Tag: India

Indian National Challengers 08: Field Wide Open!

The 8th Round of the National Challengers Chess Championship 2015 witnessed draws on both of the top two boards. However, in other important games, GM Neelotpal Das and IM Anurag Mhamal scored crucial wins. The duo overcame IM Stany and GM Shyam Sundar respectively.

After 8 Rounds of this 13-round event, 5 players – namely IM Mhamal and GMs Karthikeyan, Sengupta, Laxman & Neelotpal – are leading the pack with 6.5 points each. Meanwhile, a massive 18 participants are currently tied for the 2nd spot with 6 points each.

Round 8 Results: Here

Indian National Challengers 07: Three Grandmasters In Lead

The 7th round of the National Challengers Chess Championship 2015 saw the top-board game between the leaders – GMs Laxman and Karthikeyan – end in a draw. This result allowed GM Sengupta to catch up with the aforementioned duo by scoring a victory over IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh.

After 7 rounds, the trio of Laxman, Karthikeyan and Sengupta is currently leading the pack with 6 points each followed by as many as 12 players on 5.5/6.

Round 7 Results: Here

Indian National Challengers Chess 04: Four Players With Perfect Score

At the end of four rounds of the National Challengers Chess Championship 2015, a total of four players – including IM Himanshu Sharma and GMs Sengupta, Laxman and Shyam Sundar – are leading the pack with a perfect score of 4/4. The aforementioned players overcame Lokesh N, Harsha Bharathakoti, IM Sameer Kathmale and IM Rahul Sangma respectively in the fourth round of this 13-round event.

Meanwhile, as many as 14 players are currently placed joint-second with a score of 3.5/4.

Round 4 Results: Here

RTU Open Final: Shirov Victorious, Aryan Shines!

A victory over GM Baron Tal in the final round of the Riga Technical University Open 2015 enabled GM Alexei Shirov to join GM Robert Hovhannisyan at the top of the table. However, Shirov edged out Hovhannisyan on the tie-break score to clinch the title in this 9 round open.

Meanwhile, the 3rd, 4th and 5th places went to GMs Jumbayev, Kovalenko and Melkumyan respectively.

Amongst Indians, untitled Aryan Chopra performed brilliantly by remaining unbeaten throughout the course of the tournament to finish a creditable 6th in the final rankings. The 14 year old not only increased an impressive 28 rating points but also made a Grandmaster Norm with a rating performance of 2634.

Final Standings: Here

RTU Open 08: Hovhannisyan in sole lead

A miniature victory over GM Baron Tal enabled GM Robert Hovhannisyan to take up the sole lead going into the final round of the Riga Technical University Open 2015. The Hovhannisyan – Baron encounter, which took off with the Four Knights Opening, saw Baron get overly ambitious with his 13th move. Hovhannisyan took perfect advantage of his opponent’s blunder and as such, Baron had to resign on move 17.

In other games, the all-Latvian encounter on Board 2 between GMs Shirov and Kovalenko resulted in a fighting draw while Untitled Indian player Aryan Chopra successfully held GM Bartosz Socko on Board 3.

With only one round to go, Hovhannisyan is being closely followed by Shirov on 6.5 points. Meanwhile, as many as 9 players, including Aryan Chopra, are ranked 3rd with 6 points each.

Round 8 Results: Here

RTU Open 06: Shirov, Hovhannisyan on top

After 6 rounds of the Riga Technical University Open 2015, GMs Alexei Shirov and Robert Hovhannisyan are in joint lead with 5.5 points each. The duo overcame IM Chiagev and GM Naroditsky respectively in the 6th round of this 9-round event.

Amongst Indians, IM Prasanna Rao and untitled Aryan Chopra have notched up 4.5 points each. The former notably defeated GM Jure Skoberne in Round 6.

The 7th round is expected to be a crucial one with the two leaders – Shirov and Hovhannisyan – paired against each other. A win for either of the two will take the winner a step closer to winning this tournament.

Round 6 Results: Here

Asian Continental Chess Final: GM Salem crowned Asian champion!

The final round of the Asian Continental Chess Championship 2015 saw the top-board game between GMs Salem A. R. Saleh and Vidit Gujrathi end in a quick draw while on the second board, GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly overcame GM Zhang Zhong in an inspired fashion. As a result, Salem and Ganguly both ended up with 7 points each. However, Salem was crowned the new Asian Continental Champion, thanks to his better tie-break score.

Meanwhile, the third place was secured by GM Sethuraman, who pipped GMs Vidit and Zhou Jianchao on the tie-breaks.

The surprise factor of this tournament turned out to be Maghsoodloo Parham, an untitled player from Iran who notched up a total of 6 points. He secured the 6th position in the final rankings and finished ahead of several strong Grandmasters.

Final Rankings: Here

Hogeschool Zeeland 09: Jobava wins with 8.0/9

Georgian GM Baadur Jobava (2664) won in style to finish clear first with 8.0/9. He had only two draws in the tournament, winning the remaining games to win by a half point margin.

Among the Indians, IM Prasanna Rao (2424) won his final round game to finish at 7.0/9, while IM Arghyadip Das (2485) drew with IM Somak Palit (2346) and GM Ankit Rajpara (2460) too drew his game to move to 6.5/9.

Check the final standings here.

Kavala Chess 07: Tiviakov leads with 6.0/7

Dutch GM Sergei Tiviakov (2611) leads the tournament with 6.0/7 by half a point. IM Diptayan Ghosh (2531) drew with two Grandmasters to move to 5.0/7.

IM N. Srinath (2476) drew his seventh round game with a player rated lower than him to move to 4.5/7, while IM Sayantan Das (2444) lost to a Grandmaster to be left stranded at 4.0/7.

Check the Round 8 pairings here.

Asian Continental Chess 07: Gupta, Ganguly among leaders

With victories over IM Lin Chen and GM Sethuraman respectively in the 7th round of the Asian Continental Chess Championship 2015, GMs Abhijeet Gupta and Salem A. R. Saleh moved on to a tally of 5.5 points out of a possible 7. The duo, along with GM Ganguly, are currently leading the pack with 2 rounds to go.

Meanwhile, the leading trio is being closely followed by 7 players, including Indian GMs Sasikiran, Sengupta and Vidit, on 5/7.

The penultimate round of the tournament will witness an all-India clash on the top board with GMs Gupta and Ganguly paired against each other whilst GM Salem will be up against GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son on the second table.

Complete Round 7 Results: Here