishnu Bharani S 5½
80 Sudheer M K 5½
81 Ramesh R 5½
82 Amit N Pande 5½
83 Ramajayam J 5½
84 Nanmalar A 5½
85 Sri Harish J 5½
86 Abdul Hameed 5½
87 Sriram Suresh 5½
88 Durga R 5½
89 Praveenkumar K 5½
90 Md. Shabbir Ali 5½
91 Subhiksha E 5½
92 Hariharan S 5½
93 Mithun Ramesh S 5½
94 Rakshitha P 5½
95 Vijayakumar S 5½
96 Tharshan M K 5½
97 Benny P C 5½
98 Santanu Chatterjee 5½
99 Niranjana P R 5½
100 Abdur Rahmani R 5½
101 Hariharan Vinayagamurthy 5½
102 Suthesan V J 5½
1st All India Dombivali Kalyan Open Classical Rating Chess Tournament, Mumbai
Vikramaditya Kulkarni wins title
by Vitthal B Madhav IA, Chief Arbiter
1st All India Dombivali Kalyan Open Classical
Rating Chess Tournament 2018 Jointly organ-
ised by Anant Vaze Sangeet Kala and Krida
Pratishthan and Atharva Chess Academy
was inaugurated by Mrs. Deepali Mhaiskar,
Director IRB infrastructures & Developers
Ltd. The tournament saw a good response
of 215 entries with GM R R Laxman as the
top seed.
In the 2nd Round FM Sourrav Khherdekar was
stunned by Master Sai Balkawde. In the 4th
Round both the top seeds GM R R Laxman
and IM Rahul Sangma were held for a draw
by Bhagyashri Patil and Rahul Pawar respec-
tively. Even the veteran IM Sharad Tilak were
held for a draw by Sanjay Bhat. In the fifth
Round the game between IM Vikramaditya
Kulkarni and Veteran Player FM S G Joshi
ended in a draw with eight players jointly
leading with 4.5 points. In 6th Round Snehal
Bhosale defeated the 2nd seed Rahul Sanga-
ma to become a joint leader with 4 others.
In 7th Round GM R R Laxman was held to
a draw by Pratik Patil whereas IM Vikrama-
ditya Kulkarni and Snehal Bhosale emerged
as joint leaders by winning there games. In
8th Round IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni became
the leader with a half point lead over the
top seed. In the 9th Round IM Vikramaditya
Kulkarni stunned everyone by defeating GM
R R Laxman with 1 point lead against others.
As the first tie break was direct encounter he
was already a champion even he would have
lost the game, but he played his last round
with zeal and won a scintillating game against
FM Sourrav Kherrdekar.
Shri.Virendra Mhaiskar,Chairman & Managing
Director, IRB Infrastructures & Developers
Ltd. and Mrs. Deepali Mhaiskar, Director,IRB
Infrastructures & Developers Ltd. were pres-
ent for the prize distribution ceremony on 4th
February 2018.
Final Standing
Rk Name Pts
1 IM Kulkarni Vikramaditya 9½
2 GM Laxman R.R. 8
3 Patil Pratik 8
4 Raghav Srivathsav V 8
5 Bartakke Amardeep S. 8
6 FM Joshi S G 7½
7 IM Sangma Rahul 7½
8 Bhagyashree Patil 7½
9 Lama Surbir 7½
10 IM Tilak Sharad S 7½
11 Nirgun Keval 7½
12 Wankhede Avishkar 7½
13 Polakhare Aryan 7½
14 Boricha Ketan 7
15 FM Sauravh Khherdekar 7
16 Shirodkar Aayush 7
17 Shah Jeet 7
18 Makharia Harsh 7
19 Deodhar Vrushali Umesh 7
20 Priye Bikram 7
21 Kohad Dipesh 7
22 Snehal Bhosale 6½
23 Lund Rachit 6½
24 Chhabra Aakash 6½
25 Shah Devansh 6½
26 Gupta Rajesh R.S. 6½
27 Thube Nimish 6½
28 Akshit Jha 6½
29 Joglekar Abhijit 6½
30 Kadam Om Manish 6½
AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
31 Joshi Mihir 6½ 74 Kherdekar Arnav 5½
32 Nilkant Shrey 6½ 75 Haldankar Dhruv 5½
33 Javheri Jaydev 6½ 76 Tawade Arnav 5½
34 Shetty Murugan 6½ 77 Singh Tanmay 5½
35 Kelaskar Chinmay 6½ 78 Ranjan Kotian 5½
36 Barde Om 6½ 79 AIM Yadav Aakashkumar 5½
37 Bhagwat Heramb 6½ 80 Tillu Saurabh 5½
38 Kadam Rishi R 6½ 81 Kunnekar Vanshri 5½
39 Gavade Atharv 6½ 82 Parvez Alam 5½
40 Bartakke Aditya 6½ 83 Negi Augustiya 5½
41 Gengaje Pratik 6½ 84 Soni Krishna 5½
42 Shejal Sahil Sanjay 6½ 85 Vyom Vivek Kulkarni 5½
43 Pathe Sankalp 6 86 Nandi Utpal 5½
44 Krishnan Ritvik 6 87 Thakor Sagarkumar Vijaysinh 5½
45 Phatak Aanjaneya 6 88 Aditya Ramanathan 5½
46 Apte Dhaivat 6 89 Atharv Krishna Vedula 5½
47 Bhanushali Kunj 6 90 Ishwar Ramteke 5½
48 Chavan Anant 6 91 V Aniketh 5½
49 Rathi Yashvardhan 6 92 Ranade Mayank 5
50 Lamkane Om 6 93 Vikram Mavlankar 5
51 AFM Nehete Arnav 6 94 Kunder Pratik 5
52 Shreyas Ghadi 6 95 ACM Pawar Yashwant 5
53 Balkawade Sai 6 96 Dhore Akshad 5
54 Bagwe Gaurang 6 97 Gada Krish 5
55 Sardar Surendra 6 98 Kadam Laksh 5
56 Kandalgaonkar D.N 6 99 Tejas Gupta 5
57 Pradeep Sawant 6 100 Mhatre Sambhaji 5
58 Mahajan Sanskruti 6 101 Rajalakshmi Vishwanathan 5
59 Salvi Aarush 6 102 Virle Kimaya 5
60 Mahale Tanmay 6 103 Balkawade Om 5
61 ACM Iyer Arvind 6 104 Gupta Tanish 5
62 Amin Yashoraj 6 105 Nilesh Shelar 5
63 Kapadia Hrishita 6 106 Kale Aditya 5
64 Bhat Sanjay 5½ 107 Chopade Saimira 5
65 Pawar Rahul 5½ 108 Mehta Medhir 5
66 Joshi Sagar 5½ 109 Kinkhabwala Hrithik 5
67 Bamboat Hrrehan 5½ 110 Velayudhan Nair A. 5
68 Vaval Aaditi 5½ 111 Desai Shruti 5
69 Mitank Maru 5½ 112 Shintre Makrand 5
70 Saparia Jeel Bharat 5½ 113 V Devansh 5
71 Gurav Sanmil 5½ 114 Narvekar Rishikesh 5
72 Rane Parnavi 5½ 115 Baliga Gaurish 5
73 Gala Parsh 5½ 116 Nair Sharath 4½

AICF CHRONICLE
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4th Kanyakumari International FIDE Rated Below 1500 Chess Tournament, Nagercoil
Nagasri Saikanth wins title
by FA Vinothkumar T, Chief Arbiter
The 4th Kanyakumari International FIDE
Rated Below 1500 Chess Tournament 2018
being organized by KKDCA commenced with
a flying start on 23rd Feb 2018.Three days
of enthusiasm and enjoyment were experi-
enced by all the promising players on account
of the challenging and intellectual battles
amongst them. This 9 round Swiss System,
Classical format – FIDE Rated Below 1500
Chess Tournament started with an inaugura-
tion function. Players Technical Meeting was
conducted and followed by this, first round,
began at 11.45 a.m on Friday.
264 players from various parts of our Coun-
try, especially Tamilnadu, Andhra Pradesh,
Bihar, Karnataka, Kerala, Maharasthra, Pondi-
cherry and Kanyakumari participated in this
event. Quite specifically, this time a player
from another federation, particularly from
England, Mr. Donald Moir took part in this
event.Nagasri Saikanth from Andhra Pradesh
has clinched the Winners title and has be-
come this year 2018’s 4th KK FIDE Rated
Below 1500 Chess Tournament Champion.
The prize-distribution function took place
on the final day, the 25th Feb 2018 at
about 3.30.p.m in the evening. Prizes were
distributed by the Chief Guest, Founder &
Chairman of Stella Mary’s College of Engi-
neering, Dr. Nazerath Charles. Earlier, the
gathering was welcomed by the Principal,
Dr. R. Suresh Premil Kumar. After the Chief
Arbiter’s report, Mr. Ephrame, Joint-Secretary
of TNSCA, delivered the vote of thanks by
thanking all the players, parents, coaches,
managers, arbiters and other dignitaries.
Subsequently, Mr. P. Rengitham, Director of
Stella Mary’s College of Engineering, felicitat-
ed the Chief Guest. Mr. A.F. Rex, Secretary of
Kanyakumari District Chess Association was
also present. The Program ended with the
National Anthem.
Final ranking
Rank Name Pts
1 Nagasri Saikanth 8
2 Samson D Cruz J 8
3 Sanjay Sreekandan 7½
4 Manvith K 7½
5 Habibur Rahman 7½
6 Charan N 7½
7 Kaviarasan K 7
8 Abhishek S 7
9 Emmanuel Thomas 7
10 Siva R 6½
11 Gopinath P 6½
12 Abdul Nabi 6½
13 Benatin Britto Hamlet Raj 6½
14 Femil Chelladurai 6½
15 Jagatheeswaran G 6½
16 Sundaralingam A 6½
17 Suresh Kumar Ashok 6½
18 Hariharan Gandhi 6½
19 Shimo J Singh 6½
20 Sathwik Shivananda P.S 6½
21 Barath K N 6½
22 Gowtham S G 6½
23 Sreejith V S 6½
24 Srikanth G 6½
25 Sriram S 6½
26 Magdalene Roy R 6½
27 Akash Chandran 6½
28 Dhanush Prakaash B A 6½
29 Suresh C 6½
30 Rohan Anand 6½
31 Renganayaki V 6
32 Rajkumar S 6
AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
33 Hari Hara Jagan S A 6 76 Srinivasan R 5½
34 Arnold P 6 77 Sundararajan D S 5
35 Vijaya Baskar S 6 78 Brijesh Arumuga Nainar 5
36 Ahalya A 6 79 Sivaram Sivarajan 5
37 Gobi Krishnan N 6 80 Leaha B 5
38 Pratyush J 6 81 Balasubramanian Sankar 5
39 Akash Sundar S 6 82 Sivasri S 5
40 Thajol T J 6 83 James Edison P 5
41 Krithik Shai M P 6 84 Santo Wilbert 5
42 Aishwariya APonnusamy 6 85 Divin S V 5
43 Sasikumar.S 6 86 Joseph Prince A 5
44 Udhayan Jacob 6 87 Nijalin Nixon 5
45 Vishal Kumaresh Murthy 6 88 Mathuriya Bharathi R S 5
46 Viknesh Babu E 6 89 Dawood.K 5
47 Dhanesh G R 6 90 Dravid T 5
48 Preejesh S B 6 91 Gowtham S 5
49 Leven K 6 92 Prem Kumar G 5
50 Kavya. S 5½ 93 Henishma A R 5
51 Mathavan T 5½ 94 Sangeeth A 5
52 Dillish L 5½ 95 Mohit S 5
53 Rajveer Pinkesh Nahar 5½ 96 Aadhithyaa Kumar N R 5
54 Sneha Halder 5½ 97 Palaniappan S 5
55 Shiva Kumar S 5½ 98 Jeshua Ernest C 5
56 Ramanan M 5½ 99 Reena K P 5
57 M Kesavamoorthy 5½ 100 Vipin Vijayan 5
58 Rakesh Varsan S 5½ 101 Vignesh Rajan 5
59 Negi Ashish 5½ 102 Shendre Dhananjay 5
60 Riya Shannon S 5½ 103 Nagasaireddy Patlola 5
61 Balaji Shanmugavel 5½ 104 Boopesh S J 5
62 Arun Bose V S 5½ 105 Dhivakar M 5
63 Clavio A 5½ 106 Esakkiappan Esakkimuthu 5
64 Priya Varshini T 5½ 107 Moir Donald 5
65 Ruben K 5½ 108 Pon Arun S 5
66 Murugesan G 5½ 109 Arunachalam I 5
67 Vadiraju H M 5½ 110 Antony Nelson V 5
68 Jaivanth M K 5½ 111 Akash R George 5
69 Tamizhl Ilakkiya M D 5½ 112 Ruban S 5
70 Sudipan Sarkar 5½ 113 Kirushma B P 5
71 Devin S V 5½ 114 Nirmal K S 4½
72 Jaiyaharrsanth S J 5½ 115 Harish Ram Sheriff 4½
73 Shanmuga Kumar A 5½ 116 Sivanesh S 4½
74 Bhuvan Ghanesh A V 5½ 117 Arun Karthikeyan R 4½
75 Prabhakaran P 5½ 118 Balu P 4½

AICF CHRONICLE
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 2ndShaastra FIDE Rated Rapid Chess Tournament, Chennai
Deepan Chalravarthi wins Shaastra Rapid
by IA Prof.R.Anantharam, Chief Arbiter
The 2ndShaastra FIDE rated Rapid chess
tournament, organised as a part of the
Shaastra festival by the students of Indian
Institute of Technology, Madras on 24th and
25th February, was a big attraction for strong
players. Five grandmasters, seven interna-
tional masters and one WGM were in the
fray. GM VishuPrasanna V of Tamil Nadu was
the top seeded player, followed by GM Deep-
anChakkravarthy of ICF, GM TejasBakre of Air
India and former national Rapid champion
grandmasterRRLaxman of ICF. A total of 330
players from Tamil Nadu, Kerala, Karnataka,
AP, Telangana, Maharashtra, Pondicherry,
Bihar, U.P. and M.P. participated in the 10
round event.
There were many upsets on the card of the
third round. Experienced IMs KRathnakaran
of Railways and several times national
women champion S VIjayalakshmi of Air
India suffered shock defeats at the hands
of young M Pranesh of Tamil Nadu, an age
category national Schools champion and
Ajay Karthikeyan also of TN.Deepan, Ram S
Krishnan and Chessbase India co-founder IM
Sagar Shah had a prfect score of 5 points in
as many rounds. Deepan defeated Sagar Sha
to emerge sole leader, as the other co-leader
Ram was beaten by Vishnu in the sixth round.
Deepan continued his good run to beat his
team mate IM P Shyaam Nikhil to remain on
sole lead with 7 points after 7 rounds and
Vishnu was the only player to have scored
6.5 points. In the clash between the top two
seeds, second seeded Deepan was in stoppa-
ble form to conquer Vishnu. IM R Siddharth
of Tamil Nadu and Ram S Krishnan to rise
to the second spot with 7 points each, a full
point behind Deepan. Siddharth was the ninth
victim in the ninth round to Deepan and five
players – Vishnu, RR Laxman, P. Karthikeyan
of ICF R. Ashwath of TN and Ram shared the
second position with 7.5 points.
In the final round, Deepan had a formal
draw against his ICF mate IM P Karthikeyan
to win the 2nd edition of the Shaastra Rapid
tournament and a cash award of Rs.35000/-.
Vishnu had a win in the final round to secure
the second place with 8 points.
Mr. Shivakumar M Srinivasan, Dean IIT inau-
gurated the tournament and also distributed
the prizes in presence of Mr.K. Ganesan, Sec-
retary, Chennai District Chess Association.
Final Ranking:
Rk. Name Pts.
1 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J 10
2 GM Vishnu Prasanna. V 9
3 Ram S. Krishnan 8
4 Ashwath R. 8
5 IM Karthikeyan P. 8
6 GM Sriram Jha 8
7 Patil Pratik 8
8 IM Sagar Shah 8
9 Kunal M. 8
10 GM Laxman R.R. 8
11 IM Shyaamnikhil P 8
12 IM Ravichandran Siddharth 8
13 Lokesh N. 8
14 Ganesh Babu S 8
15 IM Vijayalakshmi S 8
16 GM Bakre Tejas 8
17 Balkishan A. 8
18 Manigandan S S 8
19 Dinesh Rajan M 8
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March 2018
20 Jayachandra Srinivas V 8
21 Chandak Shivam 8
22 Ajay Karthikeyan 8
23 AGM Srihari L R 7
24 Alan Diviya Raj 7
25 IM Rathnakaran K. 7
26 IM R Balasubramaniam 7
27 Santhosh Kumar G. 7
28 WGM Meenakshi Subbaraman 7
29 Ayushh Ravikumar 7
30 Manu David Suthandram 7
31 Gireman Ja 7
32 Bhagyashree Patil 7
33 AGM Rathneesh R 7
34 Surendran N 7
35 Vinay R Jumani 7
36 Raju J.K. 7
37 Kumar S. 7
38 Srihari L 7
39 Thamaraiselvi P 7
40 AGM Vignesh N 7
41 Ravi Kumar K 7
42 AGM Vignesh B 7
43 Anannth Varun R 7
44 Benasir M 7
45 Lathecka Sai M.A. 7
46 Pranesh M 7
47 Siddharth Sabharishankar 7
48 Manish Anto Cristiano F 7
49 AGM Yuvan Bharathi K S 7
50 Bala Kannamma P 7
51 Senthil Maran K 7
52 Badrinarayanan N 7
53 Ramalingam Karthik 7
54 Aasha C R 7
55 Vaisnav M 7
56 AGM Sa Kannan 7
57 Rohit Ramanan T G 7
58 Narendran V 7
59 FM Vinoth Kumar M. 7
60 Dharani Srinivas K B 7
61 Avinash Ramesh 7
62 AIM Ashwin Sairam 7
AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
63 Phani Krishna C H 7
64 Thaga Sheriff M 7
65 Rindhiya V 7
66 Bhaskar N S 7
67 Adhithya S 6
68 A P Santhana Prabu 6
69 Sai Kiran G V 6
70 Ramachandra Bhat 6
71 Selvabharathy T 6
72 Bragadeeshwaran C 6
73 Adireddy Arjun 6
74 Gopikrishna N. 6
75 Vinoth Kumar C 6
76 Samyak L 6
77 Thrish Karthik 6
78 Girinath B S 6
79 Arnav Maheshwari 6
80 Sanjay Thiruvengadam 6
81 Nitin M Pai 6
82 Adireddy Tarun 6
83 Samson Anna Rao. T 6
84 Badri Narayan B 6
85 Swarnamala B 6
86 Subramanian V 6
87 Karthikeyan 6
88 Akshita D 6
89 Ranjith R.K. 6
90 Venkatesh K 6
91 Kishore G V 6
92 Sidharth P G 6
93 Shyaam M 6
94 Kathiravan M. 6
95 Madhavan R Munjanattu 6
96 Shreyas Anand 6
97 Bharath Ravikumar 6
98 ACM Magathishri B 6
99 Noohu M.J. 6
100 Arjun Vasudevan 6
101 Aditya S Hariharan 6
102 Janakiraman R 6
103 Aakash G 6
104 Mhaske Satish 6
105 Tina C 6
 Anand wins Tal Memorial 2018

After a stunning win at the World Rapid Champion-

ship a couple of months ago, Viswanathan Anand
proved his prowess in the rapid time control yet
again winning the Tal Memorial in Moscow, Russia.
Just like in Riyadh at the World Rapid Championship,
it was a win in the penultimate round and a quick
draw in the finale that secured Anand the victory.
Curiously enough, both in Riyadh and Moscow,
Anand defeated the same opponent to take lead
over the field: Alexander Grischuk.

In the first round of the day, Anand decided to play

solidly in the opening with the black pieces against
former world championship challenger, Sergey Kar-
jakin. In response to Karjakin’s king’s pawn opening,
Anand went for the Berlin Defence and the opening soon transposed into a kind of hybrid
between the Berlin and the Giuoco Piano. The game per se was rather tepid. Neither side
really got an advantage out of the opening and after a trade of a couple of minor pieces
and a rook, players almost immediately decided to sign peace.

Anand’s co-leader until this point, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov also drew his game against Boris
Gelfand in this round. And this too was a quick draw that lasted merely 17 moves. Going
into the penultimate round, both Anand and Mamedyarov were tied for first with 4.5/6.It
was the penultimate round that broke the tie at the top. Anand, who had the white pieces
in this round, went all out for an attack in his game against Alexander Grischuk. Facing the
Sicilian Defence for the second time, Anand chose the same sideline – the Rossolimo – that
he had played against Daniil Dubov when he was faced with the Sicilian previously in the
tournament. Soon, kings were castled on opposite wings and both players began storming
their pawns and pieces towards the enemy king in an attempt to deliver checkmate.

On his 23rd turn, Anand, to open up lines against Grischuk’s king, gave up a pawn and
created some interesting complications. Even though the computers evaluated the posi-
tion to be better for black a couple of moves after the sacrifice, it did succeed in confusing
Grischuk. On his 26th turn, Grischuk blundered horribly and allowed Anand to play out a
splendid combination that involved a knight and a rook sacrifice to achieve checkmate. Going
by Grischuk’s reaction during the game, it was apparent that the Russian GM had missed
the sequence and only realized what a pickle he had got himself into after Anand sacrificed
the rook on the 27th move.
Talking about this beautiful tactical combination, Anand said, “When he played 26…Rg8, my
heart went racing. To be fair, he lost a tough struggle after the game but he still congratu-
lated me. I think that’s very, very sporting on his part.”

23
Anand,V (2776) - Grischuk,A (2767) [B31]
11th Tal Mem Rapid 2018 Moscow
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 g6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.d3 Bg7 6.h3 Nf6 7.Nc3
0–0 8.Be3 This line was quite popular many years ago as Vishy said
after the game. 8...b6 9.Qd2 e5 10.Bh6 [10.Nxe5 Nxe4] 10...Qd6
11.0–0–0 a5 12.g4 a4 13.Kb1 Be6 14.Ne2 b5 15.Ng3 Rfd8 16.Bxg7
Kxg7 17.Qg5 Nd7 18.Nf5+ Bxf5 19.gxf5

At this point Vishy was happy that there was something going on in
the position. It is still around even, but as you can see, with opposite
side castling the position is still quite sharp. 19...a3 20.b3 h6 21.Qg3
Kh7 22.Rhg1 Qf6 23.h4 gxf5 24.Qh3!? Vishy sacrifices a pawn to get
some play in return. His queen is well placed and he can now think
about doubling his rooks or moving his knight to g5 square. 24...f4
25.Rg5 Qe6 26.Rf5

The rook on f5 is place in a quite threatening manner. There are

ideas like Ng5 in the air. Of course, with computer analysis you can
be sure that Black is better, but during the game it was all quite
tense. 26...Rg8?? This natural move turns out to be the crucial
blunder. Vishy had seen that he was winning. [26...Kh8 This is the
move that Vishy and Grischuk were discussing after the game.
27.Qg4 (27.Rh1 f6 28.Ng5 fxg5 29.hxg5 Rg8µ This doesn't seem
to work for White.) 27...Nf6 28.Qg1 Rg8µ; 26...f6!? is also inter-
esting and seems to give White no attacking chances. 27.Ng5+
fxg5 28.hxg5 Qg6–+ Black is doing well.] 27.Ng5+! The first minor
jolt for Grischuk. 27...hxg5 28.Rxf7+!

The big one! After this Grischuk was completely shocked. 28...Qxf7 29.hxg5+ Kg7 30.Qh6#
It was quite sporting of Sasha to allow the mate. This game sealed the tournament victory
for Anand, especially because Mamedyarov lost to Dubov.

Adhiban wins Reykjavik Open

In the final round of the Reykjavik Open, India’s Adhiban Baskaran held Turkish GM Mustafa
Yilmaz to a draw to bag the title prize at the event. In the penultimate round, the Indian GM
had beaten the top seed and his only co-leader in the tournament, Richard Rapport, making
himself the sole leader. GM Yilmaz, who was half a point behind, was the only one who had
a chance of winning the title. But for that to happen, he would have had to beat Adhiban
in the finale. As for Adhiban, since he was already ahead in score, he only needed a draw.

24
 Defeating Adhiban was not an easy task for Yilmaz. Not only
was Adhiban higher rated than him, he had also shown great
form throughout the event. In fact, Adhiban had scored five
back to back victories until the penultimate round.

Yilmaz, who had the white pieces opened with the Queen’s
pawn. Adhiban answered in Queen’s Gambit style but the
position eventually transposed into a Stonewall Dutch. As is
typical for the opening, Yilmaz maintained a stronghold on
the e5 square and soon several exchanges followed. Neither
side secured any big advantage as such although Yilmaz did
seem to have a slight edge in the middlegame. But Adhiban
defended well and never let the position go out of hand. The
players, therefore, decided to go for a draw by repetition by
the 31st move.

After the game, Adhiban pointed out that it was his first time, playing in Reykjavik and he
was very happy to have won the tournament on his very first try. He said he also wanted
to win the tournament because Reykjavik is the resting place of Bobby Fischer. Also, this
year’s edition of the tournament was hosted as the “Bobby Fischer Memorial” marking the
75th birth anniversary of the American chess legend who spent his final days in Reykjavik.

In the penultimate round, Adhiban defeated Hungarian number one, GM Richard Rapport on
the top board. Rapport and Adhiban had been leading the event at the commencement of
the round. With this win, Adhiban took the sole lead in the tournament whilst killing most of
his competition. The only player who can better Adhiban’s score is the Turkish GM Mustafa
Yilmaz who got the better of GM Daniel Howard Fernandez.

Adhiban’s game against Rapport was undoubtedly the most important game of the round. If
there was a decisive result on this board, the winner was almost certain to go on to clinch
the title. With all this in mind, this was a high pressure situation for Adhiban. On the one
hand, Rapport was the higher rated of the two. If Adhiban risked too much and lost, he’d
have sunk deep enough on the leaderboard so as to not be able to have any chance at the
title prize in the final round. On the other hand, Adhiban had the white pieces and this was
a good opportunity to push for a win. A draw would of course make way for several players
to flood in at the top and then it could have been anyone’s game.

Adhiban’s opening choice was excellent for this game. He went for a rare line in the Slav
Defence. About Adhiban’s opening choice, IM Sagar Shah remarked after the game, “Com-
puter analysis has proved that this line leads to equal positions but if your opponent isn’t
expecting it, it can always lead to interesting positions”. And that’s exactly what happened.
Rapport was caught off guard and began making mistakes. On his 17th move, Rapport
blundered and let his opponent gain two strong bishops in exchange for his rook. The rest

25
of the game was simply a mopping up operation for Adhiban who finished the game off in
merely 27 moves.

Adhiban,Baskaran - Rapport,Richard [D15]

Reykjavik Open 2018 Reykjavik ISL (8.1), 12.03.2018
[Sagar,Shah]

The most important encounter of round 8. Adhiban was on 6.0/7 and so was Rapport. The
one who won this game would most certainly go ahead and win the tournament. 1.d4 d5
2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Nc3 dxc4 5.e4!? The Geller Gambit in the Slav. Computer analysis has
proved that it leads to equal positions, but if your opponent isn't expecting it, it can always
lead to interesting positions. 5...b5 6.Be2!?

Adhiban goes for a relatively unknown line. [6.e5 is the main

move and has been played by Salem quite a lot recently.] 6...
e6 7.0–0 Be7 [7...Bb7 seems to be more accurate than Be7, but
it is not 100% clear. 8.b3!?] 8.a4 This has been played in a few
games before. The highest rated player to have tried this is Rinat
Jumabayev in 2015. 8...b4 9.e5 Of course, this has to be played
as you do not want to be losing your e4 pawn. But the question
is - is this any good for White? 9...bxc3 10.exf6 Bxf6 [10...cxb2?
11.fxe7 bxa1Q 12.exd8Q+ Kxd8 13.Bg5++-] 11.bxc3 The c4 pawn
has to be defended. If it is lost, Black would be worse because
he would have an inferior structure with equal material. 11...Ba6
12.Ne5 Adhiban's preparation seems to be excellent. 12...Bxe5? Rapport doesn't want to
lose his c4 pawn and hence takes on e5, but this is quite a bad decision as it weakens the
dark squares, especially the d6 point. And the open d-file also favours White. [12...0–0
13.Bf3²; 12...Nd7! 13.Nxc6 (13.Nxc4 0–0 14.Ba3 Bxc4 15.Bxc4 Be7=) 13...Qc7 14.Nb4
Bb7÷] 13.dxe5 Qxd1 14.Rxd1± White has the bishop pair and the open d-file. The extra
pawn doesn't matter much at this point. 14...Nd7 15.f4 Nb6 16.Rd6 The rook swoops in
before the knight could pack things up with Nd5. 16...0–0 17.Bf3 Nc8? Quite a poor move
by Rapport who clearly seemed to be off colour. [17...Nd5 18.Rxc6 Bb7 19.Rxc4 (19.Bxd5
exd5 20.Rc7 Bc8 21.Be3±) 19...Rfc8 20.Rxc8+ Rxc8 21.Bd2±] 18.Rxc6 The bishop on a6
is hanging. Rapport had prepared Bb7 but he was in for a nasty
surprise. 18...Bb7 19.Rxc8!

That's game over. 19...Raxc8 20.Bxb7 White has the bishop pair
and also his bishops have good squares to sit on. The rest is easy.
20...Rb8 21.Ba6 Rb3 22.Ba3 Rd8 23.Bb4 Rd2 24.Bxc4 Rbb2 25.Bf1
h5 26.a5 a6 27.Bc5 g6 Rapport had had enough and he resigned.
The c-pawn will slowly start moving. Quite an easy win for Adhi-
ban who was the sole leader of the event with one full point. 1–0
courtesy:chessbaseindia
26
26th Telegraph Schools’ Chess FIDE rated tournament, Kolkata
Srijit Paul lifts trophy
by IA & FI S.Paul Arokia Raj, Chief Arbiter
As many as 287 school students drawn from
all over India and from two foreign federa-
tions namely Bangladesh and Nepal were
vying for the top honors in the 26th Telegraph
Schools’ Chess FIDE rated event sponsored
by The Telegraph and co sponsored Subash
Bose Institute of Hotel Management. This
traditional event was organized by the fa-
mous Alekhine club, Kolkota at Gorky Sadan
a venue which has housed dozens of inter-
national events from January 25 to February
1,2018. The fact that out of 8 Grandmasters
from West Bengal 7 are former champions
of Telegraph Chess (including India’s latest
GM Saptarishi Roy) shows the importance
and significance of the championship.It is
quite heartening to note that The Telegraph
a pioneer daily in Eastern India is sponsor-
ing this tournament for the 26th year. Three
FIDE masters,two Candidate Masters and one
double IM norm holder were throwing their
lot in the nine round swiss tournament which
carried a total prize fund of Rs,1,20,000/- as
cash prize in addition to attractive trophies
awarded to various age categories. up were
Srijit Paul of DPS North School lifted the
trophy with one point difference by scoring
8.5 points from nine rounds and remained
unbeaten. In a sensational final round clash
for the title against Mithraba Guha, two IM
norm holder and the third seed Srijit proved
his mettle in the middle game and reached a
thematic ending with a king plus knight and
bishop against his opponent lone king. This
crucial victory helped Srijit to stand clear
first and the champion carried home a cash
award of Rs.21000/- apart from a glittering
trophy. Despite his loss in the final round
FM Mithrabha Guha of South Point School
finished second with 7.5 points on account
of his better tie break score in a six way tie.
He became richer with Rs.16000/-. Rajdeep
Sarkar of Bhavan’s Vidyamandir occupied the
third place.
South Point School Kolkota with 22 points
stood first as a Best School team followed by
DPS North Kolkota with 19 points. The best
game award was also claimed by Srijit Paul
for his brilliancy in the final.In a glittering
prize awarding ceremony Shri. Sambaran
Banerjee, eminent cricketer, felicitated the
winners.
Final Ranking:
Rk. Name Pts.
1 Srijit Paul 8.5
2 FM Mitrabha Guha 7.5
3 FM Rajdeep Sarkar 7.5
4 CM Aronyak Ghosh 7.5
5 FM Mohammad Fahad Rahman 7.5
6 Anustoop Biswas 7.5
7 Rupam Mukherjee 7.5
8 Subhayan Kundu 7
9 Shuvam Roy 7
10 Rahul Krishna Viswanathan 7
11 Soham Pal 7
12 Sudipa Haldar 7
13 Atri Chattopadhyay 7
14 Neelash Saha 6.5
15 Zia Tahsin Tajwar 6.5
16 Sourath Biswas 6.5
17 Praloy Sahoo 6.5
18 Sambarta Banerjee 6.5
19 Soham Dey 6.5
20 Sneha Paul 6.5
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March 2018
21 Shouvik Kar 6.5 66 Ananya Bothra 5.5
22 Alekhya Mukhopadhyay 6.5 67 Mangaldeep Mitra 5.5
23 Aditya Basu 6.5 68 Saanvi Khanna 5.5
24 Ambarish Sharma 6.5 69 Saptarshi Khara 5.5
25 AIM Debarghya Samanta 6.5 70 Rajanya Datta 5.5
26 Shounak Mazumder 6.5 71 Uddipan Roy 5.5
27 Shaswata Paul 6.5 72 Debarghya Bhowmick 5.5
28 Arya Bhakta 6 73 Mayank Sahani 5.5
29 Samip Roy 6 74 Mrittika Mallick 5.5
30 Aditya Chatterjee 6 75 Abhishek Chaudhuri 5.5
31 Bhattacharyya Soham 6 76 Shreshtha Surai 5.5
32 Sankalan Shah 6 77 Saanket Das 5.5
33 Ayush Jha 6 78 Mehul Gupta 5.5
34 Ujan Sarkar 6 79 Ishan Das 5.5
35 Arijit Ghosh 6 80 Jagriti Agarwal 5.5
36 Ayan Pal 6 81 Mayukh Chatterjee 5.5
37 Soumik Datta 6 82 Priyanshu Barua 5.5
38 Dhritabrata Kundu 6 83 Sonkalan Bharati 5
39 Anish Rooj 6 84 Saikat Saha 5
40 Raghuraj Pratap Singh 6 85 Ankan Ghosh 5
41 Shankhodip De 6 86 Souhardya Majumder 5
42 Anukarssa Dutta 6 87 Dhrubajyoti Barman 5
43 Das Annika 6 88 Arghadeep Das 5
44 Pratyay Chowdhury 6 89 Sagnik Saha 5
45 Subhabrata Roy 6 90 Aditi Saha 5
46 Rishab Debsharma 6 91 AIM Aayush Bhattacherjee 5
47 Aditya Prasad 6 92 Gamal Dipendra 5
48 Anjishnu Mondal 6 93 Souranshu Roy Chaudhuri 5
49 Tanisha Chatterjee 6 94 Ritam Kundu 5
50 Tushar Barua 6 95 Anjishnu Sinha 5
51 Sayandeep Roy 6 96 Shreyan Saha 5
52 Tushar Bhunya 6 97 Shrestha Saha 5
53 Snehil Raj Singh 6 98 Madhav Patel 5
54 Antik Kumar 6 99 Aarush Bhattacharyya 5
55 Ujaan Bhattacharya 6 100 Vedika Agarwal 5
56 Raunak Datta Nath 5.5 101 Adrito Sarkar 5
57 CM Manon Reja Neer 5.5 102 Vicente Fernandes 5
58 Rachishnu Datta 5.5 103 Acharya Roshan 5
59 Basant Kr. Das 5.5 104 Abhiraj Nag 5
60 Aritra Ganguly 5.5 105 Bratajit Mukherjee 5
61 Aritrya Pal 5.5 106 Sohom Chatterjee 5
62 Atreya Nandy 5.5 107 Rajdeep Dutta 5
63 Oishik Kundu 5.5 108 Arya Basu 5
64 Ritwick Pal 5.5 109 Debapriya Manna 5
65 Debadrito Banerjee 5.5 110 Arnabi Sen 5

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March 2018
Sri Gurukul Below 1600 Fide Rating Open Chess Tournament, Visakhapatnam
Saikat Nath Of Delhi wins
by FA G Venkata Kumar , Chief Arbiter
Saikat Nath of Delhi won the Sri Gurukul
Below 1600 Fide Rating Open Chess Tour-
nament held here at Zilla Parishat Hall,
Visakhapatnam from 26th to 28th Jan
2018.After 9 Rounds Top 4 players tied Sai-
kat Nath(AP)Sai Raj Gopal(AP) Hemanth
Shankar Reddy Dandu ( (Ap),Sai Siddhartha
A(AP) .Top 3 players scoring 8 points each
from 9 rounds. Due to tie break score Saikat
Nath, Sai Raj Gopal and Hemanth Shankar
Reddy Dandu are placed 1st ,2nd and 3rd.
Winner got prize money of Rs. 22,000/- where
as Runner up arun received Rs. 14,000/-
and 3rd placed got Rs. 10,000/- Total Rs.
1,99,999 Lakh distributed among 58 prize
winners. The event attracted 384 participants
from Andhra Pradesh, Telangana,Tamilnadu,-
Kerala,karnataka,Odisha,Chattishgarh,West
bengal and Delhi. The event is organized
by Sri Gurukul Chess Academy under the
auspices of Andhra Pradesh State Chess As-
sociation. The event is inagurated on 26thth
morning by Sri Lalam Bhavani Z.P –Chair-
man Visakhapatnam and SriLakshmi Director
of Srigurukul Chess Academy, Ch.Ramesh
Vice President of APCA,Sri Bheema Rao Joint
Secretary of APCA.
In the valedictory function Sri Y.D.Rama
Rao President APCA,Ananda Kumar Reddy
President VDCA,GV Kumar Chief Arbiter,Ch.
Ramesh APCA vice Prsident,Bheema Rao
Apca Joint Secretary and Organizers Srikan-
th,Srilakshmi are distributed trophies and
cash awards to the winners. The chief arbiter
was FA G V Kumar of Rajamundry (Andhra
Pradesh) and Deputy Chief Arbiter and Arbi-
ter were FA V.Srikanth and Sriman IA
Final standings:
Rk Name Pts
1 Saikat Nath 8
2 Sai Raj Gopal K 8
3 Hemanth S Reddy Dandu 8
4 Sai Siddardha A 8
5 Abdul Nabi 7½
6 Ramayanam Chaitanya 7½
7 Kalyan Kumar K 7½
8 Varaprasad 7½
9 Ananya D 7½
10 Bhaskara Rao Balaga 7
11 Divya Teja P 7
12 Rama Raju V L V 7
13 Madduri Satya Tejeswar 7
14 Sai Nikhil Y 7
15 Rajesh Y 7
16 Kotikalapudi Aditya Krishna 7
17 Srinivasa Rao Bayya 7
18 Seethamraju Venkata Sai S 7
19 Narayana Rao Ch 7
20 Ajay G M V 7
Category Prizes
age group U07
Rk Name Pts
1 Sri Akhil Prasad 4
2 Raman Siddhardh B 4
3 Nyra Maramreddy 4
age group U09
Rk Name Pts
1 Doddi Bhaskara Sai Ganesh 6
2 Hrishith R 5
3 Manjunadha Sri Sai Yenduri 5
age group U11
AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
Rk Name Pts
1 Naga Saketh Manukonda 6
2 Hari Charan G V 5½
3 Varshini M 5½
age group U13 Rating between 1000 and 1099
Rk Name Pts
1 Praval Patel 6
2 Tummala Somanadh 6
3 Kapavarapu Varun 5½
age group U15 5 Sri Satya Vinay M 5½
Rk Name Pts
1 Sri Bhargav Ram Bollapragada 6
2 Gowtham Dharma K 6
3 Ragulrajan V 6
Rating between 1400 and 1499 3 Malladi Subramanaya Sharma 6½
Rk Name Pts
1 Yuva Kishore Pilla 6½
2 Vidya Sagar J.B.M. 6½
3 Ch Gopalakrishna Rao 6½
4 Mallikarjuna Raob 6
5 Karmakar Ramen 6
Rating between 1300 and 1399
Rk Name Pts
1 Ravikumar K 7
2 Chintada Lakshmi Gayathri 6½
3 Akhil B V S 6½
4 Someswara Battu W 6½
5 Uma Maheswara Rao K 6
Rating between 1200 and 1299
Rk Name Pts
1 Sai Hrushikesh Simhdri 7
2 Siva Prasad A T 6½
3 Ramba Srinivasa Rao 6½
4 Vemuri Vihari 6
5 Joshi Debendra 6
Rating between 1100 and 1199 2 Chandra Reddy N 5
Rk Name Pts
1 Labba Sree Deekshith 6½
AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
2 Syed Tarannum 6
3 Kumar Reddy M V 6
4 Amulya D 6
5 Ravi Krishna G 6
Rk Name Pts
1 Srikanth T J V K 6
2 Thrushna Teja Illuru 6
3 Hari Charan G V 5½
4 Sathwik D S S U 5½
Rating between 0 and 999
Rk Name Pts
1 Naga Dileep Golla 6½
2 Peddinti Siva Vardhan 6½
4 Mahesh Yadla 6
5 Uday Kumar Ammineni 6
Best VSP
1 Sarma K S R 7
2 Krishna Madhava Rao P 6½
3 Pidintla Saikumar 6
age group S60
Rk Name Pts
1 Duvvuri S Subrahmanyam 5½
2 Chandra Reddy N 5
Best Women Above 18
Pranusha S V S 5
Best PHC
1 Radha Krishna Devaki 6
2 Yesu Babu K 6
age group S60
Rank Name Pts
1 Duvvuri S Subrahmanyam 5½
Selected games from 10th Chennai
GM Open, Chennai
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
1. Deepan,Chakkravarthy J (2475) Tiv-
iakov,Sergei (2584) [A50]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 b6 3.Nc3 Bb7 4.Qc2 d5
5.cxd5 Nxd5 6.e4 Nxc3 7.bxc3 e5 8.dxe5
Nd7 9.Nf3 Qe7 10.a4!N [Two years earlier
in the 2016 Chennai Open, G.B.Harshavard-
han (1993) tried unsuccessfully to cling on
to his e5 pawn against Ivan Popov (2650)
as follows and lost: 10.Bf4 0–0–0 11.0–0–0
h6 12.h4 g6 13.Bb5 Bg7 14.Bxd7+ Rxd7
15.Rxd7 Qxd7 16.Re1 Bf8 17.Qb3 and mate
on the 77th move.] 10...Nxe5= 11.Nd4!
This move centralising his knight is a good
move as the white bishops wait for the black
queen to move out of e7. Several moves for
white like Bb5+, Ba3 and Nb5 are put on
hold to keep black guessing. 11...a6 [11...
Qh4!? was an aggressive alternative which
simultaneously makes way for the Bf8 to
move out.] 12.Be2 g6 Diagram #
13.h4?! [An extraordinary move which prac-
tically gives up the possibility of 0–0 and
keeps his king in the centre. This is extremely
risky but puts the onus of 'punishing' this
unorthodox, non-GM move on Tiviakov who
is a famous Opening theoretician. 13.0–0 c5
14.Nf3 Bg7 15.Rb1 Qc7 16.Nd2 0–0 17.f4]
13...c5 14.Nf3 Bg7 15.Rb1! Nd7 16.Nd2
h5 17.f3 This frees his knight from being
tied to his e4 pawn. Also this provides his
king a sort of safe haven on f2. 17...0–0
18.Nc4 Qf6 19.Kf2 b5 [19...Bc6 20.Nxb6
Nxb6 21.Rxb6 Bxa4 22.Qb2 Qxc3=] 20.axb5
axb5 21.Rxb5 Ba6 22.Rb3 Qe6 23.Ne3
c4 [After 23...Bxe2 24.Kxe2 f5 25.exf5 gxf5
26.f4 Nf6= Black is a shade better with a
safer king position compensating his pawn
minus.] 24.Rb4! Ne5 25.Nd5 Rfc8 26.Be3
Rc6?! [Better was the immediate 26...Nd3+
27.Bxd3 cxd3 28.Qb3 Bf8 29.Ra4 Rab8
30.Qa2 Bb5²] 27.Bd4 Rac8 28.Qd2 Nd3+
29.Bxd3 Bxd4+ 30.cxd4 cxd3 31.Qf4
[White can offer his queen to get his Rh1 into
action with 31.Rd1 and if now 31...Rc2 32.Rb6!
Rxd2+ 33.Rxd2+- the white queen has no
escape as the knight will fork the king and
queen wherever the queen flees!] 31...Rd8
32.Kg3 Bc4 33.Rb8 Rcd6 34.Rxd8+ Rxd8
35.Qc7!± Qd6+ 36.Qxd6 Rxd6 37.Rd1
[37.Kf2 would lead to a winning rook ending
with an extra pawn.] 37...Bxd5 38.exd5
Rxd5 39.Rxd3 Kg7 40.Kf4 Kf6 41.g4 Ke6
42.Ke3 g5 [Black has to do something. If
he tries to maintain status quo and let white
take the initiative something like this can
happen: 42...Kf6 43.Rc3 Rb5 44.Rc6+ Kg7+-
] 43.hxg5 Rxg5 44.gxh5 Rxh5 45.Ra3
Rh1 46.Ra6+ Kf5 47.Ra5+ Ke6 48.Re5+
Kf6 49.Kd3 Ra1 50.Rb5 Ke6 51.Ke4 Re1+
52.Kf4 Rd1 53.Rb6+ Ke7 [If 53...Kd5
54.Rf6 Rxd4+ 55.Kf5 Rh4 56.Rxf7+- white is
AICF CHRONICLE
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Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
ideally placed to promote his pawn.] 54.Ke4
Re1+ 55.Kf5 Diagram #
55...Re3 [If 55...Rd1 56.Rb4 Kd6 57.Rb7!
f6 (57...Rxd4 58.Rxf7 Rd2 59.f4 Rf2 60.Kg6
Ke6 61.f5+! Ke5 62.Re7+ Kd6 63.Re1 Rg2+
64.Kf7 winning easily.) 58.Rb6+ Kd7 59.Rxf6
Rxd4 60.Re6! White should not allow the
black king to cross the e-file and reach the
critical f-file. 60...Ra4 61.Re4 Ra5+ 62.Kf6
Ra6+ 63.Kg7 Ra5 64.f4+-] 56.f4 Re1
57.Rb7+ Now it is easy. 57...Ke8 58.d5
Ra1 59.Ke5 Ra6 60.d6 Rc6 61.Re7+ Kf8
62.Rc7! Ra6 63.Rc8+! Kg7 64.d7 1–0
2.Erigaisi,Arjun (2386) Karthikeyan,P
(2497) [A04]
1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nc6 3.Nc3 e5 4.e3 f5
Diagram # Playing both ...c5 and ...f5 re-
minds us of veteran chess addict Rentala
Subrahmanyam (1908–1982) who created
his own unusual systems.
AICF CHRONICLE
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Rentala also played c4 and f4 together
with the white pieces. Rentala used to be
described in Maharashtra chess circles as
"Bayankar" which translates to "Rentala the
Terrible" Rentala's system was ok in the early
20th century India, but with advancement in
positional knowledge of chess, this system is
prone to be massacred. Here, black, despite
being rated more than 100 points higher,
finds the inherrent weaknesses in the Rentala
system hard to overcome. 5.d4 cxd4 6.exd4
e4 7.d5 exf3 8.dxc6 fxg2² [A.Calotescu
2283 vs A.Stiri 2148, Wld U18G Ch. 2001
went: 8...dxc6 9.Qxf3 Nf6 10.Bd3 Bb4 11.0–
0 0–0 12.Bg5 and 32.1–0] 9.cxd7+ Bxd7
10.Bxg2 Nf6 11.0–0 [It was also safe for
white to capure b7 now: 11.Bxb7 Rb8 12.Bg2
Qc7 13.Qe2+ Be7 14.0–0 Kf8 15.Nd5 Nxd5
16.Bxd5±] 11...Be7 12.Bf4! threatening to
win a pawn and the exchange with 13. Bxb7.
12...Bc6 13.Nd5 Bxd5 [Black finds it hard to
complete his development. If now 13...0–0?
14.Nxe7+ Qxe7 15.Bd6 wins the exchange.]
14.cxd5 Bd6 [Again, if 14...0–0? 15.d6 wins
a bishop.] 15.Re1+ Kf7 16.Bxd6 Qxd6
17.Qb3! Qb6 18.d6+ Qxb3 19.Re7+! Kg6
20.axb3 Rad8
Diagram # 21.Rd1! [Accurately played! Black
can get a playable endgame after 21.Rxa7?
Rxd6 22.Bxb7 (not 22.Rexb7? Rd1+ 23.Bf1
 Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron

Nh5 24.Kg2 Nf4+ 25.Kf3 Rxf1 26.Rxg7+ Kf6

27.Rgf7+ Kg6 28.Kxf4 Rxf2+ 29.Kg3 Rxb2=)
22...Re8 23.Rxe8 Nxe8 24.Ra6 with only a
small advantage for white.] 21...Rd7 22.Rxd7
Nxd7 23.Bxb7 Kf6 The black king must lend
a hand in containing white's potent threat, the
pawn on d6. 24.b4 Rd8 25.b5 Ke6 26.Ra1
Ne5 27.Rxa7 Kxd6 28.Bg2 f4?!

[D.Huerta 2278 vs Delgado Ramirez 2526,

Santa Clara Salado Cup, 2003 went: 14...
Bc5+ 15.Kh1 Nf6 16.g4 0–0 17.g5 Ne8
18.d4 Be7 19.Ne3 Nd6 20.d5 Nc4 21.Nxc4
Rxc4 22.f5 exf5 23.Rxf5 g6 24.Rf6 Qc8 and
36.0–1] 15.g4 0–0 16.f5 d5 17.g5 Ne8
18.f6 dxe4 19.Bxe4 Bxe4 20.Qxe4 Bc5+
21.Nf2 [After 21.Kh1 white must contend
with the prospect of queen exchanges on
Diagram # [With the prospect of losing loom- d5. 21...gxf6 22.Nf2 f5 23.Qe5 Qd5+µ] 21...
ing large, black tries in vain to complicate the Nd6 22.Qe2 g6 23.d4 Bb6 24.Rad1 Nf5
issue. However, the alternative loses: 28... 25.Ng4 Qd5–+
Rb8 29.Rxg7 Rxb5 30.Rb7 (30.Rxh7 Rxb2=)
30...Rxb7 31.Bxb7 Kc7 32.Bg2 Kb6 33.f4
Nd3 34.Bh3 Nxf4 35.Bxf5 h6 36.Kf2 Kc5
37.Ke3+-] 29.Rxg7 f3 30.Bf1 Kc5 31.h3+-
h6 32.Rc7+ Kb6 33.Re7 Rd5 34.Re6+
Kb7 35.Rxh6 Rd1 36.b3 Rb1 37.Re6
Nd3 38.Re3 Ne1 39.h4 Ng2 40.Re4 The
knight can no longer jump around. 40...
Rxb3 41.h5 Rc3 42.Bxg2 fxg2 43.h6! If
45....Rh3 46 Re6! when white's victory is
certain. 1–0

3. Tiwari,Arjun (2179) Horvath,Adam Diagram # White has no prospects at all of

(Hun) (2484)[B23]
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 a6 3.f4 b5 4.Nf3 Bb7 5.d3
e6 6.Qe2 Nc6 7.g3 Nd4 8.Nxd4 cxd4
9.Nd1 Rc8 10.Bg2 Bb4+ 11.c3 dxc3
12.bxc3 Rxc3! 13.0–0 Rc8 14.Bb2 Nf6N
Diagram #
getting back into the game. While there are
no weaknesses that white could exploit, black
has the c-file and pressure on d4. 26.Qf3
Qxf3 [The grandmaster takes the easy
route to victory by exchanging off queens.
He does not want unpleasant surprises with
the queens around. He could get the same

AICF CHRONICLE
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Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
position with two extra pawns by playing:
26...Qxa2 27.Rf2 Rfd8 28.Qb7 Rb8 29.Qe4
Qd5 with a great advantage.] 27.Rxf3 Rfd8
28.Ba3 Diagram #
[If 28.Rfd3 white would be crushed by 28...
Rc2! 29.R1d2 Rxb2! 30.Rxb2 Rxd4!–+] 28...
Rxd4 29.Rxd4 Bxd4+ White can put up no
further resistance. 30.Kh1 h5 31.gxh6 Kh7
32.Be7 Rc1+ 33.Kg2 Nh4+ 0–1
4. Sidhant,Mohapatra (IM) (2382)
Tran,Tuan MinhGM(2548) [B90]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6
5.Nc3 a6 6.a3 e5 7.Nf5 d5 8.Bg5 d4
9.Bxf6 Qxf6N [R.B.Ramesh 2491 vs S.Arun
Prasad 2384, Hyderabad Op, 2006 went:
9...gxf6 10.Ne2 Nc6 11.Neg3 Ne7 12.Nxe7
Bxe7 13.Be2 Qa5+ 14.b4 Qc7 15.0–0 and
51. Drawn] 10.Nd5 Qd8 11.Bc4= g6? Di-
agram #
AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
[When making this move the Vietnamese
GM would not have expected his 20–year
old unknown Indian IM would come up with
a devastating combination. If he had, he
would have played 11...Bxf5= ] 12.Nxd4!
Nc6 [If 12...exd4 13.Qxd4 and the threat of
14 Qxh8 wins.] 13.Ne2 Bg7 14.0–0 0–0±
White is a clear pawn up, but the game has
to be won! 15.Qd3 Be6 16.Rad1 Rc8 17.c3
b5 18.Ba2 Kh8 After the 12th move shock,
black is over cautious. He does not want to
keep his king on the same diagonal as white's
bishop! And he may be planning f7-f5. 19.a4
bxa4 20.Qxa6 Qa5 21.Qxa5 Nxa5 22.Nc1
Rb8 23.Nd3 Rfc8 The grandmaster is prob-
ably thinking that the Indian would crack in
the endgame. But not in this game! 24.Ra1!
Bf8 25.Ne3 Nb3 26.Bxb3 Bxb3 27.Nxe5
Bh6 28.Nf3?
Diagram # [There are times when one need
not hand back the loot to your opponent. And
this is one such time! Best was to prove that
his two knights are better than black's two
bishops with: 28.f4! Re8 29.N3g4 Bg7 30.Nd7
Rb5 31.Ngf6! Rd8 32.Rf2 Be6 33.Rxa4!+-]
28...Bxe3 29.fxe3 Bc2 30.Nd4 Bxe4 Now
white's advantage has dwindled to just 'slight
plus'. 31.Rf2 Rc4 32.Nf3! Threat Nd2! win-
ning. 32...Bxf3 33.gxf3 Rb3 34.Rc2² [This
is to deter black from playing a4-a3. For ex-
ample, if 34.e4 Kg7 35.Re2 a3 36.Rxa3 Rxa3
37.bxa3 Rxc3 38.Ra2 Rxf3 39.a4 Re3 40.a5
Rxe4 41.a6 Re8 42.a7 Ra8 43.Kf2 Kf6 44.Ke3

Ke5µ] 34...Kg7 35.Kf1 Rb5 36.Rd2 Rf5
37.Rf2 Ra5 38.Ra3 White prevents black's
plan of a4-a3. 38...Rd5 39.Ke2 f5 40.Rf1
Rh4 41.Rf2 Rc4 42.Ra1 Kh6 [Better was
42...g5 43.Ra3 Kf6 44.b4 axb3 45.Rxb3²]
43.Rd1 Rb5 The exchange of a pair of rooks
would make white's winning task easier.
44.Kd3 Rc7 45.Ra1 Rcb7 46.Rxa4 Rxb2
47.Rxb2 Rxb2 48.c4! Rb3+ Diagram # [If
48...Rxh2 49.c5 Rb2 50.c6 Rb8 51.Kd4 Kg5
52.Kc5 h5 53.c7 Rc8 54.Kc6 h4 55.Kd7 Rg8
56.c8Q Rxc8 57.Kxc8 h3 58.Kd7 h2 59.Ra1
Kh4 60.Ke6 Kg3 61.Kf6 Kxf3 62.Rh1+-]
49.Kd4 f4 50.exf4 Rxf3 51.Ke5! The rest is
easy. 51...Re3+ 52.Kd5 Rd3+ 53.Kc6 Rd4
54.Kb5! Rxf4 55.c5! Rf8 56.Rh4+ Kg7
57.c6 g5 58.Rd4 Kg6 59.c7 Rc8 60.Kc6
h5 61.Rd8 Rxc7+ 62.Kxc7 Kf5 63.Kd6
h4 64.Kd5 Kf4 65.Rf8+ Kg4 66.Ke4
Kh3 67.Kf3 Kxh2 [If 67...g4+ 68.Kf4!
g3 69.hxg3 hxg3 70.Rh8+ Kg2 71.Rg8+-]
68.Kg4 Kg2 69.Ra8 1–0
5. Raghunandan,K S (2402)
Sivuk,Vitaly (GM Ukr)(2550)[A41]
1.d4 d6 2.Nf3 Bg4 3.c4 Nd7 4.g3 e5
5.Bg2 c6 6.0–0 Ngf6 7.Nc3 h6 8.Re1
[A.Frois 2380 vs N.Nogueira 2200, Loures,
1996 went: 8.h3 Bxf3 9.Bxf3 Be7 10.Rb1
exd4 11.Qxd4 Qb6 12.Rd1 Qxd4 13.Rxd4
a5 Drawn on the 74th move.] 8...Be7 9.h3
Bf5 10.e4 Bh7 11.b3 0–0 12.Bb2 Re8
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
13.Qd2 Bf8 14.Rad1 a6 15.a3 b5 16.c5?!
exd4 17.Nxd4 Nxc5 18.Nxc6 Qc7 19.Nb4
Nxb3 Thus black has won a pawn and looks
forward to victory. But the black forces are
cramped around his king while white's are
free and well posted. 20.Qf4 Ostensibly, this
is pinning the d6 pawn against his queen, but
more seriously, white has cooked up a plot
against the Ukrainian GM! 20...Nc5
Diagram # 21.Qxf6!! An "electronic shock"
as IM Ravi Sekhar in the past was wont to
describe such unexpected largesse from
the blue! 21...gxf6 22.Ncd5 Qd8 23.Nc6
Nd7 [The queen really cannot escape. The
following is a sample variation of the queen's
travails: 23...Qc8 24.Nxf6+ Kh8 25.Nxe8+
Kg8 26.Nf6+ Kh8 27.e5! d5 28.e6! fxe6
29.Ne7!! Bxe7 30.Nxd5+ Kg8 31.Nxe7++-
Such complex variations are difficult to
calculate in tournament play with the clock
ticking away the seconds.] 24.Nxd8 Rexd8
25.Nxf6+ [White can also positionally treat
the middle-game by entombing both black
bishops as follows: 25.g4 Rac8 26.f3 Rc2
27.Bd4 Rc4 28.Kf2± The two black bish-
ops cannot come to life easily!] 25...Nxf6
26.Bxf6 Re8 27.e5! Rab8 [If 27...Rac8
28.Bb7 Rb8 29.Bc6! (29.Bxa6 dxe5 30.Rxe5
Rxe5 31.Bxe5 Rb6=) 29...Re6 30.Bd5 Ree8
31.e6!+-] 28.Bc6 Re6 29.Bd5
AICF CHRONICLE
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Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
Diagram # 29...Rxe5 [This is forced. If 29...
Ree8 30.e6! Bg6 31.e7 Bg7 32.Bxg7 Kxg7
33.Bc6+-] 30.Bxe5 dxe5 31.Rxe5 Bxa3
32.Ba2 Rb7
[When there is no specific threat, especially
when one is on the back foot as black finds
himself here, it is best to place his pieces
on better squares, giving few options to
the superior side. Here, better was 32...
Kg7 ] 33.Re8+ Kg7 34.Ra8 Rb6 35.Rd7
Bg6 36.Bd5 Bc5 37.Kg2 b4 38.Rc8 Bf8
39.Bb3?!
Diagram # [This leads only to a slight ad-
vantage. Allowing black's b-pawn to run
for promotion and setting fire to the black
king in the time gained, involved a lot of
complications, but was worth calculating:
39.f4! b3 40.f5 b2 41.Ba2 b1Q 42.Bxb1
Rb2+! 43.Kf3 Bh5+ 44.g4 Rxb1 45.Rdd8
AICF CHRONICLE
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March 2018
Be7 46.Rg8+ Kf6 47.Rc6+ Ke5 48.Rxh6+-
] 39...a5 40.Ra7 Rf6 [This gives up the
a5 pawn without a fight. If 40...Rb5 41.f4
Be4+ 42.Kf1 Bd5 43.Bxd5 Rxd5 44.Rb8±]
41.Rxa5± Be4+ 42.Kf1 Bf5 43.Rc7 Bd6
44.Rc6 Bxh3+ 45.Kg1 Bd7 46.Rb6 Bc8
47.Ra8 Bf5 48.Rd8 Be5? [Probably black is
seeing ghosts! He gives up the b4 pawn on a
platter when he had the following variation:
48...Be7 49.Rxf6 Kxf6 50.Rb8²] 49.Rxb4+-
Bg6 50.Bd5 Bc3 51.Rb3 Ba5 52.Rd7
Bh5 53.Kg2 Bg4 54.Rdb7 Be1 55.f3 Bh5
56.Re3 Ba5 [This walks into a double at-
tack. Better was: 56...Bd2 though it would
eventually lose.] 57.Re5! Bg6 58.Bxf7! Bc3
59.Bb3+! Kf8 60.Rb8+! Kg7 61.Re7+ Bf7
62.Rbb7 There is no way the pinned Bf7
could avert capture. 1–0
Selected games from Delhi Open
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
Rozum,I (Rus) (2595) - Ravi,Teja S (IM)
(2375) [D12]
16th Delhi Open New Delhi IND, 2018
[Manuel Aaron]
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 Bf5 5.Nc3
a6 6.c5 h6 7.Ne5N Nbd7 8.Bd3 Bxd3
9.Nxd3 Qc7 10.0–0 [White could antici-
pate ....e5 and play: 10.b4 but then, 10...
e5! 11.dxe5 Nxe5 12.Nxe5 Qxe5 13.Bb2
0–0–0!=] 10...e5 11.f4 e4!? Diagram #
[Contrary to appearances, the pawn ex-
change on d4 leads to a slight advantage
for white: 11...exd4 12.exd4 Ne4 13.Nxe4
dxe4 14.Nf2 Nf6 15.Re1 0–0–0 16.Nxe4
(16.b4 (to avoid ....Bxc5) 16...g5!) 16...
Nxe4 (16...Be7 17.b4²) 17.Rxe4 f5 (not
17...Bxc5? 18.Qg4+! Qd7 19.Qxd7+ Rxd7
20.dxc5+-) 18.Re5 g6 19.Be3 Bg7 20.Re6
g5 (20...Qf7 21.Qb3 Rd7 22.Re1 Rhd8
23.Bf2 Bf6= (23...Kb8 24.d5!) ) 21.Qd3
Qf7 22.Qb3 Rd5 23.Rd6!]

12.Ne5 Be7 13.b4 0–0 14.Bd2 [14.Rb1
Rfb8 15.a3 (If 15.a4 b6 16.b5 axb5 17.axb5
Nxe5 18.fxe5 Nd7 19.bxc6 (19.Qh5? Rf8
20.cxb6 Nxb6³) 19...Qxc6 20.Qb3 bxc5
21.Qxd5 Qxd5 22.Rxb8+ Rxb8 23.Nxd5 Bd8=)
15...b6 16.cxb6 Nxb6= 17.Bd2 Ne8= This
knight is heading for Ne8-d6-c4.] 14...Nh7
15.Ne2 Nxe5 16.dxe5 f6 [As white cannot
advance f4-f5 because his e5 would be hang-
ing, another idea would be 16...Rfb8 planning
b7-b6 and challenging white's c5 spearhead.]
17.Nd4! Qc8 18.Qh5 f5 [18...fxe5 appears
to be equalising, but after 19.fxe5 Ng5 20.h4
Nf7 21.Nf5 Qe6 22.Qg4 Qxe5 23.Rac1!± with
a very strong position for white.] 19.g4!
fxg4 20.f5 Diagram # On the face of it, this
move is aggressive and could be terrifying,
especially if black is short of time. But it gives
access to the g5 square for the black pieces.
However, in a tournament one has to take
some risks, allowing the opponent some play.
You cannot have everything, all the time!
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
20...Rf7? [Black should use his extra pawn
to create counter chances with: 20...g3!
21.hxg3 Qc7! 22.f6 Bxf6! 23.exf6 Qxg3+
24.Kh1 Nxf6 25.Qh2 Qxh2+ 26.Kxh2 Ng4+
27.Kg3 Ne5= 28.Bc3 and black with three
pawns for his lost bishop has satisfactory
counter-play with his well posted knight.]
21.f6 Bf8 22.e6 Rxf6 23.Rxf6 gxf6± [If
23...Nxf6 24.Qf7+ Kh7 (24...Kh8 25.e7 Bxe7
26.Qxe7 Qd7 27.Qxd7 Nxd7 28.Bc3²) 25.Rf1!
(Premature would be: 25.e7?! Bxe7 26.Qxe7
g3! (threat ....Qh3!) 27.Qd6 gxh2+ 28.Qxh2
Qg4+=) 25...Ng8 26.e7! Nxe7 27.Ne6 Ng6
28.Bc3! Qe8 29.Qxb7! Be7 30.Nxg7± and
black's position falls apart.] 24.Qxg4+ Kh8
25.Kh1! Be7 26.Nf5!+- Qf8
Diagram # 27.Nh4! White's threats follow
one after the other! 27...h5 [If 27...Qg7
28.Ng6+! Kg8 29.Nxe7+ Kf8 30.Qxg7+
Kxg7 31.Nf5+ Kf8 32.h4! and white will be
coming for more with 33 Rg1!] 28.Ng6+
Kg7 29.Qg2 [Fritz says 29.Qxh5! is strong-
er. Work out the win yourself!] 29...Qe8
30.Nxe7+ Ng5 [Black resigned without
waiting for white's reply. After 30...Ng5
31.Bc3! Qxe7 32.Qxg5+ Kf8 33.Rf1!! wins.]
1–0
Tran Tuan Minh,(GM Vie) (2548)
Gukesh,D (AP) (2354) [D11]
Dommaraju Gukesh, born 29 May 2006, s/o
Dr Rajanikanth, was National U–11 Champion
AICF CHRONICLE
37
March 2018
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
in Pune, 2017, and National Schools U–11
Champion in Nagpur, 2016. In this game, 12-
year old Gukesh plays like a mature Master.
For the sake of chess he schools in Velammal
Vidyalaya, Chennai, and his doctor parents
who are natives of Andhra live and practise
in Chennai. Gukesh represents Andhra, not
Tamil Nadu, in national championships. He
trains with GM Vishnu Prasanna. 1.d4 d5 2.c4
c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Qc2 e6 5.Bg5 Nbd7 6.Nbd2
Qa5 7.g3 h6 [7...Ne4= was played in the
2003 EU Championship.] 8.Bxf6 Nxf6 9.Bg2 Diagram # 29...c5?! [Black misses the
Be7 10.0–0 0–0 11.Rfc1 Bd7 12.Ne5 Rfd8 best way to keep his advantage: 29...cxb5
13.a3 Be8 14.b4 Qc7 15.e3 a5!= 16.Qb2 30.Bxb5 Ra2 31.Rc2 Rxc2 32.Nxc2 Qc7³
axb4 17.axb4 dxc4 black does not like the Black has superior possibilities thanks to
possibility of c4-c5 18.Ndxc4 Nd5 19.Nd3 the occupation of the only open files in the
Nb6 20.Nce5 Nd5 21.Nc5 Diagram # game and his two bishops.] 30.dxc5
bxc5 [30...Bxc5? 31.Nxc5 bxc5 (31...Bxb1?
32.Nxe6+-) 32.Rb2=] 31.Qe2 Ra3 32.Rb3
Bf7 33.Rxa3 Rxa3 34.Qb2 Ra8 35.Qb3
Qd6 [35...Qb6=] 36.Nf4 g5! This exhibits
good understanding of position play. White is
in no position to exploit this enlargement of
black's castled position with g7-g5! 37.Ne2
Nb6 38.Rd1 Qe5 39.Nf3 Qf5 40.Nd2 Diagram
#

[Black was inviting the advance 21.e4 Rxa1

22.Rxa1 Nf6= as he has an elastic position
with no weaknesses. White has a good pawn
centre which unfortunately needs to be pro-
tected, especially d4.] 21...Qb6 22.Rab1
Ra7 23.Bf1 Rda8 24.Bc4 Qd8!Contrary
to appearances, black has a slight position-
al advantage. He is patiently preparing to
evict white's proud knights from their prime 40...Rd8 [After 40...Nxc4! 41.Qxc4 e5
squares. 25.Qd2 b6 26.Ncd3 f6 27.Nf3 42.Qe4 Qxe4 43.Nxe4 g4 Black's two bish-
Bh5 [After 27...Bg6 28.b5 Be4 29.Nfe1 ops give him a slight advantage.] 41.Nc3
cxb5 30.Rxb5 Ra1= Black is a shade better.] Qg4 42.f3 Qf5= 43.Kg2 Qe5 44.e4 Rd4?!
28.Nfe1 Bg6! (building pressure on the b4 [44...f5!? is likely to open up the position
pawn!) 29.b5 for black's bishops.] 45.Ne2 Rd8 46.Nc3
Kg7 [46...f5!] 47.Be2 Qc7 48.Bc4 h5=

AICF CHRONICLE
38
March 2018

[48...Rd4! 49.Kf2 (49.Bxe6 Rxd2+ 50.Rxd2
c4 51.Qa2 Bxe6µ) 49...Qd8 50.Qc2 Nxc4
51.Nxc4 Be8³] 49.Nf1 Rd4 50.Ne3 Qd6
51.Kf2 Rxd1 52.Qxd1 Qxd1 53.Ncxd1
The game is now absolutely equal. 53...
Bd6 54.Bd3 Be8 55.Ke2 Bc7 56.Nc3 Be5
57.Kd2 h4 58.Ne2 hxg3 59.hxg3 Bc7
60.f4 gxf4 61.gxf4 c4 62.Nxc4 Bxb5
63.Nxb6 Bxd3 64.Kxd3 Bxb6 65.Kc4
Be3 66.Kb5 Kg6 67.Kc6 Kh5 68.Kd6 Kg4
69.Kxe6 Bxf4 70.Kxf6 Bc7 ½–½
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
to capture on b2 and get trapped.] 20...Rx-
b2!µ Black is willing to get his rook trapped
as he has seen further. 21.Bb3 Rb8 22.Rfe1
[There is no way that white can attack the
trapped rook. If 22.Qc1 Qc3 23.Ne2 Qe5
24.Re1 Nc5 25.Ng3 Qf6–+ The Rb2 defies
capture!] 22...Ne5 23.Qc1 Nc4 24.Qg5?
Diagram # [White misses the tactics which
draws: 24.Nf5! gxf5 25.Qg5+ Kf8 26.Bxc4!
Rxc2= (If 26...Qxc4 27.Qxe7+ Kg7 28.Qg5+
draws.) ]

Sangma,R (2332) - Nguyen Duc Hoa,(V-

ie) (2490) [B75]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3
g6 6.Be3 Bg7 7.f3 a6 8.Qd2 b5 9.a4 b4
10.Nd5 Nxd5 11.exd5 Qa5 Diagram #

24...Qc5 25.Qh4 Ne5 26.Rad1 Rb4!?

[Black is confident that he will be on top after
27 Qxe7. Safer was 26...Re8= ] 27.Qxe7
Rxd4 28.Rxd4 Qxd4 29.Qd8+ [If 29.Rxe5?
(target f7) 29...Rxb3! 30.cxb3 dxe5–+] 29...
Kg7 30.Qxa8 Rxb3! 31.cxb3 Nd3! Diagram
12.Bc4 [In Fadi Eid 2389 vs A.J. Steigman
2213, Oz.com Blitz, 2000, white won after
a violent attack: 12.Nb3 Qc7 13.Bd4 0–0
14.Bxg7 Kxg7 15.h4 h5 16.0–0–0 a5 17.g4
hxg4 18.h5 Rh8 19.Bd3 Ba6! 20.hxg6 Bxd3
21.Rxh8 Qxc2+! 22.Qxc2 Bxc2 23.gxf7!! Nd7
24.Rxa8 Bxb3 25.fxg4 Bxd1 26.Kxd1 Kxf7
27.Rxa5 White won on move 58.] 12...0–0
13.0–0 Bb7 14.Nb3 Qc7 15.Qxb4 Nd7³
Black has the better possibilities with threat
of capturing b2 and bringing his Ra8 into play
with Rab8. 16.Bd4 Bxd4+ 17.Nxd4 Rab8 [After 31...Nd3 32.Rb1 (32.Rf1 Nf2+ 33.Rxf2
18.Ba2 Bxd5 19.Qd2 Ba8 [19...Qc5 was Qd1+ mates.) 32...Nf2+ white loses to the
better.] 20.Kh1 [Better was: 20.Rab1 Rfc8 Philidor's Leagacy mate with: 33.Kg1 Nh3+
21.f4 e6 when black is a shade better. With 34.Kh1 Qg1+!! 35.Rxg1 Nf2#] 0–1
the text white hopes to entice the black rook

AICF CHRONICLE
39
March 2018
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
Sivuk,Vitaly (GM Ukr) (2550)
Harsha,Bharathakoti (IM) (2451)
[E04]

GM Vitaly Sivuk of Ukraine, 26, became

an IM at 19 and a GM at 22. On the other
hand, IM Harsha Bharathakoti of Telen-
gana, born 2000, became an IM at 17.
He has won the National U–13 and U–19
Championships in 2013 and 2017. He
can be expected to become Telengana's
next GM. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 d5 31.dxc5 [Probably white had intended to
4.g3 dxc4 5.Bg2 Nc6 6.Qa4 Bb4+ play 31.Qa3 pinning the c5 pawn against
7.Bd2 Nd5 8.Qb5 White tries to get the Qe7 but changes his mind because of
back his gambited pawn, but does not ... 31...cxd4 32.Qxa7 Nc5 33.Qa3 Nxd3
succeed! 8...Bxd2+ 9.Nbxd2 c3! 10.bxc3 34.Rxc7 Qxa3 35.Rxc8 dxe3 36.Rxe8+ Kh7
Nxc3³ Thus, black has exchanged off 37.fxe3 Qxa2 38.Rf1 Nxe3–+] 31...Nxc5
his extra pawn on c4 leaving white a 32.Ndxc5 bxc5 33.Qa3 f5 [33...Nb6 for
pawn down. Unfortunately, white gets 34...c4 was stronger and gave no chance to
n o c ou nte r-play f or his paw n m inus white.] 34.Nc3 Nb4 35.Qb3 Kh7 36.Qc4
except that black is yet to develop his Nc6 37.Nb5 [This allows black to exchange
queen-side. 11.Qb2N [11.Qd3 was tried off his bishop for white's active knight. Bet-
in a 1995 Canadian Championship game ter was 37.f4 ] 37...Ne5 38.Qc3 Bxb5
and won by white.] 11...Na4 12.Qc2 Diagram #
Nb6 13.e3 0–0 14.0–0 Qe7 15.Rfc1
Rd8 16.Nb3 Nd5 17.Qb2 Rb8 A useful
move as white could unmask his bishop
as well as queen against his b7 pawn in
the future. 18.Ne1 Bd7 19.Nc5 Be8
20.Ned3 b6 21.Ne4 [After 21.Na6 Rbc8
black has nothing to fear as 22.e4? Nf6
23.e5 Nd5µ] 21...Rbc8 22.Rab1 Na5
23.Nc3 c6!? Black is putting up a solid
position to consolidate his advantage
of an extra pawn. 24.Qe2 Qa3 25.Ne4
h6 26.Nf4 (Threat 27 Qa6) 26...Qe7 39.Rxb5 [After 39.Qxe5 Bd3! 40.Rb2 c4
27.Qa6 Rc7 28.Qe2 Nb7 29.Nd3 Rdc8 41.Qc3 Qf6! 42.Qxf6 gxf6 (now arises an ex-
If black is able to play c6-c5 without any tremely interesting and instructive rook end-
disadvantage, he would be on his way to ing which is favourable for black.) 43.Rc3
victory. 30.Qb2 c5 Diagram # Kg6 (The king is headed for d5 to bolster
his extra passed pawn) 44.Bf1 Rd8! 45.Bxd3
Rxd3 46.Rbc2 Rxc3 47.Rxc3 e5 48.Kf1 Kf7
49.Ke2 Ke6 r 38…Bxb5)

AICF CHRONICLE
40
March 2018

(49...Rc5 50.Kd2 Ke6µ 51.Ra3 a5 52.Kc3
Kd5 53.f3 Kc6–+) 5 0 . R a 3 ! c 3 ('The
passed pawn's lust to expand' - Nimzow-
itsch) 51.Kd1 Rd7+! 52.Ke2 (52.Kc2
Rd2+ 53.Kxc3 Rxf2 54.Rxa7 Rxh2 55.Ra6+
Kf7 56.Ra7+ Kg6 57.a4 Rh3–+) 52...Rd2+
53.Ke1 Rd3! 54.Ke2 c2!!–+] 39...Nf7
40.Ra5 Qd6 41.Qa3 Ne5 [This move gives
white some chances. Better was: 41...Qd2!
42.Rf1 c4 43.Rxa7 c3 44.Rxc7 Rxc7 45.Qa5
Rc4! 46.Qa6 Nd6!–+] 42.Ra6 Qe7 43.Qc3
Nd7 44.e4 Nb6 45.exf5 exf5 46.h4 c4
47.Ra5 Rc5 48.Re1 Qf7 49.Ra6 R8c7
50.a4 Nd5 51.Bxd5 Rxd5 52.Rae6 Rd3
53.Qc2 Qd7 54.Re7 Qd6 55.Rxc7 Qxc7
56.Rc1 Rd5 57.Kh2 [If 57.Qxc4?? Rd1+!
58.Kg2 (or 58.Rxd1 Qxc4) 58...Rxc1+-]
57...Qc5! 58.Kg2 Rd4–+ With skilful play
black has achieved a winning position. The
end cannot be far off now. 59.Qc3 Qd5+
60.Qf3 Diagram #
[White hopes in vain to save the game
in a rook ending. If 60.Kh2 f4 61.g4 f3
62.Rg1 Qd6+ 63.Rg3 (63.Kh3 h5 64.Rg3
(64.Qxf3? Rd3) 64...Qf6 65.Qc2+ Kh8–+)
] 60...Qxf3+ 61.Kxf3 Kg6! 62.a5 [If
62.Ke3 Re4+ 63.Kd2 f4 64.f3 Rd4+ 65.Kc3
Rd3+ 66.Kxc4 Rxf3 67.gxf4 Rxf4+ 68.Kb3
Rxh4 69.Rc6+ Kf5 70.Rc7 g5–+] 62...Kf6
63.Ke3 Ke5 64.Rb1 Rd3+! Such checks
make way for the advance of his king!
65.Ke2 Ra3 [Another way to win was: 65...
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
Rb3! 66.Rd1 Rb2+ 67.Ke3 Rb3+ 68.Ke2 Ra3
69.Rd7 Rxa5 70.Rxg7 Kd4!–+ 71.Rh7 c3
72.Rxh6 Ra2+ 73.Kd1 Rxf2 wins.] 66.Rb7
Rxa5 67.Rxg7 Kd4 68.Rd7+ Kc3 The
king moves ahead of the pawn as in the Luce-
na position. 69.Ke3 [If 69.Kd1 Ra1+ 70.Ke2
Kc2 71.f3 c3 wins.] 69...Kc2 White is totally
lost. 70.f3 c3 71.g4 fxg4 72.fxg4 Kb2
73.Rb7+ Kc1 74.g5 hxg5 75.h5 Ra6
76.Kf3 c2 77.Kg4 Rc6 78.Rxa7 Kb2
79.Rb7+ Kc3 0–1
Puzzle of the month
By C.G.S.Narayanan
The shortest proof game (SPG) is a type of
problem in which the task is to reconstruct a
legal game. Starting from the opening array,
the solver has to find the shortest possible
game that leads to the diagram position.
White and Black thus effectively cooperate to
achieve this, and that the moves would not
be sensible in a competitive game is consid-
ered irrelevant. SPGs are also characterised
by their exact play – the move order in the
solution is unique.In the diagram below even
though the position is symmetrical the solu-
tion is asymmetrical.
Joost de Heer
Probleemblad 2001
PG in 6 moves
(solution on page 48)
AICF CHRONICLE
41
March 2018
 Tactics from master games
by S.Krishnan

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

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

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

(solutions on p.47)

AICF CHRONICLE
42
March 2018
 Test your endgame
by C.G.S.Narayanan

Kuznecov 1961 Dr.J.Fritz 1961

1. 2.

Gurvic 1961 G.Kasparyan 1959

3. 4.
Korojkov 1961 Koroljkov & Mitrofanov1961

5. 6.

White to play and win in all the six endings above

(Solution on page 47 )

AICF CHRONICLE
43
March 2018
Masters of the past-86 Arthur Dake
Arthur Dake (8 April 1910 – 28 April 2000) was an American chess master.
He was born in Portland, Oregon and died in Reno, Nevada.He was born
into a Polish farmer family who immigrated to America before World War I.
At age 16 he became a merchant seaman, traveling to Japan, China, and
the Philippines. In 1927 he returned to high school in Oregon and learned
chess from a Russian immigrant living in a local YMCA. He resumed work
as a sailor and landed in New York City in 1929. New York was the center
of chess in the U.S. at that time, and Dake teamed with leading checkers
player Kenneth Grover in a Coney Island chess and checkers stand that
accepted any challenger at 25 cents a game.

Dake's first chess tournament was the 1930 New York State Championship, in which he finished
third. In 1931 he won the championship of the Marshall Chess Club.When US teams won four
consecutive Chess Olympiads in 1931, 1933, 1935, and 1937, Dake who played in 1931–1935
was one of their major members, along with Isaac Kashdan, Frank Marshall, Reuben Fine, Israel
Horowitz, and Abraham Kupchik, winning two individual medals: silver (1933) and gold (1935).

In 1931, Dake tied for 1st-3rd with Akiba Rubinstein and Frederick Yates, in Antwerp. In 1932,
he tied for 3rd-5th, after Alexander Alekhine and Kashdan, in Pasadena. He defeated World
Champion Alekhine in their game at Pasadena, becoming the first American to do so. In 1934,
he took 3rd in the U.S. Open Chess Championship. In 1934, he tied for 3rd-4th in Syracuse
(Samuel Reshevsky won). In 1934, he tied for 2nd-3rd in the Manhattan Chess Club Champi-
onship. In 1934/35, he tied for 1st-3rd with Kashdan and Fine in Mexico City. In 1935, he took
2nd, behind Fine, in the U.S. Open. In 1936, he tied for 6-7th in the first U.S. Championship.
In 1936, he tied for 2nd-3rd, behind Horowitz, in the U.S. Open. In 1938, he tied for 6-7th in
the second U.S. Championship.

Dake was a member of a U. S. Group which went to Moscow in 1946. He drew two games
against Soviet grandmaster Andreas Lilienthal. In 1950, Dake played board 6 for the USA in a
radio match against Yugoslavia. He scored one draw and one loss against Stojan Puc. In 1952,
he tied for 4th-5th in Hollywood(Svetozar Gligorić won). In 1954, Dake lost one game to David
Bronstein in USA - USSR Match.

In the 1987 US Open, held at Portland, Oregon, Dake's home town, he scored 8-4 (at the age
of 77 !). He donated his personal chess library to the Portland Chess Club where he was an
active member.

He was awarded the International Master title in 1954, and received the honorary Grandmaster
title in 1986 in recognition of his results in the 1930s. In 1991 he was inducted into the US
Chess Hall of Fame.[6] He was the oldest competitive chess grandmaster in history, and died
in 2000 at age 90. Dake spent his last night playing blackjack in the Sands Regency Casino in
Reno Nevada. He died of natural causes.Casey Bush wrote the book Grandmaster from Oregon
on Dake's chess career and life. Courtesy:Wikepedia

AICF CHRONICLE
44
March 2018
 2nd Shaastra FIDE Rated Rapid Chess Tournament, Chennai

K. Ganesan, Secretary, Chennai District Chess Association,GM J.Deepan Chakravarthi, Winner

(with trophy)Prof.R.Anantharam, IA,Chief Arbiter, Shri Shivakumar M Srinivasan, Dean IIT
and R.R.Vasudevan IA, are also seen.

1st All India Dombivali Kalyan Open Rating Tournament,Mumbai

Prize winners IM Kulkarni Vikramaditya (Winner), Patil Pratik and GM Laxman R.R with
dignitaries
45
 4th Kanyakumari FIDE Rated Below 1500 Tournament, Nagercoil

(L-R) M. Ephrame IA, Joint Secretary, TNSCA, Dr. R. Suresh Premil Kumar, Principal, Stella Mary’s
College of Engineering, Dr. Nazerath Charles, Founder & Chairman of Stella Mary’s College of
Engineering, Champion Nagasri Saikanth, Andhra Pradesh, A. F. Rex, Secretary, KKDCA, T. Vinoth
Kumar FA, Chief Arbiter, P. Rengitham, Director of Stella Mary’s College of Engineering, Johnson,
Stella Mary’s College of Engineering.

BPS All Goa Open Rapid FIDE Rating Tournament, Goa

Cruz Wilson (Third place) WGM Bakthi Kulkarni (Winner) and Anirudh V Bhat (Runner-up) with
dignitaries. Kishor M Bandekar (Treasurer, AICF and Secretary,GCA) is second from left and Ashesh
Keni FA, Chief Arbiter and Vice President,GCA)is eeen fourth from left
46
Solutions to ‘Tactics from master
games’ on page 42
1.Adly,A (2625) - Cordes,HJ (2222) [A08]
Tegernsee GER Tegernsee GER (2.4),
29.10.2017
White to play 21.Re6!! [21.Re6 21...fxe6
(21...Nd4 22.Re7+-) 22.Bh3 Qg6 a) 22...
Qf6 23.Bxe6+ Kf8 24.Nxh7+ Ke7 25.Nxf6; b)
22...Qe5 23.Bxe6+ Kh8 (23...Kf8 24.Qf7#)
24.Nf7+; c) 22...Qf8 23.Qxh7#; 23.Bxe6+
Kh8 (23...Kf8 24.Nxh7+ Ke7 25.Qxg6)
24.Nf7+ Kg8 25.Nxd8+ Kf8 26.Qxg6 hxg6
27.Nxb7+-] 1–0
2. Sangma,Rahul (2332) Nguyen,Duc Hoa
(2490) [B75]
16th Delhi Open 2018 New Delhi IND (10.19),
16.01.2018
Black to play 30...Rxb3! 31.cxb3 Nd3
Re1,Rh1][31...Nd3 32.Rf1 (32.Rb1 Nf2+
33.Kg1 Nh3+ 34.Kh1 Qg1+) 32...Nf2+ 33.Kg1
(33.Rxf2 Qd1+) 33...Ng4+ 34.Kh1 Qg1+
35.Rxg1 Nf2#] 0–1
3. Morozov,N (2449)
Minasian,Art (2484) [A57]
Andranik Margaryan Mem Yerevan ARM (6.4),
14.01.2018
Black to play 31...R3g5 [31...R3g5 32.Qxc7
(32.Nxg5 Qxe5+–+; 32.Bf5 Rxf5; 32.Kh1
Qxe5 33.Nxe5 Rh5#) 32...Rh5+ Mates] 0–1
4. Iljiushenok,I (2512) Lugovskoy,M
(2459) [C15]
Vladimir Dvorkovich Rapid Taganrog RUS
(10.5), 14.01.2018
White to play 26.Ra8+! Bxa8 27.Rxa8+ Kb7
28.Rg8 e3 29.fxe3 1–0
5. Hoffmeyer,Falk (2377) Dautov,Rustem
(2596) [D00]
Bundesliga 2017–18 Munich GER (7.6),
03.02.2018
Black to play 51...f3! [51...f3 52.Qxb4 (52.
Rxf3 Qxd4–+) 52...Rxg2+ 53.Kh1 Ng3#] 0–1
6. Duda,Jan-Krzysztof (2724) Chris-
tiansen,Johan-Sebastian (2492) [A37]
Gibraltar Masters 2018 Caleta ENG (2.6),
24.01.2018
White to play 16.Bxh6 Bxh6 [16...f5 17.Qg5+-
; 16...Qg6 17.Nf6+ Bxf6 18.Bxf8+ Kg8
19.Bxc5+-] 17.Qg5 f5 [17...Qg6 18.Rxh6+
Qxh6 19.Nf6+ Kh8 20.Qxh6#] 18.Qe7+
Kg8 [18...Kh8 19.Qxf8++-] 19.Nd6! Rf7
20.Qxe5+- Bd2+ [20...Rh7 21.Bd5+ Kf8
22.Qe8+] 21.Kf1 1–0
Solution to ‘Test your endgame’on page
43
1, Kuznecov 1961
1.Ra5 Rxd4+ 2.Kc2 Rd2+ 3.Kxc3 Ra2 4.Kb3
Rb2+ 5.Kxa3 Ra2+ 6.Kb3 Rxa5 7.Nc3
2. Dr.Jindrich Fritz 1961
1.Ba4+ Nb3 2.Ra2+ Kb1 3.Bxb3 Bxg8 4.Ra8
gxh2 5.Ba2+ Kc2 6.Rc8+ Kd3 7.Bc4+ Ke4
8.Re8+ Kf5 9.Be6+ Kg6 10.Rxg8+
3. Gurvic 1961
1.Rd2 Bh6 2.Re2 Rxb4+ 3.Ka1 Bxg5 4.Rxe5+
Be7 5.Ne3 Kd8 6.Rxe7 Kxe7 7.Nd5+
4. Genrich Kasparyan 1959
1.Rh1+ Kf2 2.Rf6+ Kg3 3.Rg1+ Kh3 4.Nf3 Rc1
5.Ng5+ Kh2 6.Rxc1 Bxc3+ 7.Rxc3 d1Q 8.Rf2+
Ng2 9.Rh3+ Kg1 10.Rh1+ Kxh1 11.Nf3
5. Koroljkov 1961
1.Bd7 Bh6 2.Be8 Bxg7 3.Bxf7 Bh7 4.Bg6 Bg8
5.Nf7+ Kf6 6.Bxe4 Bxf7 7.Bd4+ Kg5 8.Bxg7
Kg4 9.Be5 wins ; 6…. Kxf7 7.Bd5+ Kf8
8.Bc5+Ke8 9.Bxg8 wins
6. Kporoljkov & Mitrofanov 1961
1.Nc3 Ne3+ 2.Ke2 Nxc2 3.Nf3 g4 4.Bxg4 Bxe4
5.Nxe4 d1Q+ 6.Kf2 Qf1+ 7.Kxf1 Ne3+ 8.Kf2
Nxg4+ 9.Kg3 Nf6 10.Nf2#
AICF CHRONICLE
47
March 2018
AICF Calendar March 2018
2nd Dalmia Cements All India Open FIDE Rating 26 Mar - 31 Mar Ranchi
KCA 16th Open FIDE Rating 29 Mar - 01 Apr Kottayam
2nd Holi Cup Lakecity open FIDE Rating 29 Mar - 01 Apr Udaipur
Asian Youth Ch’ships U 8,10,12,14,16 and 18 31 Mar - 10 Apr Chiangmai Thailand
1st TCS FIDE Rated open 02 Apr - 07 Apr Hisar,Haryana
3rd Don Bosco FIDE Rated 07 Apr - 10 Apr Irinjalakuda,KL
2nd Sri Anand Wings Open FIDE Rating 1500 13 Apr - 15 Apr Guntur
Karnataka State Rated Open Championship 14 Apr - 18 Apr Koramangala
2nd Sardar Prakash Singh Memorial FIDE Rated 17 Apr - 22 Apr Sonipat, Haryana
1st ARMS Open Rapid FIDE Rating 21 Apr - 22 Apr Thane
TN State Open Chess Championship 26 Apr - 30 Apr Dharmapuri
4 Queens 1st open FIDE Chess Tournament 28 Apr - 01 May Ernakulam
1st IGMSA All India Open FIDE Rating Tmt 29 Apr - 04 May Secunderabad, Telangana
National Rapid and blitz 2018 02 May - 06 May Ahmedabad,Gujarat
KCA 17th below 1400 FIDE Rating 04 May - 06 May Kottayam
Late Bharatbai Halkude Mem.st FIDE Rating 05 May - 10 May Pune
2nd IGMSA All India Tournament Below 1500 05 May - 07 May Secunderabad, Telanga
Chess in Lakecity FIDE Rating below 1700 08 May - 10 May Udaipur,
Late Bharatbai Halkude Mem FIDE Rating 1600 11 May - 13 May Pune
TN State Under - 11 Open & Girls - 2018 11 May - 15 May Kanchipuram
Kasparov below 1600 FIDE Rated 12 May - 14 May Thrissur
Kolkata Intl.Grandmaster Open tournament 14 May - 22 May Kolkata
TN State Under - 17 Open & Girls - 2018 16 May - 20 May Nagercoil
Odisha Open GM Chess Tmt 2018 24 May -31 May Bhubaneshwar
11th Mayor's Cup International GM event 03 Jun - 10 Jun Mumbai,
32nd National Under - 13 ( Open & Girls ) 2018 14 Jun - 22 Jun Ahmedabad, Gujarat
AICF Women Round Robin 14 Jun - 21 Jun Mumbai .
Gandhi - Kamaraj Mem. FIDE Rating below 1600 15 Jun - 17 Jun Chennai
Chess in Lakecity FIDE Rating Rapid 23 Jun - 24 Jun Udaipur,RJ
Commonwealth Chess Championship 2018 25 Jun - 04 Jul Delhi-32
29th Cusat FIDE Rating 28 Jun - 01 Jul Kochi ,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
Full Page Inside (Colour) 7,000 60,000
Full Page Inside (Black & White) 5,000 45,000
Half Page Inside (Black & White) 3,000 30,000

Solution to ‘Puzzle of the month on page 41 : 1.Nf3 e5 2.Nxe5 Qe7 3.Ng6 Qxe2+ 4.Qxe2+ Ne7 5.Qxe7+
Bxe7 6.Nf8 Bxf8

AICF CHRONICLE
48
March 2018
 10th BRDCA Open FIDE rapid rating chess tournament, Bangalore

Playing Hall

30th Spic FIDE Rated Open Chess Tournament, Tuticorin

Back row: Chidananda A, Organizing Secretary, FA Promodraj Moree, Chief arbiter, IM Llaneza
Vega Marcos of Spain, Vinod, CEO of Virginia Mall,Upendra,Somanath.K,Deputy Arbiter. Sitting: IM
K.Ratnakaran (Runner-up) IM Girish A Kaushik, Champion and IM C.Praveen Kumar (Third place)
49
13th AICFB National “A” Championship for the Visually Challenged

Kishan Gangolli receiving the champion Trophy from Dr Charu Dutta Jhadav, and Shri.Raghunandan
Gokhale

Back row (L-R) IM Sagar Shah CEO Chess Base, Mr Raghunandan Gokhale, Dronacharya Awardee,
1st President of AICFB, Dr Charu Dutta Jhadav, President IBCA and AICFB and Mr Manish Thool,
Secretary AICFB Front row: Ashvin Makwana K , Kishan Gangolli, Soundarya Kumar Pradhan