AICF CHRONICLE

the official magazine of the All India Chess Federation

Volume : 12 Issue : 7 Price Rs. 25 February 2018

16th Delhi International Open Grandmasters

Chess Tournament, New Delhi

10th Chennai Open International Grandmaster

Chess Tournament,Chennai

GM Arkadij Naiditsch (Azerbaijan)

Winner

GM R.R.Laxman (India)
Winner
AICF CHRONICLE February 2018
Room No. 70,
Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium,
Chennai - 600 003.
Ph : 044-65144966 /Telefax : 044-25382121
E-mail : indianchessfed@gmail.com
Publisher: Bharat Singh Chouhan
Editor : C.G.S. Narayanan
Price: Monthly Rs.25 Annual Rs.300
Inside….
16th Delhi International Open Grandmasters Tmt, New Delhi
Arkadij Naiditsch of Azerbaijan is Winner
by IA Vasanth BH, Chief Arbiter 1
10th Chennai Open International Grandmaster Tmt
Laxman wins title
by IA Nitin Shenvi ,Chief Arbiter 8
Captain All Bengal State Amateur Tmt(Below 2000),Kolkata
Rahul Krishna Viswanathan wins title
by Amit Kumar Biswas, Chief Arbiter 13
Ganesan Memorial FIDE Rated Open Tmt,Nagercoil
Balasubramaniam wins Ganesan Memorial
by Winston, Chief Arbiter 15
IIFL 3RD Mumbai Open International Grandmaster Tmt, Mumbai
Maghsoodloo Parhan of Iran wins
by IA S.Paul Arokia Raj 16
KC Sebastian Mem.Fide Rated Tmt(below 1500, Kottayam
Debargha Daw wins at Kottayam
by IA L.R. Bhuvanaa Sai, Chief Arbiter 18
KKCA 2nd All India FIDE Rated Tmt (Below 1600),Coimbatore
Kathiravan wins at Coimbatore
by IA Ganesh Babu S,Chief Arbiter 19
3rd master mind open fide rated tmt, Pammal
Balasubramanian wins title
by R.Srivatsan, Chief Arbiter 21
18th North Eastern States FIDE Rating Ch’ship, Shillong
Rahul Gurung of Sikkim wins
by Debasish Barua IA, Chief Arbiter 22
Sri Ram School Intl. FIDE Rating Tmt,Tindivanam
Kunal wins the title
by S.Balaraman, Chief Arbiter 28
Suraj FIDE Rating Tournament, Sangli
Pratik Mulay Wins
by IA Rajendra Shidore 30
4thTeekay International FIDE Rated Tmt,Thoothukudi
Kunal emerges Champion
by IA Prof.R.Anantharam, Chief Arbiter 32
7th National Schools Ch’ship,Bhubaneshwar
Eleven medals to Tamilnadu
by N.K.Nandakumar IA,Chief Arbiter 34
Selected games from Chennai GM Open
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron 36
Tactics from master games by S.Krishnan 42 also invited to send interesting articles, annotated
Test your endgame by C.G.S.Narayanan 43
Masters of the past-85 Arnold Denker 44
AICF Calendar 48
From the Editor’s desk
Grandmaster Vidit Santhosh Gujrathi
has done India proud winning Tata Steel
Chess Challengers held at Wijk aan
Zee, Netherlands last month. The victory
ensured that Vidit qualified for Tata Steel
Masters 2019 where best chess players
across the world would be taking part. Report on this event
is presented in the centre pages of this issue.
On the home front, two prominent GM level Open
tournaments in AICF Calendar were organized last month.
The 16th edition of Delhi International Open Grandmasters
Chess Tournament drew a whopping 2320 entries, all
the three categories put together, for a prize fund of
Rs.77,77,777. This Open which is growing in stature over
the years with phenomenal increase in prize money is all
set to touch one crore in the next edition. The premier event
attracted 264 players which included 27 Grandmasters.
Two GM norms and two IM norms were made during the
event. Top seeded GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Azerbaijan won
the Open event.
10th Chennai Open International Grandmaster Chess
Tournament for Dr. N. Mahalingam Trophy was held in Hotel
Vijay Park, Chennai in which 16 GMs from 22 Federations
took part. Three norms, two IM norms and one WIM Norm,
were made and four players gained more than 100 elo rating
points. GM R.R.Laxman from Tamilnadu won the event.
All Odisha Chess Association added one more feather to
its cap organizing the 7th National Schools Championship
successfully with support of Dr. Achyuta Samanta, founder
KIIT group of Institutions, at Bubhaneshwar..
AICF organized a three-day FIDE Arbiter seminar in
Chennai under the guidance of TNSCA in which 56 arbiters
took part. Reports and photographs of all the above events
are presented in this issue. Selected games from Chennai
GM Open annotated by IM Manuel Aaron are also presented
elsewhere in this issue.
C.G.S.Narayanan
Readers are invited to offer their feedback on the
regular features in the AICF Chronicle and are
games and chess anecdotes to the Editor at ‘www.
indianchessfed@gmail.com’ or ‘cgsnarayanan
@hotmail.com.
16th Delhi International Open Grandmasters Chess Tournament, New Delhi
Arkadij Naiditsch of Azerbaijan is Winner
by IA Vasanth BH, Chief Arbiter
16
thDelhi International Grandmaster
Open Chess Tournament organized
by Delhi Chess Association under
the aegis of All India Chess Federation from
9th January 2018 to 16th January 2018 at
Indira Gandhi Indoor Stadium, New Delhi.
The festival consisted of three categories,
A, B & C with a total cash prize fund of a
breath-taking Rs. 77,77,777/-.A total of 264
players from 24 federations participated in
Category A. 783 players from 8 federations
in Category B and 1273 players from 9 fed-
erations in category C participated.
GM Arkadij Naiditsch of Azerbaijan, rated
2701, was the top seed in Category A fol-
lowed by GM FarrukhAmonatov, rated 2636,
from Tajikistan. Arjuna Awardee GM Abhijeet
Gupta, rated 2610 from India was third seed
of the tournament. The premier event had 27
Grand Masters, 24 International Masters, One
Women Grandmaster, 5 Women International
Master and 16 Fide Masters in the fray.
“This is a historic moment for Indian chess
as we welcome the 16th edition of the Delhi
GM Open. We started small back in 2003,
but now it is already boasting a record prize
fund. This tournament has proved to be a
boon to every chess player in India. It is our
honor to serve Indian chess and Indian chess
players,” said Mr. Bharat Singh Chauhan, the
President of Delhi Chess Association.
In round two, On the second table, unherald-
ed Tamil Nadu youngster A.L. Muthiah rated
2291, managed to hold the second seed GM
Amonatov Farrukh, rated 2636 to a draw. It
was a Reti Opening in
which Muthiah was applying steady pressure
on the queenside with the white pieces.
Around the 40th move, the Indian had a
chance to keep up the pressure and go to
an endgame a pawn up. But with less time
on the clock, Muthiah decided to repeat his
position and take the draw instead
In third round, IM Rathnakaran K of India
drew with top seed GM Arkadij Naiditsch of
Azerbaijan. In fourth round 24th seed GM
Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh defeated Viet-
namese GM Tran Tuan Minh to emerge as the
new sole leader.
The eighth round of the 16th Delhi GM Open
was destined to be a cracker of a contest.
There were two players tied in the lead with
6.5/7. Indian GM KarthikeyanMurali, rated
2580, and the top seed GM ArkadijNaiditsch
of Azerbaijan rated 2701. Furthermore, there
were 15 players tied just behind them at
5.5/7.
Naiditsch had the white pieces against
Karthikeyan and he decided to open with the
king’s pawn, to which the Indian replied with
the notoriously famous Berlin Defence. The
resulting queenless position is a well-known
middlegame that is closer to the endgame
than most other structures. Naiditsch dis-
played supreme strategic understanding
to use his minor pieces to dominate over
Karthikeyan’s army. Karthikeyan surrendered
on the 29th move. Arkadij Naiditsch with
7.5/8 points sealed his victory.
AICF CHRONICLE
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FEBRUARY 2018
Top seed GM Arkadij Naiditsch drew in the
ninth round with untitled Indian Akash Pc
Iyer, rated 2415, to take a step closer to the
title. IM Md. Nubairshah Shaikh rated 2380
managed to beat IM P. Karthikeyan rated
2497 to complete his GM norm as well.Naid-
itsch offered a draw after 13 moves with the
black pieces in a Queen’s Gambit Declined
Exchange Variation. This ensured a GM norm
for the young Tamil Nadu player.
Top seed GM ArkadijNaiditsch drew in the
tenth and final round against Italian GM
David Alberto to seal the Delhi GM Open
2018 title.Naiditsch offered a draw after 18
moves with the white pieces in a Caro-Kann
Exchange Variation. With 8.5/10, he finished
ahead by a half point over the rest of the
field.Bangladeshi GM Ziaur Rahman managed
to draw with Indian GM KarthikeyanMurali
with the black pieces. The game began as
a Sicilian Defense where both the players
were on their toes, move for move. In the
end, the players settled for a draw in a rook
endgame. Ziaur finished on 8.0/10 and tied
for the second place.
IM Md. Nubairshah Shaikh was black against
IM Vignesh NR and the game was a Caro
KannDefence. Vignesh played by risking his
position and had to pay the price as Nubair-
shahfound all the right moves to scoop up two
pawns for free. Nubairshahalso finishes with
8.0/10 for a tie of second place but placed
third with tie break score.Hungarian GM
Adam Horvath finished with four consecutive
wins also finish with 8.0/10
In the Category B with 783 players being held
simultaneously, SubhraSaha (1727) of West
Bengal scored 9/10 and emerged as winner.
Madhusoodhan KR (1727) of Kerala, Tirtha
Sarkar (1759) of West Bengal, SathyaGiri
AICF CHRONICLE
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FEBRUARY 2018
V (1842) of Tamilnadu, Deepak Rai (1773) 10th Chennai Open International Grandmaster Tournament, Chennai
of Delhi and PunitIndora (1905) of Haryana
score 8.5/10 and based on tie break score
placed 2-6 accordingly.
In the Category C with 1273 players, 5th
seed, 14 year old boy, Anirudh Jain (1590) of
Delhi score 9.5/10 and emerged winner. Devi
Das Suresh Pai (1534) of Karnataka, Ravindra
P (1457) of Andra Pradesh, Kesavan G (1426)
of Tamilnadu, Top seed, 17 year old, Mohit
Kumar Soni (1599) of Bihar and Sanjib Mali
(1553) of West Bengal scored 9/10 and based
on tie break score placed 2-6 accordingly.
Four normswere made during the GM Open.
Two GM norms-Akash PC Iyer, Nubairshah
Shaikh and Twi IM norms -Samme Jayakumar
Shete and Koustav Chatterjee
Final ranking Playing Hall in Hotel Vijay Park
Rk Name FED Pts
1 GM Naiditsch Arkadij AZE 8½
2 GM Rahman Ziaur BAN 8
3 IM Md Nubairshah Shaikh IND 8
4 GM Horvath Adam HUN 8
5 GM Karthikeyan Murali IND 7½
6 GM Vaibhav Suri IND 7½
7 GM Tiviakov Sergei NED 7½
8 GM David Alberto ITA 7½
9 GM Deepan ChakkravarthyJ IND 7½
10 GM Tukhaev Adam UKR 7½
11 GM Deviatkin Andrei RUS 7½
12 IM Khusenkhojaev Md TJK 7½
13 IM Harsha Bharathakoti IND 7½
14 GM Czebe Attila HUN 7½
15 GM Amonatov Farrukh TJK 7
16 Akash Pc Iyer IND 7
17 GM Pruijssers Roeland NED 7
18 GM Rozum Ivan RUS 7
19 GM Gupta Abhijeet IND 7 Arjuna Awardee and India’s first International Master Manuel Aaron makes the first move against
20 IM Vignesh N R IND 7 top seed GM Timur Gareyev of USA. Standing left to right are:
21 FM Erigaisi Arjun IND 7 Nitin Shenvi IA, Chief Arbiter, B.Murugavel, Organizing Secretary and Vice President TNSCA,
22 Sankalp Gupta IND 7 D.V.Sundar, Vice President FIDE & AICF , Stephen Balasamy, Tournament Director and Secretary,
TNSCA and Paul Arokia Raj IA
Cont.on p.5 3
 Cont.from p.7
23 IM Sardana Rishi AUS 7
10th Chennai Open International Grandmaster Tournament, Chennai 24 IM Shyaamnikhil P IND 7
67 IM Sangma Rahul IND 6
68 FM Srinath Rao S.V. IND 6
25 GM Nguyen Duc Hoa VIE 7
69 FM Harshal Shahi IND 6
26 S Jaykumar Shete IND 6½
70 Ram S. Krishnan IND 6
27 Koustav Chatterjee IND 6½
71 IM Kandil Adham EGY 6
28 GM R Chowdhury Saptarshi IND 6½
72 Dodeja Pawan IND 6
29 GM Sengupta Deep IND 6½
73 Panda Sambit IND 6
30 GM Tran Tuan Minh VIE 6½
74 Saptorshi Gupta IND 6
31 GM Gareyev Timur USA 6½
75 Sarvesh Kumar A IND 6
32 IM Rathnakaran K. IND 6½
76 Ashutosh Kumar IND 6
33 Muthaiah Al IND 6½
77 Satkar Chirag IND 6
34 GM Sivuk Vitaly UKR 6½
78 FM Fadi Marko EGY 6
35 IM Karthikeyan P. IND 6½
79 CM Mendonca Leon Luke IND 6
36 GM Dzhumaev Marat UZB 6½
80 Kaustuv Kundu IND 5½
37 Sudhanshu Ranjan IND 6½
81 Neelash Saha IND 5½
38 WGM Gomes Mary Ann IND 6½
82 FM Gajwa Ankit IND 5½
39 IM D Bala Chandra Prasad IND 6½
83 GM Solodovnichenko Yuri UKR 5½
40 FM Mitrabha Guha IND 6½
84 GM Lalith Babu M R IND 5½
R.R.Vasudevan IA,Nitin Shenvi IA, Chief Arbiter, B.Murugavel, Organizing Secretary and Vice President 41 Arjun Kalyan IND 6½
85 CM Aronyak Ghosh IND 5½
TNSCA, D.V.Sundar, Vice President FIDE & AICF , Bharat Singh, Chief Guest and Secretary AI CF, Stephen 42 CM Gukesh D IND 6½
86 Bhambure Shantanu IND 5½
Balasamy, Tournament Director and Secretary,TNSCA,Winner GM R.R.Laxman, Vijayaraghavan MD of 43 Sekar B IND 6½
87 IM R.Balasubramaniam IND 5½
Vijay Park and Prof.R.Anantharam IA, Technical Director 44 GM Ghosh Diptayan IND 6½
88 CM Kushagra Mohan IND 5½
45 FM Hafiz Arif Abdul INA 6½
89 Manigandan S S IND 5½
46 Saurabh Anand IND 6½
90 Nguyen Phuoc Tam VIE 5½
47 GM Atalik Suat TUR 6½
91 Bharat Kumar Reddy P IND 5½
48 Tiwari Arjun IND 6
92 WIM Franco Valencia Angela COL 5½
49 IM Gusain Himal IND 6
93 Kulkarni Chinmay IND 5½
50 IM Nitin S. IND 6
94 Adarsh Tripathi IND 5½
51 IM Sindarov Javokhir UZB 6
95 Ajay Karthikeyan IND 5½
52 Nayak Rajesh IND 6
96 Patil Pratik IND 5½
53 Navalgund Niranjan IND 6
97 Aaryan Varshney IND 5½
54 Manush Shah IND 6
98 IM Praveen Kumar C IND 5½
55 WIM Srija Seshadri IND 6
99 Shailesh Dravid IND 5½
56 IM Ravi Teja S. IND 6
100 Shelke Sankarsha IND 5½
57 Senthil Maran K IND 6
101 Badrinath S. IND 5½
58 IM Kathmale Sameer IND 6
102 Kumar Gaurav IND 5½
59 Yashas D. IND 6
103 Kavinda Akila SRI 5½
60 IM Sidhant Mohapatra IND 6
104 Singh Y. Dhanabir IND 5½
61 IM Hemant Sharma (Del) IND 6
105 Singh Arvinder Preet IND 5½
62 IM Abhishek Kelkar IND 6
106 Soham Kamotra IND 5½
B.Murugavel, Organizing Secretary and Vice President TNSCA ,Nitin Shenvi IA, Chief Arbiter, 63 AGM Sa Kannan IND 6
107 Vatsal Singhania IND 5½
D.V.Sundar, Vice President FIDE & AICF , Runner-up GM Rozum Ivan (Russia) Bharat Singh, Chief Guest 64 Saravana Krishnan P. IND 6
108 Mohamed Anees M IND 5½
and Secretary AI CF, Stephen Balasamy, Tournament Director and Secretary,TNSCA, Vijayaraghavan, 65 Gaikwad Siddhant IND 6
109 Aan Sikka IND 5½
MD of Vijay Park and Prof.R.Anantharam IA, Technical Director 66 WFM Varshini V IND 6
4
AICF CHRONICLE
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FEBRUARY 2018
110 Anilkumar O.T. IND 5½ 154 Arnav Tiwari IND 4½ 11 Panta Sumit 8 2 Devi Das Suresh Pai 9
111 Harshit Arya IND 5½ 155 Prakash Ram IND 4½ 12 Vinodh Kumar B. 8 3 Ravindra P 9
112 Randil Lakshitha SRI 5½ 156 Pranav Anand IND 4½ 13 Sandip Dey 8 4 Kesavan G 9
113 Dahale Atul IND 5½ 157 Mohite Ranveer IND 4½ 14 Raju O A 8 5 Mohit Kumar Soni 9
114 FM Rathanvel V S IND 5 158 Joshi Govind Ballabh IND 4½ 15 Rohit Ramanan T G 8 6 Sanjib Mali 9
115 WIM Pujari Rucha IND 5 159 Suvradeepta Das IND 4½ 16 Warude Satyam 8 7 Piyush Khurana 8½
116 Lokesh N. IND 5 160 WFM Tarini Goyal IND 4½ 17 De Silva Osheen 8 8 Rohit S 8½
117 Utsab Chatterjee IND 5 161 GM Himanshu Sharma IND 4½ 18 Joy Lazar M.A. 8 9 Raghunandan Rohit 8½
118 Singh S. Vikramjit IND 5 162 IM Ameir Moheb EGY 4½ 19 Dave Kantilal 7½ 10 Vinay Gadpayle 8½
119 Snehal Bhosale IND 5 163 Kanishk S K IND 4½ 20 Suhaib Ahmad 7½ 11 Uttam Prakash Sharma 8½
120 CM Aditya Mittal IND 5 164 Mahitosh Dey IND 4½ 21 Anadkat Kartavya 7½ 12 Darji Javahar H 8
121 Dixit Nikhil IND 5 165 Tamang Thendup IND 4½ 22 Srikanth K. 7½ 13 Ram Kumar R 8
122 Aradhya Garg IND 5 166 Godson Merlin E IND 4½ 23 Kathiravan M. 7½ 14 Chodasita Ramanjineyulu 8
123 IM Rajesh V A V IND 5 167 Lama Surbir NEP 4½ 24 Vishwanath Prasad 7½ 15 Vaishant Kumar Gangwani 8
124 Soham Datar IND 5 168 Anant Prabhudesai IND 4½ 25 Biswajit Nag 7½ 16 Satyam Pratap 8
125 Masango Spencer ZIM 5 169 Yogesh Gautam IND 4½ 26 Rahul Ubadhyay 7½ 17 Satvik Sharma 8
126 Pranav Shetty IND 5 170 AIM Trisha Kanyamarala IRL 4½ 27 Esshan Wadhawan 7½ 18 Nagargoje Dhananjay 8
127 Saksham Rautela IND 5 171 Nitin Rathore IND 4½ 28 Arijith M 7½ 19 Solanki Rutvik 8
128 Baivab Mishra IND 5 172 S Sabharishankar IND 4½ 29 Rupesh Ranjan 7½ 20 Vangala Prashanth 8
129 CM Karthik Kumar Pradeep IND 5 173 Khaire Ketan R. IND 4½ 30 Mota Pankit 7½ 21 Chauhan Narayan 8
130 FM Hamal Manish NEP 5 174 Manish Anto Cristiano F IND 4½ 31 Mohd. Arshi Khan 7½ 22 Mihir Godawat 8
131 Pruthu Deshpande IND 5 175 Sannidhanam Anurag AUS 4½ 32 Aswin Kumar B S 7½ 23 Ragesh Sarma.M 8
132 Gavi Siddayya IND 5 176 Samdani Sahil Sagar IND 4½ 33 Deepak Singh 7½ 24 Kavya Aggarwal 8
133 Pattnayak Nilsu IND 5 177 Chandratreya Prachiti IND 4½ 34 Inamdar Sameer 7½ 25 Shivshankar Iyer S 8
134 Bhattacharya N Shekhar IND 5 178 FM Shrestha S Prasad NEP 4½ 35 Rishabh Nishad 7½ 26 Sheikh Jahan 8
135 WFM Jishitha D IND 5 179 Rindhiya V IND 4½ 36 Aravind K 7½ 27 Shiraz Ahmad 8
136 AGM Siddharth Jagadeesh SGP 5 180 FM Matta Vinay Kumar IND 4 37 Sooraj M R 7½ 28 Kolomwe Willian 8
137 Polakhare Aryan IND 5 181 WIM Michelle Catherina P IND 4 38 Merryston David Scanny 7½ 29 Dinesh Pathak 8
138 Barath Kalyan M IND 5 182 Deepthamsh Reddy. M IND 4 39 Anchit Vyas 7½ 30 Md. Furqan Khan 8
139 Imocha Laishram IND 5 183 Mari Arul S. IND 4 40 Singh Soram Rahul 7½ 31 Venkatesan B 8
140 FM Raja Rithvik R IND 5 184 Arya Bhakta IND 4 41 Chaitanya Sairam Mogili 7½ 32 Nishchay Arora 8
141 FM Phadke Sohan IND 5 42 Baig Akram 7½ 33 Mohammad Zubar 8
142 Jain Nityata IND 5 Category B Final standings: 43 Sri Sai Baswanth P 7½ 34 Tuhin Kashyap 7½
143 CM Nikhil Magizhnan IND 5 Rk Name Pts 44 Bakshi Rutuja 7½ 35 Venkatesh K 7½
144 Sourath Biswas IND 5 1 Subhra Saha 9 45 Yashpal Arora 7½ 36 Harshit Amarnani 7½
145 Sreejith G.S. IND 5 2 Madhusoodanan K.R. 8½ 46 Dhanush Ragav 7½ 37 Binu Sebastian 7½
146 Mehta Naitik R IND 5 3 Tirtha Sarkar 8½ 47 Kadav Omkar 7½ 38 Dhiman Mitra 7½
147 Joy Pankaj Shah IND 5 4 Sathya Giri V 8½ 48 Aravindaswami T 7½ 39 Sharma Harsh Yogesh 7½
148 Ithal H L Rajath IND 5 5 Deepak Rai 8½ 49 Nikhil M 7½ 40 Paritosh Malvi 7½
149 AGM Tarun Kanyamarala IRL 5 6 Punit Indora 8½ 50 Patil Jitendra 7 41 Darsh Kansal 7½
150 Shrutarshi Ray IND 4½ 7 Thounaojam G Luwang 8 42 Bajpai Anil 7½
151 Kulkarni Vinayak IND 4½ 8 Shubham 8 Category C:final standings 43 Devender Sunil Kumar 7½
152 WIM Pratyusha Bodda IND 4½ 9 Chittari Abhishek Varma 8 Rk Name Pts 44 Bhat Siddharth K 7½
153 Moksh Amit Doshi IND 4½ 10 Sharma Pankaj 8 1 Anirudh Jain 9½ 45 Tejash Jain 7½

AICF CHRONICLE AICF CHRONICLE

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FEBRUARY 2018 FEBRUARY 2018
 10th Chennai Open International Grandmaster Chess Tournament for Dr. N. Mahalingam Trophy
Laxman wins title
by IA Nitin Shenvi ,Chief Arbiter
T
he 10th Chennai Open International Grandmas-
ter Chess Tournament 2018 for Sakthi Group Dr.
N. Mahalingam Trophy was organised in two Air
Conditioned halls in a three-star hotel, The Vijay Park
situated at 12, Jawaharlal Nehru Salai, Inner Ring Road,
Arumbakkam, Chennai, 600106. The arrangements in-
side these halls were excellent and as per the standards
of any world event according to FIDE rules (Already
World Junior was conducted in same hall in the year
2011). Many big names are associated with this organ-
isation throughout these years.
This event was organized by prominent chess players
and key personalities of various chess activities in
Tamil Nadu, at AICF and FIDE levels Mr. D V Sundar
Vice President, FIDE, Mr. B. Murugavel, Vice President,
TNSCA, Mr. P. Stephen Balasamy General Secretary,
TNSCA, Mr. R. Anantharam Chairman, Arbiters’
Commission, TNSCA & AICF, Mr. S. Paul Arokia Raj,
Mr. R. Srivatsan accompanied by other chess players,
volunteers, coaches and sportsmen from Chennai and
Tamil Nadu.
The tournament was played from 18thJanuary to
25th January 2018 and conducted in the Swiss League
(Dutch System) format, comprising 10 rounds, with
two rounds on two days (2nd& 4th day) else one round
per day. The main thinking time was 90 minutes to
each player along with 30 second increment per move
from first move.
Arjuna Awardee International Master Manuel Aaron,
along with Shri D. V. Sundar, Vice President AICF,
other dignitaries on dais were Mr. B. Murugavel, Mr.
P. Stephen Balasamy, Mr. R. Anantharam and myself
Mr.Nitin Shenvi.The function began with aprayer which
was followed by lighting the sacred lamp by the hands
of guests and the honourable members. As per chess
tradition the tournament was inaugurated by Arjuna
Awardee and International Master Manuel Aaron,
who made the first move against top seed GM Timur
Gareyev who is the Guinness World record holder for
the World Blindfold simul chess.
AICF CHRONICLE
8 9
FEBRUARY 2018
Local talents IM Karthikeyan P., IM Visakh N R, IM Nitin S.,
Arjun Kalyan along with IM Raghunandan Kaumandur
Srihari of KAR were thought as probables for norms.
In the event out of 267 players 16 Grand master, 19
International Master, 2 Women International Master,
7 Fide Masters, 5 Women Fide Masters,7 Candidate
Masters, 3 Women Candidate Master, 9 Arena Grand
Master, 3 Arena International Master and a Arena
Candidate Master took part out of which 259 were
rated players and 8 unrated players. In this event total
22Federations took part comprising ofone player each
from Australia, Spain, Germany, Malaysia, Tajikistan,
Turkmenistan, & Zimbabwe, two players each from
Bangladesh, Hungary, Indonesia, Ireland, Nederland,
Nepal, Russia, Singapore, United States of America,
&Uzbekistan, three players each from Egypt, Ukraine,
&Vietnam, 6 from France and most participants were
from India at 218. The top seed, GM Timur Gareyev,
was from United States of America, having ELO rating
2605, followed by Russian Grandmaster Ivan Rozum
having ELO rating 2595 and last year’s champion GM
Tukhaev Adam of Ukraine was fifth seed in this event.
7th round started again with a draw between GM
DeepanChakkravarthy J. of ICF and GM Tukhaev
Adam of UKRon the top board buton 2nd board
GMRozum Ivan of RUS defeated the then joint
leaderFMKarthikVenkataraman of AP. Board number 3
to 6 ended in draw. The games were played between
GMTiviakov Sergei of NED, GMAtalik Suat of TUR, IM
Sidhant Mohapatra of ODI and Muthaiah Al of TN
who equalled with their respective opponents namely
FMErigaisi Arjun of TEL, Pranav V of TN, GMPruijssers
Roeland of NED and IMVisakh N R of TN. After this
round joint leader’s names were GMTukhaev Adam of
UKR, GMRozum Ivan of RUS, GMDeepan Chakkravarthy
J. of ICF and GMLaxman R.R. of ICF scoring 6 points
each. They were closely followed by 15 rivals scoring
5½ points each.
As the tournament had started coming to an end with
no definitive sign of a sole leader or worthy contender,
fierce fightsbegan to be witnessed yet again. There
were decisive results on both the top two boards.
GMTukhaev Adam ofUKR lost to GMRozum Ivan of
RUS and GM Deepan of ICF lost to his Fellow National
GM Laxman R.R. of ICF. On third board GM Dzhumaev
Marat of UZB defeated GM Tiviakov Sergei of NED. IM
Nitin S. of TN equalised with GM Sivuk Vitaly of UKR,
IM Llaneza Vega Marcos of ESP tied with GM Atalik
Suat of TUR and GM Pruijssers Roeland of NED drew
with Muthaiah AL of TN. At the end of 8th round, GM
Rozum of RUS and GM Laxman of ICF were ahead of
other competitors scoring 7 points each. They were
pursued by IM Visakh N R of TN, GM Dzhumaev of UZB
and FM Erigaisi Arjun of TEL each scoring 6½ points.
In the penultimate round GM Rozum defeated GM
Laxman to wrest the point and become sole leader
going into the final round. As all others who were on
6.5 points drew he was able to extend his lead to a
full 1-point margin into the final round. He had scored
8 points while 8 of his nearest contenders were on 7
points. Considering the variations possible in the tie-
break GM Rozum had to play even the last round with
full strength and it was not to be an easy cakewalk for
him to the title even after the 1 point lead as he was
going to face the top seed GM Gareyev Timur in the
final round.
In final round, GM Gareyev Timur of USA played very
strong game against GM Rozum of RUS and overpowered
him in all respects. FM Karthik Venkataraman of AP lost
to FM Erigaisi Arjun of TEL and GM Laxman R.R. of ICF
defeated IM Visakh N R of TN. When discussed with
GM Laxman, he said that, “I will be beaten or I will beat
but I will not try for a draw.” This attitude made him
successful and winner of this event.
GM Laxman won the championship whereas GM
Rozum was runner up and received Rs. 2,00,000 along
with glittering trophy and Rs. 1,50,000 respectively.
The prize distribution function was presided by Shri
D V Sundar, (VP, FIDE and AICF), the Chief Guest was
Shri Bharat Singh Chauhan, (Chairman, FIDE Technical
Commission (TEC), Chairman, Commonwealth Chess
Federation, Deputy President, Asian Chess Federation
and Hon. Secretary, AICF) along with Shri P Stephen
Balasamy, (General Secretary, TNSCA & Tournament
Director), Shri B Murugavel (VP, TNSCA & Organising
Secretary) and Shri R. Anantharam (Councillor, Arbiter
Commission, FIDE, Member, Qualification Commission,
FIDE, Member, Systems of Pairings and Programs, FIDE,
Chairman, Arbiters’ Commission, TNSCA & AICF and
Technical Director of this event). Personally I believe
because of visionary players turned administrators
like Bharat Singh Chauhan Sir, Dongre Ji, along with
Sundar Sir etc. that Indian chess scenario is growing
exponentially. The prizes were distributed by the hands
of Shri Bharat Singhji. I wish to express my sincere
thanks to our AICF, Central Council and all of them who
were directly or indirectly involved in this prestigious
international grandmaster event from India and
excellent support offered by them and TNSCA during
the event. I am also thankful to all my team of Arbiters
and Volunteers for their performance and support
during this event. It was a pleasure to be part of such
an important function. Once again thank you all.
The tournament was completed in a peaceful manner
and no appeals arose. Appeals Committee comprised
of GM Rozum Ivan of RUS, GM Deepan Chakkravarthy
J. Of IND, GM Tiviakov Sergei of NED, GM Nguyen Duc
Hoa of VIE and GM Czebe Attila of HUN as the main
members and IM Ameir Moheb of EGY and IM Llaneza
Vega Marcos of ESP as reserve members.
This event was really a stroke of luck for many players,
as many of them gained considerable ELO rating of 100
or above. Special mention has to be made of Sanjay
D G who gained ELO rating 154, Samant Aditya S who
gained ELO rating 142, WFM Lakshmi C & AIM Ashwin
Sairam both gained ELO rating 138.
Three norms were made in the event.Karthik
Venkatraman and Nikhil Dixit made IM norms and
Lakshmi C made WIM norm
Final standings:
Rk Name Club Pts
1 GM Laxman R.R. ICF 8
2 GM Rozum Ivan RUS 8
3 GM Gareyev Timur USA 8
4 GM Dzhumaev Marat UZB 8
5 FM Erigaisi Arjun TEL 8
6 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. ICF 7½
7 GM Pruijssers Roeland NED 7½
8 IM Sidhant Mohapatra ODI 7½
9 IM Rathnakaran K. KER 7½
10 IM Raghunandan K.S KAR 7½
11 GM Atalik Suat TUR 7½
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12 GM Nguyen Duc Hoa VIE 7½
13 GM Tukhaev Adam UKR 7
14 FM Karthik Venkataraman AP 7
15 IM Visakh N R TN 7
16 IM Llaneza Vega Marcos ESP 7
17 GM Solodovnichenko Yuri UKR 7
18 GM Tran Tuan Minh VIE 7
19 GM Horvath Adam HUN 7
20 IM Khusenkhojaev M TJK 7
21 IM Praveen Kumar C ICF 7
22 Ajay Karthikeyan TN 7
23 Ram S. Krishnan TN 7
24 IM R.Balasubramaniam TN 7
25 Dixit Nikhil MAH 6½
26 IM Hegde Ravi Gopal KAR 6½
27 GM Tiviakov Sergei NED 6½
28 GM Sivuk Vitaly UKR 6½
29 GM Czebe Attila HUN 6½
30 Muthaiah Al TN 6½
31 IM Nitin S. TN 6½
32 CM Kushagra Mohan TEL 6½
33 Tiwari Arjun RLY 6½
34 Arjun Kalyan TN 6½
35 IM Kandil Adham EGY 6½
36 Harikrishnan.A.Ra TN 6½
37 Barath Kalyan M TN 6½
38 GM Roy Chowdhury S RSPB 6½
39 FM Gajwa Ankit MP 6½
40 IM Deshmukh Anup MAH 6½
41 Phoobalan P. ICF 6½
42 IM Karthikeyan P. ICF 6½
43 Thanki Hemal Karsanji GUJ 6½
44 Sahil Tickoo HAR 6½
45 Joshi Govind Ballabh DEL 6½
46 IM Murali Krishnan B T TN 6½
47 Senthil Maran K TN 6½
48 Bala Kannamma P TN 6½
49 IM Shetty Rahul MAH 6½
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50 Nguyen Phuoc Tam VIE 6½
51 Dahale Atul MAH 6½
52 Vatsal Singhania JHAR 6½
53 Kumar S. TN 6
54 Saravana Krishnan P. TN 6
55 FM Hafiz Arif Abdul INA 6
56 CM Rajarishi Karthi TN 6
57 Mithil Ajgaonkar MAH 6
58 Samant Aditya S MAH 6
59 WFM Divya Deshmukh MAH 6
60 Sanjay D G TN 6
61 WIM Chitlange Sakshi MAH 6
62 Harshavardhan G B TN 6
63 Nagare Akhilesh MAH 6
64 Sumit Grover J&K 6
65 IM Ameir Moheb EGY 6
66 WFM Saranya J TN 6
67 WCM Mrudul Dehankar MAH 6
68 Harini S. TN 6
69 Nawin J J TN 6
70 Manu David S R TN 6
71 FM Maheswaran P. TN 6
72 Souhardo Basak WB 6
73 Srihari L PON 6
74 Alan Diviya Raj TN 6
75 CM Rohith Krishna S TN 6
76 AGM Srihari L R TN 6
77 Saksham Rautela UTT 6
78 Bharat Kumar Reddy P AP 6
79 Rohit S TN 6
80 Sanjay S Pillai KER 6
81 IM Gokhale Chandrashekhar MAH 6
82 A Sharadchandra Dalvi MAH 6
83 WFM Lakshmi C TN 5½
84 CM Bharath Subramaniyam H TN 5½
85 Pranav V TN 5½
86 Bhambure Shantanu MAH 5½
87 Mohite Ranveer MAH 5½
88 Hari R Chandran KER 5½
89 Balasubramaniam H TN 5½
90 Shubham DEL 5½
91 Vignesh B TN 5½
92 Pranesh M TN 5½
93 Singh S. Vikramjit MAN 5½
94 Balkishan A. KAR 5½
95 Mehta Naitik R GUJ 5½
96 Divya Lakshmi R TN 5½
97 Parthasarathy R KAR 5½
98 CM Nikhil Magizhnan TN 5½
99 Chittal Sairaj MAH 5½
100 CM Shahil Dey ASM 5½
101 Srikrishnan P TN 5½
102 AGM Yuvan Bharathi K S TN 5½
103 WIM Michelle Catherina P TN 5½
104 Kadam Om Manish MAH 5½
105 AGM Vignesh B TN 5½
106 Priyamvada Karamcheti AP 5½
107 Ghelani Dhairya MAH 5½
108 Shrija K M TN 5½
109 CM Tanmay Jain PUN 5½
110 Nayanikaa Muralidharan TN 5½
111 Triton Maxime FRA 5½
112 Nitin Shankar Madhu TN 5
113 AGM Tarun Kanyamarala IRL 5
114 AGM Jubin Jimmy KER 5
115 AGM Siddharth Jagadeesh SGP 5
116 Masango Spencer ZIM 5
117 Shelke Sankarsha MAH 5
118 Manish Anto Cristiano F TN 5
119 AGM Sa Kannan TN 5
120 Soham Datar MAH 5
121 Jayachandra Srinivas V TN 5
122 Sradhanjali Jena ODI 5
123 Sibi Visal R TN 5
124 Poorna Sri M.K TN 5
125 Hari Suresh KER 5
126 AGM Rathneesh R TN 5
127 Jagadish P KAR 5
128 Karthik Sai Ch AP 5
129 Lama Surbir NEP 5
130 Jaeel Atharva MAH 5
131 Shyam Kumar M TN 5
132 Kishore Kumar J TN 5
133 Tajane Ganesh MAH 5
134 Dinesh Rajan M TN 5
135 WFM Bommini Mounika A AP 5
136 Samdani Sahil Sagar GUJ 5
137 Kumthekar Shubham MAH 5
138 Ayushh Ravikumar TN 5
139 Sudarshan Bhat KAR 5
140 Dhrupad Kashyap ASM 5
141 Hiren K G TN 5
142 Swarnamala B TN 5
143 Vijay Anand M. TN 5
144 Anilkumar K.V. TN 5
145 Nitin M Pai KER 5
146 AyyappanP Santhana P TN 5
147 Raghavendra G KAR 5
148 Gokulraj K TN 4½
149 Anup Shankar R TN 4½
150 Thaga Sheriff M TN 4½
151 Godson Merlin E TN 4½
152 Kanishk S K TN 4½
153 Karthik K KER 4½
154 FM Fadi Marko EGY 4½
155 Mota Pankit MAH 4½
156 WCM Jyothsna L TN 4½
157 Patil Ketan MAH 4½
158 Shetye Siddhali MAH 4½
159 AIM Trisha Kanyamarala IRL 4½
160 AGM Vignesh N TN 4½
161 Rohit Vassan S TN 4½
162 AIM Ashwin Sairam TN 4½
163 Tamojit Chakraborty WB 4½
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164 Negi Virender Singh DEL 4½
165 Benasir M TN 4½
166 Thamaraiselvi P TN 4½
167 Harsh Suresh TN 4½
168 Dinesh Kumar J TN 4½
169 Harshad S TN 4½
170 Krishna K R TN 4½
171 Samyak L TN 4½
172 Raghul Saro S TN 4½
173 Madhavan R Munjanattu KER 4½
174 Avinash Ramesh TN 4½
175 Kaustubh Balaji TN 4½
176 Sannidhanam Anurag AUS 4½
177 Thiyagarajan Tamilselvi TN 4½
178 Larmet Nino FRA 4½
179 WCM Vishwa Vasnawala GUJ 4½
180 Honnesh Sankaran TN 4½
181 Mithun Raj A TN 4½
182 Muthu P TN 4½
183 Shreyash Shuvam P ODI 4½
184 Jack Samuel TN 4½
185 Hari Madhavan N B TN 4
186 Thrish Karthik TN 4
187 WFM Tarini Goyal CHD 4
188 Arnav Maheshwari TN 4
189 Sanjay Thiruvengadam TN 4
190 Patil Harshal MAH 4
191 Chaithanyaa K G TN 4
192 Tarimo Didik Widiarso INA 4
193 Shadhursshaan R TN 4
194 Vinay R Jumani TN 4
195 Abhay Bandewar MP 4
196 Mokashi Rohit MAH 4
197 Wolf Walter GER 4
198 Arhan Chethan Anand KAR 4
199 Ilamparthi A R TN 4
200 Rakshith Srinivasan KAR 4
201 Rohith S TN 4
AICF CHRONICLE
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Indian composition wins
honours in WCCT
In the final award for the 10th World
Chess Composition Tournament organ-
ized under the aegis of World Federation
for Chess Composition three-movers of
C.G.S.Narayanan won the 8th and 10th
place. The theme: In a direct mate in 3
moves in the same variation the black
defensive motive and the white response
are of the same tactical nature. For ex-
ample, if Black is making a square evac-
uation defence then White is making a
square evacuation on second move. Black
unpin is replied by white unpin and so on.
C. G. S. Narayanan (India)
8th-9th place,10 WCCT 2016-17
Mate in three moves
Key 1.Qc6! ( 2.Rg4+ Kf5 3.Qg6)
1…R(7)xe5/R(3)xe5/Qxe5
2.Bd6/Qd6/Qc7
The problem features black pinning ver-
sus white pinning. Three different black
defences pinning WRg5. In reply three
different white moves pin the black pieces
which pin WRg5. Two pin mates including
threat occur in each variation. One of the
judging countries Croatia observes:”One
of the heaviest motives for execution, the
direct pinning, is shown in three varia-
tions (with two pin-mates in each); those
by WQ are nicely differentiated.
Captain All Bengal State Amateur FIDE Rated Tournament 2018 (Below 2000),Kolkata
Rahul Krishna Viswanathan wins title
by Amit Kumar Biswas, Chief Arbiter
C
aptain All Bengal State Amateur FIDE
Rated Chess Tournament 2018 (Below
2000) was held at ICCR, Kolkata from
22nd Jan to 25th Jan 2018. 242 players
which included 154 International rated play-
ers from different parts of the West Bengal
participated in this mega chess event which
was spread over four days.The event was
held under FIDE rules with a time control of
60 minutes and 30 seconds increment from
move 1. Digital Chess Clocks were used in
all the boards.
The total prize fund of the event was
Rs.1,00,000. The Tournament was played un-
der Swiss System with 8 rounds and had Arka
Sengupta of Kolkata as the top seed. With
Round one starting on time and the play-
ers went into their business mode from the
start itself in the beautiful venue, which was
provided by 64 SQUARES and Bengal Chess
Association. The tournament progressed on
expected lines as seeded players registered
comfortable victories on earlier part of the
event. Suddenly during the 6th round seven
players jointly lodged a petition against one
of the players named Nirmalya Bose, that
he uses his mobile phone unethically in the
toilet. Immediately me along with Biswanath
Banerjee, organiser and Deputy Chief Arbiter
of this tournament and FA Mrinal Ghosh look
after the matter and caught him red handed.
Nirmalya Bose confessed of using stockfish
in his mobile and we checked that the board
position and the postion shown in his mobile
was the same. We suspended him immedi-
ately from the tournament and sent a mail
to Mr. Atanu Lahiri , Jt. Sec, AICF and Hon.
Sec, Bengal Chess Association for immediate
action.
Finally 13 years old Rahul Krishna Viswana-
than of Lakshmipat Singhania School bagged
the Championship crown along with Rs.
10,000/- and a beautiful champions trophy.
Ambarish Sharma emerged the 1st Runner
up to pocket a cash prize of Rs. 8000/- while
Ayush Jaha finished as 2nd runner up and
bagged Rs. 6000/- in his purse.
Earlier in a colourful Opening ceremony, Mr.
Atanu Lahiri, Jt. Sec, AICF & Hon. Sec, BCA,
Mr. Amar Roy , Vice President of BCA, Mr.
Partha Das, Jt. Sec. Of BCA , Mr.Rajesh Raja
, CAB Official, Mr. Biswarup Pal,an eminent
business personality, were present in the
dais.
Closing ceremony was held in a befitting
manner. Chief guest was Mr. Lakhotia, Pres-
ident BMA Stainless Ltd, our Title Sponsor ,
IM Sayantan Das , Mr. Amar Roy & Mr. Atin
Sengupta, Vice President BCA, Official from
Friends Sporting Union were the other dig-
nitaries in the podium and gave away the
prizes to the winner.
I should appreciate the 64 SQUARES commit-
tee & BMA Stainless Ltd. , the Title Sponsor
of this event for their wonderful support and
also to the supporting staff specially Mrs.
Arpita Banerjee, Mrs. Sanchita Ghosh, Mr.
Arkajit Pal, Mr. Subrata Sarkar & Mr. Sayak
Banerjee who worked with us for the past
7 days. A very good team of arbiters along
with a group of dedicated officials made the
AICF CHRONICLE
13
FEBRUARY 2018
tournament successful. Finally I must thank 37 Parikshit Majumder 5½ Ganesan Memorial FIDE Rated Open Chess Tournament,Nagercoil
64 SQUARES and Mr. Atanu Lahiri , Secretary 38 Aritra Ganguly 5½
of Bengal Chess Association , for having given 39 Soham Dey 5½ Balasubramaniam wins Ganesan Memorial
me the chance to work as a Chief arbiter for 40 Mandal Ardhendu 5½ by Winston, Chief Arbiter

T
this wonderful tournament. 41 Deep Dutta 5½
Final ranking 42 Mangaldeep Mitra 5 he Ganesan Memorial FIDE Rated Open players, for their participation. Followed by
43 Shambo Dutta 5 Chess Tournament being organized by that address, Secretary of KKDCA, Mr. A.F.
Rk Name Pts
44 Aryan Bandyopadhyay 5 KKDCA commenced with a flying start Rex thanked specifically the participants,
1 Rahul Krishna V 7
45 Rohan Nag Chowdhury 5 from 26th Jan 2018 to 29th Jan 2018.Four parents, coaches, managers, arbiters and
2 Ambarish Sharma 7
46 Sankalan Shah 5 days of enthusiasm and enjoyment were other dignitaries. Subsequently, Prizes were
3 Ayush Jha 6½
47 Prasenjit Das 5 experienced by the promising players on ac- distributed.
4 Akash Tiwari 6½
48 Anish Rooj 5 count of all the challenges across the chess Final standings:
5 Shouvik Kar 6½
49 Mayukh Chatterjee 5 board and intellectual battles amongst them. Rk Name Pts
6 Goutam De 6½
50 Saikat Saha 5 1 R. Balasubramaniam IM 7½
7 Sayantan Mukherjee 6½
51 Arijit Ghosh 5 This 8 round Swiss System, Classical format 2 Sathya Giri V 7
8 Dilip Das 6
52 Zaveri Chatterjee 5 – FIDE Rated Open Chess Tournament started 3 Sivakumar C. 6½
9 Mullick Saikat 6
53 Debarpita Ghosh 5 with an inauguration function, presided by 4 Genish Prakash J 6½
10 Sambarta Banerjee 6
54 Aritrya Pal 5 Mr. Ephrame, IA Joint-Secretary of TNSCA. 5 Dharmaraj P. 6½
11 Samip Roy 6
55 Amit Kumar Santra 5 International Arbiter Mr.Winston, Chief Arbi- 6 Mani Bharathy 6½
12 Sumit Roy 6
56 Pratyay Chowdhury 5 ter welcomed the gathering. Dr. Suresh Pre- 7 Bharkavi S 6½
13 Mukherjee Dyutimoy 6
57 Sanjay Kumar Sadhukhan 5 mil Kumar, Principal of Stella Mary’s College 8 Chandra Sekharan A P 6½
14 Rupam Mukherjee 6
58 Chatterjee Rudrani Charan 5 of Engineering, was the Chief Guest of the 9 Achaya Vijayan 6½
15 Ananya Bothra 6
59 Abijit Mistry 5 ceremony. Secretary of KKDCA, Mr. Rex, de- 10 Kannan R. 6
16 Roy Pallabi 6
60 Supriya Guru 5 livered the vote of thanks. Players Technical 11 Ram Kumar G M 6
17 Debarghya Samanta 6
61 Saanket Das 5 Meeting was conducted and followed by this, 12 Muralidharan R. 6
18 Atri Chattopadhyay 6
62 Sujeet Chakraborty 5 first round, began at 11.a.m on Friday, the 13 Rebecca Jesumarian 6
19 Satya Sekhar Mitra 5½
63 Anjishnu Mondal 5 previous week. 14 Unas K.A. 6
20 Basak Bishal 5½
64 Raghuraj Pratap Singh 5 15 Athish S 6
21 Dhritabrata Kundu 5½
65 Madhav Patel 5 219 players from various parts of TamilNadu 16 John Christopher 6
22 Avijaan Roy Choudhury 5½
66 Tanmoy Roy Chowdhury 5 and from our neighbor state Kerala have 17 Nithyan S 6
23 Samar Chatterjee 5½
67 Surajit Mondal 5 taken part in this tournament. 18 Ashvin Venkat G 6
24 Aditya Bikram Paul 5½
68 Rayudu Sai Charan Raj 5 19 Girish G 6
25 Shaati Majumder 5½
69 Debapriyo Saha 5 International Master, Ramnathan Balasubra- 20 Arulkumar S 6
26 Agnivo Ghosh 5½
70 Rwitik Chakraborty 5 maniam from ICF, Chennai has clinched the 21 Ananthapadmanabh D V 5½
27 Soham Saha 5½
71 Nirmalya Bose 4½ Winners title and has become this year 2018’s 22 Vijayaraj R. 5½
28 Pramit Chanda 5½
72 Subhabrata Roy 4½ Ganesan Memorial Champion. 23 Vinoth M 5½
29 Eshan Bhattacharjee 5½
73 Srijit Some 4½ The prize-distribution function took place 24 Sanjeev M 5½
30 Shinjini Sengupta 5½
74 Ayan Pal 4½ on the final day, the 29th Jan 2018 at about 25 Manikanda Prabhu B V 5½
31 Anubhab Gupta 5½
75 Soumen Mondal 4½ 6.p.m in the evening. Prizes were given by 26 Sanjay Sreekandan 5½
32 Diya Chowdhury 5½
76 Anushka Gupta 4½ the Chief Guest, President of KKDCA, CA. 27 Arnold P 5½
33 Abhirup Das 5½
77 Aditya Chatterjee 4½ Kulathooran Pillai, who presided over the 28 Ramachandran S M 5½
34 Anirudha Menon 5½
78 Shankhodip De 4½ ceremony. After the Chief Arbiter’s report, 29 Priya Varshini T 5½
35 Shounak Mazumder 5½
79 Arka Sengupta 4½ Mr. Ephrame, Joint-Secretary of TNSCA, 30 Sivaram Sivarajan 5½
36 Sourabh Dutta 5½
delivered a special address and thanked the 31 Lekshanth M 5½

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 IIFL 3RD Mumbai Open International Grandmaster Chess Tournament, Mumbai
Maghsoodloo Parhan of Iran wins at Mumbai
by IA S.Paul Arokia Raj
315 players drawn from 23 national fed-
erations were in the fray vying for the top
honours in the IIFL 3RD Mumbai Open In-
ternational Grandmaster Chess Tournament
organized by Indian Chess School at Mount
Litera School International , Mumbai. This
included 18 GMs, 2 WGMs, 20 IMs and 11
WIMs apart from handful of FIDE masters
which enhanced the norm chances. The ad-
ditional highlight of the event was adopting
accelerated pairing for the first two rounds
which paved way for the higher seeds to
meet title holders in the very beginning of
the tournament. The event was played in a
sophisticated hall in Basement 3 with 114
games shown as live.
The fact that the leadership baton kept on
changing till half way mark of the tournament
only proved that there was always a war of
nerves among the top contenders. However
the leadership issue was resolved when the
18 year old GM Maghsoodloo Parhan of Iran
emerged as the sole leader after accounting
for talented youngster FM V.S.Rathnavel in
the sixth round. In the successive two rounds
he could defeat two Indian GMs in a row. The
causalities include GM Deepan Chakravarthy
and the top seed Abhijeet Gupta. In the ninth
and the final round Maghsoodloo settled for a
draw against the formidable Italian GM David
Alberto to emerge as the straight champion
with 8 points. In a two way tie for the second
spot David Alberto with 7.5 points relegated
fellow GM Gareye Timur to the second spot.
The third placed GM Timur also called the
Blindfold Chess King performed a Blindfold
Simultaneous match against 12 players win-
ning 9 and drawing with 3 during middle of
the tournament.
AICF CHRONICLE
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FEBRUARY 2018
23 IM Sidhant Mohapatra IND 6½
24 Bharat Kumar Reddy P IND 6½
25 Pranav V IND 6½
26 Muthaiah Al IND 6½
Before the beginning of final round, as many 27 GM Rahman Ziaur BAN 6½
as six players were in the race for securing 28 FM Mitrabha Guha IND 6½
their maiden norms. However only two could 29 GM Czebe Attila HUN 6½
salvage a norm by obtaining the requisite 30 Saurabh Anand IND 6
result. They are Erigaisi Arjun (Telengana) 31 FM Rathanvel V S IND 6
and Divya Deshmukh (Maharstra) with both 32 FM Fadi Marko EGY 6
securing the maiden IM and IWM norm re- 33 GM Deviatkin Andrei RUS 6
spectively. 34 IM Nitin S. IND 6
The icing on the cake of this week long IM Kandil Adham EGY 6
Mumbai chess festival was the simultaneous 36 FM Sauravh Khherdekar IND 6
display given by the World Rapid champion 37 WFM Divya Deshmukh IND 6
Viswananthan Anand against selected 20 38 IM Deshmukh Anup IND 6
players who was also the guest of honour for 39 WIM Srija Seshadri IND 6
the closing ceremony. 40 IM Rathnakaran K. IND 6
41 IM Girish A. Koushik IND 6
Final ranking 42 IM D Bala Chandra Prasad IND 6
Rk Name FED Pts 43 Tiwari Arjun IND 6
1 GM Maghsoodloo Parham IRI 8 44 Dixit Nikhil IND 6
2 GM David Alberto ITA 7½ 45 Kunal M. IND 6
3 GM Gareyev Timur USA 7½ 46 Kulkarni Vinayak IND 6
4 GM Deepan ChakkravarthyJ. IND 7 47 IM Kulkarni Vikramaditya IND 6
5 GM Atalik Suat TUR 7 48 Goswami Vedant IND 6
6 GM Tukhaev Adam UKR 7 49 Mithil Ajgaonkar IND 6
7 IM Yeoh Li Tian MAS 7 50 WIM Pratyusha Bodda IND 6
8 GM Gupta Abhijeet IND 7 51 Singh S. Vikramjit IND 6
9 IM Khusenkhojaev Md TJK 7 52 FM Raja Rithvik R IND 6
10 GM Nguyen Duc Hoa VIE 7 53 Rakshitta Ravi IND 6
11 GM Swapnil S. Dhopade IND 7 54 Shiva Pavan TSharma U IND 6
12 GM Tran Tuan Minh VIE 7 55 CM Nikhil Magizhnan IND 6
13 Sammed Jaykumar Shete IND 7 56 CM Aditya Mittal IND 5½
14 GM Horvath Adam HUN 6½ 57 CM Karthik Kumar Pradeep IND 5½
15 GM Rozum Ivan RUS 6½ 58 Pradeep Kumar R A IND 5½
16 FM Erigaisi Arjun IND 6½ 59 FM Shailesh Dravid IND 5½
17 GM Shyam Sundar M. IND 6½ 60 Nguyen Phuoc Tam VIE 5½
18 Patil Pratik IND 6½ 61 IM Harsha Bharathakoti IND 5½
19 IM Karthikeyan P. IND 6½ 62 FM Deshpande Aniruddha IND 5½
20 IM Ameir Moheb EGY 6½ 63 Koustav Chatterjee IND 5½
21 Debarshi Mukherjee IND 6½ 64 CM Gukesh D IND 5½
22 GM Barua Dibyendu IND 6½ 65 CM Rohith Krishna S IND 5½
66 Dahale Atul IND 5½
67 Samant Aditya S IND 5½
68 Lokesh N. IND 5½
69 Manush Shah IND 5½
70 Dileep Kumar R IND 5½
71 IM Abu Sufian Shakil BAN 5½
72 WFM Jishitha D IND 5½
73 Hari Madhavan N B IND 5½
74 IM Wohl Aleksandar H. AUS 5½
75 Balkishan A. IND 5½
76 IM Udeshi Aditya IND 5½
77 Hari Suresh IND 5½
78 IM Swayams Mishra IND 5½
79 Moksh Amit Doshi IND 5½
80 Balasubramaniam H IND 5½
81 Harshavardhan G B IND 5½
82 CM Mendonca Leon Luke IND 5½
83 FM Phadke Sohan IND 5½
84 WGM Swati Ghate IND 5½
85 Gaikwad Siddhant IND 5½
86 Ajay Karthikeyan IND 5½
87 Bala Kannamma P IND 5½
88 Bhambure Shantanu IND 5½
89 Thanki Hemal Karsanji IND 5½
90 Nagare Akhilesh IND 5½
91 Hriday Dharmesh Sheth IND 5½
92 Bragadeeshwaran C IND 5½
93 CM Tanmay Jain IND 5½
94 WIM Michelle Catherina P IND 5
95 WFM Varshini V IND 5
96 Om Kharola IND 5
97 Lye Lik Zang MAS 5
98 Aditya Guhagarkar IND 5
99 Vrandesh Parekh IND 5
100 Aradhya Garg IND 5
101 CM Shahil Dey IND 5
102 IM Shashikant Kutwal IND 5
103 Sarvesh Kumar A IND 5
104 Chittal Sairaj IND 5
105 Chakravarthy Y V K IND 5
106 Kumar Gaurav IND 5
107 WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty IND 5
108 Siddharth Sabharishankar IND 5
AICF CHRONICLE
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FEBRUARY 2018
 Karipaparambil KC Sebastian Mem.Fide Rated Tournament below 1500, Kottayam.
Debargha Daw wins at Kottayam
by IA L.R. Bhuvanaa Sai, Chief Arbiter
D S
ebargah Daw of West Bengal won Ka-
ripaparambil KC Sebastian Memorial
Below 1500 fide chess Tournament
here at Benjamin Bailey Hall Kottayam on
28th January 2018. 3 days event started
on 26th January with 332 participants from
14 states and 2 union territories (Delhi and
Pondicherry). 256 players were rated players.
The total prize fund of 6, 50,000 was split
into 30 main prizes and 25 prizes for rating
category. 40 glittering cups were given to
various age categories.
Seeded players sailed smoothly for first 2
rounds. Top seeded player Gopinath of Tamil-
nadu lost to 10 years old boy Aditya A Chul-
likad of Kerala at the end of 3rd round. 31
players shared the lead with full points after
4th round. Shadhursshaan R of Tamilnadu,
Unrated players Bit Irom and Asem Jiban
Singh of Manipur showed their better per-
formance. 11 years old boy Shadhursshaan
of Tamilnadu and Debargha Daw of West
Bengal jointly shared the lead with 6 points
each at the end of 6th round. The clash be-
tween these two leaders ended in peace and
maintained their lead, Susheel Reddy of AP
joined with these two leaders with 6.5 points
each after 7th round. Susheel Reddy lost to
Shadhursshaan in 36 moves. Debargha Daw
beat Kamble Dipankar of Maharashtra on 2nd
table after the penultimate round.
In the final round Debargha Daw beat Es-
waran P of Kerala and won this tournament.
He bagged Rs. one lakh cash award. Shad-
hursshaan and Manikuttan K P were in 2nd &
3rd place with 8 points each. They received
Rs.75, 000 & Rs.50, 000 cash award respec-
AICF CHRONICLE
18
FEBRUARY 2018
KKCA 2nd All India FIDE Rated Chess Tournament (Below 1600),Coimbatore
Kathiravan wins at Coimbatore
by IA Ganesh Babu S
tively. Mr. Rajesh, Secretary, Chess Associ-
Kathiravan of Tamil Nadu won the KKCA score with a cash award of Rs.30,000 and a
ation Kerala and Mr. Rajendran, Secretary of
2nd All India FIDE Rated Chess Tourna- glittering trophy.
Trivandrum district distributed the prizes to
ment Below 1600 organized by Kovai
the winners. The tournament concluded in a
Kids Chess Academy. The 3 day event was Prizes were distributed by Mr. Krishnamurthy
grand manner.
held from 29th to 31st December at B.M.N President ,KKCA. Dignitaries present on the
Kalyana Mandabam, Coimbatore. dais Mr. V Vijayaraghavan, Seretary, CDCA.
Final standings:
Mr. Santhosh, MD, BMN Kalyana Mandabam,
Rk Name Pts
The Prize fund of Rs.2,99,000 was split into Mrs.Jayalaksmi, Mrs.Vinodhini Santhosh,
1 Debargha Daw 8½
20 Main Prizes, 43 Special Cash Prizes in var- Mr.Mohamed Yousuff, Joint Secretary, CDCA,
2 Shadhursshaan R 8
ious rating categories & 60 Trophies for age Ms.Vidya, Secretary, KKCA. Mr. Krishnamur-
3 Manikuttan K P 8
categories. The winner gets Rs.30, 000 and thy President, KKCA delivered the vote of
4 Jayakumar P K 7½
a glittering trophy. The Event attracted 402 thanks.
5 Wagh Varun 7½
players from 8 states and 2 Union Territories
6 Nagasri Saikanth 7½
out of which 201 players were internationally I thank all the Players, Parents & the co-ar-
7 Susheel Reddy P 7½
rated players and 292 players were in the age biters for their kind co-operation to run this
8 Eswaran P 7
group of Under-15. event successfully. I Thank All India Chess
9 Mahendar B 7
Federation, Tamil Nadu State Chess Associ-
10 Thomas Valiyaprambil 7
In the first two rounds seeded players sailed ation, Coimbatore District Chess Association
11 Sheth Shemal Ketan 7
smoothly. Top seed Rahul Krishnan of Tamil & Kovai Kids Chess Academy for appointing
12 Aragonda Mohan 7
Nadu lost to Prabeesh of Kerala, while the me as a chief arbiter for this event.
13 Aman Kumar 7
3rd seeded player Shanmugasundaram was Final ranking
14 Ramanan M 7
defeated by Soundariya Lakshmi in the 3rd Rk Name Pts
15 Anubhav Patel 7
round. 11 players were leading the tourna- 1 Kathiravan S 8
16 Umesh P 7
ment at the end of 4th round. 2 Hiridik Rajendran 8
17 Prathapachandran K P 7
3 Thanga Manickam M 8
18 Kamble Dipankar 7
Senthil Kumar and Kathiravan of Tamilnadu 4 Ranjith Kalaiyarasan 7½
19 Karthikeyan G 7
joinly lead the tournament with 6.0 points 5 Senthil Kumar E 7½
20 Venkatesan B 6½
in the 6th round. The clash between the 6 Mohamed Yousuff A 7½
21 Kavi Samrat P 6½
leaders ended in favour of Kathiravan who 7 Dharshan Venkatachalam 7½
22 Saravanakumar T S 6½
emerged as sole leader at the end of 7th 8 Tejaswi R 7½
23 Sudheesh M A 6½
round. Hridik Rajendran of Tamilnadu who 9 Lakshmi Raja Perumal K 7
24 Loka Prakash A S 6½
was in the second spot defeated Kathiravan in 10 Sriram K 7
25 Devi Dayal Singh 6½
the 8th rounds to take the sole lead with 7.5 11 Devaraja G 7
26 Senthil Kumar N 6½
points.Hridik was held to a draw by Mohamed 12 Arnav Agrawal 7
27 Kavya. S 6½
Yousuff on the top board. Hridik & Thanga 13 Sivaa G M 7
28 Rishi R 6½
Manickam tied for the 1st place with Kathi- 14 Midhun Kumar M A 7
29 Prasanth K V 6½
ravan who won the final round game against 15 Abirami S 7
30 Samson D Cruz J 6½
Sriram, with 8.0 points each. Kathiravan 16 Muralishankar J T 7
31 Laiju Ct 6½
won the tournament with a better tiebreak 17 Yuvaraju K 7
AICF CHRONICLE
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FEBRUARY 2018
18 Harsha R 7 61 Magesh M 6 3rd master mind open fide rated chess tournament, Pammal
19 Senthil Kumar S 7 62 Joshua Anto A 6
20 Jagan V 6½ 63 Allen S David 6
Balasubramanian wins title
21 Umeshwaran S A 6½ 64 Devaraj L 6 by R.Srivatsan, Chief Arbiter

T
22 Kaushik G Iyer 6½ 65 Narenthiran M 6
he 3RD Master Mind Open FIDE Rated phen Balasamy, Hon. Secretary, Tamilnadu
23 Nirupam Gogoi 6½ 66 Murugesan S 6
Chess Tournament organised by Master State Chess Association was the Chief Guest
24 Chinnadurai S. 6½ 67 Ram Satvat J 6
Mind Chess Academy was held at Sri and distributed the prizes. Mr. M. Muthu
25 Nirmal L 6½ 68 Anantha Krishna Nayak M 6
Ganesh Thirumana Mandapam, Pozhichallur Kumar, Jt. Secretary & Secreatary, Kanchi
26 Vinoth Kumar M 6½ 69 Kumaran Sachidhanandam 6
Main Road, Pammal, Chennai - 600075 from DCA, Mr. P.R. Dinesh Kumar, Senior Advocate,
27 Shanmugasundaram G. 6½ 70 Nandish V S 6
27th to 31st December 2017. Four hundred Chennai High Court were also present and
28 John Christopher 6½ 71 Vijayakumar S 6
and thirty six players including 286 rated distributed the prizes.. Mr. S. Chandrasekar,
29 Binu Sebastian 6½ 72 Balasubramanian V 6
players from four Federations viz. India, Retd. Accounts Officer, SIDCO welcomed the
30 Jariya Harsh 6½ 73 Ramesh M Rajan 6
Malaysia, USA and England and from 13 gathering and Mr. P. Palaniappan proposed
31 Vishnu Ram M 6½ 74 Sujith K J 6
States viz. Andhra Pradesh, Bihar, Jharkhand, vote of thanks. The event went on very well
32 Sasikumar.S 6½ 75 Arivarasu K P 6
Karnataka, Kerala, Maharashtra, Madhya without any problem.
33 Kannan R 6½ 76 Anish A 6
Pradesh, Odisha, Pondicherry, Telengana,
34 Kalidass C. 6½ 77 Saideepesh M R 6
Tamilnadu, Uttar Pradesh and West Bengal I was assisted by the team of arbiters-Deputy
35 Midhru Jayan K 6½ 78 Farhan M 6
were participated in the five days ten round Chief Arbiter IA P. Palaniappan, FA C.Na-
36 Domnic Xavier R S 6½ 79 Alexander P 6
Swiss tournament. International Master R. tarajan,FA,C.R.Ramesh Babu,FA,A. Gowri
37 Sadi Ram Swarup Reddy 6½ 80 Tarunkrishna C B 6
Balasubramaniam was the Top seed and Shankar, NA S. Balambhal, NA R.M. Valliam-
38 Vishnu Bharani S 6½ 81 Ethan V Johnson 5½
FM M. Vinoth Kumar the second seed in the mai, NA S. Visalakshi and NA A. Rajkumar.
39 Arunachalam S 6½ 82 Muthukrishnan S 5½
tournament.
40 Benatin Britto Hamlet Raj 6½ 83 Kavin Karthik Velmurugan 5½
Final Ranking
41 Sharan Krishnan 6½ 84 Abdul Gafoor A Rasheed 5½
Top seed R. Balasubramaniam became a sole Rk. Name Pts.
42 Jeremiah S V 6½ 85 Ajithkumar Murugan 5½
leader with slender half point lead with 6 1 IM R Balasubramaniam 9
43 Ashvin Venkat G 6½ 86 Sarveshwaran V 5½
points and the end of the 6th round. At the 2 FM Vinoth Kumar M. 8.5
44 Raja A 6 87 Siddharth Sathish 5½
end of the penultimate round it was a three 3 Manu David Suthandram R 8.5
45 Rajkumar S 6 88 Tamilarasan B 5½
way tie with 8 points between R. Balasubra- 4 Kumar S. 8.5
46 Aravinth Shanmugam S 6 89 Suresh P 5½
maniam, M. Vinoth Kumar and Manu David 5 Keerthivasan K 8
47 Prabeesh K 6 90 Rakshitha P 5½
Suthandram. In the final round Balasubra- 6 Harini S. 8
48 Chandrasoodan Chinnaiah 6 91 Darell Walldo Jude H 5½
maniam defeated R. Abdul Azeem and be- 7 Thamaraiselvi P 8
49 Kishore Dev S 6 92 Kishore M 5½
came a winner with of this third edition with 8 Rathina Sabapathi A 8
50 Yashavishree N 6 93 Anand Selvarajan 5½
9 points. The game between Vinoth Kumar 9 Rahul Bharadwaj B 8
51 Arjun Balamurali 6 94 Ahalya A 5½
and Manu David ended in a draw and they fin- 10 Arjun C Krishnamachari 7.5
52 Reno Noel 6 95 Sasmith A Suvarna 5½
ished second and third position respectively. 11 Karthick Narayanan S 7.5
53 Vishwa Dheep D N 6 96 Kishor Kumar G 5½
12 Hemanth Raam 7.5
54 Kasi Viswanathan N 6 97 Abenav M 5½
Earlier this event was inaugurated by Smt. 13 Abdul Azeem R 7.5
55 Ajay D 6 98 Vinodh C 5½
Malathi Balakrishnan, Director, Sankara 14 Aravind K 7.5
56 Thulasingam V 6 99 Vijayaraghavan G 5½
Group of Educational Institutions along with 15 Ayyappan P Santhana Prabu 7.5
57 Yatharth Jain 6 100 Karthi R 5½
Mr. Nandakumar, Secretary, Tamilnadu Pri- 16 Abinandhan R 7.5
58 Rudrashish Chakraborty 6 101 Saravanan R 5½
mary, Matric and CBSE School association 17 Varsha C R 7.5
59 Rathish R 6 102 Devin S V 5½
on 27th December 2017. 18 Swapnil Raj 7.5
60 Rajiv A 6 103 Adhithya A 5½
At the Prize distribution function, Mr. P. Ste- 19 Gupta Bhola Nath 7.5

AICF CHRONICLE AICF CHRONICLE

20 21
FEBRUARY 2018 FEBRUARY 2018
 18th North Eastern States FIDE Rating Chess Championship, Shillong
Rahul Gurung of Sikkim wins
by Debasish Barua IA, Chief Arbiter
T
he 18th North Eastern States FIDE
Rating Chess Championship had been
held at Shillong , Meghalaya from 29th
January to 3rd February 2018 and ended with
great success. Shillong is exclusively called
the queen in the ‘abode of clouds’, and it
truly keeps up to this name. The place is the
epitome of serenity with modernity. Till the
present day, the place forms to be the hub
of the North-East.
The Inaguration function was held at Don
Bosco Hall, Laitumukhram, Shillong on 29th
January 2018 at 2 p.m. The Programme was
inaugurated by Smti M. War Nongbri, IAS ,
Director, Sports and Youth Affairs Meghalaya.
Shri Boney J. Kharbani , President MCA pre-
sided over the function. Among other dis-
tinguished guests, there were Th. B. Singh
Secretary, MCA & Joint Secretary AICF, Shri
Debasish Barua, International Arbiter and
Shri Gautam Chakravarty, Vice- President,
MCA etc.
The number of participants was 212 including
115 Fide rated players. There were 9 rounds
of play . There were players from North East
States namely Assam, Arunachal Pradesh,
Manipur, Meghalaya, Mizoram, Sikkim and
Tripura participated in this tournament.
. co-operation which attributed to the smooth
The playing venue was excellent with good
and comfortable table and seating arrange-
ments, sufficient lighting, all necessary
amenities like pure drinking water, sufficient
toilets etc.During the playing session, the
Organisers provided refreshments to all
players. There was no major dispute/protest
regarding the conduct of the tournament.
AICF CHRONICLE
22
FEBRUARY 2018
The tournament’s success with such a huge
number of players proves that the future of
chess is in safe hands.
The champion of the tournament was Ra-
hul Gurung of Sikkim with 9 points and he
was awarded cash prize of Rs 30,000 with a
trophy. Sikkim was proud to bag the trophy
for the first time. Runner’s up position was
bagged by Trailokya Nanda of Assam, with
8.5points was awarded Rs 20,000. The third
position was taken by Tamang Thendup
of Sikkim with 8.5points and received Rs
15,000. The players of Meghalaya also played
well. The Meghalaya Chess Association in-
spired the players by awarding a number of
consolation prizes.
Sri Gautam Chakravarty Vice-President of
MCA presided over the prize distribution
ceremony along with Sri L. Warjrj Chief
Guest, Ex. Engineer., All India Radio, Shillong,
Shri Boney J Kharbani, President, MCA, Shri
B. Singh, Secretary MCA ,& Joint Secretary
were the other distinguished guests.
The organizers, officials, arbiters and volun-
teers worked whole-heartedly and sincerely
to make the tournament successful. The
players and guardians also extended full
running of the tournament. In my opinion,
both the events were greatly successful.
Final ranking lead. But the task ahead was a difficult one. Korobov was pitted against Dmitry Gordievsky,
Rk Name Pts a 2622 rated grandmaster, and had the black pieces.
1 Gurung Rahul 9
2 Trailokya Nanda 8½ Korobov opened with the Gruenfeld Defence and as was required of him, threw all but the
3 Tamang Thendup 8½ kitchen sink at his opponent to carve out a win. But Gordievsky, who had a slightly better
Cont.on p.27
Vidit wins Challengers
Qualifies for Masters in TATA Steel Chess
The final round of Tata Steel Chess was a
relatively calm one for the leaders in both
categories. With the white pieces, Vidit Gu-
jrathi avoided any mishap in a Queen's Gam-
bit against Jorden van Foreest and agreed to
a 24 move draw in the Challengers. This put
the onus of winning on Korobov, who was in
the run for the title. The Ukrainian GM failed
and went down against Dmitry Gordievsky.
In the Masters, leaders, Magnus Carlsen and
Anish Giri both settled for solid draws against
Sergey Karjakin and Wei Yi respectively, forcing
a playoff which the reigning world champion
won quite comfortably.
For Indian fans, the final round of the Challengers group of Tata Steel Chess piqued more
interest than the Masters. With his win in the penultimate round, Vidit Gujrathi had broken
the long-standing deadlock between him and Anton Korobov for the top spot and was on
the brink of clinching the title. A win would have sealed the win once and for all, depriving
Korobov of even a mathematical chance of making a comeback. A draw, on the other hand,
would have forced the Ukrainian to go for broke. Vidit Gujrathi chose the latter.
In his game against Jorden van Foreest in the final round, Vidit chose to go with his usual
Queen’s pawn opening with the white pieces to which the Dutch teenager responded with a
Queen’s Gambit accepted. Queens were traded quite early in the game and soon an exchange
of a pair of rooks followed. By the 24th move, Vidit successfully exchanged another pair of
rooks and made it clear to his opponent that splitting points was more or less inevitable.
The two signed the truce immediately.
After the game, Vidit said, “Today, I thought I should play a bit but not risk too much. That
is why I went for this endgame. He (Van Foreest) messed up in the opening, somehow, and
I got a very comfortable position. But, at some point in the endgame, I missed one tactic
and allowed him to liquidate after which, in the final position, I had absolutely no chance.”
With Vidit’s game drawn, the onus was now on Korobov to win his game and catch up in the
23
position out of the opening, went on to improve his position a lot more in the middle game. that the draw is subject to good play from both sides and is not
Soon, the Russian GM went on to win an exchange and after a long, tumultuous 78 move a God-given right. 18.Ne5 (18.Bxb5 axb5 19.Nc3 Nxc3 20.Bxc3
battle, Korobov was forced to resign. f6„) 18...f6 19.Nd3 Ne7 20.Nab2 Rc8= Black has kept his
equality without making any concessions.] 18.Nc5 Rb8 19.a3
Talking about his win, the 23-year-old said: “This victory means a lot to me because I qual- Nce7 20.Ne5 Rc8 21.Ned3 Rc7 22.b4 Maybe not the most
ify for the Masters' section in 2019. The pressure as the top seed was immense, but I am precise way to prosecute the advantage. [White could have
glad that I managed to prove myself. I am looking forward to playing against players like had something following 22.e4 Nf6 23.f3 Bb5 24.Bg3!] 22...
Carlsen, Anand, Caruana, So, Giri and others in 2019.” Bxc5 23.Rxc5 Bb5 24.Rxc7 (see diagram) Here the draw
was agreed, so we assume White could not really be bothered
Vidit also sees this win as a big milestone towards his dream of battling for the world title pressing but was fine to halve out as soon as the draw margin
in the years to come. Talking about his future plans, he said, “I want to continue working was large enough for Black to completely forget about winning
hard on chess and aim for the World Championship title in the years to come. For this I himself.[24.e4 Bxd3 25.Bxd3 Rxc5 26.bxc5 Nf6„ is probably not that dangerous for Black
would need to play more against the best players in the world. I am hoping that this per- anymore] ½–½
formance will get me invitations to the top Round Robin events in 2018.”Besides, qualifying Courtesy:chessbase india
for the Masters segment in the next edition of Tata Steel Chess, this win also earned Vidit
5.3 rating points. His current rating has now shot up to 2723 and has put him on the 30th FIDE Arbiter Seminar & Examination- A report
spot in the world rankings. A FIDE Arbiter seminar and examination thereafter was organised by Tamil Nadu State
Chess Association and All India Chess Federation at the Hotel Royal Regency, Chennai from
Vidit’s performance also won him praise from the Indian chess legend, Viswanathan Anand. 26th to 28th January 2018. Fifty six participants from various states of India took part in
“Vidit, I thought, was completely professional how he qualified for the A. So, my congrats the three day event.
to him for that,” Anand said. Sri. D.V. Sundar, Vice Pres-
ident FIDE and AICF pre-
Vidit,Santosh Gujrathi (2718) - Van Foreest,Jorden (2629) [D27] sided the inauguration of
Tata Steel Challengers Wijk aan Zee (13), 28.01.2018 the seminar and Sri. Bharat
1.d4 d5 2.c4 dxc4 Possibly a psychological choice- White is unlikely to go for the riskiest Singh Chauhan, Secretary
lines when a draw is so likely to give him first place. 3.e3 Nf6 [3...e5 4.Bxc4 exd4 5.exd4 of AICF and Chairman,
Nf6 is a bit more imbalanced, thanks to the isolated queen's pawn] 4.Bxc4 e6 5.Nf3 c5 Technical Commission,
6.0–0 Nc6 [6...a6 might have with hindsight given Black a few perks, assuming White FIDE was the chief guest.
plays the endgame anyway, and plays it in a similar style: 7.dxc5 Bxc5 8.Qxd8+ Kxd8 Prof. R. Anantharam, Coun-
9.Bd2 Ke7= Black will set up with ...b5, ...Nbd7, ...Bb7. The position is equal.] 7.Nc3 a6 cillor of FIDE Arbiters’ Com-
8.dxc5 Qxd1 9.Rxd1 Bxc5 10.Bd2 0–0 (see diagram) [10...Ke7 is less advisable here mission and Chairman of
thanks to 11.Bd3!? and Black faces a few problems completing Arbiters’ Commission, AICF
development] 11.Rac1 Bd7 12.Be2 The idea is clearly enough was the lecturer, assisted
Na4-c5, but right now there is an issue with playing it, so Black by IA Dharmendra Kumar,
can safely ignore the idea. [12.Ne2 Bb6 13.Bc3 was more forc- Member, Arbiters’ Commis-
ing, but also didn't give much: 13...Rfd8 14.Ne5 Be8!=] 12... sion, AICF.
Rfd8 13.Na4 Ba7 14.Be1 [14.Nc5 Bxc5 15.Rxc5 Ne4 equalises,
unless White can somehow mount a convincing claim that his Lectures were mainly focused on Laws of Chess on the first day. On the second day, Rating,
opponent's bishop is genuinely bad.] 14...Be8 15.Rxd8 [15. Tile, Tiebreak and Pairing regulations were elaborately discussed, besides case studies on
Nc5 Rxd1 16.Bxd1 Rb8=] 15...Nxd8 16.b3 [16.Nc5 Rc8=] 16... Laws of Chess. On the third day, Anticheating and Arbiter regulations were taught in ad-
Nd5 17.Kf1 Nc6 [17...Bb5!? was most principled, and would dition to Competition rules. The participants had a lively interaction with the lecturers.The
have been an interesting way for Black to remind his opponent examination was held in the afternoon of the third day.
24 25

The seminar was organized in
Chennai, India, by the Tamil
Nadu State Association, in coop-
eration with the All India Chess
Federation and under the aus-
pices of FIDE.The venue of the
Seminar was the Royal Regency
Hotel, in Chennai. The Lectur-
er was IA Prof. R. Anatharam
(IND), FIDE Arbiters’ Commis-
sion Councillor and FIDE Lec-
turer and Assistant Lecturer was
IA Dharmendra Kumar (IND).
Fifty-six (56) people from India
participated in the Seminar and in the examination test held after the lectures.
The following succeeded in the test and they will be awarded a FIDE Arbiter Norm, after
the approval of the next FIDE Presidential Board:
NAME FIDE ID Jameel Kamate 25921819
Rajaraman 5018307 Shankar Raman N 25064568
Uma Maheswaran P 5075050 Sri chitra P 25933280
Sandeep T 35005960 Kosanam Karunakar Reddy 25097466
Sunitha Jain 25036130 Naveen Karthikeyan P 35017438
Kavitha JE 5044200 Aruthi M 5041341 29 Biraj Baruah 7 72 Debalina Kundu 5½
Naresh Krishna S 25003780 Thanikachalam E 25619144
Arasu B 25932977 Jayaraman K 25625764
Chockalingam Balaji 35016350 Manikandan C 35094203
Rajagopalan CV 25932985 Sivasubramanian B 46638210
Ramesh S 25662155 Anitha Rajendran 25698095
Ravichandran K 5003113 Anandan Arunachalakani 25756320
Bhaskar V 5068746 Arasappan T 3506051
Rajasekaran P 5015740 Shankar Govindaraj B 25751611
Ravichandran S 5008263 Sudhakar H 25717146
Sathish P 25682326 Senthil Kumar V 45016771
Banel Andross J 25707329 Sundara Rajan S 46637621
Karpagavalli T 25631179 Praveen G 25677136
Jeganathan N 25760076 Santhi M 25064576
Kalyanaraghavan VS 5081513 Kannan M 25932993
Umapathy M 25933299 Elango M 45044040
Chitra R 46623752 Kannan PL 45043418
Ebenezer Rajakumar D 35084585 Sathiamoorthi R 25933000
26
Cont.from p.22
4 Silseng N Marak 8 47 Bipul Das 6
5 Heikrujam Jacky Singh 7½ 48 Sutnga H.D. 6
6 Singh Y. Dhanabir 7½ 49 Tapir Mize 6
7 Rishideep Bordoloi 7½ 50 Punyo Appa 6
8 Nitish Das 7½ 51 Dibyansu Lahon 6
9 Iftikar Alom Mazumdar 7½ 52 Guru Aribam Arosemit Sharma 6
10 Rajdip Das 7 53 Arunika Ghosh 6
11 Neelabh Jyoti Borthakur 7 54 Surajit Das 6
12 Silkam Sangma 7 55 Parthajit Saha 6
13 Singh Soram Rahul 7 56 Chettri Bhoj Bahadur 6
14 Gurung Rohit 7 57 Lyndem Gary Brandon 6
15 Santanu Borpatra Gohain 7 58 Lalremruata 6
16 Dupit Tabu 7 59 Abhinav Dubey 6
17 Rijied Katrai 7 60 Anuj Protim Boruah 6
18 Nandan Buragohain 7 61 Mridumoloy Das 6
19 Nirmalya Chakraborty 7 62 Deep Das 6
20 Singh Bhogen R K 7 63 Paiadaohi Lhuid 6
21 Aarohon Bharadwaj 7 64 Nihad Islam Hazarika 6
22 Raja Basar 7 65 Abhinaba Roy 6
23 Satabdajit S Baruah 7 66 Wilseng G Marak 6
24 Amit Saraf 7 67 Ngangom Nongrenkhomba 6
25 Robert Runremmawia 7 68 Barbith M Sangma 5½
26 Pranab Kumar Nath 7 69 Lalbiak Mawia 5½
27 Lalnunsanga 7 70 Kaustabh Das 5½
28 Dhrubajyoti Borpatra 7 71 Manab Bhattacharjee 5½
30 Dhrupad Kashyap 6½ 73 Devabarenya Gogoi 5½
31 Arunabh Gohain 6½ 74 Syed Jahan Hussain 5½
32 Stephen Malsawmtluanga 6½ 75 Gautam Chakravarty 5½
33 Bobby Lyngdoh 6½ 76 Sharma Durga Prasad 5½
34 Gillford Thangkhiew 6½ 77 Das Debayan 5½
35 Rorelkima C 6½ 78 Kevinson Jyrwa 5½
36 Rajbeer Ahmed 6½ 79 Krittibash Deva Sarmah 5½
37 Madhab Sarma 6½ 80 Subrata Nandy Roy 5½
38 Anurag Debnath 6½ 81 Challangga D Sangma 5½
39 Abhishek Borthakur 6½ 82 Kharbani Boney J 5½
40 Rishita Sinha 6½ 83 Rangke E R Marak 5½
41 Naorem Cha Yoihenba 6½ 84 Anurag Kalita 5½
42 Subhranil Majumder 6½ 85 Francis A Sangma 5½
43 Lalrinmawia 6½ 86 Abhinab Gogoi 5½
44 Pahlira 6 87 Madhu Tok 5½
45 Hage Lasa Nado 6 88 Adreeja Sinha 5½
46 Das Monaj 6 89 Nityananda Hajong 5½
AICF CHRONICLE
27
FEBRUARY 2018
 Sri Ram School International FIDE Rating Chess Tournament,Tindivanam
Kunal wins the title
by S.Balaraman, Chief Arbiter
S
hri Ram School International Open FIDE
rating chess tournament was held at
Shri Ram School. Omandur. Tindiva-
nam, Tamil Nadu from 26th to 29th January
2017 . This is the 1st Open fide rating chess
tournament conducted by Kingmaker chess
Academy, Tindivanam. The event attracted
261 players from all over India, including ma-
jor states like Tamil Nadu, Karnataka, Kerala,
Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Maharashtra,
Haryana, Orissa, West Bengal, Uttar Pradesh,
Goa, Pondicherry and two players from Nepal.
Top seed of the event was Gunal M of Tamil
Nadu. The 8 round event was conducted in
4 days. Total cash prize was RS. 500100/-
Kunal M was the top seed of the tournament.
Kunal M of TN with an Elo of 2345 emerged
the winner with 7 points. He remained unde-
feated with 6.5 points and draws in the final
round. In the last round he shared the point
with Prasannaa S of TN. He bagged the prize
money of RS. 60000 and a glittering trophy.
The first runner up is Prasannaa.S of TN
with 7 points and the second runner up is
Hirthickkesh Pr of TN with 7 points. This is
the first rating chess tournament organized at
this venue. All facilities required for smooth
conduct of a chess tournament were available
at the venue.
We should appreciate the Shri Ram School
Management for their wonderful support and
also to the supporting staff specially, Principal
of the School, who worked with us for the
past 4 days. A very good team of arbiters
along with a group of dedicated King chess
Academy officials made the tournament suc-
cessful. Finally I must thank Mr.P.Stephen
AICF CHRONICLE
28
FEBRUARY 2018
Balasamy, Secretary Tamil Nadu State Chess
Association and Mr. Bharat Singh Chouhan,
Secretary, All India Chess federation for
having given me the charge to work as Chief
arbiter for this wonderful tournament.
Prize distribution Ceremony took place at
5.30 pm. Mr.S.Balaraman, Joint.Secretary
of Tamil Nadu State Chess Association and
Chief Arbiter, Mr.Abslam, Secretary,VDCA,
Mr.Gowri Karthykeyan, Secy. Kingmaker
Chess Academy, Mr.Natarajan, Secretary,
Master Mind Chess Academy, A.David Doss
and M.Vinothkumar distributed the prizes
to the winners.
Final Rankings:
Rk Name Pts
1 Kunal M. 7
2 Prasannaa.S 7
3 Hirthickkesh Pr 7
4 Syed Anwar Shazuli 6½
5 Manigandan S S 6½
6 Sekar B 6½
7 Surendran N 6½
8 Gunasekaran K. 6½
9 Vinoth Kumar M. FM 6½
10 Badrinath S. 6
11 Bala Kannamma P 6
12 Ram S. Krishnan 6
13 Kabhilan S 6
14 Kumar S. 6
15 Selvabharathy T 6
16 Ilamparthi A R 6
17 Dhanush Ragav 6
18 Vignesh B 6
19 Vinay R Jumani 6
20 Lama Surbir 6
21 Babu S. 6
22 Ravi Kumar K 6
23 Manu David Suthandram R 6
24 Vishwa Bala Kumaran M 6
25 Balachandar E 6
26 Kathiravan M. 6
27 Vinoth Kumar M 6
28 Rathneesh R 5½
29 Anilkumar O.T. 5½
30 Thamaraiselvi P 5½
31 Hiren K G 5½
32 Shrija K M 5½
33 Gnanasekar .G 5½
34 Varsha C R 5½
35 Abdul Azeem R 5½
36 Dharani Kumar M S 5½
37 Rohith Krishna S CM 5½
38 Gugan G 5½
39 Senthil Kumaran T.H. 5½
40 Harivardhini I 5½
41 Balaji P 5½
42 Divyabharathi Masanam 5½
43 Gopikrishna N. 5½
44 Tamizh Selvan Ganesan 5½
45 Subramanian V 5
46 Ayyappan P Santhana Prabu 5
47 Farhaan M 5
48 Nithish Muthukumaran 5
49 Dewangan Yogesh 5
50 Jinan Jomon 5
51 Vaibhav Singh Verma 5
52 Kiruthika B 5
53 Swarnamala B 5
54 Sathyanarayanan S. 5
55 Kishan Chand 5
56 Rathina Sabapathi A 5
57 Kishore V 5
58 Dhandapani Perumal 5
59 Vengatesh Krishnan C 5
60 Midilesh Ms 5
61 Aaditya R 5
62 Dhineshwar R S 5
63 Raju M 5
64 Kalki Eshwar D 5
65 Thrayambhakesh A 5
66 Yashwant Annamalai 5
67 Hariharan Vinayagamurthy 5
68 Gokula Chandhiran A 5
69 Tina C 5
70 Balasubramaniam Nataraj 5
71 Rohan M 5
72 Emayasri S 5
73 Poonguzhali N 5
74 Ilakiyan M Xavier Jeen 5
75 Evrin Selvam 5
76 Gokula Vishnu R 5
77 Sivashankar M 4½
78 Gautham Prasanth 4½
79 Charan K 4½
80 Subhiksha E 4½
81 Thamizharasan J 4½
82 Rohit Ramanan T G 4½
83 Srinivasan D.R. 4½
84 Pruthivirajan M 4½
85 Priye Bikram 4½
86 Venkatesh Babu Sundaresan 4½
87 Kannan.V 4½
88 Kalpita P N 4½
89 Neha M B 4½
90 Sandhya S 4½
91 Sanjay Kumar Mittal 4½
92 Chandra Prakash Sankar 4½
93 Mitul K H 4½
94 Daranya S 4½
95 Ramyasri A 4½
96 Sriram Suresh 4½
97 Keshav Padmanabhan 4½
98 Deepak Raj R 4½
99 Srinivasa Narayanan V S 4½
100 Bharanidharan Nedunchezian 4½
101 Varadharajan S 4½
102 Sudhakar M S 4½
103 Mayur S 4½
104 Gayathri M 4½
105 Herald K A 4½
106 Murahari A H 4½
107 Divesh G 4½
AICF CHRONICLE
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FEBRUARY 2018
 Suraj FIDE Rating Tournament, Kupwad (Sangli) Vaychal, along with the volunteers namely,
Pornima Upalavikar, Yogesh Kumbhar & Kai-
Pratik Mulay Wins the Tournament lash.
by IA Rajendra Shidore The total cash prizes worth INR 2,00,000/-
were distributed by the Chief Guest Mrs.
28 Patil Sarang 5.5
29 Patil Harshal U 5.5
30 Kazi Nazir 5.5
31 Akshit Jha 5.5
32 Gandhi Sagar 5.5

N
utan Buddhibal Mandal Sangli is cel-
ebrating its 75th Year of conducting
the chess Tournaments, The oldest
Chess Organizer in India. Suraj FIDE Rating
Chess Tournament, Kupwad (Sangli) 2018
was organized jointly by Nutan Buddhibal
Mandal Sangli & Suraj Sports Foundation
at Krushna Valley Sports Club between 26th
January 2018 & 30th January 2018 under the
auspices of All Marathi Chess Association &
All India Chess Federation.
The tournament was inaugurated by Mr.
Pravinsheth Lunkad, (Director, Suraj Sports
Foundation), along with Chintamani Limaye,
Secretory Nutan Buddhibal Mandal Sangli.
Mr. Sanjay Kedge(Secretary, All Marathi Chess
Association, Maharashtra) graced the stage
with the presence of Jayant Gokhale(FIDE
Trainer). Nutan Mandal Felicitated the guests,
Arbiters followed by Lamp Lighting cere-
mony. Mr. Pravinsheth Lunkad along with
Senior Player Mahajan Snehal Inaugurated
the Tournament by Playing moves over the
chessboard.
The tournament was played with Swiss Pair-
ing Rules for 9 Rounds between 156 players
from various parts of India out of which 86
Players were FIDE Rated. Nayak Biswajit of
Orissa was Top Sid of the tournament with
ELO rating 2010.
Round One didn’t witnessed any major upsets
but unrated Jadhav Prasad played beautifully
in late middle game & destroyed Bachalkar
Sadanand(1429) with a Win in very first
round. Jain Kushagra drawn his game with
magnificent sacrifice in endgame after which
perpetual checks came and game ended in
a draw. Round Two started with opening
crackers on board 11 where Lohit Rushi-
kesh(1173) of Maharashtra blown 423 Elo
Higher Mahajan Snehal(1596) at Board no
11. Third round also undergone one dramatic
game where Shreya Revankar (1369) drew
her game with Yash Kapdi(1704). Rounds 4
& 5 were bit silent and at the end of round
5, 4 Players namely Nayak Biswajit, Patel
Mudassar, Mulay Pratik & Ajay Pardeshi were
on lead with 4.5 out of 5. At the end of round
6, Nayak Biswajit was on 5.5 and gained sole
lead with 0.5 points. As chess is also a Game,
Up-& Downs started from round 7 where Mu-
lay Pratik demolished Nayak Biswajit’s Lead
with full point at top board. Patel Mudassar
also joined 6’s club at the end of round 7.
Pratik continued his form at round 8 & won
his game quite easily with Mudassar. Untill
the last round, winner was not clear as Pratik
had lead of only half point. But within half an
hour after the start of the round 9, winner
was finalized as Shriraj Bhosale of Maharshtra
came late to round due to failure of his bike
while coming to venue.
The venue was located in MIDC area with
ample parking space, place for parents to sit,
canteen facility and drinking water. Also Free
dormitory accommodation was provided to
all players by organizers. All the organizers,
volunteers and players were very supportive
and cooperative.
The Arbiter’s team consisted of Chief Arbiter:
IA Shidore Rajendra, Dep. Chief: FA Sohani
Vivek & Arbiters: FA Rathi Pavan, NA Deepak
Pandiyan (Well Known Business woman from 33 Aditya Savalkar 5.5
Sangli), Shri. Chintamani Limaye(Secretary, 34 Anvesh Bandekar 5.5
NBM) , Mrs. Smita Kelkar (Treasurer, NBM) 35 Mane Kumar 5.5
Arbiters IA Rajendra Shidore, FA Vivek So- 36 Khairmode Aditya 5.5
hani, FA Pavan Rathi.The Tournament con- 37 Mane Sandeep 5.5
cluded in very Sporting manner & the players 38 Jain Kushagra 5.5
and parents were quite happy about overall 39 Walekar Parth 5.5
conduct of the tournament. 40 Chindake Harikrushan 5.5
41 Dande Vyankatesh S 5.5
Final Ranking: 42 Malani Shubham 5.5
Rk. Name Pts. 43 Shikalgar Digvijay 5.5
1 Mulay Pratik 8 44 Upase Riddhi 5
2 Pardeshi Ajay 7 45 Vaval Aaditi 5
3 Mishra Sanjeev 7 46 Deshpande Amit 5
4 Patel Mudassar 7 47 Limaye Nandkishor 5
5 Jail Digambar 7 48 Lohit Rushikesh 5
6 Kapadi Yash 7 49 Kulkarni Anandrao 5
7 Nayak Biswajit 6.5 50 Sarvesh Sahadev Rao 5
8 Kiran Panditrao 6.5 51 Deodhar Mudit 5
9 Bhosale Shriraj 6.5 52 Sarode Om 5
10 Shriya R Revankar 6.5 53 Sawant Sarvesh 5
11 Patil Sharvil 6.5 54 Manna Sachita 5
12 Khasbardar Soham 6.5 55 Patil Arya S 5
13 Dandekar Umesh 6.5 56 Rohit Sambhaji Budake 5
14 Pradeep Pandya 6.5 57 Aware Kedar 5
15 Dongre Pushkar 6.5 58 Mayekar Jayesh 5
16 Makote Pandurang 6.5 59 Mahajan Snehal 5
17 Bachalkar Sadanand 6.5 60 Jahagirdar Shrihari 5
18 Dhoot Vinit 6 61 Netra P Savaikar 5
19 Mahat Nihal 6 62 Kore Prajwal 5
20 Mayekar Ayush 6 63 Mhetre Prem 5
21 Satawase Abhay 6 64 Kulkarni Suraj 5
22 Boramanikar Tanisha S 6 65 Bartakke Satyam 5
23 Patil Pranav Prafulla 6 66 Raut Nitin Bhaskarrao 5
24 Kakade Atul 6 67 Abhishek Sudhakar Jadhav 4.5
25 Vanjale Prasad Prakash 6 68 More Arya 4.5
26 Mantrawadi Harsh 6 69 Kamble Deepak 4.5
27 Dandekar Anuj 6 70 Naik B S 4.5

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FEBRUARY 2018 FEBRUARY 2018
 4thTeekay International FIDE Rated Chess Tournament,Thoothukudi
Kunal emerges Champion
by IA Prof.R.Anantharam, Chief Arbiter
T
he 4th edition of the Teekay FIDE
Rated chess tournament, organised
by Teekay Chess Centre was held at a
panoramic venue of the VOC Port Trust, Tho-
othukudi from 31st January to 3rd February
2018. One hundred and thirty one partici-
pants from TamilNadu, Karnataka, Kerala,
U.P. Odisha and Pondicherry participated in
the 8 round, 4 day event. The time control
of the tournament was 90 minutes to each
player with an increment of 30 seconds from
move 1. Top seeded IM elect M. Kunal of Tamil
Nadu was fresh from his victory in the just
concluded rating tournament at Thindivanam.
Former under 10 national champion Syed
Anwar Shazuli of ICF, international master
RamnathanBalasubramniam of Tamil Nadu,
national blitz champion Ram S Krishnan of
BSNL, winner of several rating tournaments
P. Saravana Krishnan of KarurVysya Bank,
IA S. Ganesh Babu and many other leading
players took part in the event.
The first round witnessed an upset, when H
Infant Jose of Tamil Nadu IM Balasubrama-
niam, rated 900 points above him. The salient
feature of the third round was the draw by
P Uma Maheswaran of Madurai against sea-
soned N. Lokesh of Hosur. P. Phoobalan of ICF
shocked second seeded Saravana Krishnan
and N Surendran of Thiruvallur subdued
Ram S Krishnan in the fourth round, which
resulted in four players – Kunal, Phooblan, AL
Muthaiahof Thiruvallurand Surendran leading
with a 100% score at the end of the fourth
round.Kunal emerged sole leader at the end
of the fifth round by beating Phoobalan,
as the other game between the co-leaders
Surendran and Muthaiah was drawn. Five
AICF CHRONICLE
32
FEBRUARY 2018
of honour on the first day. 40 Tejes Suresh Kumar 4½
41 Vishwa Bala Kumaran M 4½
Final rankings: 42 Shrija K M 4½
Rk Name Pts 43 Palanikumar V 4½
1 Kunal M. 7 44 Krishan A 4½
players – Surendran, Muthaiah, Syed Anwar,
2 Muthaiah Al 6½ 45 Alaguraja M.A. 4½
OT Anil Kumar of Kerala and IM Balsubrama-
3 Surendran N 6½ 46 Karuppasamy C 4½
niam were trailing half a point behind.
4 Saravana Krishnan P. 6½ 47 Rajagopalan 4½
5 Ram S. Krishnan 6½ 48 Infant Jose H 4½
Kunal marched on with his sixth victory on
6 Phoobalan P. 6 49 Guru Sabari Thirumalai 4½
trot, the victim being IM Balasubramaniam
7 Lokesh N. 6 50 Sivasubramanian Manoj 4½
in the sixth round. Muthaiah and Surendran
8 Syed Anwar Shazuli 6 51 Lekshanth M 4½
scored fluent wins to maintain their second
9 Gunasekaran K. 6 52 Rajkumar S 4½
position with 5.5 points each. Saravana Kr-
10 R.Balasubramaniam IM 6 53 Midilesh Ms 4½
ishnan, SS Manigandan of Madurai and Phoo-
11 Subramanian R M 6 54 Kannan R. 4½
balan were on the third spot with 5 points
12 Anilkumar O.T. 5½ 55 Subramanian T.V. 4½
each. Kunal maintained his half point lead
13 Prasannaa.S 5½ 56 Prawin K 4½
at the end of the seventh and penultimate
14 Manigandan S S 5½ 57 Porkalaivani N 4½
round by splitting the point with Surendran.
15 Ganesh Babu S 5½ 58 Priya Varshini T 4½
The latter and Muthaiah also maintained their
16 Srihari L R 5½ 59 Siddhesvarajith P S 4½
second position with 6 points.
17 Kathiravan M. 5½ 60 Rohit Ramanan T G 4
18 Bharkavi S 5½ 61 Nithin A V 4
Kunal did a Houdini act to escape from the
19 Merryston David Scanny 5½ 62 Roshan Abendhra Ramesh 4
clutches of defeat to carve out a draw against
20 Sriram K 5½ 63 Aashish Niranjan B 4
Muthaiah to clinch the trophy, collecting 7
21 Yukash Ram E 5½ 64 Sam Jebadurai 4
points and Rs.60,000/- as first prize. 6.5
22 Uma Maheswaran P 5½ 65 Sivasubramanian S 4
points,Muthaiah, Surendran, Saravana Kr-
23 Dharani Kumar M S 5½ 66 Hari Sankar V 4
ishnanand Ram S Krishnan tied for the 2nd
24 Dharmaraj P. 5 67 Ahalya A 4
to 5th places by scoring 6.5 points and were
25 Subbhu Karthick S M 5 68 Kannish Varmaa K 4
placed in that order. A total cash prize of
26 Arjun Sidharth S 5 69 Mitul K H 4
Rs.3,20,000/- was distributed as 54 prizes
27 Joy Lazar M.A. 5 70 Gowtham S G 4
and 64 trophies were presented to various
28 Kumaresh A 5 71 Leaha B 4
age category winners.
29 Shaktivel Selvaraj 5 72 Magdalene Roy R 4
30 Sivaa G M 5 73 Karthi Ganes M 4
The tournament was a memorable one to
31 Aswath S 5 74 Lokesh Varmaa K 3½
all participants and parents because of the
32 Jayakrishna H 5 75 Sanjay Kumar Mittal 3½
excellent centrally air conditioned hall, good
33 Rebecca Jesumarian 5 76 Mitul Bala S 3½
accommodation and food.
34 Kanish Vikraman Adithan B 5 77 Mareeswari K 3½
Shri. S. Natarajan, Deputy Chairman, VOC
35 Tarunika P 4½ 78 Dhivesh Athithya S 3½
Port Trust was the chief guest for the inau-
36 Antony Jesumarian Leslie 4½ 79 Kishor S 3½
guration and also the valedictory function.
37 Roshan S 4½ 80 Nabeel M Abubackar 3½
Shri IM Manuel Aaron, Vice President of
38 Mithesh M 4½ 81 Tharshan M K 3½
Thoothukudi District Chess Association and
39 Kathiravan S 4½ 82 Dhilip Santhosh Kumar 3½
nine times national champion was the guest
AICF CHRONICLE
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FEBRUARY 2018
 7th National Schools Chess Championship2018,Bhubaneshwar 5 Aswinika Mani R TN 6,5 8 Sathwika N AP 6,0
6 Panchal Hiya GUJ 6,5 9 Chinnam Vyshnavi AP 6,0
Eleven medals to Tamilnadu 7 Ankita Sahoo ODI 6,5 10 Prasiddhi Bhat KAR 5,5
N.K.Nandakumar IA,Chief Arbiter 8 Pournami S KER 6,5 Final Ranking (U- 15 Boys)

7
th National Schools Chess Champion-
ship was organized by KKIT University,
Bhubaneshwar, Odisha from 27 January
to 01 February, 2018
This chess marathon was organized in nine
rounds Swiss format for Under 7 to 15 Boys
& Girls category and 7 rounds for Under–17
boys & Girls as per FIDE laws of Chess with
a time control of 90 minutes with an incre-
ment of 30 seconds per move. A total of 710
children from all over India took part in the
event and they enjoyed the hospitality pro-
vided by the KIIT University. Shri. Achyuta
Samanta, Founder KIIT Group of Institutions,
inaugurated the event on 28th January, 2018
at 9.00 A.M in the presence of K.K. Sarma,
Hon. Secretary, All Orrissa Chess Association.
The nine rounds / seven rounds battle was
witnessed by 377 FIDE rated players and 333
Unrated players from 24 states.
The organizers were kind enough to give
prizes to the children below 5 year of age.
Accordingly eight children were awarded
medals. I take pleasure in congratulating the
work and time spent by IA Suresh Chandra
Sahoo who was incharge of collecting the en-
tries used to call me at odd hours to finalize
the entries, I take this opportunity to say a
very big thanks to Mr.Sahoo for his sincerity
in completing the job.
I congratulate my Deputy Chief Arbiter IA Asit
Baran Choudhury, IA Nihar Ranjan Sasmal,
IA Tapas Mohanty, NA Aparajita Gochhikar,
NA Jyoti Nanda and other fellow arbiters
from Odisha & Tamilnadu, without their as-
sistance, the event would not have concluded
with grand success. I thank All India Chess
Federation and All Orrissa Chess Association
for given me an opportunity to serve as Chief
Arbiter.
Final Ranking (U-7 Boys) 2 Colaco Reuben GOA 7,5
Rk. Name Club/City Pts.
1 Rosh Jain DEL 7,5
2 Sathvik Adiga KAR 7,5
3 Ishaan Singh Khanuja MP 7,5
4 Khadilkar Shourya MAH 7,5
5 Mithra Kumaran J K TN 6,5
6 Gokul G PON 6,5
7 Dharsan Ratnakar P TN 6,5
8 Kapoor Tanush HAR 6,5
9 Amogh Bisht KAR 6,0
10 Varun R Kodancha KAR 6,0
Final Ranking (U- 7 Girls) 2 Ratnapriya K TN 7,0
Rk. Name Club/City Pts.
1 Lakshana S TN 8,0
2 Aggarwal Tashna UP 7,5
3 Luxshana B K TN 7,0
4 Potluri Gulshan AP 7,0
5 Priyanjali Saha WB 6,5
6 Sashya Singareddy TEL 6,0
7 Nysha K Vhatwar MAH 6,0
8 Pratyasha Jena ODI 6,0
9 S Priyadarshini Sahoo ODI 6,0
10 K Alana Meenakshi AP 6,0
Final Ranking (U- 9 Boys)
Rk. Name Club/City Pts.
1 Bhagat Kush MAH 7,5
2 Tanish Sai Kavuru AP 7,5
3 Sriansh Das ODI 7,0
4 Aarav Lakhani MAH 7,0
5 Arul Prakash N TN 7,0
6 Bikash Kumar Lenka ODI 7,0
7 Apoorv Kamble KAR 6,5
8 Priansh Das ODI 6,5
9 Suhaas A TEL 6,5
10 Mayank Chakraborty ASSM 6,5
Final Ranking (U- 9 Girls)
Rk. Name Club/City Pts.
1 Shefali A N KAR 7,5
2 Suhaani Lohia MAH 7,5
3 Arushi Srichandan ODI 7,0
4 Vaishnavi R Rao KAR 6,5
9 Indira Priyadharshini S TN 6,0
10 Sneha Halder WB 6,0
Final Ranking (U- 11 Boys)
Rk. Name Club/City Pts.
1 Shahil Dey ASSM 8,0
3 Harsh Suresh TN 7,0
4 Gawde Prathmesh MAH 7,0
5 Bang Atharva MAH 7,0
6 Vedant Nitin Vekhande MAH 6,5
7 Mahendra Teja Mekala AP 6,5
8 Swayham P Das GUJ 6,5
9 Adalja Vanssh A GUJ 6,5
10 Ananth Ramdas TN 6,5
Final Ranking (U- 11 Girls)
Rk. Name Club/City Pts.
1 Kheerthi Ganta TEL 7,5
3 Tejaswi R TN 7,0
4 Cera Dagaria MP 7,0
5 Rout Yashita ODI 6,5
6 Sinthia Sarkar WB 6,0
7 Yashavishree N TN 6,0
8 Patel Riddhi R GUJ 6,0
9 Shivika Rohilla DEL 6,0
10 Chandankhede Yashika MAH 6,0
Final Ranking (U- 13 Boys)
Rk. Name Club/City Pts.
1 Pranesh M TN 8,0
2 Harshad S TN 7,0
3 Mahitosh Dey ODI 6,5
4 Adarsh Tripathi DEL 6,5
5 Manthan Kashyap Datta ASSM 6,5
6 Barik Jagdish ODI 6,5
7 Karthik Sai Ch TEL 6,0
8 Hari R Chandran KER 6,0
9 Sriram B TN 6,0
10 Saypuri Srithan AP 6,0
Final Ranking (U- 13 Girls)
Rk. Name Club/City Pts.
1 Ayantika Das WB 7,0
2 Dhyana Patel GUJ 6,5
3 Meenatchi Rajam V TN 6,5
4 Tanvi Vasudev HadkonkarGOA 6,5
5 Sanjana Raghunath KAR 6,5
6 Vijayasubhasri S TN 6,0
7 Anjitha Krishnakumar KER 6,0
Rk. Name Club/City Pts.
1 Anadkat Kartavya GUJ 7,0
2 Mehta Naitik R GUJ 7,0
3 Shyam Kumar M TN 6,5
4 Vignesh Kasi P L TN 6,5
5 Suganthan S TN 6,0
6 Samal Aditya Ranjan ODI 6,0
7 Samdani Sahil Sagar GUJ 6,0
8 Abhinessh S TN 6,0
9 Mhatre Rahat Rahul MAH 6,0
10 Shyam Prasad ReddyK AP 6,0
Final Ranking (U- 15 Girls)
Rk. Name Club/City Pts.
1 Jain Nityata MP 7,0
2 Jyothsna L TN 7,0
3 Nanditha V TEL 6,5
4 Routray Priyanka ODI 6,0
5 Chandratreya Prachiti MAH 6,0
6 Bristy Mukherjee WB 6,0
7 Prachi Bharti KAR 6,0
8 Sai Divya M AP 5,5
9 Srimozhi S TN 5,5
10 Mistry Tinaz Dinkoo GUJ 5,5
Final Ranking (U- 17 Boys)
Rk. Name Club/City Pts.
1 Arka Sengupta WB 5,5
2 Jaisingh Anugraha MAH 5,0
3 Sibi Visal R TN 5,0
4 Aaromal R S TEL 5,0
5 Samal Ansuman ODI 4,0
6 Upadhyay Prince GUJ 4,0
7 Tuhin Kashyap ASSM 4,0
8 Tahilianey Dhruv MAH 4,0
9 Siddhanth Lohia MAH 3,5
10 Sandeepta Kumar D ODI 3,5
Final Ranking (U- 17 Girls)
Rk. Name Club/City Pts.
1 Bidhar Rutumbara ODI 5,0
2 Arushi Kotwal J&K 5,0
3 Abhirami Madabushi AP 5,0
4 Srimathi R TN 5,0
5 Shreya Smruti Mohanty ODI 4,5
6 Kruti Gangadkar KAR 4,5
7 Diya Chowdhury WB 4,0
8 Genita Gladys A TN 4,0
9 Jayasree Tarini Priya T TEL 4,0
10 Jinal Yagnik GUJ 3,5

AICF CHRONICLE AICF CHRONICLE

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FEBRUARY 2018 FEBRUARY 2018

Selected games from Chennai GM
Open Chess Tournament
Sivuk,Vitaly (Ukr) (2550) Godson,Merlin
E (Ind)(1818)
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
1.d4 d5 2.c4 c6 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.e3 a6
5.Qc2 g6 6.Bd3 Bg7 7.0–0 0–0 8.Nbd2
Nbd7 9.b3 e5 10.cxd5 cxd5 11.dxe5
Ng4 12.Ba3 Re8 13.e6 [D.Barlov 2500
vs R.Simic 2495, Kladovo, Yug Ch, 1994
went: 13.Bb2 Ndxe5 14.Bd4 Nxd3 15.Qxd3
Bf5 16.Qc3 Rc8 17.Qb4 Qe7 18.Qxe7 Rxe7
and 61. draw.] 13...Rxe6 14.Nd4 Re8
15.Rac1 Nde5 16.Be2 Bd7 17.Qc7! White
had to play this before black moved back his
knight to c6 and blocked the c-file. 17...Nc6
18.Qxd8 [After this excahnge of queens
white gets an enduring advantage in the
ensuing ending. If 18.Qxb7? Nxd4 19.Bxg4
Bxg4 20.exd4 Rb8 21.Qc7 Qxc7 22.Rxc7
Re2 23.Rd1 Bxd4 24.Bc5 Rbe8] 18...Raxd8
19.Nxc6 bxc6 20.h3 Diagram #
20...Nh6 Black realises that white is going
to pressure his weak c6 pawn which is on a
semi-open file and plans to bring his knight
to d8 in its defence. 21.Bc5 [21.Bxa6?? Ra8
and one bishop dies.] 21...a5 22.Nf3 Ra8
23.Bd1 This prevents ....a5-a4. 23...Rec8
24.Re1 Bb2 25.Rc2 Bg7 26.g4 f5 27.g5
Nf7 28.h4 Nd8 29.Bd4 Ne6 [If 29...Bxd4?
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30.exd4 white's grip on the c5 and e5 squares
would win.] 30.Bxg7 Kxg7 31.Ne5 Be8
32.Bf3! This makes black's attempt to liber-
ate with c6-c5 more and more difficult. 32...
Nd8 33.Kg2 Rcb8 34.Nd3 Ne6 35.Rec1
Rb6 36.Be2 h6 37.f4 h5 38.Kf2 Ra7?
[Black could have tried to keep white's ad-
vantage to a minimum with: 38...a4 39.b4
a3 40.Rc3 Nc7 41.Bf3 Nb5 42.Rb3 Nd6]
39.Bf3 Ra8 40.Nb2 [40.Kg3] 40...Rb4?
[This allows the deadly strike on his c6 pawn.
40...Kf7 moving his king to the theatre of
operations (the c-file) was better.] 41.Rxc6!!
Bxc6 42.Rxc6± Nf8 43.Bxd5 Rd8 44.Rc5!
After this a third pawn falls and white's win is
clear. 44...Nd7 45.Rc7 Kh8 46.Nd3!+- The
knight enters the field for the final massa-
cre. 46...Rbb8 47.Bf7 Nf8 48.Ne5 Rd2+
49.Kf3 Rxa2 Diagram #
50.Bxg6 Nxg6 [If 50...Ne6 51.Rh7+ Kg8
52.Bxf5 (52.Nd7? Nd4+! 53.Kg3 (53.exd4??
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
Rxb3#) 53...Ne2+ 54.Kf3 Nd4+ draw!) 52...
Ng7 53.Be4+-] 51.Nxg6+ Kg8 52.Ne7+
13.cxd5 exd5 14.Rac1 Ne7 15.Rfe1 0–0
16.Nxe5 Nf5 17.Bxf5 Bxf5 18.Nxd5 and
Kh8 [52...Kf7? 53.Nc6+ wins the rook.] white is winning.] 12...Nh6 13.Qg3 dxc4
53.Nxf5 Ra3 54.g6! Raxb3 55.Rh7+ [Af- 14.exf6! Qxg3 Diagram #
ter 55.Rh7+ Kg8 56.Nh6+ Kf8 57.g7+ Ke7
58.g8Q+ Kd6 59.Qc4 and Nf5#] 1–0
Muthaiah,Al (2291)
Alan,Diviya Raj (1970) [A18]
This is an attractive sample of how our young
players are playing nowadays. While Muthai-
ah is 19, Alan is only 15. 1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3
e6 3.e4 Bb4 4.e5 Ng8 5.Qg4 Bf8 6.d4 g6
15.fxg7! Rg8 [Or 15...Qxg2+ 16.Kxg2 Rg8
17.Bxc4+-] 16.fxg3! The right way to cap-
ture on g3 as it opens the f-file for his rook.
16...cxd3 17.Bf6! White is going to cling
to his pawn on g7. 17...Nf5 18.Ne5 Nd7
[Black's game has been so pathetic that this
is his first queen-side piece to move from
its original square! If 18...Nxg7 19.Ne4 Nf5
20.g4 Ne3 21.Bg5! Nxf1 22.Rxf1 Black cannot
[The game Carls, CJM (Germany) vs Hans stop the impending 23 Nd6# by any means.]
Johner (Switzerland, in the 1927 London 19.Ne4 Nxe5 [If 19...Nxg7 20.Nd6+ Kf8
Olympiad went: 6...d6 7.Bg5 Qd7 8.Nf3 Nc6 21.Nxc8 Nxe5 22.Bxe5+ Nf5 23.Nd6+-]
9.Rd1 Nge7 10.Bd3 b6 11.0–0 h6 12.Bxe7 20.Bxe5 Ke7 [20...Nxg7 21.Nd6+ Kd8
Qxe7 13.exd6 cxd6 14.Rfe1 Bd7 15.d5 and 22.Nf7+ Ke7 23.Nh6+-] 21.g4 Ne3 Diagram
black got crushed in 28 moves!] 7.Nf3± # Now white finishes the game with non-stop
Bg7 Material is equal but white has a great checks leading to mate.
space advantage and lead in development
as black has only one bishop developed
while the rest of his forces are confined to
the back rank. 8.Bd3 d5 9.Bg5! f6 [If 9...
Ne7 10.Bxe7 Qxe7 11.cxd5 0–0 12.0–0±]
10.Bh4 c6 [Black cannot free himself with
10...dxc4 11.Bxc4 Qe7 12.d5 Nh6 13.Qe4±
when black's position is ready to fall apart.]
11.0–0! Qc7 12.Rac1 [This is the natural
developing move, creating a pin along the
c-file, but allows black to develop his Ng8
with a threat. Stronger was 12.Qg3 fxe5 22.Bd6+ Kd7 23.Rf7+ Ke8 24.Rf8+ Kd7
25.Rxg8 d2 26.Rd8+! Kxd8 27.g8Q+ 1–0
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Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
Deepan,Chakkravarthy J (2475) Lax-
man,R.R (2434) [A13]
This game has a bizarre opening and a
mind-boggling middlegame where fluid piece
play thrills ones imagination! Worthy of deep
study. 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.b3 a6 4.e3N
[Wirthensohn 2415 vs O.Sutter 2335, Swit-
zerland Ch. 1996 went: 4.Bb2 c5 5.e3 Nc6
6.Be2 Be7 7.0–0 0–0 8.Nc3 d5 9.cxd5 exd5
10.d4 Re8 11.Rc1 cxd4 12.Nxd4 and 27.1–
0.] 4...d5 5.Bb2 c5 6.Be2 Nc6 7.cxd5
exd5 8.d4 cxd4 9.Nxd4 Bb4+ 10.Bc3
Bd6 11.Nd2 Ne5 12.h3 0–0 13.Bb2 Re8
14.0–0 Ng6 15.Bd3 Nh4 16.Rc1 [Better
was: 16.N4f3 Ng6 17.Rc1] 16...Ne4 17.f4?!
[This makes his e3 permanently weak. Better
was: 17.N2f3 Nxf3+ 18.Nxf3=] 17...Nc5
18.Bb1? [Preserving this bishop is natural,
but not the best and it sets him on the los-
ing trail. Better was: 18.Rc3 Nxd3 19.Rxd3
Bf5 20.Nxf5 Nxf5 21.Qg4 g6] 18...Rxe3
19.Rxc5! Diagram # Though white is still in
trouble, he makes the best of the situation.
19...Rg3? [19...Bxc5! 20.Qc2 g6 21.Qxc5
Rg3 22.Rf2 Bxh3 23.Kh2 Rxg2+ 24.Rxg2
Bxg2 25.Nc2 Qc8 26.Qe3 Qg4=]
(Position after 19.Rxc5)
20.Rxd5 Nxg2 21.Rf3? [White misses the
best continuation which involves a queen
sacrifice: 21.Ne4 Ne3+ 22.Nxg3 Nxd1
23.Rxd1± White has more than enough
for his queen.] 21...Ne3+ 22.Rxg3 Nxd1
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23.Rxg7+! Kf8 [If 23...Kxg7 24.Ne6+ Kg8
25.Nxd8+-] 24.Rdg5? [The rook on d5 is
doing an admirable job of pinning a bishop
against the queen. Better was the threat to
win the queen with: 24.Rxh7! Qf6 25.Bf5!
Bxf5 26.Rxd6! Bxh7 27.Rxf6 Nxb2 28.f5!+-]
24...Qc7 25.f5 Diagram #
[There is no saving for white. If 25.Rg8+
Ke7 26.Rg2 Nxb2 27.Re2+ Be6 28.Rxa8 Bxf4
29.Nxe6 fxe6 30.Nf1 Qc5+ 31.Kg2 Nd1–+]
25...Nxb2–+ 26.Ne4 Qc1+ 27.Kg2 Qxb1
28.Nxd6 Ke7 29.Nxf7 Qe4+ 30.Nf3
Qc2+? [From the 25th move black has been
winning but, probably under time pressure,
has so far failed to find the knock-out. This
move lets white breathe a little easier. Best
would have been to bring his knight which is
in the wilderness, on b2, to get uncomforta-
bly close to the white king with 30...Nd3!–+
] 31.Kg3 b5
Diagram # [If now 31...Nd3!? black could
only draw with best play: 32.N7e5+! Kd8!
(The tempting 32...Kd6? would lose af-
ter some tricky play, which is worth ex-
amining in detail. 33.Nc4+! Kc5 (33...
Kc6?? 34.Nd4+) 34.Rc7+! Kb4 (34...Kb5??
35.Nd4+) 35.a3+!! Kxb3 36.Nd4++-)
33.Rf7! (threatening Rg8#) 33...Qf2+
34.Kg4 Nxe5+ 35.Nxe5 Qe2+ 36.Kh4 Qe4+
37.Kh5 Qe2+ 38.Kh4 (38.Kh6 Qe3!) 38...
Qe4+ Draw.] 32.N7e5+? [This lets the king
escape and win without any problem. Bet-
ter would have been: 32.f6+ Kxf6 33.Nd8
(Threat 34 Rf7#) 33...Be6 34.Nxe6 Nd1
(34...Kxe6?? 35.Nd4+) 35.Nc5 Qf2+ 36.Kf4
Qe3+ 37.Kg3 Rd8³] 32...Kd6 33.Rf7 Nd1
34.Ng4 Qxa2 35.Rxh7 Qxb3 36.Rg6+
Kc5 37.Rc7+ Kb4 38.Rd6 [38.f6 Bf5!–+]
38...Bxf5 39.Rc1 Bxg4 40.hxg4 Rf8 0–1
Karthikeyan,P (2497) Rathnakaran,K
(2372) [A04]
After some very unusual opening play, black
gets a near winning middle-game. But he
bungles it posting his queen on the edge of
the board instead of centralizing it. He pays
for this strategic error and the white queen
dominates the game. A further black error
costs him a knight and black is a rook down
for two pawns. Then when black is preparing
to shake hands in capitulation, white gifts
him with a snap mate! 1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nc6
3.Nc3 g6 4.d4 cxd4 5.Nxd4 Bg7 6.Nc2
Bxc3+ 7.bxc3 Qa5 8.e4 Qxc3+ 9.Bd2
Qe5 10.Be2 [D. Yakovlev vs Ben Menachem
2345, Lloyds Bank Op, London, 1994 went:
10.Bd3 f5 11.f4 Qe6 12.e5 d6 13.0–0 dxe5
14.fxe5 Qxe5 15.Re1 Qd6 16.Bc3 Nf6 17.Qe2
0–0–+ [%emt 0:00:26] and 0–1] 10...Qxe4
Black is two pawns up but lags very much
behind in development. If he is able to de-
velop his minor pieces and castle, he would
be winning. 11.0–0 Nf6 12.Bh6 Qh4 13.Qc1
Threat 14 Bg5 embarrassing the black queen.
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
13...Ne4! 14.Bg7? Diagram #
[This only activates his opponent's sleeping
rook at h8. Better was: 14.Bf3! g5 (14...
Nc5 15.Bd5 e6 16.Bg5 Qg4 17.Bxc6 bxc6
18.Qb2 with advantage to white.) 15.Bxe4
Qxh6 16.Re1 0–0] 14...Rg8 15.Bb2 g5
[Black makes a virtue out of his forced 14....
Rg8, starting a pawn assault on the white
king. However, 15...d6 catching up on his
lagging development was safer.] 16.Ne3
d6 17.Nd5! Kf8 With Nc7+ threatened,
black had to move his king to either d8 or
h8 which was very much in black's scheme
of things. 18.Qe3 Nc5 19.Rae1 This move
makes his intention of playing f2-f4 evident.
Instead, 19 Rad1 threatening a sacrificial
attack on e7 was to be considered here.
19...Rg6 [Black uses his rook for the attack
and defers development of his bishop. To be
considered was: 19...Bf5 20.Ba3 b6 21.Bxc5
dxc5 22.Bf3 g4 23.Be4 Bxe4 24.Qxe4 Rg6µ
when black has successfully dealt with his
lagging development and kept white's forces
at bay.] 20.f4 gxf4! [Also good was: 20...
Rh6 21.h3 gxf4 22.Nxf4 e5] 21.Nxf4 Rh6
22.h3 e5! After this move, white's attacking
prospects for his two sacrificed pawns has
greatly reduced. 23.Nd5 Rg6 24.Kh2 Be6
25.Nc7 Rc8 26.Nxe6+ Nxe6 27.g3 Qh6?
Diagram #
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[Not the best! From a near winning position,
black now slides to almost equality. In this
position, black should keep his queen in a
central location, not on the edge. Black was
probably guided by the general consideration
that his queen was best on the same file as
the opponent's king. Best was: After 27...
Qe7 28.Qa3 Kg7 29.Bd3 Rf6 30.Bf5 Rc7 not
much hope is left for white.] 28.Qf2 Rc7
29.Bc1! Qg7 30.Bd3! Ncd4 31.Ba3 [Bet-
ter was 31.Bxg6 Qxg6 when black has only
a minimum advantage.] 31...Nc5 32.Bxg6
hxg6 33.Qg2!= Suddenly white is back in
reckoning with his queen poised to occupy
the strategically strong d5 square. 33...f5
34.Qd5 Qe7 35.g4 Kg7? [Unhappy with
the turn of events black makes a careless
move taking away the king's support for
his queen. Best was 35...Rc6 36.gxf5 gxf5
37.Rf2 Ke8= The game is well balanced.]
36.Bxc5 Rxc5 37.Qxd4!+- Qc7 Black is
now a rook down for two pawns and should
lose in a few more moves. But he has the
last laugh! 38.Qd3 f4 39.Rd1! d5 [Black
does not allow the invasion of his backyard
which will result after: 39...Rxc4 40.Qxd6
Rc2+ 41.Kg1+-] 40.cxd5 Rc2+ 41.Rd2
Rc3 42.Qe4 Re3 43.Rc2 Qd8 44.Qb4 Kh6
[If 44...b6 45.Rfc1!] 45.g5+ Kxg5 46.Rg1+
Kh5 47.Rcg2 Diagram #
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[White walks into a snap mate. He could
win with: 47.Qxb7! ] 47...Rxh3+!! After 48
Kxh3, Qh4 mates against the run of play! 0–1
Gareyev,Timur (USA) (2605)
Rozum,Ivan (Rus) (2595) [E11]
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 Bb4+ 4.Nbd2 0–0
5.a3 Be7 6.e4 d5 7.Bd3 c5 8.e5 Nfd7
9.h4 h6 10.Bb1 [H.PIlaj (2426) vs H.Hecht
(2384) Solingen, 2005, went: 10.cxd5 exd5
11.b4 cxd4 12.Nb3 Nc6 13.Bf4 Re8 14.0–0
Bxh4 ....43. 0–1.] 10...Re8 [Better was to
break up white's enlarged centre with: 10...
cxd4 11.cxd5 exd5 12.Qc2 f5 13.Ba2 Nb6
14.Nxd4 Bd7=] 11.Ng5!? cxd4 [The knight
cannot be captured: 11...hxg5? 12.Qh5 g6
13.Bxg6 fxg6 14.Qxg6+ Kf8 15.hxg5 and
mates.] 12.f4 [If 12.Bh7+ Kf8 13.Nxf7 Kxf7
14.Qh5+ Kf8 15.Qf3+ Bf6 16.exf6 Qxf6³]
12...Nc6?! Diagram #
[Much better was: 12...dxc4! 13.Qh5 Rf8
14.Nh7 c3! 15.bxc3 dxc3 16.Nb3 Qb6 17.Bc2
Qc6! 18.Kf1 Rd8 19.Ng5 Qc4+ 20.Kf2 Rf8
(20...Bc5+ 21.Kg3! (21.Nxc5 Qxc5+ 22.Be3
Qe7³) 21...hxg5 22.hxg5 Kf8 23.g6! Bb6
24.gxf7+-) 21.Bh7+ Kh8 22.Bc2!=] 13.Qh5!
Rf8 14.cxd5 exd5 15.0–0 Qe8 16.Ndf3 d3
[Making the way for an eventual ...Bc5+ but
better was: 16...Nc5 17.Bh7+ Kh8 18.Bd2
Bxg5 19.Nxg5 Qd7 20.e6! Nxe6 21.Bf5 Ne7
22.Nxf7+ Kg8 23.Nxh6+ gxh6 24.Bh3 Ng7!–
+ Black has obtained a comfortable material [28...Ne7 would not have lost so dramatical-
advantage and simplification.] 17.Bxd3 f5 ly.] 29.e6+! [Black resigns because, after
18.Qxe8 Rxe8 19.Ne6 Bc5+ 20.Nxc5 29.e6+! Bxe6 30.Rxc6! Rxc6 31.Ne5+ wins
Nxc5 21.Rd1 The smoke has cleared and a knight.] 1–0
white has emerged with a slight advantage
in the endgame. 21...Nxd3?! Diagram # Puzzle of the month
By C.G.S.Narayanan
A proof game is a type of retrograde analysis
chess problem. The solver must construct a
game starting from the initial chess position,
which ends with a given position (thus proving
that that position is reachable) after a specified
number of moves. A proof game is also called a
shortest proof game (SPG).In this case the task
is simply to construct the shortest possible game
ending with the given position. In the diagram
below white and black both played six moves
from the initial game array and on white’s sev-
enth move the position shown is reached. The
solver is required to find the sequence of moves.
Satoshi Hashimoto
[Black finds the tension too much to bear Probleemblad 1999
and opts for simplification, but here equal-
ity was best attained by attack, like: 21...
Nb3! 22.Rb1 Be6²] 22.Rxd3 After this white
easily occupies the c-file and controls the
game. 22...Be6 23.Be3 Rec8 [If 23...Na5
24.Nd4 Kf7 25.Nb5+-] 24.Rc1 Kf7 [If 24...
b6? 25.Rdc3 Ne7 26.Rc7+-] 25.Rdc3 Ke8
26.Kf2 Kd7 27.b4 b6 [After 27...a6 28.Bb6!
g6 29.Ke2 Ke8 30.Kd3 Rab8 31.Rc5± the
white forces are completely tied up in knots.]
28.h5 Bf7? Diagram #
Short Proof Game 6.5 moves
(solution on page 48)
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 Tactics from master games
by S.Krishnan

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

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

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

(solutions on p.47)

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Masters of the past-85 Arnold Denker
KKCA 2nd All India FIDE Rated Chess Tournament (Below 1600),Coimbatore
Arnold Sheldon Denker (February 20, 1914 – January 2, 2005) was an American
chess player, Grandmaster, and chess author. He was U.S. Chess Champion in
1944 and 1946.In later years he served in various chess organizations, receiving
recognition from the United States Chess Federation, including in 2004 the highest Mrs.Jayalaksmi, Mrs.Vinodhini
honor, "Dean of American Chess". Santhosh, Mr. Santhosh, MD, BMN
Kalyana Mandabam,Kathiravan,
Denker was born on February 20, 1914 in the Bronx, New York City, in an orthodox Winner, Mr.Mohamed Yousuff,
Jewish family. According to Denker himself, he learned chess in 1923 watching his Joint Secretary, CDCA, Mr. V
elder brothers play.He first gained attention in chess by winning the New York City Vijayaraghavan, Secretary, CDCA
individual interscholastic championship in 1929 at age 15. In the next decade he Mr. Krishnamurthy President, KKCA
established himself as a leading rival to Samuel Reshevsky, Reuben Fine, and Isaac presenting the trophy
Kashdan as the strongest U.S. chess player. His first really strong international
event was Syracuse, New York 1934, where Reshevsky won convincingly, with Denker placing just
behind him.
In 1940 Denker won the first of his six Manhattan Chess Club championships. He became U.S.
Championin 1944, winning fourteen games (including one against Fine), drawing three, and losing Ganesan Memorial FIDE Rated Open Chess Tournament,Nagercoil
none. Denker called his win over Fine from this event 'the game of my life'. (This 91 percent score
was the best winning percentage in U.S. Championship history until Bobby Fischer scored 11–0 in
1963–64.) Denker successfully defended his U.S. title in a 1946 challenge match against Herman
Steiner, winning 6–4 at Los Angeles. He became an International Master in 1950 (the year the title Winner International Master
was first awarded by FIDE). R.Balasubramanian receiving
During World War II Denker played exhibitions at army bases and aboard aircraft carriers. In 1945, the trophy from the Chief Guest
as U.S. champion, he played on board one in the USA vs USSR radio match, losing both games to Kulathooran Pillai, President,
Mikhail Botvinnik, and in 1946 travelled to Moscow for the return match, losing both games against KKDCA. Mr. Ephrame, Joint-
Vasily Smyslov. Also in 1946, he played at the very strong Groningen tournament, the first major Secretary of TNSCA,and Chief
event following World War II, scoring 9.5 out of 19 and securing draws against Botvinnik and Smys- Arbiter,A.F.Rex, Secretary, KKDCA
lov, and losing after achieving a winning position against Max Euwe. are also seen

In 1947 Denker produced an autobiographical game collection in his book: If You Must Play Chess.
Denker was never a full-time professional player. His peak results were scored from 1940 to 1947, in
U.S. Championships and on his trips to Europe for tournaments at London, Hastings and Groningen.
International ratings were introduced by FIDE only in 1970, more than a generation after Denker's
best years. The website chessmetrics.com rates players retrospectively using modern algorithms, Captain All Bengal State Amateur FIDE Rated Tournament 2018 (Below 2000),Kolkata
and places Denker as high as 27th in the world in the mid 1940s, but this site is missing several of
Denker's most important results.
In 1981 FIDE made Denker an honorary Grandmaster. In later years, he was an important chess
organizer, serving on the boards of the American Chess Foundation, the United States Chess Fed-
eration(USCF), and the U.S. Chess Trust He wrote many chess articles and in 1995 the book: The
Bobby Fischer I Knew and Other Stories (co-authored by Larry Parr; Hypermodern Press).
Ayush Jha (Third) Rahul Krishna
In 1992 Denker was inducted into the U.S. Chess Hall of Fame. He received America’s highest chess Viswanathan (Winner) and
honor on June 11, 2004 when he became only the third person to be proclaimed "Dean of American Ambarish Sharma (Runner-up)
Chess" by the USCF.
A graduate of New York University, he married the former Nina Simmons in 1936, a marriage last-
ing 57 years until her death in 1993. They had three children: Richard, Mitchell and Randie.Denker
died of brain cancer on January 2, 2005 in Fort Lauderdale, Florida.
Courtesy:Wikipedia

45
AICF CHRONICLE
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 4th Teekay FIDE Rated Chess Tournament,Thoothukudi Solutions to ‘Tactics from master
games’ on page 42
1. Xiang,Zeyu (2395) Lin,Yi (2364) [B40]
Shri.S. Natarajan, Deputy Chairman, VOC
Shenzhen CHN Shenzhen CHN (6.14),
Port Trust,and Mr. Manuel Aaron, India’s
08.12.2017
1st International Master and Arjuna Award
White to play. 17.Ne4! Qxe4 [17...Nf5
winner inaugurating the tournament. Oth-
18.g4+- Qxe4 19.Qd7+ Kf8 20.Qxc8+ Wins.;
ers in the picture: Prof.R.Anantharam,In-
17...0–0 18.Nd6+-; 17...Qd5 18.Nd6++-
ternational Arbiter, Chief Arbiter of the
] 18.Qd7+ Kf8 19.Qd8+ [19.Qd8+ Rxd8
tournament, Prof.T.Karpagavalli,Secretary
of Teekay chess Centre, P.S.S.G.Thivakar, 20.Rxd8#] 1–0
Vice President, Teekay Chess centre
2. Plat,V (2567) Szadkowski,Kr (2138)
[B02]
European Rapid 2017 Katowice POL (2.28),
16.12.2017
White to play. 25.g4!! Qxf4 26.Nf6+ [26.Nf6+
(L-R).Suresh S.P.Patel, Chief Engineer,VOC
gxf6 (26...Qxf6 27.Qe8+ Rxe8 28.Rxe8#)
Port Trust, K.Ravikumar, Deputy Chief Engi-
27.Qxf4+-] 1–0
neer, VOC Port Trust, Cap.Bhabatesh Chand,
Deputy Conservator, VOC Port Trust, Dr.S.Va- 3. Dobrowolski,P (2421) Saric,A (2540)
seekaran,President, Teekay chess centre, [B01]
Shri.S.Natarajan,Deputy Chairman, VOC Port European Blitz 2017 Katowice POL (9.21),
Trust,Dr.J Mohanraj, Vice-President, Thoo- 15.12.2017
thukudi District Chess Association, M.Kunal, White to play 11.Ne5!+- e6 [11...Qc8
Winner,Prof.R.Anantharam IA, Chief Arbiter, 12.Bxd5+-; 11...Qd6 12.Nxg4+-; 11...
U.Rajendran,Traffic Manager, VOC Port Trust,- Bxd1 12.Ba4+ c6 13.Bxc6+ Qd7 14.Bxd7+
Prof.T.Karpagavalli,Secretary, Teekay chess Kd8 15.Bc6+-] 12.Ba4+ Ke7 13.Nc6+ Kf6
Centre. 14.Qxg4 Qd6 15.d4+- 1–0
4. Andersson,Fred2 (2280) Morling,-
IIFL 3RD Mumbai Open International Grandmaster Tournament, Mumbai Joakim (2054) [C11]
Malmo Open 2017 Malmo SWE (6.7),
16.12.2017
White to play 27.Rxe4! dxe4 28.Nc6 Rb8
[28...g5 29.Nxb4+-] 29.Nxb8 f5 30.Rd8+ Kf7
31.Rd7+ Ke8 [31...Rxd7 32.Nxd7 e3 33.Nc5
e2 34.Nd3+-] 32.Rxc7 e3 33.Rc3 1–0
Maghsoodloo Parhan of Iran, Open
Champion and Gukesh Anand,Under-13 5. Aczel,G (2549)
Champion with Five-time World Cham- Indjic,A (2611) [A65]
pion GM Vishy Anand Dr Geza Hetenyi Mem GM Budapest HUN
(8.1), 20.12.2017
Black to play. 33...Rxb2! 34.Rxb2 Qxh3+!
35.Kg1 [35.gxh3 Be5#] 35...Bd4+ 36.Qf2
[36.Kf1 Qxh1#] 36...Qxf3 [36...Qxf3 37.Kf1
46
Qxc3–+] 0–1
6. Bednarek,S (2307) Heberla,B (2555)
[A40]
European Blitz 2017 Katowice POL (5.40),
15.12.2017
Black to play. 19...Rc2+! 20.Kxc2 [20.Kd3
Bf5+ 21.Kd4 Rd8 Threatening 22....Ng7-23
...ne6 mate 22.Bd2 a) 22.Bg5 Ndf6+ 23.Ke3
Ng4+ 24.Kf3 Rf2#; b) 22.Bc4 Ng7 23.Kc5
Rc8+ 24.Kxd5 R2xc4 25.Bd4 (25.Nc5 Be6+
26.Nxe6 fxe6#; 25.Rd4 e6+ 26.Kd6 R4c7
27.... Ne8 # cannot be prevented.) 25...
e6+ 26.Kd6 Ne8+ 27.Kd7 R4c7#; 22...Ng7
23.Nc5 b6 24.Ne4 Nc3+ Wins] 20...Nxe3+
21.Kd2 Nxd1 22.Kxd1 Bd5–+ 0–1
Solutions to ‘Test your endgame’ on
page 43
1.Kuznetsov & Saharow 1961
1.Ne5 Be6 2.Nc5 Bc8 3.Nc4 Kg6 4.Nd3 Be6
5.Nce5+ Kg7 6.Nxc1
1…..Be8 2.Nd6 Bg6 3.Nec4 Bh7 4.Ne8 Kg6
5.Ne5+ Kh5 6.Nf6#
2. Tjavslowski 1960
1.Kb8 Bxg4 2.Kb7 d4 3.Kc6 Kg3 4.Kd6 Kh4
5.Ke7 Bc8 6.Kd8 Bg4 7.Nd3 Bf5 8.Ne5 Kh5
9.Ke7 Bc8 10.Ke8 Bf5 11.Kd8 Kxg5 12.Nf3+
Kf4 13.Nxd4 Bh3 14.Nc6 g5 15.Nb8 g4
16.Nd7 wins
3.Cehover 1959
1.Qf8 Nf5 2.Qa3 Ne3 3.Qa8 Nd5 4.Qf8 Nf4
5.Qa3 Nd3 6.Qa8 wins
4.Guljajev & Koroljkov
1.e4 Bxe4 2.Rf3+ Bxf3 3.Rg8+ Kf7 4.Rg7+
Kf8 5.g6 Bxd5 6.Rf7+ Bxf7 7.g7#
5.Gurvic 1960
1.Nf7+ Kxb7 2.Be4 Rh1+ 3.Kg7 Rg1+ 4.Kf8
Rxg8+ 5.Kxg8 Kc6 6.Bf3 Qxf3 7.Ne5+ wins
6.A.Grin 1961
1.Qe4 Bc6+ 2.Qxc6 b1Q 3.g6 Qh1 4.Qxh1
a4 5.Qh6
AICF CHRONICLE
47
FEBRUARY 2018
AICF Calendar February 2018
Title Date Location
1st Sri Anand Wings Open FIDE Rating 16 Feb - 19 Feb Guntur
Shri Dakshinamurthy FIDE Rating below 1500 23 Feb - 25 Feb Tindivanam
4th Kanyakumari FIDE Rated below 1500 23 Feb - 25 Feb Nagercoil
BPS All Goa Open Rapid FIDE Rating 24 Feb - 25 Feb Goa
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
Playing Hall
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

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

Back Cover (Colour) 15,000 1,20,000
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Solution to puzzle of the month on p.41:1.e3 Nf6 2.e4 2.Nxe4 3.Na3 Nc3 4.Rb1 Nb1 5.Nb5
The top three winners of the C group were Anirudh Jain (centre), Devi Das Suresh Pai (right) and Ravindra P
Na3 6.Nc3 Nc4 7.Nb1
49
AICF CHRONICLE
48
FEBRUARY 2018
 16th Delhi International Open Grandmasters Tournament, New Delhi

Top three winners of the tournament with Bharat Singh Chauhan - Arkadij Naiditsch (centre), Ziaur Rahman
(left) and Md Nubairshah Shaikh

Subhra Saha,Winner Group B, receiving the trophy from Bharat Singh Chouhan,Secretary,AICF