AICF CHRONICLE

the official magazine of the All India Chess Federation

Volume : 13 Issue : 8 Price Rs. 25 March 2019

National Team Chess Championships, Kolkata

DOUBLE TRIUMPH FOR PSPB!

PSPB Open Winners-GM Aravindh CHithambaram, GM GN Gopal, GM Deepsen Gupta, GM SS

Ganguly, GM Karthikeyan Murali, IM DV Prasath, IA R. Anantharam, Maj. Gen. Shibnath Mukherjee

PSPB Women Winners - Atinsen Gupta, VP, BCA,IM Padmini Rout, IM Easha Karavade, WIM Pratyusha
Boddha, WGM Mary Ann Gomes,IA R. Anantharam, IM DV Prasath & Maj. Gen. Shibnath Mukherjee
AICF CHRONICLE March 2019
Room No. 70,
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Publisher: Bharat Singh Chouhan
Editor : C.G.S. Narayanan
Price: Monthly Rs.25 Annual Rs.300
Inside…
National Team Chess Championships, Kolkata
Double delight for PSPB
by IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran, Chief Arbiter 1
1st All India Open Fide rating chess tournament, Dhule
Balasubramaniam of ICF wins
by IA Swapnil Bansod, Chief Arbiter 5
11th BRDCA Open Fide Rapid Rating ,Bangalore
Gusain Himal is the winner
by FA Saleem Beig,Chief Arbiter 7
Elite Club of Chess Fide Rated Rapid Open,Salem
Nitin wins title at Salem
by M.Ephrame IA,Chief Arbiter 9
KCA’s 18th Open Fide Rated Tmt,Kottayam
Muthaiah wins title
by LR Bhuvanaa Sai, Chief Arbiter 11
Late Smt. Premlata Omprakash Agarwal
All Goa Open Rapid FIDE Rating , Margao, Goa
Niraj Saripalli wins title
by Akash Keni, Chief Arbiter 13
3rd Shaastra Rated Rapid Tournament, Chennai
Muthaiah wins title
IA Prof.R.Anantharam, Chief Arbiter 15
1st Dombivali Kalyan Open Classical Rating,Thane
Vikramaditya Kulkarni wins title
by IA Vitthal Madhav, Chief Arbiter 18
Selected games from Chennai and Delhi GMOpen
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron 20
Tactics from master games by S.Krishnan 42
Test your endgame by C.G.S.Narayanan 43
Masters of the past-97 :Vera Menchik 44
AICF Calendar 48
From the Editor’s desk National Team Chess Championships, Kolkata….
Grandmaster Krishnan Sasikiran came
close to winning Aeroflot A Open but
finished a creditable third. The 58
strong Indian contingent performed
exceedingly well at the event making
five norms. This included a GM norm
for the 13-year old Nagpur boy Raunak
Sadhwani, a second WGM norm for the tiny Maharashtra
star Divya Deshmukh and the final IM norm for Aditya
Mittal who is now an IM at the age of twelve.
It was an emphatic win for GM Abhijeet Gupta at the
33rd Cannes Festival in France. In the World team
Chess Championships at Asthana Indian men were
decidedly unlucky when they lost a closely fought final
round to Russia and missed a medal by a whisker. But
on the positive side GM Adhiban and GM Surya Sekhar
Ganguly won individual golds on board one and three. GM
B.Adhiban also became the fifth Indian player to breach
the 2700 barrier These events are covered in the centre
colour pages of this issue.
Further more news to rejoice! India got its 61st GM in
P.Iniyan who crossed 2500 elo at the Noisel Open in
France. It was a proud moment for Indian chess when
GM Harika Dronavalli was conferred Padma Shri Award
by President of India early this month.
On the home front in the National team Chess event
held in Kolkata, PSPB scored a facile double, winning
both Open and Women team titles. Reports on this event
along with FIDE tournaments held during February ’19
are featured in this issue.
Selected games from Delhi and Chennai Open annotated
by IM Manuel Aaron are presented elsewhere in this
issue.The first recognized World Women’s Chess
Champion, Vera Menchik, is featured in the ‘Masters of
the past’ series.
C.G.S.Narayanan
Readers are invited to offer their feedback on the
regular features in the AICF Chronicle and are
also invited to send interesting articles, annotated
games and chess anecdotes to the Editor at ‘www.
indianchessfed@gmail.com’ or ‘cgsnarayanan
@hotmail.com.
Double delight for PSPB
by IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran, Chief Arbiter
Top seeds and favorites Petroleum Sports Promotion Board defended their national titles in
both Open and Women divisions without much struggle in the National Team Chess Cham-
pionship which concluded at Indian Council of Cultural Relations here at Kolkata.
With an all grandmaster line up in their ranks consisting of Surya Shekhar Ganguly, National
champion Aravindh Chithambaram, Karthikeyan Murali, GN Gopal and Deep Sengupta, PSPB
beat Alekhine Chess Club 3 -1 to take their point tally to 17 match point from possible 18,
a three-point lead over second positioned Airports Authority of India.AAI overcame tough
resistance from Odisha in the final round to register favourable results with score line of 2½
-1½ to finish as first runner up with 14 points. while Railways ‘B’ finished as second runner
up on tie break after beating LIC 3 -1 in the final round.
In the Women section, there was no match for the top seeded PSPB team consisting of IM
Padmini Rout, IM Eesha Karavade, WGM Mary Ann Gomes, WGM Soumya Swaimnathan
and WIM Pratyusha Bodda as they secured the title with all win record in the seven round
Swiss system event. Despite being assured of the title overnight, PSPB did not know show
any mercy towards Uttar Pradesh in the final round to register 4 – 0 victory to maintain
their clean slate.
Air India and Airports Authority of India tied for the runner up position but half game point
tiebreak score helped Air India to finish at second spot while AAI had to be satisfied with a
third position finish. In the final round Air India pipped Life Insurance Corporation 2½ – 1½
while AAI mustered a win over Bengal Tigresses with same score line.
Vipul Subhashi of Bihar ‘B’, Chaitanya Sairam Mogili of Andhra Pradesh ‘B’, GM Laxman RR
of Railways ‘B’, GM Deepan Chakkravarthy of Railways ‘A’ and Rushyendra Chowdary Kan-
tipudi of Andhra Pradesh won the Board prizes for board number one to five respectively in
open section while WIM Sakshi Chitlange of AAI, WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty of LIC, IM
Padmini Rout of PSPB, WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy of Air India and WIM Pratyusha Bodda of
PSPB won the yellow metal for board prizes in women section.
In a colourful closing ceremony, Major General (Retd) SN Mukherjee, former Vice Chancellor
of prestigious Lakshmibai National Institute of Physical Education and Ms. Madhu Kumari,
Indian International Basketball player gave away the trophies and cash prizes to the win-
ners in presence of Shri. Guatam Dey, Regional Director ICCR, Shri. Atanu Lahiri, Secretary
Bengal Chess Association and Shri. R Anantharam, Chief Arbiter.
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39th National Team Chess Championships, Kolkata Arbiter’s refresher course, Delhi
Final standings (first 20 teams)
Rank Team Gam. + = - MP Res.
1 PSPB 9 8 1 0 17 0
2 Airport Authority of India 9 7 0 2 14 0
3 Railways SPB - B 9 6 1 2 13 0
4 Bengal Red 9 6 1 2 13 0
5 Railways SPB - A 9 6 1 2 13 0
6 Air India 9 5 3 1 13 0
7 Alekhine Chess Club - A - 9 6 0 3 12 2
8 Alekhine Chess Club - B 9 6 0 3 12 0
9 Andhra Pradesh SA - B 9 5 1 3 11 0
10 Tamil Nadu SCA 9 5 1 3 11 0
11 All Marathi CA - A 9 5 1 3 11 0
12 All Orissa CA 9 5 0 4 10 0
13 L I C 9 4 2 3 10 0
14 Madhya Pradhesh CA 9 5 0 4 10 0
15 Bengal Blue 9 4 2 3 10 0
Bharat Singh Chauhan, Secretary, AICF inaugurates the Arbiter refresher course
16 Andhra Prasesh CA 9 3 4 2 10 0
17 Telangana SCA 9 5 0 4 10 0
18 Uttar Pradesh CSA 9 5 0 4 10 0 1st All India Open Fide rating chess tournament, Dhule
19 All Bihar CA - B 9 4 1 4 9 0
20 Services SCB 9 4 1 4 9 0

17th National Women Team Chess Championship 2019

Final ranking
Rank Team Gam. + = - MP Res.
1 PSPB 7 7 0 0 14 0
2 Air India 7 5 1 1 11 1
3 Airport Authority of India 7 5 1 1 11 1
4 L I C 7 4 0 3 8 0
5 Tamil Nadu 7 4 0 3 8 0
6 Rising Bengal 7 4 0 3 8 0
7 All Bihar CA 7 3 1 3 7 0
8 U P CSA 7 3 1 3 7 0
9 Bengal Tigresses 7 3 0 4 6 2
10 All Marathi CA 7 2 2 3 6 0
11 TCF, Kolkata 7 2 1 4 5 0
Back Row: 3rd Place-Indrajeet Mahindarkar, 2nd-Atul Dahale and winner IM Ramanthan Balasubramanium,
12 Himachal Pradesh 7 2 1 4 5 0 front row- IA Swapnil Bansod Chief Arbiter, FA Shobhraj Khonde, Jt Secretary AMCA, Shri Rajendra Konde,
13 Ranga Reddy District 7 2 1 4 5 0 Treasurer AMCA, Shri Gunwant Patil, Treasurer SSVPS, Shri Subhash Deore, President SSVPS, Dr. HItendra
14 Ranga Redy DIstrict Juniors 7 1 1 5 3 0 Patil, Principal SSVPS Engineering College, Shri Shailendra Khonde, Secretary Dhule Dist. Chess Assn and Dr.
15 Himachal Pradesh - A 7 0 1 6 1 0 Gunjan Patil, President Dhule Dist. Chess Assn.

3
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 Late Smt. Premlata Omprakash Agarwal All Goa Open Rapid FIDE Rating 1st All India Open Fide rating chess tournament, Dhule…
Chess Tournament, Margao, Goa Balasubramaniam of ICF wins
by IA Swapnil Bansod, Chief Arbiter
1st All India Open Fide rating chess tourna-
ment, was held from 12th February 2019 to
17th February, 2019, at SSVPS Engineering
College, Dhule, This is the 1st All india level
inaugural ceremony-lighting of lamp rating event in Dhule, Maharashtra. Dhule
at hands of Mrs. Agrawal, Director, Chess Association and SSVPS BS Deore
Prakash Packaging Engineering College organized the event
jointly together. The tournament attracted
total 186 players from all over the India and
1 player from Bangladesh. There were in all
97 international fide rated players among the
participants, which included 2 International
Masters.
After 6 days of fighting chess at Open Fide
Winner Niraj Saripalli receiving the trophy at the rating chess tournament, which concluded at
hands of Engr. Ernesto Moniz, Chairman of the SSVPS College, Dhule, IM Ramanathan Balas-
General Body of BPS Sports Club in the presence ubramaniam of TN ICF won the tournament
of Smt. Amrita Agarwal, Director, Prakash with 8 points out of possible 9. At the end
Packaging Ltd.,guest of honour, Mr. Santosh of 5th round 2 share lead with full score i.e.
George, President BPS Sports Club, Mr. Ashesh
IM Ramanathan Balasubramaniam of TN,
Keni, President, Salcete Taluka Chess Association
and Vice-President, Goa Chess Association, and Indrajeet Mahindarkar of MAH. Indra-
jeet Mahindarkar lost his 6th round game to
IM Ramanathan. With a win of 6th round IM
Ramanathan took the sole lead with 6 pts.
He paired with the 4th seed Atul Dahale for
7th round game.
Atul also won his 6th round beautiful game
against Mraduhas Tripathi of MP. IM Ramana-
than took sole lead after 7th round with 6.5
followed by 5 rivals. Top seed IM Vikramadit-
ya Kulkarni of Rlys, Atul Dahale of MAH, San-
Playing Hall
jeev Mishra of MAH, Indrajeet Mahindarkar
and Patil Mayur. At the end of penultimate
round 3 share lead namely IM Ramanathan
B, Atul Dahale and Indrajeet Mahindarkar
who won his penultimate round game against
Sanjiv Mishra in a rook vs knight marathon
4
end game.
While in the 9th round game Atul and In-
drajeet drew their rook ending game and
settle for 2nd and 3rd respectively. Top seed
IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni won against Gun-
want Kasar to reach 4th position in the final
standing. Winner IM R.Balasubramaniam
won against Vaibhav Borse to clinch the title
with 8 points.
The prizes were distributed at the hands of
Shri. Subhash Deore, President SSVPS. The
other dignitaries present were Shri. Gun-
want Patil, Treasurer SSVPS, Dr. Hitendra
Patil, Principal, SSVPS Engineering College,
Shri. Rajendra Konde, Treasurer AMCA, Dr.
Gunjan Patil, President, Dhule District Chess
Association, Shri. Shailendra Khonde, Secre-
tary, Dhule District Chess Association, Shri.
Shobhraj Khonde, Joint Secretary AMCA and
IA Swapnil Bansod Chief Arbiter.
The team of Arbiters was headed by Chief
Arbiter IA Swapnil Bansod and he was ably
assisted by SNA Gurujeetsingh Gundoo, Dy.
Chief Arbiter, SNA Amrish Joshi, SA Ashw-
meghraj Khonde,. FA Shobhraj Khonde was
the observer for the said event.
Final standings:
Rk. Name Pts.
1 R Balasubramaniam IM 8
2 Dahale Atul 7.5
3 Mahindrakar Indrajeet 7.5
4 Kulkarni Vikramaditya IM 7.5
5 Patil Mayur 7
6 Patil Jitendra 7
7 Suhrud Sudheer Acharya K 7
8 Krishnan Ritvik 7
9 Tajane Ganesh 7
AICF CHRONICLE
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10 Mishra Sanjeev 6.5 57 Kotkar Suhas 5.5 11th BRDCA All India Open Fide Rapid Rating Chess Tournament 2019,Bangalore
11 Kasar Gunvant 6.5 58 Kulmulkar Shivam 5
12 Mraduhas Tripathi 6.5 59 Tadvi Saniya 5 Gusain Himal is the winner
13 Vedant Nitin Vekhande 6.5 60 Rane Yash 5 by FA Saleem Beig,Chief Arbiter
14 Kasar Prashant 6.5 61 Nipun Dangche 5
15 Yogesh Bharat Mahamuni 6.5 62 Singh Surypratap 5 11th BRDCA All India Open Fide Rapid Rat- 3 IM Saravana Krishnan P. 8
16 Borase Manoj 6.5 63 Wadile Devendra 5 ing Chess Tournament 2019 was organized 4 Senthil Maran K 8
17 Borse Vaibhav 6.5 64 Pise Prashant 5 by BRDCA in association with United Kar- 5 Amal Roozi 8
18 Divekar Prathamesh 6.5 65 Amale Ujjwal 5 nataka Chess Association. The tournament 6 Nayak Biswajit 7½
19 Mahale Pankaj 6.5 66 Kulkarni Shreehari 5 attracted 489 players from all over India 7 Yashas D. 7½
20 Walde Harshal 6.5 67 Patil Omkar U 5 8 IM Rathnakaran K. 7½
including major states like Tamil Nadu, Oris-
21 Om Nagnath Lamkane 6.5 68 Satwik Vaibhav Dhage 5 9 Ashwath R. 7½
sa, Andhra Pradesh, Madhya Pradesh, West
22 Sonar Rushikesh 6.5 69 Borse Gangesh 5 10 Parthasarathy R 7½
Bengal, Telangana, Rajasthan, Puducherry, 11 Lokesh N. 7½
23 Kanani Parth R 6 70 Salunke Atharva 5
Goa, Delhi, Assam, Jharkhand, Chandigarh, 12 Likhit Chilukuri 7½
24 Tiwari O P 6 71 Sawant Hirak Manohar 5
25 Pawar Kaustubh Sayajirao 6 72 Apankar Prashant 5 Chhattisgarh, Karnataka and Maharashtra. 13 Hrishikesh Rupesh R 7½
26 Bhagyashree Patil 6 73 Rachita Sabbathi 5 4 International Masters participated in the 14 Abhishek I Ganiger 7½
27 Sarode Om 6 74 Bhadane Tanmay 5 event. Top seed was IM Rathnakaran K of 15 Abhishek Das 7
28 Salunke Pushkaraj 6 75 Kokane Khushbu 5 Kerala with rating of 2398. 229 players were 16 Rakshith Srinivasan 7
29 Kamalnayan Deshmukh 6 76 Shimpi Athang 5 rated.The Venue was very spacious and well 17 Sanjay Sindhia Mh 7
30 Pawaar Sohum 6 77 Vikhar Prathamesh 5 ventilated. There was no inauguration. First 18 Gaurav Sachdeva 7
31 Badgujar Vaibhav 6 78 Nikum Shantilal 5 Round started by 10:30 AM. 19 Gavi Siddayya 7
32 Patil Harshal U 6 79 Lohakare Pratham 4.5 20 Murali Chandrasekaran R 7
33 Nichat Ajinkya 6 80 Kumawat Ghanashyam 4.5 International Master Gusain Himal (2361) of 21 FM Gahan M G 7
34 Kshatriya Nitin Vekhande 6 81 Iyer Arvind 4.5 22 Sameer Kumar Y 7
Chhattisgarh won the 11th BRDCA All India
35 Ahire Vaibhav 6 82 Wagh Ayush 4.5 23 Samith Reddy I 7
Open Fide Rapid Rating Chess Tournament
36 Ahmed Feroz 5.5 83 Borse Suresh 4.5 24 Sami M A 7
2019 by scoring 8.5 points out of 9 rounds, 25 Pratham Singh 7
37 Kale Harshal V 5.5 84 Kucheria Kshitij 4.5
IM Girish A Koushik (2397) of Karnataka, IM 26 Arikilla Shiva Kumar 7
38 Pasalkar Onkar 5.5 85 Kale Shriram 4.5
39 Redkar Yash 5.5 86 Ulhe Vedant 4.5 Saravana Krishnan P (2326) of Tamil Nadu, 27 Mari Arul S. 6½
40 Vishal Narote 5.5 87 Mahajan Sagar 4.5 Senthil Maran K (2200) of Tamil and Amal 28 Saket Kumar 6½
41 Chavan Vivek 5.5 88 Bahalkar Aarya 4.5 Roozi (1756) of Kerala Nadu were tied for 29 Ranjith R.K. 6½
42 Bogawat Pranav 5.5 89 Chitoda Priyesh 4.5 second place with 8 points each. IM Girish A 30 Shankar A. 6½
43 Ahire Vishal Sahebrao 5.5 90 Kotkar Sunil 4.5 Koushik (2397) of Karnataka secured second 31 AGM Karthikeyan J. 6½
44 Patil Hemant 5.5 91 Narote Archit 4.5 place with a better tie break. 32 Lakshmi Raja Perumal K 6½
45 Bhandari Aaditya 5.5 92 Pawar Jamna Santosh 4.5 33 AIM Sushrutha Reddy 6½
46 Prasanth K V 5.5 93 Choudhary Tanmay 4.5 For the Prize distribution function, Hanuman- 34 Nitish Bhat 6½
47 Wadia Kiran 5.5 94 Kharchane Aamrapali 4.5 tha, Secretary UKCA and Joint Secretary AICF 35 Sudarshan Bhat 6½
48 Sherla Prathamesh 5.5 95 Gavale Devang 4.5 36 Vaibhav Bhat 6½
,IM Girish A Koushik, Chidananda A, Secre-
49 Agawane Anish 5.5 96 Jadhav Darshan Ramesh 4.5 37 Vaisakh R P 6½
tary BRDCA and Saleem Beig, Chief Arbiter
50 Bagul Vinit 5.5 97 Jadhav Tejas 4.5 38 AIM Renganayaki V 6½
were present. 39 Arhan Chethan Anand 6½
51 Khatik Aasim 5.5 98 Jethawa Mitesh 4.5
52 Kale Shruti 5.5 99 Jadhav Sarthak 4.5 40 AIM Abhijit Chutia 6½
Final ranking 41 Rajesh Chandrashekaran 6½
53 Krishnan Trisha 5.5 100 Jethawa Jitendra Ramesh 4.5
Rk Name Pts 42 Apoorv Kamble 6½
54 Kamble Pravin 5.5 101 Shingar Girija 4.5
1 IM Gusain Himal 8½ 43 Sujay B M 6½
55 Pate Prerana 5.5 102 Patil Shivraj Pramod 4.5
2 IM Girish A. Koushik 8 44 AIM Kaushik G Iyer 6½
56 Rane Viraj 5.5 103 Marathe Durvesh 4.5

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MARCH 2019 MARCH 2019
45 AIM Tejas Chitnis 6½ 92 Thejas M U 6 Elite Club of Chess All India Fide Rated Rapid Open Tournament 2019,Salem
46 Rishabh Kumara 6½ 93 Suraj Bhat 6
47 Bhagyashree G Patil 6½ 94 Thulasi Reddy 6 Nitin wins title at Salem
48 Prajwal K M 6½ 95 Raghunandan K 6 by M.Ephrame IA,Chief Arbiter
49 Vaibhav Kalpaka 6½ 96 Hari Charan G V 6
50 Sujith K J 6½ 97 Pradeep Sagar 5½ Thirty-year old Elite Club of Chess, Salem Francis Xavier, Principal, Jairam Public School
51 Srihari Padmanabhan 6½ 98 Sanikommu Manasvi 5½ District in Tamilnadu organized an open Fide gave away the prizes. Shri. M Manisekar Vice
52 P V Srinivas 6 99 ACM Anil Thungesh 5½ Rated Rapid Chess Tournament at Jairam President, the Elite Club of Chess welcomed
53 Kuljeet Singh Khurana 6 100 Gopal Aravamuthan Iyengar 5½ Public School, Chinnathirupathi, Salem on the gathering, Shri. M Senthilvel Joint Sec-
54 Dilip Kumar Pedda 6 101 V Mallikarjun Kulkarni 5½ 2nd and 3rd February 2019. The tournament retary, TNSCA and N Arun, Secretary, Salem
55 Vignesh G 6 102 Aravinda B R 5½
attracted 434 players all over from India, District Chess association felicitated the
56 Gautam J.K. 6 103 Varun Sudarshan 5½
which covered states of Andhra, Jharkand, event. Shri P Mohanraj, Elite Club of Chess,
57 Karthik S 6 104 Jagadesh Babu M N V V 5½
58 Shibin K Benny 6 105 Santanu Roy 5½
Karnataka, Kerala, Odisha, Tamilnadu, West proposed the vote of thanks.
59 Rao K. Damodar 6 106 Muhammad Anas M M 5½ Bengal and Union territory Pondicherry. Single
60 Lohith B Y 6 107 Niranjan J Warrier 5½ representation from U S Chess Federation M Pranesh of Tamilnadu held the top seeded
61 AGM Sagar Praveen 6 108 AIM Lakshith B Salian 5½ also added glamour to the tournament. GM GM Laxman R R on round four and the second
62 Aravind Matthews A C T 6 109 Santhosh Kumar B S 5½ Laxman R R from ICF was the top seeded. seeded IM Nitin S of Salem was held by Nikhil
63 AFM Aruna Dinakara 6 110 Rakesh Gowda G C 5½ Participation of IM Nitin S, IM Praveen Kumar Magizhnan of Taminadu at the fifth round.
64 Anissh S K 6 111 Meghana S 5½ C and IM Muthaiah AL, strengthened and These were the upsets. Syed Anwar Shasuli
65 Halkude Nagnath 6 112 Chinmaya Vyas Vyasojwala 5½ added attraction to the tournament. of ICF took the sole lead with 7 points at the
66 Yashas Donthi 6 113 Sujan Bharadwaj S 5½ end of the seventh round. Anwar maintained
67 Mitul K H 6 114 Ronit Prasad 5½ The tournament was inaugurated in a very his lead at the end of eighth round by a win
68 Vishal K 6 115 Abhay B Bhandarkar 5½ simple way. Grand Master and three Interna- against his team mate GM Laxman R R fol-
69 Subinay Kumar 6 116 Sujan Kumar T 5½
tional Masters occupied the top two boards lowed by him IM Nitin was trailing behind by
70 Vishnu Sridhar 6 117 Himanshu Rai 5½
and inaugurated the event by making the half a point in the same penultimate round.
71 Vikas Saini 6 118 Prasada Rao G 5½
72 Senthil Kumaran T.H. 6 119 Umesh Nair 5½ formal moves, in the presence of Mr. Sen- In the final round Nitin’s victory over Syed
73 Gagan B R 6 120 ACM Srivastav Manishika 5½ thilvel, Joint Secretary TNSCA, Mr. M Arun, Anwar won the title solely. Nitin became the
74 Adit Ajad Yarra 6 121 Ridhyan Gupta 5½ Secretary, Salem District Chess Association, champion of All India Fide Rated Rapid Chess
75 Abhinav Banerjee 6 122 Deepak Sanjay T 5½ Mr. Mathivanan Secretary Elite Club of Chess, Open tournament and received Rupees
76 Hariharan Subramony 6 123 Tejes Suresh Kumar 5½ Salem. 20000/- as cash prize.
77 Aaazad G Acharya 6 124 Deekshith J 5½
78 Rajath Gururaj 6 125 Abhinav Saraf 5½ 2nd seeded S Nitin of Southern Railways, Final ranking
79 Raja Velusamy 6 126 Narayanan V Baradwaj 5½ Salem won the title in All India Fide Rat- Rk Name Pts
80 Ranjith Raj N M 6 127 Vinaya Prakash Ashirwad 5½ ed Rapid Chess Open Tournament-2019 at 1 IM Nitin S. 8½
81 Saathvik S K 6 128 Shyamu Sharma 5½ Jairam Public School, Salem pocketing a cash 2 Syed Anwar Shazuli 8
82 Sathvik Adiga 6 129 Arko Narayan Ganguly 5½ 3 Sibi Visal R 8
prize of Twenty thousand rupees. He collected
83 Abhyuday Santhosh 6 130 Setu Minocha 5½ 4 FM Srihari L R 8
8.5 point in 9 rounds Swiss format. Follow-
84 AFM Nirupam Gogoi 6 131 Chandrashekaramurthy S R 5½ 5 Pranesh M 8
ing him, there were four players who scored
85 Aarya Satish Chikodi 6 132 Abhiman Urs R 5½ 6 GM Laxman R.R. 7½
86 Devansh Chaudhury 6 133 Mattania Wilfred 5½ eight points but better tie break helped Syed
7 Genish Prakash J 7½
87 Anirudh Gosakan 6 134 Devaraj Diraviyam 5½ Anwar Shasuli of ICF finished the runner up. 8 Selvamurugan B 7½
88 Shashank 6 135 Mithiran A 5½ Sibi Visal R, Srihari L R and Pranesh M all 9 Alaguraja M.A. 7½
89 Subbarao T V 6 136 Vivek Singh Bhadouria 5½ are from Tamilnadu finished 3rd, 4th and 5th 10 Harshad S 7½
90 Nagvekar Sairudra 6 137 Aarush Rajesh 5½ place respectively. 11 IM Muthaiah Al 7
91 Arun Kumar 6 138 Rohit Venugopal 5½ The Chief Guest of the function Shri. I Paul 12 IM Praveen Kumar C 7

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13 CM Nikhil Magizhnan 7 59 Ilanchezhiyan M 6 KCA’s 18th Open Fide Rated Chess Tournament,Kottayam…
14 Pranav Hari Raja D 7 60 Venkat Ramana R 6
15 Senthil Maran K 7 61 Arun Prasad Raja V 6 Muthaiah wins title
16 Sarath Kumar Murugesan 7 62 Reeghan Allwin M 6 by LR Bhuvanaa Sai, Chief Arbiter
17 Dixit Tharun Raja P 7 63 Vikash K S 6
18 Ananthapadmanabh D V 7 64 Thajol T J 6 KCA’s 18th Open fide rating chess tournament In the final round the battle between Prasan-
19 Sai Prasath A S 7 65 Vijaya Baskar S 6 was organized by Kottayam Chess Academy na and Muthaiah, the result was favourable
20 Nawin J J 7 66 Divin S V 6 from 8th February to 12th February at K P to IM Muthaiah to win the title with 8 points.
21 Sathish Chandra G 7 67 Varadharajan S 6 Menon Hall, Kottayam. Total prize fund of Prasanna was the 1st runner-up of this event
22 Gokula Kannan G M 7 68 Vipin Vijayan 6 6, 51,000 of this tournament attracted 256 with 7.5 points. Selvamurugan B of TN was
23 Muralishankar J T 7 69 Siddharth Sathish 6 players from 11 states and 4 union territories the 2nd runner-up with the same points. Sri.
24 Jayakrishna H 7 70 Ridhyan Gupta 6
25 Jack Samuel 7
including an International Master (muthaiah Kunhi Mohideen, president of chess associ-
71 Balan Prajith S T 6
26 Dhanasekar M 7 A L). The event was inaugurated by Sri. ation, Kerala distributed the prizes to the
72 Indulekha K S 6
27 Arul Anandh S P K 6½ C. Abraham Itticheria, President, Kottayam winners.
73 Vignesh Murugan 6
28 Manigandan S S 6½ 74 Arunraj S 6 Public Library in the presence of Sri.K.C.
29 Kanishk S K 6½ 75 Mathiyazhagan M 6 Vijayakumar, Executive Secretary,Kottayam Final standings:
30 Bargava Narasimhan S 6½ 76 Nihelesh M U 6 Public Library, Sri.Rajesh Nattakam, General Rk Name Pts
31 Muralidharan R. 6½ 77 Krishna Kumar N 6 Secretary, Chess Association Kerala and Sri. 1 Muthaiah Al IM 8
32 Gugan G 6½ 78 Narayan Iyengar 6 Jismon Mathew,Chariman of Arbiter Com- 2 Prasannaa.S 7½
33 Roshan S 6½ 79 Hema Priya M 6 mission,CAK. 3 Selvamurugan B 7½
34 Ashil A J 6½ 80 Thangavelu S 6 4 Manigandan S S 7
35 Prawin K 6½ 81 Jaysree S 6 5 Kumar S. 7
Top seed players sailed smoothly up to 3rd
36 AIM Renganayaki V 6½ 82 Lokesh Varmaa K 6 6 Harshad S 7
round. After 4th round 9 players including IM
37 Dhirendra Kumar Das 6½ 83 Pon Arun S 6 7 Leeladhar Kachroo 7
Muthaiah shared the lead with perfect score. 8 Vishnu Menon 7
38 Sarvesh Krishna S 6½ 84 Rohith Vinay R 6
39 Hemanathan C 6½
In the 5th round on the top table the game 9 Anilkumar O.T. 7
85 Dharmalingam T 6
40 Hariharan Vinayagamurthy 6½ between 6th seed Hemanth Raam and IM 10 Komal Srivatsav Sajja 7
86 Jeevaa A S 6
41 Kanishkaa C 6½ Muthaiah ended in a draw. At the end of this 11 Suganthan S 7
87 Balaguru T 5½
42 Ashvin Venkat G 6½ 88 Perumal A 5½ round Prasannaa S and Manigandan S S of 12 Dhanush Ragav N S 7
43 Venkatesh Babu Sundaresan 89 Rajini K 5½ Tamil Nadu and Niraj Saripalli of Goa were 13 Joy Lazar M.A. 6½
6½ 90 Silambarasan P 5½ the joint leaders with 5 points each. In the 14 Niraj Saripalli 6½
44 Kaviyarasan T 6½ 91 Jai Vignesh U 5½ next round the players on top 3 tables drew 15 Harivardhini I 6½
45 Bharath Kulandai Velu 6½ 92 Sujith K J 5½ with each. Prasannaa, Leeladhar Kachroo of 16 Tamhankar Siddhant 6½
46 Anissh S K 6½ 93 Nijalin Nixon 5½ Haryana, Manigandan and Niraj Saripalli led 17 Chaithanyaa K G 6½
47 Sarvesh Hinduja S A 6½ 94 Nirmal K S 5½ 18 Colaco Reuben 6½
the top 2 tables with 5.5 points in the sev-
48 Srijit Some 6½ 95 Dhanush Prakaash B A 5½ 19 Ramachandra Bhat 6½
enth round. Sri Kummanam Rajasekharan,
49 Shaktivel Selvaraj 6 96 David R 5½ 20 Harikrishnan A 6½
Governor of Mizoram inaugurated the 7th
50 Hrishikesh A J 6 97 Varunsatyaa Parthasarathy 5½ 21 Ananthapadmanabh D V 6½
round at K P S Menon hall at kottayam on 22 Gokula Vishnu R 6½
51 Vijayaraghavan T 6 98 Gopal Aravamuthan Iyengar 5½
52 Aravinth Shanmugam S 6
11th Februrary 2019. Prasannaa beat Lee- 23 Mansoor C M 6½
99 Vishnu S 5½
53 Gopinath P 6 ladhar and took sole lead with 6.5 points. 24 Hemanth Raam 6
100 Indira Priyadharshini Subbu 5½
54 AIM Dharsan Venkatachalam 6 Niraj and Manigandan drew with each oth- 25 Jinan Jomon 6
101 Saravanan S 5½
55 Vinni Prabhu R 6 102 Ranjith Raj N M 5½ er. Eight players followed Prasannaa with 6 26 Anwar N K 6
56 San Hariharan 6 103 Vignesh G 5½ points each. Prasannaa maintained the lead 27 Adireddy Arjun 6
57 Naveen Prakash S 6 104 Sarveshwaran S 5½ till penultimate round. 28 Md Bashiq Imrose 6
58 Pandiyan J 6 105 Ibine E J 5½ 29 Tamizh Selvan Ganesan 6

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MARCH 2019 MARCH 2019
30 Thamaraiselvi P 6 77 John Veny Akkarakaran 5 Late Smt. Premlata Omprakash Agarwal All Goa Open Rapid FIDE Rating Chess Tournament, Margao, Goa
31 Arjun Sidharth S 6 78 Jayakrishna H 5
32 Adireddy Tarun 6 79 Tanvi Vasudev Hadkonkar 5 Niraj Saripalli wins title
33 Mythireyan P 6 80 Aasha C R 5 by Akash Keni, Chief Arbiter
34 Sanjay S Pillai 6 81 Chandra Sekharan A P 5
35 Sharsha Backer 6 82 Roshan S 5 Tournament was organized on 23rd & 24th Round 2. Second seed Adv. P.M. Kan-
36 Sarveshwaran V 6 83 Pratyush J 5 February 2019 at BPS Sports Club Margao. tak(1853) is shocked by young u-15 player
37 Venkatakrishnan R 6 84 Kannan R. 5 The inaugural function was held on 23rd Sharath Shanbag(1099) and Love Kakodkar
38 Gugan G 6 85 Rishiraj P 5 February 2019 at 5.00 p.m. at the hands shocks Sukhlecha Aditya (1471).Netra Savai-
39 Gopakumar K S 6 86 Midilesh Ms 5 of Smt. Amrita Agarwal, Director, Prakash ker beats 13th seed Sudhaker Patgar.
40 Badrinarayanan N 6 87 Jolly V P 5
Packaging Ltd in the presence of Ashesh keni,
41 Gabriel B M 6 88 Prince Mundakayam 5
Vice President,Goa Chess Association,Shri Round 3. Lal Mandar Pradip (1216) draws
42 Sreyas Payyappat 6 89 Alagiri Sriram B 5
43 Justin Joseph 6 90 Sai Kiran G V 5
Santosh George ,President of BPS Sports wth top seed Niraj Saripalli .
44 Dhiraj Patil 6 91 Evan Sanjoe 5 Club ,Mr. Damodar Zambaulikar ,Secretary
45 Pramod K K 6 92 Shivshankar Iyer S 5 of Salcete Taluka Taluka Chess Association Round 4. Third seed Suhas maintains lead
46 Bargava Narasimhan S 6 93 Sooriya B Y 5 and other guests. with few others.
47 Kishore V 6 94 Yash Abhijit Patil 5
48 Shivam Panchal 6 95 Jaidambareesh N R 5 Mr. Ashesh Keni was the Chief Arbiter of the Round 5. U-15 sensation Devesh Anand Naik
49 Bala Ganeshan 6 96 Arjun Kumar S 5 tournament assisted by Deputy Chief Arbiter crushes Suhas Asnodkar to take the lead.4th
50 Aakash G 6 97 Chinnadurai S. 5 Sanjay Kavlekar ,Deputy Arbiters Swapnil seed Wilson Cruz is held by Tanvi Hadkonkar .
51 M Tulasi Ram Kumar 6 98 Felix Moothedath 5 Hoble,Jyotsna Sariaplli ,Nandhini Saripalli. Round 6 .Devesh Anand Naik maintains his
52 Ananya Arumbakkam 5½ 99 Shashidhar B Rai 5 The tournament was organized by Salcete Ta- lead by half a point beating Vroj Porob.Tnavi
53 Mihir A K 5½ 100 Muralishankar J T 5 Hadkonkar is held to a draw by Reuben Colaco.
luka Chess Association along with hosts BPS
54 Bharkavi S 5½ 101 Sasvatha A 5
Sports Club at BPS A.C. Hall premises.Totally
55 Raghul Saro S 5½ 102 Lad Mandar Pradip 5
233 players from all over Goa participated Round 7.Top seed Niraj Saripalli beats Devesh
56 Mahendra Teja Mekala 5½ 103 Dhuliya Shubham 5
57 Abi A 5½ 104 Vinod S 5 in the premier tournament out of which 91 Anand Naik both under severe time pressure.
58 Aswath S 5½ 105 Aji Kumar A 5 were rated players on 23rd and 24th February Ishan Pagi draws with Reuben Colaco.
59 Madhavan R Munjanattu 5½ 106 Nikhil R 5 2019 at BPS Club premises A.C. Hall.
60 Sathishkumar L 5½ 107 Santhosh P.V. 5 Round 8.Niraj Saripalli consolidates lead
61 Dhanasekar K. 5½ 108 Saravana Vel R 5 The rounds started at 3.30 pm on the 23rd beating Siddharth Shenoy of BITS ,Pilani
62 Anjitha Krishnakumar 5½ 109 Rudrashish Chakraborty 5 February and ended at 6.0 pm on 24th Feb- ,Goa.Devesh Anand Naik beaten by Sairaj
63 Ratnapriya K 5½ 110 Shreya S Pillai 5 ruary. Totally 9 rounds were played. The hall Verneker.
64 Lanka Sri K Durgaprasad 5½ 111 Anoop P 5 was well lit ,air-conditioned and provided with
65 Ganesan K. 5½ 112 Shalon Joanne Pais 5 generator. Toilet facilities were good and with Round 9 .Top seed Niraj Saripalli of Salcete
66 Johney Mandal 5½ 113 Rajagopalan 5 continuous water supply. Snacks and tea was Taluka Chess Association won the prestigious
67 Midhun Kumar M A 5½ 114 Abenav M 5 Late Smt. Premlata Omprakash Agarwal All
provided to the players. A well known multi
68 Vivekananda L 5½ 115 Mishra Ravi Pratap 5
cuisine restaurant is available in the campus Goa Open Rapid FIDE Rating Chess Tourna-
69 Eldho Skaria 5½ 116 Subramanian V 4½
for lunch. ment by beating Tanvi Vassudev Hadkonkar
70 Ryan Priyank S 5½ 117 Rajkumar S 4½
71 Durgesh K 5½ 118 Tamizhanban N 4½
to win the 1st prize of Rs. 10,000/- and
72 Arivarasu K P 5½ 119 Ahalya A 4½ Round 1. Niraj Saripalli (ELO 2006 ,top Trophy.
73 Anupam M Sreekumar 5½ 120 Harish G 4½ seed,Adv. P.M.Kantak(1853) and Suhas
74 Senthil Kumaran N.S 5½ 121 Sanjay Srinivasan R 4½ Asnodkar (1777) along with other seeded Gunjal Chopdekar beat Sairaj Vernekar to
75 Balaji P 5 122 Mohammed Ibrahim 4½ players win their first round matches. bag the 2nd prize of Rs. 7000/- and Trophy.
76 Rajith V. 5 123 Atul Bihari Sharan 4½ Reuben Colaco beat Suhas Asnodkar to bag the

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MARCH 2019 MARCH 2019
3rd prize.Tanvi Hadkonkar stood fourth while
Wilson Cruz had to be content with 5th prize
after drawing his last round.The total prize fund
was Rs.50000/- and trophies were awarded to
all winners.
Other prize winners were:
Sairaj Vernekar (6th prize), Sachin Gaude
(7th prize), Devesh Anand Naik (8th prize),
Mandar Pradip Lad (9th prize) and Ethen Vaz
(10th prize).In the age group category, Erwin
Albuquerque won the U7 boys while Poorvi
Naik won the U7 girls.Hawal Shreyas won U9
boys while Jennica Sequeira won U9 girls.Ali
Amanat won U11 boys while Asmita Ray won
the U11 girls.Yash Manoj Upadhye won U13
boys while Sanvi Naik Gaonkar won the U13
girls.Ishan Pagi won U15 boys while Sarah
Gayle Fernandes won the U15 girls.Salcete
Taluka prizes Sairaj Narvenkar won U7 boys
title while Diya Digamber Sawal won the U7
girls.Atharva Sawal won the U9 boys title
while Saeeja Gunesh Desai won the U9 girls.
Edrick Vaz won U11 boys title while Vardha
Desai won the U11 girls.Jugan Sales Rodri-
gues won U13 boys title while Alaya D’Cruz
won the U13 girls.Desai Purush Rajkaran won
U15 boys title while Swetha Sahakari won
the U15 girls.Veteran (above 50) – Suhas
Asnodkar.Unrated player – Malviya Mukesh
Kumar.Best Women player (above 15 years)
– Pradyna Kakodkar.
The inaugural function was held on 23rd Feb-
ruary 2019 at 5.00 p.m. at the hands of Smt.
Amrita Agarwal, Director, Prakash Packaging
Ltd.The prize distribution function was held
on 24th February 2019 at 6.30 p.m. at BPS
Sports Club grounds at the hands of Engr.
Ernesto Moniz, Chairman of the General Body
of BPS Sports Club in the presence of Smt.
Amrita Agarwal, Director, Prakash Packaging
Ltd.,guest of honour, Mr. Santosh George,
AICF CHRONICLE
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MARCH 2019
President BPS Sports Club, Mr. Ashesh Keni, 3rd Shaastra Rated Rapid Chess Tournament, Chennai
President, Salcete Taluka Chess Association
and Vice-President, Goa Chess Association,
Muthaiah wins title
Mr. Damodar Zambaulikar, Secretary, STCA, IA Prof.R.Anantharam, Chief Arbiter
Mr. Avdhut Kare, Mr. Justo D’Costa, Mr. Ian
The increasing number of participants and Syed AnvarShazuli with five points.
Carl Alvares, Mr. Manguirish Kunde and Mr.
especially the number of the title holders is Four players – international masters Akash
Siddharth Carvalho,all members of BPS Club
a measure of the growing popularity of the and AL Muthaiah, youngsters M Siddharth
and others.
3rdShaastra Rated Rapid Chess Tournament, and M Pranesh had scored six points in six-
organised by the Shaastra, IIT Madras at the rounds. Two more players K Mahesh Kumar
The following players were felicitated by
IIT campus on 23rdand 24th February 2019. of AP and IM VAV Rajesh joined the quartet
Salcete Taluka Chess Association at the
Two grandmasters from ICF, former Asian in the seventh round with 6.5 points each, as
hands of the Chief Guest for their excellent
Junior champion Deepan Chakkravarthy and the top two board games were drawn. Both
performance during the last 2 years on the
former national rapid champion RR Laxman, Mahesh and Pranesh continued their good run
occasion-Bhakti Kulkarni, Ameya Audi, Rit-
ten international masters, one WGM and to outwit the two international masters Akash
viz Parab, Niraj Saripalli, Nandhini Saripalli,
two WIMs contributed to the strength of the and Rajesh and AL Muthaiah also posted a
Aayush Shirodkar, Sairaj Vernekar, Reuben
tournament. Deepan who has a rapid rating win to make it a three way tie at the top af-
Colaco, Alaya D’Cruz, Poorvi Naik, Varad Des-
of 2524 was followed by RR Laxman (2455), ter eight rounds. Pranesh was in a punishing
sai, Sairaj Narvenkar, Diya Sawal along with
former national champion IM G Akash (2411) mood and gave no respect to the GM title by
Senior Coaches, Mr. Sanjay Kavleklar, Adv.
and the Railways star K Rathnakaran of Ker- beating the top seed Deepan Chakkravarthy.
Purushottam Kantak and Mr. Standrik Colaco.
ala in the seeding list. In total, for hundred Muthaiah also did not lag behind to beat Ma-
Final standings: and forty players took part in the ten round hesh Kumar to share the lead with Pranesh
Swiss system with a time control of 20 min- at the end of the penultimate round.
Rk. Name Pts. utes to each player with an increment of five
1 Niraj Saripalli 8.5 seconds per move. In the final round, Muthaiah defeated VAV
2 Chopdekar Gunjal WCM 8 Results were on expected lines for the first Rajesh to secure 9.5 points but the winning
3 Colaco Reuben 7.5
fifty six boards of the first round. In the spree of Pranesh was halted by Laxman.
4 Tanvi Vasudev Hadkonkar 7
second round also, the organiser Shivam This enabled Muthaiah to add one more
5 Cruz Wilson 7
Chandak seeded 34th lost to Jayakrishna H, trophy to his many collections this year and
6 Sairaj Dilip Vernekar 7
7 Gaude Sachin 7 rated 700 below him. Third round witnessed Pranesh had to be content with the runner
8 Devesh Anand Naik 7 the split of the point by seventh seeded B Vi- up position with nine points. K Senthil Ma-
9 Lad Mandar Pradip 7 gnesh of Tamil Nadu with Ayushh Ravikumar ran, Laxman and V Pranav scored 8.5 points
10 Ethan Vaz 7 of the same state. Forty eight players were each and were placed in that order from 3rd
11 Madhavan G 7 leading with three points each at the end of to 5th. Nine players scored eight points and
12 Swayam Naik 7 the third round. N. Surendran of Viyugam SS Manigandan of Madurai topped them at
13 Aryan Shamrao Raikar 7 Chess Academy caused he biggest upset of the sixth place.
14 Anvesh Bandekar 7 the tournament, by beating the top seed
15 Dalal Ambar Abhay 7 Deepan Chakkravarthy in the fourth round. Prof. Shaikh Faruque Ali, Adviser, Co-Cur-
16 Shenoy Siddharth 7 An equal upset was the defeat of the fourth ricular Affairs, IIT Madras made the formal
17 Porob Vraj 6.5
seeded IM K Rathnakaran at the hands of M. inaugural move on day 1.And also distributed
18 Kantak Adv. P.M. 6.5
Siddharth of Tamil Nadu rated 1983. All the the prizes in the presence of Mr.K. Ganesan,
19 Saish Ulhas Fondekar 6.5
Blacks on the top eight tables (including RR Secretary, Chennai District Chess Association
20 Colaco Vernon Jesus 6.5
21 Ali Amanat 6.5 Laxman and G Akash) registered wins in the and Mr. Vamsi, Student Secretary Shaastra
22 Edrick Vaz 6.5 fifth round and one more joint leader was IIT.
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MARCH 2019
Two selected games from
Shaastra FIDE rated Ty, Chennai
Mahesh Kumar,K (1906) - Muthaiah,Al
(2113) [E15]
(Annotated by AL Muthaiah)
1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 b6 3.c4 e6 4.g3 Ba6 5.b3
d5 6.Bg2 c6 [The main move here is 6...
Bb4+ 7.Bd2 Be7] 7.cxd5?!
I think it is dubious as black gained equali-
ty easily 7...cxd5 8.0–0 Bd6 9.Re1 Again
this move was not necessary. He could have
played with Nc3 and Bb2 9...Nc6 10.Ba3
0–0 11.Bxd6 Qxd6
I thought i am having slight edge because
of lead in development and better placed
Bishop on a6 12.Nbd2 [12.a3 He should
have controlled the b4 square with a3] 12...
Rac8 13.Qb1? Nb4 Now white is losing a
pawn by force 14.Rc1 [14.a3 Nc2 15.Nc4
Rxc4 16.bxc4 Nxe1 17.Qxe1 Bxc4µ; 14.e4
Nxe4 15.Nxe4 dxe4 16.Qxe4 Nc2 17.Ng5
AICF CHRONICLE
16
MARCH 2019
g6 18.Qh4 h5–+] 14...Bxe2 15.Bf1 Bxf1
16.Kxf1 Qd7 17.a3 Rxc1+ 18.Qxc1 Rc8
19.Qb1 Qb5+ 20.Kg2 Nc2 21.Ra2 Qd3
22.Qf1 Qxf1+
[22...Qc3 This was better but I thought of
white queen coming to a6 and creating some
problems 23.Qa6 Rc7 24.Qa4 h6–+] 23.Kxf1
Ne4 24.Nxe4 dxe4 25.Ng5 Nxd4 26.Nxe4
Nxb3 27.Rb2 Nc5 28.Nd6 Rc7 29.Nb5 Rd7
30.Ke2 f6 31.Ke3 e5 32.Ke2 Kf7 33.f3 Ke6
34.Rc2 h5 35.Rc4 a6 36.Nc3 Rd4 37.Rb4
Rxb4 38.axb4 Nb3 39.Kd3 b5 40.Ne4 Kd5
41.Kc3 Nd4 42.Nd2 f5 43.Kd3 Nxf3 0–1
GM Deepan,Chakkravarthy (2524) Sune-
dran,N (2055) [B23]
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 d6 3.Bb5+ Bd7 4.d4 cxd4
5.Qxd4 Nf6 6.a4 Nc6 7.Qe3 g6 8.Nf3 Bg7
9.Bxc6 Bxc6 10.Nd4 Ng4 11.Qd2 0–0
(11....Bd7) 12.f3 Ne5 13.b3 Qb6 14.Nce2
Rad8 15.a5 Qc7 16.c4 e6 (16...d5 17. cxd5
e6 18.f4) [16...d5 17.cxd5 e6 18.f4]
17.Ba3 Rfe8 18.0–0 d5 19.exd5 exd5
20.c5 Qe7 21.Ra2 a6 22.Rc2 Bb5 23.Nxb5
axb5 24.Nd4? [24.Bb2 d4] 24...Nc4 25.bxc4
dxc4 26.Qb4 [26.Bb2 Qxc5 27.Rd1 b4–+
28.Kh1 c3; 26.Nf5 gxf5 27.Qc1 Qe3+]
26...Rxd4 27.Qxb5 Qe3+ 28.Rcf2 [28.Kh1
Red8–+] 28...Rdd8 29.Bc1 Qd3 30.Bg5
Rc8 31.Qxb7 Bd4 32.Be7 Bxf2+
33.Rxf2 c3 34.h4 c2 35.Bg5 Rxc5 36.Rf1
Rxg5 [36...Rxg5 37.hxg5 Qxf1+ 38.Kxf1
c1Q+–+] 0–1
Final standings
Rk Name Pts 50 Rindhiya V 7
1 IM Muthaiah Al 9½ 51 Tamizh Selvan Ganesan 7
2 Pranesh M 9 52 Rushyendra Chowdary K 7
3 Senthil Maran K 8½
4 GM Laxman R.R. 8½ 54 Suganthan S 7
5 Pranav V 8½ 55 Athirai S 7
6 Manigandan S S 8
7 IM Saravana Krishnan P. 8
8 IM Akash G 8
9 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. 8
10 Kunal M. 8
11 Syed Anwar Shazuli 8
12 Balasubramaniam H 8
13 Srihari L 8
14 CM Rohith Krishna S 8
15 Mahesh Kumar K 7½
16 IM Rajesh V A V 7½
17 Prasannaa.S 7½
18 IM Konguvel Ponnuswamy 7½
19 Siddarth M 7½
20 IM Praveen Kumar C 7½
21 CM Bharath Subramaniyam H 7½
22 FM Manu David Suthandram 7½
23 IM Harikrishnan.A.Ra 7½
24 Abinandhan R 7½
25 CM Nikhil Magizhnan 7½
26 Ram S. Krishnan 7½
27 Ranjith R.K. 7½
28 IM R.Balasubramaniam 7½
29 Neil Franclin S 7½
30 Surendran N 7
31 Natarajan C 7
32 Sekar B 7
33 Vignesh B 7
34 Ayushh Ravikumar 7
35 Gunasekaran K. 7
36 IM Rathnakaran K. 7
37 WGM Meenakshi Subbaraman 7
38 AGM Rathneesh R 7
39 AGM Sa Kannan 7
40 Sivan S Roshan 7
41 AGM Vignesh N 7
42 Vaisakh R P 7
43 Ilamparthi A R 7
44 WIM Srija Seshadri 7
45 Adireddy Tarun 7
46 Suganthan R 7
47 Babu S. 7
48 Rohit S 7
49 Adireddy Arjun 7
53 Aasha C R 7
56 Krishan A 7
AICF CHRONICLE
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MARCH 2019
 2ndKalyan Dombivali All India Open FIDE Rating Chess Tournament 2019
Vikramaditya Kulkarni wins title
by IA Dr. Deepak Tandel,Chief Arbiter
2nd Kalyan Dombivali All India Open FIDE
Rating Classical Chess Tournament was or-
ganized by Anant Vaze Sangeet, Kala & Kree-
da Pratisthan in joint venture with Atharva
Chess Academy under the Aegis of FIDE,
AICF, AMCA & TDCA from 29th January 2019
to 3rd February 2019. Tournament was tech-
nically Supported by Kalyan Taluka Buddhibal
Sanstha. Tournament was inaugurated by the
hands of Chief Guest Mr. Virendra Mhaiskar
& Mrs. Deepali Mhaiskar, Dr. Gauri Vaze, Dr.
Esha Pansare along with with Dr. Deepak Vaze
(Organizing Secretary) & Dr. Pratap Pansare
(Tournament Director).
Round one itself started with upsets where
Redkar Yash drew his game on 15th board
with 670 ELO higher rated opponent & Cho-
pra Syna Drew her game with 500 Elo Higher
Manoj Borase. Gogate Yash a player from
Ratnagiri Seacoast showed his skills over the
board and ended up in holding Bhat Sanjay
from Kalyan in a quite complicated middle-
game in round 2 where there were no major
upsets on the boards. Round three noticed
early draw between Kumar Gaurav of Bihar
and Sarode Mihir of Maharashtra.At the end
of round 5, IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni, IM
kathmale Samir & IM Gusain Ahmed were
sharing the joint lead with Snehal Bhosale &
Saurabh Anand with five out of five points. IM
Ramanathan Balasubramanian had to settle
on draw in the Round Six with 500 ELO Lower
Rishi Kadam from Mumbai (MAH). Vedant
Vekhande also drew his game with 500 ELO
higher Chirag Satkar in Round 6.
IM Vikramaditya Emerged as sole leader at
the end of Round 7 as he defeated Snehal
AICF CHRONICLE
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MARCH 2019
7 Snehal Bhosale 7.5 56 Rajveer Pinkesh Nahar 6
8 Ankur Mahesh Gokhale 7.5 57 Kasar Prashant 6
9 Satkar Chirag 7.5 58 Lasani H Kothari 6
10 Kumar Gaurav 7.5 59 Bamboat Hrrehan 6
11 Bhat Sanjay 7.5 60 Bhatia Kiran 6
Bhosale (MAH) and gained very crucial half 12 Nehete Akshay S 7.5 61 Madke Anuj 6
13 Sparsh Khandelwal 7.5 62 Dhruv Patil 6
a point lead. IM Vikramaditya Continued his
14 IM Kathmale Sameer 7 63 Godse Anish 6
good form again on his home ground & De-
15 Subramanian R M 7 64 Borase Manoj 6
feated Top Seeded IM Gusain Himal & Gained 16 Ahmed Feroz 7 65 Tawade Arnav 6
a Full point lead with Two Rounds Spare.IM 17 Shivshankar Iyer S 7 66 Vedant Mistry 6
Vikramaditya Kulkarni managed to get draw 18 Lund Rachit 7 67 Mitank Maru 6
in minus position on top board in last round 19 Javheri Jaydev 7 68 Tadvi Saniya 6
of the event and defended his last year’s title 20 Shreyas Ghadi 7 69 Dakare Rucha 6
on his home ground (Kalyan). 21 Soni Deepak R 7 70 Sanvi Naik Gaonkar 6
22 Chhabra Aakash 7 71 Aditi Yogesh Kayal 6
23 Kshatriya Nitin Vekhande 7 72 Sardar Surendra 6
Arbiter Team Consisted of Chief Arbiter IA
24 Gurav Sanmil 7 73 Govind Prabhu Mah 5.5
Dr. Deepak Tandel, Deputy Chief FA Mohit 25 Balkawade Sai 7
Ladhe, FA Gourav Ray, FA Sohani Vivek, 26 Sarode Om 7
SNA Joshi Nikhil, SNA Hatkar Abhijit; SNA 27 Lad Mandar Pradip 7
Mayekar, Prachi; SNA Sawant Rupesh,SNA
Puzzle of the month
28 Manthan Vijayrao Kale 7 by C.G.S.Narayanan
Rane Sachin, FA Sandesh Nagarnaik(DGT). 29 Kelaskar Chinmay 7
30 Mitul K H 7
31 Saranya Y 6.5 The retroanalytical problem below by the
I specially thank FA Vivek Sohani for his great Norwegian composer is not difficult
32 Kadam Rishi R 6.5
support throughout this period in handling to solve. This two-mover has two solutions
33 Pingale Shivraj 6.5
technical section for both the events efficient- 34 Vedant Nitin Vekhande 6.5 apparently but only one woks.Which is
ly with the help of FA Sandesh Nagarnaik for 35 Akshit Jha 6.5 that?
DGT.Air Conditioned Tournament hall was 36 Kamble Dipankar 6.5 Nils van Dijk
having good illumination & Ventilation facil- 37 Pednekar Ayush 6.5 Ostlenddingen 1959
ities.Organizers were very cooperative in all 38 Mayekar Ayush 6.5
regards. Parents were provided with separate 39 Joshi Nikhil 6.5
Air Conditioned Sitting arrangements for en- 40 Pethe Varad 6.5
41 Vaval Aaditi 6.5
tire tournament period. Tournament started
42 Kinkhabwala Hrithik 6.5
& ended in Time frame which was finalized in
43 Om Nagnath Lamkane 6.5
players meeting.I thank AICF, AMCA & TDCA 44 Pawaar Sohum 6.5
for giving me an Opportunity to work as Chief 45 Iyer Aarav 6.5
Arbiter for this Event. 46 Awade Pradeep 6
47 ACM Iyer Arvind 6
Final Ranking: 48 Midilesh Ms 6
Rk. Name Pts. 49 Bagwe Suneet 6
1 IM Kulkarni Vikramaditya 9 50 Isha Pritam Inamdar 6
2 IM Gusain Himal 8.5 51 Ulhas Puthran 6
Mate in two moves
3 Saurabh Anand 8.5 52 Choudki Khushi 6
4 Vijay Anand M. 8 53 Agarwal Shyam 6 (Solution on page 48)
5 CM Kadam Om Manish 8 54 Patil Shravani 6
6 IM R Balasubramaniam 8 55 Jadhav Jyotiraditya 6
AICF CHRONICLE
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MARCH 2019
Selected games from 17th
Delhi GM Open 2019
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
Gupta,Abhijeet (GM Del) (2581)
Das,Sayantan (IM WB) (2451) [E81]
The two players in this game have only two
things in common, they have enormous chess
talent and come from struggling non-affluent
families. When Abhijeet Gupta, born 1989,
won the National U-7, U-9 and National "A"
Championships he represented Rajasthan
which did not have any chess traditions. Af-
ter he shifted to Delhi, his fortune grew by
leaps and bounds as he won the World Junior
in 2008 and a string of International Tour-
naments around the world including three
Commonwealth Championships. He was
decorated with the Arjuna Award in 2013. On
the other hand, Sayantan Das, born 1997,
lives in Calcutta which is steeped in chess
tradition at least from the 1840s. His route
to fame was winning the World U–12 Cham-
pionship in Vung Tau, Vietnam, in 2008 and
then winning the National U–15, U–17 and
U–19 Championships! He became an IM in
2013 but the GM title which almost all earli-
er National Junior Champions had achieved
quickly, has eluded him. In this game, the IM
puts up a great resistance but finally bows to
the GM's superior play. 1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6
3.Nc3 Bg7 4.e4 d6 5.f3 0–0 6.Nge2 a6
7.Be3 Nbd7 8.Qd2 b5!? [Black is known
to play little-known lines in the opening. 8...
Rb8 is usually played here, planning ....b5.]
9.Bh6?! [The pawn offer could be safely
accepted: 9.cxb5 axb5 10.Nxb5 c6 11.Nbc3
Bb7 12.Ng3] 9...Bxh6 10.Qxh6 c5 [If
10...bxc4 11.h4! (11.Ng3? Rb8 12.Qd2
c5 13.d5 Qb6 14.Rb1µ) 11...c5 12.h5 Qb6
13.0–0–0 Rb8 14.Rd2 cxd4 15.Nxd4 Ne5
AICF CHRONICLE
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MARCH 2019
16.Nd5!+-] 11.h4 e5 12.d5 Nb6 [Better
12...bxc4 13.h5 Qb6 14.Rb1 Qd8= Black
can take care of the threats along the h-file.]
13.Ng3 Nxc4 14.Bxc4 bxc4 15.h5 [#]
15...Ra7!? [Black is thinking of remote-de-
fending his h7 with Ra7. As there is no im-
mediate threat to h7, better was to deploy
his Ra8 more aggressively with: 15...Rb8
16.Qd2 Bd7 Black is slightly better as his
extra pawn on c4 is still alive and there is
no danger along the h-file.] 16.0–0–0 Ne8
Making way for ....Qf6 bolstering the de-
fence of his king-side. 17.Qd2 [17.Nf1 a5
18.Ne3 Nf6 19.g4 Ba6 20.Nf5 gxf5 21.gxf5
Kh8 22.Rhg1 Rg8 23.Rg5 Rxg5 24.Qxg5
h6 25.Qxh6+ Nh7 26.Rg1 Qf8µ] 17...Qf6
18.Nf1 Nc7 19.Ne3 Nb5 20.Rdf1 Bd7=
21.g3 Rb8 22.Rf2 [If 22.f4 exf4 23.gxf4
Qd4 24.hxg6 fxg6 25.f5 Nxc3 26.Qxc3
Rab7] 22...Rab7 23.Nxc4 Nxc3 24.Qxc3
Rb4 25.hxg6 fxg6 26.f4 Bb5 27.Nd2
Rd4 In this interesting middle-game with
the heavy pieces, black is blocking every
attempt by white to win whilst trying to coun-
ter-attack. 28.Rfh2 Rd3 29.Qa5 h5! 30.f5
Rxg3 31.fxg6 Qxg6? [The best defence
was: 31...Qd8! 32.Qxd8+ Rxd8 33.Rxh5
Kg7! 34.Rh7+ Kxg6 35.b3 Kf6=] 32.Qc7 Rf8
33.Rxh5 Rg1+ 34.Rxg1 Qxg1+ 35.Kc2
Qg6 36.Rh2 [#]
36...Be8? [Black misses a brilliant way to draw
with: 36...Bd3+!! 37.Kxd3 Qg3+ 38.Kc2 Qxh2
39.Qxd6 Rf2 With his knight fatally pinned,
white will now have to play for a draw.] 37.b3±
Rf4 38.Kb2 Rg4 [A slightly better idea was:
38...Rf6 39.Qd8 Qf7 40.Qa8± though white
has the upperhand.] 39.Qe7 a5 40.Nc4!+-
White cannot defend d6 any more and he has
no effective counter-play. 40...Rg2+ 41.Rxg2
Qxg2+ 42.Ka3 Bg6 43.Nxd6 Qg1 [If 43...Bxe4
44.Ne8! Qg6 45.Nf6+ Kh8 46.Qf8+ mates.]
44.Qxe5 Qc1+ 45.Ka4 Qd2 Threatens 46....
Qb4# 46.a3 Qd4+ 47.Qxd4 cxd4 48.Kxa5!
d3 49.Nc4 Bxe4 50.d6! [#] 1–0
Pranav,V. (TN) (2318) Karthik,Venkata-
raman (GM AP) (2515) [B00]
For 20–year old Karthik Venkataraman of AP,
this tournament was a let down soon after
becoming one of India's latest Grandmasters.
This was a last round disaster for him. He had
also lost the fourth round to IM Himal Gusain
of the Railways. Thirteen-year old, untitled,
V.Pranav from Tamil Nadu, started this event
with a defeat against Manthan Kashyap Datta
(ELO 1824) of Assam but finished the tour-
nament in a blaze of glory scoring 2.5 points
from three GMs - win over Andrei Deviatkin
(Rus), draw with Ghaem Maghami of Iran and
victory over the Tirupati GM. Though Black
seemed out of form in this game, the way the
Tamil Nadu youngster carried out a whirlwind
mating attack is worth studying. 1.e4 Nc6
2.d4 e5 3.dxe5 Nxe5 4.Nf3 Nxf3+ 5.Qxf3
Qf6 6.Nc3 Bb4 7.Bd2 d6N [7...Qxf3 8.gxf3
Nf6 was tried in the R.Vaishali vs V. Toshali
game in the National U–19 Girls Chp in 2014.
Black had lost.] 8.0–0–0 Be6!? [This gives
white the necessary initiative for a king-side
attack. Best was to exchange off queens: 8...
Qxf3 9.gxf3 Be6] 9.Qe2 [If 9.Qg3 Ne7 10.f4
Bd7 11.Bc4²] 9...a6?
(Position after 10.Kb1)
[Sometimes we see threats which really do
not exist! Best here was: 9...0–0–0 10.h4 h6
11.Kb1 (threat 12. Bg5! hxg5 13 hxg5 Qxg5
14. Rxh8 winning the exchange). 11...Qe7²]
10.Kb1 (see diagram) 10...Qd8?! [This is
like giving a blank cheque to the opponent.
Better were 10...Qe7 11.Nd5 Bxd5 12.Bxb4
Bc6 13.Re1±; or 10...0–0–0 11.Nd5 Bxd5
AICF CHRONICLE
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MARCH 2019
12.Bxb4 Bc6 and white is better but not over-
whelmingly so as in the game.] 11.f4! Nf6
12.f5 Bd7 [#]
13.g4! [All young players like to go for the
throat with moves like this! A refinement to
this was possible: 13.e5! dxe5 14.g4 Bd6
15.g5 Ng8 16.Bg2±] 13...Bc6 14.e5 [A
good alternative was: 14.g5! Nd7 15.Rg1
Qe7 16.Nd5 Bxd5 17.Bxb4 Bc6 (17...Qxe4??
18.Rxd5!) 18.Bc3 Qxe4 19.Qf2 0–0–0
20.Rg3±] 14...dxe5 15.Bg2 0–0 [After
15...Bxg2 16.Qxg2 c6 17.g5 Bxc3 18.Bxc3
Nd5 19.Bxe5+- White has multiple winning
threats like 20. c4 winning the knight.] 16.g5
Nd7 17.Bxc6 bxc6 18.Ne4! White conducts
a classical attack. 18...Bxd2 19.Rxd2 Qc8
[If 19...Qe7 20.f6! Qe6 21.Qd3! Qd5 22.Qf3!
Qe6 23.fxg7 Kxg7 24.Rf1 Rab8 25.Qh5+-]
20.Qh5 White has a completely won game.
20...Nb6 [#]
AICF CHRONICLE
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MARCH 2019
1.Nf6+!! gxf6 22.gxf6 Kh8 23.Rd3! [After
23.Rd3 if 23...Nd5 (for 24...Nxf6, defending
h7) 24.Qxh7+! Kxh7 25.Rh3+ Kg8 26.Rg1#]
1–0
Mosadeghpour,Masoud (GM Iri) (2517)
- Erigaisi,Arjun (GM Tel) (2548) [C15]
1.e4 e6 2.d4 d5 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.a3 Bxc3+
5.bxc3 dxe4 6.Qg4 Nf6 7.Qxg7 Rg8
8.Qh6 Rg6 9.Qh4 c5 10.Ne2 Rg4 11.Qh6
Rg6 12.Qh4 cxd4N [12...Qa5 has been
played in a First Saturday Budapest tour-
nament in 2001 between Wang Shuai 2320
and Yu Mingyuan which ended in a draw on
the 18th move!] 13.cxd4 Nc6 14.c3 e5!
15.dxe5 Nxe5 16.Nf4 Rg4 [16...Bg4?
17.Bb5+ Kf8 18.Nxg6+ Nxg6 19.Qh6+
Kg8+-] 17.Qh6 Bd7 [Slightly better was:
17...Rg8 18.Bb5+ Bd7 19.Bxd7+ Nexd7=]
18.Be2 Rg8 19.0–0 Qe7 20.a4!² Natural-
ly white plans 21. Ba3 to needle the queen.
20...Ng6 21.Rd1 Qe5 22.Rb1 Bxa4
23.Rxb7! [#] 23...Ne7? [If 23...Bxd1?
24.Bb5+! Kd8 25.Nxg6 hxg6 26.Qd2+ Qd5
27.Qf4! Qxb7 28.Qxf6+ Kc8 29.Ba6!+-;
Black's best was: 23...e3!
24.Bxe3 Bxd1 25.Bb5+ Kd8 26.Bd4 Qxf4
27.Bxf6+ Kc8! (27...Qxf6?? 28.Qd2+ Kc8
29.Qd7#) 28.Ba6 Qxh6 29.Rxf7+ Kb8
30.Rb7+ Kc8 31.Rf7+=
(Position after 23.Rxb7)
Continue on page 27
Aeroflot Open 2019
GM Sasikiran finishes third
The Indian contingent performed admirably at the Aeroflot Open 2019.
Sasikiran very narrowly missed winning the A-tournament and finished
third - a commendable performance. Five Indian youngsters made their
norms - Raunak Sadhwani achieved his Chatterjee and Sammed Shete
achieved their IM norms. Aditya Mittal is now an IM at the age of just
12 years. For Sammed and Koustav this was their second IM norm.
In this report we give you all the information about the Indians who
performed admirably and also tell you about the surprise winner of
the A-group Kaido Kulaots, who has booked his spot to the Dortmund
super tournament 2019.
GM K.Sasikiran
One of the strongest opens in the world - the Aeroflot Open, came to an end on 28th of
February 2019. It was a mixed final result for the Indian players. Sasikiran's third maiden
GM norm, Divya Deshmukh got her second WGM norm and Aditya Mittal, Koustav place
in the A group is a fine result. However, judging by the fact that he was 5.0/5 and had a
full point lead over the field, Sasikiran would not be thrilled about his third place. Besides
the winner not only receives 18,000 Euros but also a direct entry to the Dortmund super
tournament in Germany.Third place at the Aeroflot Open takes Sasikiran to 2690 on the
live rating list. If he fires at the World Team Championships, we are sure to see him cross
2700! Kaido Kulaots was the surprise winner of the tournament, but just have a look at his
| performance! Starting off as the 62nd seed, the Estonian number one performed at an
Elo of 2873, gaining 38 Elo points, beating Maghsoodloo, Firouzja, Dubov, Wei Yi and Kh-
ismatullin, winning 18000 Euros and booking his spot in the Dortmund super tournament
later this year! What more can one ask from a tournament!
India had five norm makers at the Aeroflot Open 2019 - Raunak Sadhwani (GM norm),
Divya Deshmukh (WGM norm), Sammed Shete (IM norm), Koustav Chatterjee (IM norm),
Aditya Mittal (IM norm).Sammed Shete scored his 2nd IM norm. Sammed is supported by
the Pursue your chess scholarship under HelpChess initiative. 15-year-old youngster Koustav
Chatterjee scored his second IM norm.A phenomenal performance by Divya Deshmukh. She
was the third last seed in the B-group. In spite of having an Elo of 2126 she was allowed
to play in B-group (above 2300), and she did not disappoint. After scoring her maiden IM
norm at the Velammal-AICF WGM Round Robin tournament, she scored her second WGM
norm here.
57 Indians played at the Aeroflot Open 2019. 33 of them were sponsored by Indian Gov-
ernment who had sanctioned a budget of Rs.40 lakh for this trip. It surely turned out to be
fruitful one as five Indians could make their norms and many of them gained experience of
playing against strong opposition.
23
Aeroflot Blitz: 33rd Cannes festival, France
One of the most exciting events at the Aeroflot Open is the Aeroflot blitz. After the last
classical round, an entire day is dedicated to the blitz tournament, which is a battle of GM Abhijeet Gupta wins 33rd Cannes festival
stamina and nerves. Players have to play nine rounds, but each round has two games of
GM Abhijeet Gupta won
3'+2". You play one game with one colour and when it is over, you just change places with
your opponent and start the second game! Apart from participants of the Aeroflot Open, 33rd Cannes festival in
you also have strong local players like Karjakin, Grischuk, Tomashevsky who come specially France emphatically fin-
to play the Aeroflot Blitz! This year Karjakin won the tournament with a score of 14.5/18. ishing a full point ahead
The best performing Indian was Nihal Sarin, followed by Praggnanandhaa, Narayanan S.L, of the competition. This
Surya Sekhar Ganguly and Karthikeyan Murali.GM Sergey Karjakin won the strong Aeroflot was his first tournament
Blitz, winning 5,000 euros. after getting married.
Despite being busy with
FIDE World Team Championship 2019,Asthana, Kazaksthan all ceremonies and cel-
ebration, he showed no
Team India misses medal by a whisker rust. In fact, if statistics
It turned out to be a disappointing are anything to come by
final round for the Indian men as then he completely over-
they went downing fighting against threw them all, remained
Russia 1.5-2.5 in the ninth and fi- undefeated and won the
nal round of the FIDE World Team tournament living up to his moniker of 'Mr Commonwealth'. Abhijeet had a performance
Chess Championship, Asthana, rating of 2733 and scored 7.5/9 to win the tournament. He won a beautiful trophy and
Kazakhstan.
In an epic battle against India, GM Harika Dronavalli is conferred Padma Shri
the Russian team seemed on the
verge of losing, before Ian Nep- On 11th March 2019, Grandmaster Harika Dronavalli
omniachtchi eventually saved his was conferred with Padma Shri by President Ram
position to a draw and Alexander Nath Kovind at a special function held at Rashtrapati
Grischuk won his game. With this Bhavan which was attended by Prime Minister Naren-
2,5-1,5 loss, India unluckily had to dra Modi, Home Minister Rajnath Singh, Law Minister
cede the bronze medal to China, Ravi Shankar Prasad, and others. Harika, who has
which overcame Kazakhstan by a three World Chess Championships bronze medals
thread. The silver medal went to to her name, became the second Indian woman to
England, which convincingly beat become a grandmaster, after Koneru Humpy.
Sweden.
On a positive note, GM Adhiban Baskaran and GM Surya Shekar Ganguly both secured in- She was honored with the Arjuna Award for the year
dividual golds on boards one and three respectively. 2007–08 by the government of India. In 2016, Harika
won the FIDE Women’s Grand Prix event at Chengdu,
Meanwhile, in the women’s championship, the Indian women’s team finished sixth on nine China and rose up from world no. 11 to world no. 5
points after settling for a 2-2 draw with Hungary in the final round. Soumya Swaminathan in FIDE women’s ranking
lost to Anita Gara on the second board while Bhakti Kulkarni defeated Bianka Havanecz to Five-time World Champion. Later on, GM Koneru
level scores. The other two games were drawn. Humpy was bestowed with the award in 2007. Viswanathan Anand was the first chess player
China scored 18 points, Russia played out a draw with Georgia to reach 14 points and bagged to be honored by the Padma Shri in 1988
the silver while the Georgians won bronze on 12 points and a better tiebreak than Ukraine.
24 25
 Continue from page 22
Iniyan becomes India’s 61st Chess Grandmaster 24.Re1? [Suddenly white becomes over
cautious. He could win with: 24.Ba3! Nd7
47.Bc3?! [White could win quickly with:
47.Qh6+! Ke8 48.Qc6+! Kf8 49.Qd6+ Kg8
Iniyan Paneerselvam became India’s 61st Chess Grandmaster when 25.Qa6! Bxd1 26.Rxd7! Kxd7 27.Qb7+ Qc7 (49...Ke8 50.Bf6!) 50.Qf6 mates.] 47...Re2+
he crossed the 2500-rating mark at the Noisiel Open in France. Ini- 28.Bb5+ Kd8 29.Qxa8+ Qc8 30.Qxa7+- 48.Kd1 Nb1 49.Qc5+ Kg8 50.Qg5+ If
yan defeated GM Sergey Fedorchuk of Ukraine in the sixth round to ] 24...Nf5² 25.Qh3 Bc6 26.Rb4 Rd8 50....Kf8 51 Bb4+ mates. 1–0
become the 61st Grandmaster for India. The Sixteen-year-old hailing 27.Bf1 Rg4= For several moves now the
from Erode, Tamil Nadu had earlier received his three GM norms, the game tends to fluctuate between equality Deviatkin,Andrei (2461) Saurabh,Anand
first norm came at the Montcada Open, Spain in 2017. The second and slight advantage to white. 28.Nh5 Rh4 (2210) [C68]
norm was scored in the same year at the Bobligen Open, Germany 29.Nxf6+ Qxf6 30.Qf3 Kf8 31.Qe2 h5 32.Be3 Saurabh Anand is a 17-year old school boy
and the final norm was made Barbera Del Valles, Spain in 2018. Qxc3 [A little better was: 32...Rg4 33.h3 Rg6 from remote Purnea District in Bihar. Bihar does
34.Bxa7 Nh4 35.Rd1 Ra8=] 33.Rc1 Qf6 not have a single International Master, leave
34.Bxa7 Rg4 35.Qa6 Rg6 36.Rb8 Rxb8 alone GM though it has hundreds of naturally
ARBITER REFRESHER COURSE- A REPORT 37.Bxb8 Nd4 38.Qa5 Kg8= 39.Qxh5 e3? talented chess players. Their only claim to
by Gopakumar Sudhakaran [Better was: 39...Nf3+ 40.Kh1 Qb2! 41.Bf4 fame is that the Bihar Chess Association's former
Qxf2 42.Qc5!=] 40.fxe3 Nf3+ [40...Bf3?? secretary, Arvind Kumar Sinha beat V.Anand in
The Sports Authority of India-All India Chess Federa- 41.Rc8+ Kg7 42.Qh8#] 41.Kh1 Nd2 [If 41... the 1986 National Championship in Bombay in
tion Arbiter Refresher course was organized by Delhi Ng5 42.Bf4! Ne4 43.Rb1!+- threatening mate a very fine game. Saurabh Anand played four
Chess Association on behalf of All India Chess Federa- with 44. Rb8+ and 45. Qh8#] 42.Be5 [#] GMs in this event and scored 2.5 points from
tion with the support of Government of India Ministry them. He beat Manik Mikulas (Svk) and 39-year
of Youth Affairs Sports at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium old Andrei Deviatkin (Rus), drew with Vaibhav
from 15-17 Feb 2019. Suri and lost only to Ivan Popov of Russia. In this
game his great talent in the middle-game as well
In a brief opening ceremony, AICF Secretary Shri. as endgame is displayed. It is very likely that he
Bharat Singh Chauhan inaugurated the event in pres- will become a grandmaster in the future. 1.e4 e5
ence of Shri. Naresh Sharma, Joint Secretary AlCF and 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5 a6 4.Bxc6 dxc6 5.0–0 Bg4
Shri. AK Verma, Secretary Delhi Chess Association. 6.h3 h5 7.d3 Qf6 8.Be3 Bxf3 9.Qxf3 Qxf3
Before moving to the inauguration, the guests and 10.gxf3 Bd6 11.Nd2 Ne7 12.Rfb1 Ng6 13.b4
participants observed two-minute silence for the CRPF soldiers, who were martyred in the Kd7 14.Kf1 f5 [Kobalia 2630 vs Kazhgaleyev
Pulwama terror attack. 2596, ACP Blitz, 2004 went: 14...Nf8 15.c3 Ne6
42...Qxf1+ Black's only option left in this grim 16.Ke2 .....41. 1–0] 15.Ke2 f4! 16.Bc5 Nf8?!
This is the first refresher course for the year and three more such refresher courses will position. 43.Rxf1 Bxg2+ 44.Kg1 Bxf1+ [If [16...Ke6=] 17.Nc4 Re8 18.d4 Ne6 19.Rd1
be held at Mumbai, Kovilpatti and Bhopal in the coming months to enhance the knowledge 44...Bf3+ 45.Qxg6+! fxg6 46.Rf2 Nc4 47.Rxf3 exd4 20.Bxd4 Nxd4+ 21.Rxd4² b5 22.Na5
of Arbiters about FIDE Laws as well as other regulations. AICF made this refresher course Nxe5 48.Kg2!+-] 45.Kf2 Rg2+ 46.Ke1 Kf8 [#] Re5 23.Nb7 Rb8!= 24.Nc5+ [#]
mandatory for Arbiters. With effect from 01 Apr 2019, Arbiters undergone refresher course
for the year 2019 are only allowed to officiate in FIDE Rated events.

International Arbiter and FIDE Lecturer MS Gopakumar was the lecturer of the course and
149 Arbiters from across India attended the event slated for three days. IA Gopakumar
lectured on topics like Laws of Chess, Rating regulations, Title regulations, Arbiter regula-
tions, Competition rules, Tiebreaks, Pairing regulations, Anti-cheating regulations etc. The
participants were very enthusiastic and inquisitive with lot of inputs. Many of them cleared
their doubts they had in their mind about many regulations. Several case studies and prac-
tical examples were also discussed during the course.

26
AICF CHRONICLE
27
MARCH 2019
24...Ke8 [If 24...Ke7 25.Nd3 Re6 26.Rg1
g6 27.c4 Rg8 28.Rg5 Kf6] 25.Nd3 c5!! A
bold well calculated move to achieve equali-
ty. 26.bxc5 Bxc5 27.Rd7= [A curious way
of keeping equality! Also equal was: 27.Rd5
Rxd5 28.exd5 Bd6=] 27...Kxd7 28.Nxe5+
Ke6 29.Nd3 Bd6 30.a4?! [30.Rg1 would
not have offered much scope for black.]
30...b4 31.Rg1 Kf6 32.h4 c5 33.Nb2
[33.e5+ Bxe5 34.Nxc5 Rc8 35.Nd7+ Ke6
36.Nxe5 Kxe5 37.Kd2] 33...b3! White
must now allow the black rook active play
or suffer the presence of a passed pawn on
b3. 34.c3 Be5 35.Kd3 c4+! 36.Nxc4?
[If 36.Kxc4 Ke6 37.Nd3 b2 38.Nc5+ Kf7
39.Rb1 Rc8 40.Rxb2 Bd6 and the knight
is captured.] 36...Rd8+ 37.Ke2 Bxc3–+
38.Rb1 b2! 39.Kf1 [39.Nxb2?? Rd2+
40.Kf1 Bxb2! winning.] 39...Ke6 40.Ke2
Rd4 41.Rxb2 [#]
[Forced, for if 41.Nb6 Rd2+ 42.Kf1 Rc2!–+]
41...Rxc4 [This wins. So also does 41...
Bxb2 42.Nxb2 g5! win for black. Check it
out yourself! Which winning line is better
is a matter of individual choice.] 42.Rb6+
Kf7 43.Kd3 Rc7 44.Rxa6 Bf6!–+ 45.a5
Rc3+ 46.Ke2 Rc2+ 47.Kd3 Rxf2 48.e5
Rxf3+ 49.Kd4 [If 49.Ke4 Re3+ 50.Kxf4
Rxe5 51.Ra8 Rd5 wins.] 49...Bxh4 50.Ke4
Rf1 51.Kf5 f3! 52.e6+ Ke8! 53.Ra8+ [#]
AICF CHRONICLE
28
MARCH 2019
53...Bd8! The black king has the perfect shel-
ter on e8 aided by his bishop. 0–1
Popov,Ivan (GM Rus) (2588) Swapnil,S.
Dhopade (GM Mah) (2487) [B10]
Both Popov and Dhopade were born in 1990,
Popov on 20th March and Swapnil Dhopade
on 5th October. But there the similarity ends.
Popov has won several Youth tournaments in
Russia and Europe including the World Un-
der–18 Championship in 2007 in Turkey. In
India, he has won the 14th Parsvnath Delhi
Open in 2016 and the Chennai Open in 2015. In
contrast. Dhopade's successes came later and
only after considerable struggles. While Popov
became a GM in 2007, Dhopade completed his
three GM norms in 2013 and then painfully
waited for three years for his rating to reach
2500 so that he could become a GM in 2016.
Dhopade is the first GM from Vidarbha and the
fifth in Maharashtra after Thipsay, Kunte, Gore
and Gujrathi.
1.e4 c6 2.Nc3 d5 3.Nf3 dxe4 4.Nxe4 Nf6
5.Qe2 Nxe4 6.Qxe4 Qa5 7.Qf4 Qf5 8.d3
Qxf4 9.Bxf4 f6 10.0–0–0 e5 11.Be3 c5
12.Nd2 Nc6 13.g3 Bd7 14.Bg2 0–0–0
15.f4 exf4? [15...h5=] 16.Bxf4 Nd4
17.Rde1 Ne6 18.Be3 Be7 [It is a somewhat
difficult position for black. Better was: 18...
Kc7 19.Bh3 Re8 20.b3 Bd6 21.Ne4 b6 22.Nxd6
Kxd6 23.Kb2 Re7=] 19.Nc4 b6 20.a4 Rhe8
21.b3 Kc7 22.Bd2 White has failed to turn the
game into a clear advantage for himself. 22...
Bf8= 23.Rhf1 Bc6 24.Be4 Bxe4 25.dxe4
Nd4 26.g4 [White can try to create an ad-
vamtage with: 26.e5 f5 27.Kb2 g6 28.h3 h5
29.Bg5 Be7=] 26...Bd6 27.g5 Re6 [Black
misses quick equality with 27...Bxh2 28.gxf6
(28.Rh1 Bg3! 29.Ref1 Rd7!³) 28...gxf6 29.Rxf6
Bg3! 30.Rh1 (30.Rg1?? Ne2+–+) 30...Rd7
31.Rfh6 Rxe4=] 28.gxf6 gxf6 Both sides have
two weak pawns each on the e, f and h-files.
The game is balanced. 29.Nxd6 [If 29.Bf4
Bxf4+ 30.Rxf4 Rde8=] 29...Kxd6 30.Rxf6!?
This simplifies the game and reaches simple
equality. 30...Rxf6 31.e5+ Ke6 32.exf6+
Kxf6 33.Bc3 Rd7 [33...h6=] 34.Re8 Kg5
Black correctly takes his king to the king-side
where he believes the battle is going to be
decisive. 35.a5 Kg4 36.a6 Nc6 37.Kb2 Kh3
38.Rc8 Rd6 39.Rc7 h5 40.Rh7 h4 41.Be1
Rd4 42.Rc7 Rd6 43.Rh7 The white rook al-
ternately attacks h4, a7 and the Nc6 to keep
the black forces at bay. 43...Rd4 44.c3 Re4
45.Bg3! Rg4 46.Rh6 Ne7 [#]
47.Bb8 [A fascinating endgame develops af-
ter: 47.Rxb6? hxg3! (47...axb6? 48.a7 hxg3!
(48...Rg8? 49.Bb8! Rg2+ 50.Ka3 Rg1 51.Kb2
Rg2+=) 49.a8Q g2! 50.Qf3+ Kh4 51.Qf6+
Rg5–+ 52.Qf4+ Kh5 53.Qf7+ Ng6 54.Qf3+
Kh4 55.Qe4+ Rg4 and black wins.) 48.Rh6+
Rh4–+] 47...Rg2+ 48.Ka3 Nd5 49.Bg3 [If
49.Bxa7? Nxc3! (threat ....Ra2#) 50.b4 c4
51.b5 Nxb5+ 52.Kb4 Nxa7 53.Kxc4 Rg4+
54.Kd5 Kxh2–+] 49...Rxg3! The best way
to draw! 50.hxg3 Kxg3 51.c4 Nf4 [#]
52.Rh7? [White's strategy is faulty. This rook
needs to stay on the h-file to sacfice itself
for black's h-pawn. He should use his king to
counter-attack on the queen-side with: 52.Ka4!
h3 53.Kb5 Ng2 (threat ... Nh4 blocking off
the rook to queen his a-pawn) 54.Rxh3+!
Kxh3 55.Kc6 Kg4 56.Kb7 Kf5 57.Kxa7 Nf4
58.Kxb6 and white queens his a-pawn!] 52...
h3 53.Rxa7 h2 54.Rh7 Nh3 55.Rg7+ Kh4!!
Black has calculated the winning sequence
of moves precisely! 56.Ka4 [White realis-
es his mistake in underestimating black's
chances with his h-pawn and decides to
try his luck with his a-pawn. If 56.Rh7+
Kg4 57.Rg7+ Ng5! there is no stopping the
h-pawn from queening.] 56...h1Q 57.Kb5
Ng5 58.a7 Qa8 59.Kxb6 Ne4 60.Rb7
(threat 61. Rb8) 60...Nd6 61.Rb8 Nc8+
62.Kc7 Qxa7+ 63.Kxc8 Kg4 64.Rb7
Qa6 65.Kc7 Kf4 66.Rb5 Qa3 67.Rb8
[IF 67.Kb6 Ke4 68.Rxc5 Qxb3+–+] 67...
Qa6 68.Rb5 Qa3 69.Rb8 [#] 69...Qa6
[After 69...Ke5! 70.Kc6 Kd4 71.Rd8+ Kc3
72.Rb8 Qa7 73.Rb5 Kd4 74.Rb7 Qa8 75.Kc7
Qe8 76.Kb6 Kc3 Black will win, but there is a
long battle ahead.]
AICF CHRONICLE
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MARCH 2019

(Position after 69.Rb8)
70.Rb5 Qa3 71.Kb6 Ke4 72.b4 [72.Rxc5
Qxb3+ 73.Kc7 Kd4 74.Rc6 Qa4–+ Black
should win, but it is going to be a long, tedi-
ous road.; White's best chance seems to be to
keep his pawns where they are, use his rook on
the b-file and also keep the black pawn under
threat. So, 72.Kc6 Kd4 73.Rb7 and the ma-
noeuvring will go on!] 72...cxb4 73.c5 Kd5
74.c6+ Kd6 75.Kb7 Qc3 76.Rb6 b3 77.Kb8
Qxc6! 78.Rxb3 Qe8+ The rook is picked up
by a double attack! If 79. Kb7 Qf7+! Or, if 79.
Ka7 Qa4+! 0–1
Selected games from 11th Chennai
open
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
Neelotpal,Das (GM Ind) (2419) Kurbon-
boeva,Sarvinoz(WGM Uzb) (2214) [A16]
1.c4 Nf6 2.Nc3 g6 3.g3 Bg7 4.Bg2 c6 5.e4
d6 6.d4 0–0 7.Nge2 e5 8.d5 c5 9.0–0
Nbd7N 10.f4 [In De Freitas vs Vasconcellos
in the Brazilian Chp in Rio de Janeiro, 1949,
white played f2–f4 only six moves later after
elaborate preparation: 10.h3 Nb6 11.b3 Bd7
12.Kh2 Ne8 13.Be3 Nc8 14.Qd2 Ne7 15.Rae1
a6 16.f4² ...and 35.1–0]10...exf4 11.gxf4
Nh5 [The 25–year old Uzbek WGM plays the
black pieces with great energy and tries to
take the initiative soon.]12.Be3 Re8 13.Qd2
AICF CHRONICLE
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MARCH 2019
f5! 14.exf5 gxf5 15.Kh1 [White hopes to
attack the black king along the open g-file, but
this never materialises. Better for him was to
complete his development and be ready for
the middle-game: 15.Rae1 Ndf6 16.Qd3 Bd7
17.Bd2 a6 18.b3=]
15...Ndf6 16.Bg1 [This move does not do
anything significant except to remove the
bishop from a vulnerable square on the open
e-file. Better was to remove the dead wood
from the e-file and trade off his ineffective
pieces with: 16.Ng3 Nxg3+ 17.hxg3 Ng4
18.Bg1 Bd7=]16...Bd7 17.Rae1 Ng4 [Black's
best plan here was on the queen side: 17...a6
18.Rb1 Qa5 19.a3 b5³]18.Rf3 Qe7 [This pins
the knight against the Re1.]19.Ref1 a6 20.h3
[[#]]20...b5!? [20...Qh4! 21.Qe1 Qxe1
22.Rxe1 Ngf6 23.Re3 b5µ would have threat-
ened many unpleasant things on white]21.
hxg4 fxg4 22.Re3 Qh4+ 23.Bh2 Rxe3
24.Qxe3 Bd4!! 25.Nxd4 [If 25.Qd3? bxc4
26.Qxc4 g3 27.Nxg3 Nxg3#]
25...cxd4 26.Qxd4 g3 27.Qg1 [The only way
to stop mate but it leads to a lost ending.]27...
gxh2 28.Qxh2 Ng3+! 29.Kg1 Qxh2+
30.Kxh2 Nxf1+ 31.Bxf1
[[#]]31...Kf8! [White has a knight and pawn
for a rook, but her scattered pawns would
soon fall prey to the rook once it gets started.
Black anticipates an attack on her d6 pawn
and moves in advance to defend it.]32.Ne4
Ke7 33.c5 dxc5 34.d6+ Ke8 35.Nxc5
Rc8 36.Nxa6 [If 36.b4 Rc6 and d6 would
be soon captured.]36...Rc2+ 37.Kg3 Rxb2
38.Nc5 Rxa2 39.Nxd7 Kxd7 40.Bxb5+
Kxd6 41.Kg4 Ke7 42.Bd3 h6! 43.Kf5
[[#]]43...Rg2! [The white king is stymied
and cannot advance at all. It cannot cross the
g-file to stop Black's h-pawn which will now
move unhindered and decide the game.]44.
Be4 Rg3 45.Ke5 h5 46.f5 h4 47.f6+ Kf8
48.Kd4 0–1
Tran,Tuan Minh (GM Vie) (2541) Shyaam-
nikhil,P(IMInd)(2446)E10
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nf3 c5 4.d5 b5 5.dxe6
fxe6 6.cxb5 d5 7.Bg5 h6 [F.Herzog vs
R.Pitschak 1933 varied here with 7...Nbd7 8.e3
Bb7 9.Nbd2 e5 10.Nb3= White check-mated
on move 68.]8.Bh4 Qa5+ 9.Nbd2 Nbd7
10.e3 g5 11.Bg3 Ne4 12.Bd3? [12.Ne5!
Nxg3 13.Nc6 Qc7 14.hxg3±]12...Bg7 [If 12...
Nxd2 13.Qxd2 Qxd2+ 14.Nxd2 Bg7 15.0–0–0
a6 16.h4 axb5 17.hxg5 hxg5 18.Rxh8+ Bxh8
19.Rh1 Bg7 20.Kb1]
13.0–0 Nxg3 14.hxg3 [[#]]
14...0–0 [If 14...Bxb2 15.Bg6+ Kf8 16.Nc4!
Qxb5 17.Nxb2 Qxb2 18.Rb1 Qxa2= Black has
two extra pawns but his pawns are scattered
and give white good attacking chances as com-
pensation.]15.Qc2 c4 16.Bh7+ Kh8 17.Nd4
Qb6 18.a4 Bxd4 19.exd4 Qxd4 [Now the
material is equal but black has a slight initia-
tive as white's bishop on h7 is odd!]20.Bg6
Qg7 21.b3 c3 22.Nf3 e5! [Black's mobile
central pawns are a big threat to white who
has to take care that his bishop does not get
trapped.]23.Rac1
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Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
[[#]]23...d4 [Black's two connected passed
pawns marching down the c- and d-files are
a good spectacle and ominous for white. A
quieter alternative was: 23...Bb7 24.Qxc3
Qxg6 25.Qc7 Bc8 26.Nxe5 Nxe5 27.Qxe5+
Qg7 28.Qxd5 Bb7³]24.Be4 Rb8 25.Rfe1=
Nc5 26.b4 [Now white has got his own
pawn mass on the queen-side but it isnt
mobile!]26...Nxe4 27.Qxe4 Bb7! 28.Qxe5
Bxf3 29.gxf3–+ Qxe5 30.Rxe5 Rfd8
[Also winning was: 30...Rbc8 31.Rd5 Rfd8
32.Rxd8+ Rxd8 White cannot stop black from
winning by pushing his d-pawn.]31.Ree1
Rbc8 32.Red1 d3 33.a5 c2 34.Rd2 [[#]]
34...Rc3 [Black gives additional protection
to his d3 pawn as he knows his Rd8 will
be needed to contain white's queen-side
pawns.]35.b6 axb6 36.axb6 Rb8! 0–1
AICF CHRONICLE
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MARCH 2019
Megaranto,Susanto(GM,Ina) (2530)
Pranesh,M.(FM Ind) (2125)
[Indonesia is often in the news on account of
volcanoes, earth-quakes and tsunamis; they
have 129 active volcanoes! In 1982, Indonesia
was in the news for staging a 26–player Grand-
master Round Robin Tournament in 1982 in
Surakarta and Denspar to give Indonesian IMs
a chance to become GMs. Susanto Megaranto
who is currently Indonesia's top grandmaster
was not even born at that time. Born in 1987,
Megaranto became a GM in 2004 at the age of
17, two years before Pranesh was born. In this
game Megaranto displays amazing end-game
artistry in a rook and pawn ending. Though
Pranesh who made an IM norm in this Open,
suffered a defeat in this game, he would surely
benefit from the great experience he got play-
ing Megaranto. Only in an International Open
like the Chennai Open, could a young player
like Pranesh get the opportunity to play a for-
eign grandmaster in tournament conditions.]
50.Rf5! Rc3 51.h5!! [In such endings, who
queens a pawn first is more important than
who has more pawns on the board! After
this move, white's initiative in the endgame
snowballs.]51...Rxe3 52.h6 Kd6 53.h7! Re8
54.g5! Ke6 55.g6! Rh8 [If 55...Kxf5?? 56.g7!
and g7–g8=Q wins.]56.Rf8!!
[This drags the black rook out of h8 to facili-
tate a two-pawn Tsunami attack! Not 56.g7??
Rxh7+ 57.Kg3 Rxg7+ and it is black who is
winning!]56...Rxf8 57.g7! Rd8 58.g8Q+
Rxg8 59.hxg8Q+ Ke5 [....and 77.1–0] 1–0
Khusenkhojaev,Muhammad(IM Tjk)
(2455)Ritviz,Parab(Goa) (2362) [E01]
[Ritviz Parab, 20, of Goa is his State's next hope
for an IM. Born 1999, he got his first IM norm
from the Bangkok Club Open in 2016 where
he drew GM S.S. Ganguly and beat Filipino GM
Eugene Torre. Last year he won the first prize
of Rs 50,000 in the BRDCA FIDE-Rated Open
in Hubbali, Karnataka, beating IM Ravi Hegde
and GM M.S.Thejkumar on the way. Though
Parab loses this game, he shows that he has
the talent to achieve great results.]
1.d4 [1.g3]1...Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.g3 d5 4.Bg2
Bb4+ 5.Bd2 Be7 6.Nf3 0–0 7.0–0 Nbd7
8.Qc2 c6 9.b3 b6 10.Rd1 Ba6 11.a4 Rc8
12.a5 c5 13.axb6 Qxb6 14.Qa2 Bb7
15.Ba5 Qa6N [Razuvayev 2500 vs Balashov
2535, Helsinki 1984 went: 15...Qd6 16.Nbd2
cxd4 17.Nxd4 Qb8 18.cxd5 Drawn!]16.dxc5
Nxc5 17.b4 Nce4 18.c5 Ng4!= 19.Nd4 [The
threat is 20. b5 trapping the black queen.]19...
e5? [[#]]
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
[After this move, Black is thrown on the de-
fensive. The idea behind this move is not only
to get his queen out of the hole on a6 but to
transfer it to h6 or f6 for attack. However he
misses an exciting variation which involves
willingly walking into white's plan, sacrificing
his queen and obtaining excellent counter-play
for his minor pieces as in: 19...Ngxf2! 20.b5
Qxa5!! 21.Qxa5 Bxc5 22.Na3 Nxd1 23.Rxd1³
Technically white is slightly ahead in material,
but black has the better chances with fluid
piece play for his minor pieces..]20.Nf5 Qf6
21.Nxe7+ Qxe7 22.f3 Qg5 23.Qb3!± [Nei-
ther knight could be captured for if 23.fxe4??
Qe3+ 24.Kh1 Nf2+ 25.Kg1 Nh3+ 26.Kh1 Qg1+
27.Rxg1 Nf2# This mate is known as Philidor's
Legacy.]23...Qe3+ [If 23...Nxg3 24.hxg3 Ne3
25.Nd2! Nxd1 26.Nf1!!±]
24.Qxe3 Nxe3 25.fxe4 Nxd1 26.exd5 Ne3
27.Nc3!± [Second best was: 27.Bh3?! f5
28.d6 Bc6 29.Nc3 a6]27...f5 [[#]]
AICF CHRONICLE
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Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
[This is black's only attempt at counter-play,
threatening e5–e4. Worse was: 27...Nxg2
28.Kxg2 f5 29.Rd1 and there is little that black
can do to stop the d-pawn from queening.]28.
c6! Nxg2? [After this move, the knight be-
comes irrelevant to the game! Allowing a
passed pawn on b7 is fraught with grave risks.
Better was: 28...Bxc6 29.dxc6 Nxg2 30.Nd5!
Ne3! 31.Nxe3 Rxc6±]29.cxb7 Rxc3? [Thou
gh black will be losing, he can put up greater
resistance with: 29...Rb8 30.Kxg2 Rxb7+–
White has a knight and bishop for a rook but
victory will be difficult.]30.d6!+– [[#]White's
simple threat is d6–d7–d8Q. The rook on c2 has
to waste one move to get himself on the d-file
to threaten the d-pawn from the rear.]30...
Rc2 31.d7! [After 31.d7! Rd2 32.d8Q Rdxd8
33.Bxd8 Rxd8 34.Rxa7 White's winning threat
of 35 Ra8 cannot be parried. Note that white
ignores the black knight on g2 and does not
bother to capture him!] 1–0
Evrin,Selvam(Fra)(1656) Paichadze,Luka
(GM Geo) (2583) [B12]
[White is a 15–year old boy from France, in all
likelihood of Tamil origin. Immediately after the
Opening, the Advance Variation in the Caro
Kann Defence, white plays an unnecessarily
passive move (16. Rc1) and the Georgian
GM's skill takes over.]1.e4 [1.g3]1...c6 2.d4
d5 3.e5 Bf5 4.Nc3 e6 5.g4 Bg6 6.Nge2 c5
7.h4 h5 8.Nf4 Bh7 9.Nxh5 cxd4 10.Qxd4
Nc6 11.Bb5 Nge7 12.Bg5 a6 13.Bxc6+
Nxc6 14.Qd2 Qa5 15.f4 Rc8 [H.Westerinen
2400 vs Klaus Berg 2390, Gausdal, 1989 went:
15...d4 16.Ne2 Qd5 17.0–0 Bc5? (17...Qc5!³)
18.Nxg7+ Kf8 19.Kh2 Kxg7 20.Bf6+ Kg8
21.f5! exf5 22.Qg5+ Bg6 23.Nf4 Qe4 24.Rae1!
Qxc2+ 25.Re2 Qc4 26.b3! Qb5 27.a4! 1–0]16.
Rc1N [Black should have tried: 16.a3 d4
17.Rd1 Qb6 18.Ne2 Qxb2 19.Rh3=]16...Qb6
[Though white is a pawn up and his pieces are
AICF CHRONICLE
34
MARCH 2019
concentrated on the king-side, he cannot castle
and his b2 is under threat. Black easily rustles
up threats on the queen-side, leading to a win-
ning combination.]17.Na4 Qb5 18.b3 Nb4
19.Nc3 Qa5 20.f5 [If 20.0–0 Qc5+ 21.Rf2
Qxc3–+]20...d4 21.Ne2 [[#]
]21...Nd3+!! 22.Kd1 [If 22.cxd3 Rxc1+
23.Nxc1 Bb4 wins.]22...Nf2+ 23.Ke1 Qxd2+
24.Kxd2 Nxh1 25.Rxh1 exf5 26.gxf5? [26.
Nxd4 lost a little slower!]26...Bxf5 27.Nxd4
Be4! [[#]]
28.Ke1? [An inconsequential move which does
not answer any of the two threats and lets
black select his choice! If 28.Re1 Bb4+] 0–1
Tr an , M i n h Th an g(I M V i e ) ( 2 3 5 5 )
Karthik,Venkataraman(GM Ind (2515)
[A04]
[The Opening system employed by black in
this game has no name. But I would call it
the "Rentala System" because Rentala Sub-
rahmanyam (1903–1982) of Kovvur in West
Godavari District of Andhra popularised it. A
man of great tactical skills, Rentala adopted
the weird system of playing ....f5 and follow
up a few moves later with ...c5. Likewise while
playing white he would open with the Birds
Opening (1.f4) and then follow it up with c2–c4.
Of course modern theoreticians would describe
Rentala's system as "Irregular system" and
look down on it! Now Karthik Venkataraman,
born 1999, from Tirupati, in another corner of
Andhra, plays the same Rentala System, in all
likelihood without knowing its link to Rentala
Subrahmanyam who died 17 years before he
was born! Despite the weirdness of the Rentala
System, the middle-game and endgame are
rich in enjoyable tactics.]1.Nf3 c5 2.c4 Nc6
3.b3 e5 4.Nc3 f5?! 5.g3= [5.e4 had been
played in a 1998 European Open with disas-
trous consequences for white!]5...Nf6 6.Bb2
Be7 7.Bg2 0–0! 8.d3 d6 9.Nd2?! [White is
playing for the occupation and control of the
d5 square. Better was to complete his devel-
opment first and then look for opportunities
to seize the initiative with: 9.0–0 Qe8 10.e3
Qf7 11.Re1 h6=]9...Be6 10.a3 d5! 11.cxd5
Nxd5 12.0–0 Qd7 13.Nc4 Bf6 [13...Rad8! is
the natural move here, focussing on the semi-
open d-file.]14.Nxd5 Bxd5 15.Bxd5+?!
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
[[# ] ] [ O n e m u s t a l w a y s t h i n k t w i c e
before exchanaging off a fianchettoed
bishop in the castled position. There-
f o r e b e t t e r wa s : 1 5 . e 4 B e 6 1 6 . e x f 5
Bxf5 17.Ne3!=]15...Qxd5 16.e4 Qd7
17.Ne3 Rad8 18.Nd5 [If 18.Nxf5 Qxd3
19.Re1 Na5 20.b4 Nc4 21.Qxd3 Rxd3
22.Bc1 Rc8³]18...Ne7! 19.Nxe7+ Bxe7!
20.Bxe5? [This pawn grab is fatal.]20...
fxe4!–+ 21.Qd2 Qxd3 22.Qb2 e3!!µ
23.Rae1 [ I f 2 3 . B x g 7 e x f 2 + 2 4 . R x f 2
Rxf2 25.Kxf2 Bg5–+ (threat 26...
Be3+) 26.Qe5 Rd5!–+ Black's advan-
tage is that all three of his pieces are
a c t i ve a n d a g g r e s s i ve w h i l e w h i t e ' s
rook is yet to leave the garage and his
queen needs to protect his bishop on g7
all the while.]23...exf2+ 24.Rxf2 Bg5!
25.Rfe2 [If 25.Rxf8+ Rxf8 26.Qe2 Qxe2
27.Rxe2 Rf3 28.Bd6 Rc3 29.Kg2 (29.Kf2
Bf6!) 29...Be3–+]25...Bd2!!–+
[[#]]26.Bxg7 Bxe1 27.Rxe1 [If 27.Bxf8
Bc3!! 28.Qc2 Kxf8–+]27...Rf7 28.Be5
Qf3 [Idea 29....Rd1! winning.]29.Qc2 Re8
[This pin finishes off white. Another way
was: 29...c4! (Trying to divert the white
queen from its defence of f2 and denying
access to the white queen to c4.) 30.bxc4
Re8! 31.Qb2 Rf5–+]30.Qxc5 Qf5! [The
pin on the bishop continues!]31.Qd4 [[#]]
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Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
31...h5!! [31...Rfe7?! will allow 32.Qc4+ Qe6
33.Qf4 Rf7 34.Qg5+ Qg6 35.Qc1µ And black
has slid down from a winning position to a good
position!]32.Qa1 Rfe7! 33.Bc3 Qc5+!! 34.Kh1
[34.Bd4? will lose to 34...Rxe1+–+]34...
Rxe1+ 35.Bxe1 Re2! [Black will win next
move by a queen check from either c6 or d5
and mate.] 0–1
Muthaiah,Al (IM TN) (2406) Megaran-
to,Susanto (GM Ina) (2530) [A47]
Al Muthaiah, a 20–year old student of SRM
University became an IM in 2018. He partici-
pates in whatever FIDE Rating tournament that
comes his way in the country and is inevitably a
prize winner. His chess origins are from Bloom
Chess Academy run by M.A.Velayudham. In
this game he crushes Indonesian GM Susanto
Megaranto in a memorable attacking game
sacrificing whenever there is an obstacle.
Megaranto became Indonesia's youngest GM
in 2004 at the age of 17. He is a prolific prize
winner in Open tournaments. He became the
first Asian University Champion in 2015 in Bei-
jing. 1.Nf3 Nf6 2.d4 b6 3.g3 Bb7 4.Bg2
c5 5.c4 cxd4 6.Qxd4 Nc6 7.Qf4 g6 8.0–0
Bg7 9.Nc3 0–0 10.Rd1 d6 11.Qh4 Na5
[F.Goran 2025 vs Henrik Carlsen, Gaudal Clas-
sics, 2002, went: 11...Rc8 12.Rb1 Qc7 13.Nb5
Qb8] 12.Bh6 [#]
AICF CHRONICLE
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MARCH 2019
12...Qc8 [The attempt to win a pawn goes
awry: 12...Bxh6 13.Qxh6 Bxf3 (13...Nxc4?
14.Ng5! Bxg2 15.Kxg2 Qd7 16.Nd5 Qb7
17.Kg1+-) 14.Bxf3 Rc8 15.b3 Nc6 16.Bxc6
Rxc6 17.Rd4 Rc5 18.Rh4 Rh5 19.Rxh5 Nxh5
20.Nd5²] 13.Nd5 Bxd5 [Not 13...Qxc4??
14.Nxe7+ Kh8 15.Bxg7+ Kxg7 16.Nf5+ gxf5
17.Qg5++-] 14.cxd5 Bxh6 15.Qxh6 Qf5
16.Bh3 Qe4 [If 16...Qh5 17.Qxh5 Nxh5
18.Rac1+- White's control of the open c-file,
with his bishop remote controlling c8, is deci-
sive.] 17.Kf1!? [Though this odd move gives
white a considerable advantage, far better was:
17.Nd4! Qe5 18.b4 Nc4 19.Nc6 Qb2 20.Rab1
Qxa2 21.Nxe7+ Kh8 22.Qh4 Ng8 23.Nxg8
Kxg8 24.Ra1 Qb3 25.Rdb1 Qc3 26.Rc1 wins
the knight.] 17...Nb7 18.Rac1! [#]
[The threat is to trap the queen with 19. Rd4!
The control of the c8 square by the bishop from
h3 is tremendous. Another strong white move
in this position is: 18.Qc1 Again the threat is
19. Rd4 trapping the queen. 18...Qb4 19.Rd4
Qc5 20.Qd2!±] 18...Qa4 19.Rd4 [White
goes all out for the throat, burning his boats.
A calmer continuation was: 19.a3 a5 20.Rd4
Qb3 21.Rc7 Nc5 22.Ng5! Qxb2 23.Rh4! Qc1+
24.Kg2 Rfe8 25.Rf4!+-] 19...Qxa2 20.Ng5
Qxb2 21.Rcc4! Na5 [If 21...b5 22.Rb4 Qa1+
23.Kg2 Rfc8 Under severe pressure, black
decides to give up the exchange. But white
does not accept! His bishop is more valuable!
24.Rf4! Rc1 25.Rbd4!+- 26. Rxf6! is threat-
ened.] 22.Rb4 Nb3 23.Rf4! Nd2+ 24.Kg2
[#] 24...Qa1 Threatening mate in one. 25.g4!
Rfc8 26.Rxf6 Qf1+ [If 26...Qxf6 27.Qxh7+ Kf8
28.Rf4!! and if now 28....Qxf4 29. Qh8#; or
if 28...Qg7 29. Rxf7+ wins.] 27.Kg3 Rc3+
28.e3 Rxe3+ 29.fxe3 Qg1+ 30.Bg2 Qxe3+
31.Kh4! 1–0
Ameir,Moheb (IM Egy) (2309)
Deepan,Chakkravar. (GM Ind (2543)
[B51]
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.Bb5+ Nd7 4.0–0 a6
5.Bd3 Ngf6 6.Re1 g6 7.c3 Bg7 8.Bc2 0–0
9.d4 e5 10.a4 [In a 2006 game played in
the Kuala Lumpur Open 10.Nbd2 was played
without any attempt to prevent ....b5 and the
game was drawn on the 20th move.] 10...Re8
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
11.d5= b6 12.h3 Rb8 [Black opts for the tradi-
tional plan of b6-b5. To be considered was 12...
Qc7 to be followed by Nh5 and Nf4] 13.Na3
b5 14.axb5 axb5 15.b3 Nh5 16.c4 bxc4
17.bxc4 Nb6 18.Bd3 Ra8 [18...Bd7= would
have led to equality.] 19.Bg5 f6 20.Be3 Nf4
21.Bf1 f5 [A long, but very interesting and
instructive variation, is: 21...Re7 (to double
rooks on the a-file) 22.Nb5! Rxa1 23.Qxa1
Rb7 24.Qc1! g5 25.h4 Bg4 26.hxg5 fxg5
27.Bxf4 exf4 28.e5! Bxf3 29.Nxd6! Re7
30.gxf3 Bxe5 31.Nf5 Re8 32.Qb1±] 22.Nb5
Rxa1 23.Qxa1 fxe4 24.Nd2 Bf5 25.Qa5 The
threat is 26. Nxd6 Qxd6 27. Bxc5 winning.
25...Bh6? [With this, the GM has prepared
a deep ambush into which, the Egyptian IM
does not fall. This eventually loses the game.
Better was: 25...h5 26.Nxd6 Nbxd5 27.Qa4!
Bd7 28.Qa7±] 26.Nc3! [White plays with
great care. If 26.Nxd6? Qxd6 27.Nxe4 (worse
was 27.Bxc5 Nxh3+! 28.gxh3 Bxd2!–+) 27...
Bxe4 28.Bxc5 Qb8 29.Rxe4 Nd7] 26...Nd3
27.Bxh6 Till the end of the game this bishop
remains on h6 and is a thorn in black's flesh.
27...Nxe1 28.Ndxe4 Kh8? [This was played
to avoid white's knight forking his king and
rook. Instead he could have tried: 28...Bxe4
29.Nxe4 Nc2 30.Bg5 Qc7 31.Nf6+ Kf7
32.Nxe8 Kxe8 33.Bd3 Nd4 34.f4± In this
position, white's bishops are superior to the
two knights.] 29.Ng5 Qb8?! [#]
AICF CHRONICLE
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Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
[This does not help black. 29...Kg8 would have
avoided the unpleasantness that follows.]
30.Nb5!! Brilliantly played! Apart from the
direct capture of the knight on e1, white has
the tactical threat of 31. Nxd6 Qxd6 32. Nf7+
winning the queen. 30...Nc2 31.Nxd6 Re7
32.Qxc5 Black's position is in ruins though he
is the exchange up. 32...Qc7 33.Ngf7+ Kg8
34.Qxc7 Rxc7 [#]
35.Nxe5 White has been richly compensated
for the loss of the exchange, he has three
pawns and a bishop for a rook.. 35...Nd7
36.Ne8! Ra7 [If 36...Rc8?? 37.Nxd7 followed
by Nf6+ wins further material.] 37.Nc6 Ra1
38.Nd6 Re1 39.Kh2! Ne5 [If 39...Rxf1??
40.Ne7+ Kh8 41.Nf7#!!; or 39...Nc5 40.g4
Bd3 41.Nb7 Nxb7 42.Bxd3 Na1 43.Be3 Nb3
44.Kg2 N7c5 45.Bc2 Kf7 46.Kg3+-] 40.Nxe5
Rxe5 41.c5! Nb4 [41...Rxd5?? 42.Bc4+-]
42.Bc4 If 42.....Nxd5 43. f4 captures the
knight with check. 1–0
Nitin,S (2442)
Pranesh,M (2125) [C49]
Thirteen-year old M.Pranesh was the only
player who made a norm, an IM norm, in this
International Open. The quality of this game
speaks for itself as Pranesh displays great un-
derstanding of chess. On the 20th move when
AICF CHRONICLE
38
MARCH 2019
he sacrifices a pawn with 20....e3, we do not
expect it at all.And his conduct of the end-
game with queen against rook and bishop is
masterly. Surely, this player will go far, very far
in chess. 1.Nc3 Nc6 2.e4 e5 3.Nf3 Nf6 4.Bb5
Bb4 5.0–0 Bxc3 6.bxc3 0–0 7.Re1 Re8 8.d3N
h6= 9.Nd2 Ne7 [9...d6= was normal.] 10.d4
Ng6 11.a4 c6 12.Bf1 [12.Bd3 releasing his
knight from the duty of protecting his e4 was
better.] 12...d5 13.exd5 cxd5 14.Nb3 [14.
dxe5 Nxe5 15.Nb3 Bd7= with a faint pull for
black because of white's isolated doubled
pawns on the c-file.] 14...e4 15.c4 The nat-
ural move to undouble his c-pawns and strike
at black's central pawn phalanx. 15...Bg4
16.Qd2 dxc4 17.Bxc4 Nh4! This threatens
unpleasant sacrifices on g2 and f3. 18.Bf1 Qc8
19.Ba3 Qf5 The storm is brewing on white's
castled position. 20.Bd6 e3! A grandmaster
move! 21.Rxe3 [If 21.fxe3 Ne4 22.Bd3 Nxd2
23.Bxf5 Nxf5 24.Nxd2 Nxd6–+ Black has won
a bishop.] 21...Ne4 22.Rxe4 Qxe4 23.Bg3
Qe7 24.Bb5 Rec8 25.Re1 Qg5 26.f4 Qf6
27.Nc5 Nf5 28.Bf2 Nd6 29.h3 Bf5 30.g4
Nxb5 31.axb5 [#]
31...Bxc2 [Every talented young player likes
to show off his chess virtuosity. And sometimes
they risk losing the advantatge! Slightly better
here was: 31...b6! 32.gxf5 bxc5 33.dxc5 Qxf5]
32.Qxc2 b6 33.Qe4 Now white has compen-
sation for the exchange and the game becomes
equal. 33...bxc5 34.dxc5 Qc3 35.Kg2=
Rab8 36.Bd4? [White mistakenly thinks that
everything is under control and gets into a
losing tactical battle. Better was: 36.b6 axb6
37.cxb6 Rc4 38.Qf3=] 36...Qc4! 37.g5 [He
plays this move first because if immediately
37.Qe5 f6 and white loses his b5 pawn.] 37...
hxg5 38.fxg5 [#]
38...Re8!! when making this move black must
have been confident that his queen would
be able to handle the rook and bishop effec-
tively and win the game. 39.Qxe8+ Rxe8
40.Rxe8+ Kh7 41.Be3 Qxb5 42.Re7 a5!
43.Rxf7 Qe2+! this forces the bishop to move
back and give black a great advantage. 44.Bf2
a4 45.Ra7 [45.c6? Qe4+ wins the c-pawn im-
mediately.] 45...Qe4+ 46.Kg1 Qf3!! 47.h4
[47.Rxa4?? Qd1+! wins the rook.] 47...Kg6
48.Ra6+ Kh5 49.c6 [#]
Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
49...Qg4+! 50.Kh2 [50.Kf1? Qc4+! wins
the rook.] 50...Qe2! the final double attack!
White's rook and bsihop are under attack
simultaneously. 0–1
Rozum,Ivan (GM Rus) (2589) Deviat-
kin,Andrei (GM Rus) (2461)
This is a typical European game played be-
tween two Grandmasters where the rating
difference between them is vast, like here.
Russian GM Deviatkin, born 1980 is 11 years
older than compatriot Rozum. But Rozum
has a higher rating than Deviatkin, higher
by 128 points.The higher rated player always
tries to win because a draw would lose him
rating points and also some prize money.
Deviatkin's peak rating was 2608 in 2009.
Rozum plays positional chess, keeping the
game fluid and takes no risks. He just over-
whelms his opponent by gaining more board
space and picks up a pawn only when there
is absolutely no risk. There are no fire works
or thrilling sacrifices which people come to
expect from GMs. It takes three minor mis-
takes from Deviatkin to lose this game. He
could have drawn, had he avoided the last
minor error! But this is a game worthy of
study and emulation by young players who
are hell bent on attack. From the games of
Sultan Khan (1905–1966), I rather fancy that
our old masters who played chess according
to Indian rules a hundred years ago, did the
same, trying to crush the opponent and pick
up the odd pawn or two. They didnt play
exciting chess like Mikhail Tal, rather they
played like Petrosian. 1.c4 g6 2.d4 Bg7
3.Nf3 Nf6 4.g3 b6 5.Bg2 Bb7 6.0–0 0–0
7.Qc2 c5 8.d5 b5 9.e4 d6 [In the 1956 USSR
Ch in Leningrad, Korchnoy vs Bolelavky went:
9...bxc4 10.Nfd2 e6 11.Nc3 exd5 12.exd5 Na6
13.a3 d6 14.Nxc4 Nc7 15.Rd1 and drawn on
move 41.] 10.cxb5 a6 11.b6 Nbd7 12.a4
a5 13.Rd1 Qxb6 [13...Nxb6 14.Nc3 Ng4
15.Bf1 Nd7 16.Be2²] 14.Na3 Ba6 15.Bf1
AICF CHRONICLE
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Annotated by IM Manuel Aaron
Ng4 16.Bxa6 Qxa6 17.Nb5 Qc8 [17...Rac8
18.Qe2 c4 (to cramp the white position and
plant a knight on d3) 19.Nfd4 Nge5 20.Bg5
Rfe8= is an example of careful, correct play
by grandmasters.] 18.Qe2 Nge5 19.Nxe5
Nxe5 20.f4 [#]
20...Nd7?! [Black misses: 20...Qg4! 21.Kf2
(21.Qc2?µ Nf3+!) 21...Qxe2+ 22.Kxe2=]
21.Be3 Nf6?! [Better was: 21...Nb6
22.Ra2 f5 23.Bf2=] 22.Bd2! Black is now
obliged to station a rook on a8 to defend
his a-pawn for ever! 22...Qh3? [Better
was: 22...Qg4! 23.Re1 Qxe2 24.Rxe2 Nd7
25.Bc3 Nb6=] 23.Bc3 After two consec-
utive second-best moves by black, white
has a slight advantage in the game for the
first time. 23...Rfd8 24.Re1 h5 25.Qg2
Qxg2+ [After 25...Qd7 26.Rad1 white has
a glorious position with space advantage
and well-placed pieces.] 26.Kxg2 Ne8?
[This is black's third inaccurate move in
this game. His idea is to play Nc7 and
exchange off a pair of knights to ease his
position. But of greater concern for black
was to make white's plan of e4-e5 difficult
with: 26...Nd7 27.Re3 Nb6= the game is
almost equal as black now has threats of
his own and his pieces are not as helpless
as they were earlier.] 27.Rad1 Rdc8
AICF CHRONICLE
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MARCH 2019
Problem World with Ne8 but arranges a defence by another
piece 2…Bd8 followed by 3.Qe6 using the self
Dresden decoy block on d8.
By C.G.S.Narayanan
F.Palitzsch
Deutsche Schachzeitung 1928
Dresden revolves around a logical defence
substitution idea in chess problems of three
or more-movers. A good defence of one piece
is prevented and replaced by a bad defence of
the same or another piece..In Brunner Dresden
a black piece which parries the main plan is
obstructed or interfered with by another black
piece after which the first black piece commits
[#] 28.e5!± Nc7 29.Na3! Do not exchange
an error in its further defence of main plan.
pieces when your opponent is defending.
G.Berg
Now, black's rook on c8 and knight on c7
Deutsche Schachzeitung 1928
look funny. 29...Rd8 30.Nc4! After so much
of positional chess, now comes a glimmer of Mate in three moves
tactics! 30...dxe5 31.Bxa5! [With so much Key 1.h7! Nxh7 2.Bf4 Bd8 3.Qe6
of attention on e5, black might not have ex- If 1….Be1 2.h8Q+ followed by QxN
pected this blow. He must have hoped for: Here the first black piece opens up a line so
31.fxe5 Nxd5 32.Rxd5 Rxd5 33.Nb6 Rad8=] that a second piece can defend.This is Pal-
31...Rdc8 Black must have felt awful, being izscher-Dresden.
forced to shuttle his rook in defence between In the miniature below the straight 1.Rb5?
d8 and c8 over the last few moves. 32.fxe5! threatening Ra5 is met by Be1 by black.So the
[#] key 1.Rb4! alters the playing field threatening
2.Ra4 which is met by Nc3.Now thw original
plans works as Be1 is prevented by the new
Mate in three moves
defence.2.Rb5 Nxb5 (black still defends but of
In the above example if white plays 1.Qxc7?
no avail) 3.cxb5 mate
b1Q defeats the threat 2.Qb6.The key 1.Qg3!
M.Schneider
threatens 2.Qxa3 thereby decoying the black
Miniaures Strategiques 1935
bishop to b4 after which the main plan of
2.Qxc7 will work as BB interferes on the b1-b6
file. Now the defence by the decoyed piece 2…
Ba5 results in self block and 3.Qb7 mates.The
solution runs thus: Key 1.Qg3 Bb4 2.Qxc7 Ba5
3.Qb7. A dainty miniature.
[White is only one pawn up, but black's pieces
The second example has a slightly different
are hopelessly placed. After 32.fxe5 (threat is
motif in the defence.1.Bf4? can threaten
to fork both rooks with Nb6) 32...Ra7 33.d6
2.Qc7 but is defeated directly by 1…Ne8!.The
Ne6 34.d7!+- White must give up his knight
key 1.h7! now threatens to queen setting up
for the d-pawn and lose quickly.] 1–0
mate 3.Qc3.Here too the BNf6 is decoyed to h7
Mate in three moves
from where the knight cannot defend any more
AICF CHRONICLE
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 Tactics from master games Test your endgame
by S.Krishnan by C.G.S.Narayanan

Nadareisvili 1961 G.Kasparyan 1960

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

Josef Moravec 1961 Tjavlovski 1961

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

Dr.Jindrich Fritz 1961 A.Gurvic 1960

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

 
AICF CHRONICLE AICF CHRONICLE
42 43
MARCH 2019 MARCH 2019
Masters of the past-97 Vera Menchik
KCA’s 18th Open Fide Rated Chess Tournament,Kottayam
Vera Menchik (Moscow, 16 February 1906 – London, 27 June 1944) was
a British-Czech chess player. Menchik was the first women's world chess
champion. She also competed in chess tournaments with some of the
world's leading male chess masters, defeating many of them, including
World Champion Max Euwe.

The daughter of a Czech father and British mother, Vera Menchik was born
in Moscow. In the aftermath of World War I and the Russian Revolution,
her family moved to England in 1921. Her father taught her chess when
she was nine and, in the year of her arrival in England at the age of fifteen,
she won the British girls' championship. The following year, she became a
pupil of Géza Maróczy, the leading Hungarian grandmaster at the time.

She won the first Women's World Championship in 1927 and successfully defended her title
six times in every other championship in her lifetime, and only lost one game, while winning
78 and drawing four games. These were all-play-all tournaments, mostly run alongside Chess
Olympiads- London 1927, Hamburg 1930 Prague 1931 Folkestone 1933 Warsaw 1935 Stock- (L-R)_Sri.K.C.Vijayakumar, Executive Secretary,Kottayam Public Library, IA Bhuvanaa Sai L R Chief
holm 1937 Buenos Aires 1939.In addition, Menchik won two matches against her rival Sonja Arbiter, Sri. C. Abraham Itticheria, President, Kottayam Public Library making the first move with
Graf for the Women’s World Champion title at Rotterdam 1934 and at Semmering 1937. Sanjay S Pillai, Chess player,Kottayam, Sri.Rajesh Nattakam, General Secretary, Chess Association
Kerala and Sri.Jismon Mathew,Chariman of Arbiter Commission,CAK.
Starting in 1929, she participated in a number of Hastings international tournaments. When, the
same year, she entered the tournament in Carlsbad, Viennese master Albert Becker ridiculed 3rd Shaastra Rated Rapid Chess Tournament, Chennai
her entry by suggesting that any player whom Menchik defeated in tournament play should be
granted membership into the Vera Menchik Club. In the tournament, Becker himself became the
first member of the "club". In addition to Becker, the "Vera Menchik Club" eventually included
grandmasters such as Max Euwe, Mir Sultan Khan, Samuel Reshevsky, Friedrich Sämisch, Lajos
Steiner, and virtually every leading British player of the day.

Menchik's greatest success at international tournaments was at Ramsgate 1929, when she
finished tied for second with Akiba Rubinstein, just half a point behind former World Champi-
on José Raúl Capablanca, and ahead of her teacher Géza Maróczy. In 1934 she finished third
at Maribor, ahead of Rudolph Spielmann and Milan Vidmar. In 1942 she won a match against
international master Jacques Mieses (four wins, five draws, one loss).

Vera was a professional player. From the late 1920s, she was the manager and house professional
of the Empire Chess Club, which was situated on the top floor of Whiteleys store in Queensway,
West London. In 1939 she was appointed to the new National Chess Centre.

Vera Menchik's younger sister Olga was also a tournament chess player. In 1944, in World War
II, with 38-year-old Vera still women's world champion, the two sisters and their mother were
killed by a V-1 rocket, which destroyed their home.The trophy for the winning team in the
Women's Chess Olympiad is known as the Vera Menchik Cup.
GM Deepan Chakkravarthy with the chief guest Mr. Shaikh Faruque Ali, Adviser, Co-Curricular Activities
Courtesy:Wikepedia IIT who made the first move of the tournament
45
AICF CHRONICLE
44
MARCH 2019
 Solutions to ‘Tactics from master
2ndKalyan Dombivali All India Open FIDE Rating Tournament 2019 games’ on page 42
1. Badelka,Olga (2394) Semenova,El1
(2263) [A18]
St Petersburg RUS St Petersburg RUS (9.34),
04.11.2018
White to play 22.Bxh6 gxh6 23.Rxf7 Rxf7
24.Rxf7 Nf8 25.Rxe7 Threatening 26. Qd2.
25...Qb5 26.a4! [26.Qd2? Qb1+ 27.Kf2 Qf5+
28.Kg3 Nh7 Black protects his King side.; Also
playable is 26.Qc1 Kg8 27.c4 Qb4 (27...Qa5
28.Qf1; 27...Qa4 28.Qf1) 28.Qf1 Wins] 26...
Qc4 27.Qd2 Black has no defence agaist 18.Qx
h6 followed by mate. 1–0
2.Jimenez Ruano,Adrian (2248) Gonzalez
Garcia,M (2177) [D31]
Barcelona ESP Barcelona , 26.01.2019
White to play. 34.Qh7+! [34.Qh7+ Kxh7
a) 34...Kf7 35.hxg7 Ke6 (35...Ke7 36.gx-
h8Q++-) 36.Qh3+ Ke7 37.gxh8Q+-; b) 34...Kf8
Classical & Blitz Winners (IM Vikramaditya Kulkarni & IM Sameer Kathmale With 35.hxg7+ Ke7 36.gxh8Q+ Kd8 37.Qxe8+ Qxe8
GM PravinThipsay, Dr. Pansare, Mrs. Mhaiskar& Mr. Vaze (Left to Right) (37...Kxe8 38.Rg8#) 38.Qxb7+-; 35.hxg7+
Kg8 36.gxh8Q+ Kf7 37.Rg7+ Ke6 38.Qh3+ f5
39.Qh6#]1–0
Elite Club of Chess Fide Rated Rapid Open Tournament 2019,Salem
3.Praggnanandhaa,R (2530)
Anand,V (2773) [B90]
Tata Steel India Blitz Kolkata 13.11.2018
Black to play 21...Bxe4! 22.fxe4 [22.Bd1 Qxa3+
23.Kd2 (23.Kb1 Nd5 24.Qd2 Nc3+ 25.Qxc3
Qxc3 26.fxe4 Rc8 27.hxg6 h5 28.Rxh5 Rc4!
29.g7 Rb4+ 30.Kc1 (30.Ka2 Rb2+ 31.Ka1
Qa3#) 30...Qe3#) 23...Bxf3! 24.hxg6 (24.
Bxf3 Qxf3 25.hxg6 Ne4+ 26.Kc1 Qa3+ 27.Kd1
Qa1+ 28.Ke2 Rf2+ 29.Ke3 Qa3+ 30.Kxe4 Qf3+
31.Kd4 e5#) 24...Ne4+ 25.Ke1 Qc3+ 26.Kf1
Be2+ 27.Kg2 (27.Kxe2 Rf2#) 27...Rf2#] 22...
Qa1+ 23.Kd2 Nxe4+ 24.Ke3 Qc3+ 25.Bd3 [25.
Kxe4 d5+ 26.Kxd5 Rd8+ 27.Ke4 Rd4+ 28.Ke5
Qc5+ 29.Ke6 Qd6#] 25...Qd2+ Simple enough
for a Blitz 26...Rf2+ 27.Kd1 Qd4 28.Qc1 Rh2!
29.Qb1 a) 29.Rf1 Nc3+ 30.Ke1 Qe4+ 31.Bxe4
Re2#; b) 29.Rxh2 Qxg1+ 30.Ke2 Qxh2+ 31.Ke3
Qf2+ 32.Kxe4 Qf5+ 33.Ke3 (33.Kd4 Qe5#) 33...
(L-R) M Senthilvel ,Joint Secretary, TNSCA (second from left),M.Ephrame,Chief Arbiter, N Arun, Secretary, Qg5+ Wins; 29...Nf2+ 30.Kc1 (30.Kd2 Nxh1+
Salem District Chess association, Shri. I Paul Francis Xavier, Principal, Jairam Public School, Shri. M Manisekar 31.Kc1 Qxg1+ Wins) 30...Nxd3+ 31.cxd3 Qe3+
Vice President, the Elite Club of Chess, S.Nitin, Winner 32.Kd1 Qd2#] 26.Kxe4 Qxh6 27.hxg6 Qf4+
28.Kd5 h6 29.g7 Rc8–+ Black won in 49 moves
46
0–1
4.Andreev,Ed UKR (2427) Wang Jue (2363)
[B90]
Narcis 7 GM 2018 Divcibare 04.10.2018
Black to play 25...Rxc3! 26.bxc3 b2! 27.Rcd1
[27.Kxb2 Qb7+ 28.Ka2 (28.Ka1 Qc6 29.Rcd1
0–0‚) 28...Qd5+ 29.Kb2 Qb5+ 30.Ka2 Qa4+
31.Kb1 0–0! 32.Rcd1 Ba3 33.Rd5 Rb8+ Wins]
27...Qa4 28.Kxb2 Ba3+ [28...Ba3+ 29.Kb1
Qb5+ 30.Ka2 Qb2#] 0–1
5. Cheparinov,Ivan (2691) Hjartarson,Jo-
hann (2530) [E71]
Gibraltar Masters 2019 Caleta 30.01.2019
White to play 28.Nh5! [28.Nh5 gxh5 (28...Rxh8
29.Nf6+ Kf8 30.Rxh8+ Ke7 (30...Kf7 31.Rxd8+-
) 31.Rh7+ Kf8 32.Nxd7+ Wins) 29.g6 Rc8
(29...Rxh8 30.Rxh8+ Ke7 31.g7 Wins) 30.g7
Rg8 31.Rxg8+ Kf7 32.Rxc8 Bxc8 33.Rh8 Kxg7
34.Rxc8+-] 1–0
6. Korchmar,Vasiliy (2424) - Kokarev,Dmi-
try (2605) [C41]
Moscow Open (6.11), 31.01.2019
White to play 19.Rd8! [19.Rd8 Qxd8 (19...
Qe7 20.Ng6+ hxg6 21.Qh4#) 20.Ng6+ hxg6
21.Qh4#] 1–0
Solution to ‘Test your endgame’ on p.43
1.Nadareisvili 1961
1.Rg5 Kh2 2.Kb6 h3 3.Kc5 Kh1 4.Kd4 h2 5.Ke3
g6 6.Rg3 g5 7.Kf2 g4 8.Ra3 g3+ 9.Kxg3 wins
2.G.Kasparyan 1960
1.Qc5+ Ka6 2.Qc2 Rb5+ 3.Kc4 Bc7 4.Qa4+
Ra5 5.Qc6+ Bb6 6.Qc8#
3.Josef Moravec 1961
1.e7+ Ke8 2.Na6 Kd7 3.Nc5+ Ke8 4.Ne6 Kd7
5.Ng7 wins
(2…. Bh5 3.Ke6 Bg4+ 4.Kd6 Kf7 5.Nc7 wins)
4.Tjavloski 1961
1.c7 Re6+ 2.Kd7 Rc6 3.Na5+ Kc5 4.Nxc6 a2
5.Nd4 Kxd4 6.c8Q a1Q 7.Qh8+
5.Dr.Jindrich Fritz 1961
1.Bh1 Rxh1 2.a8Q Rd1 3.Qh1 Rxh1 4.a7 Rd1
5.a8Q+ Kb5 6.Qb8+ wins
6.A.Gurvic 1960
1.Rab6 Qa8 2.Rc8+ Qxc8 3.Rb3 Qa8 4.Re3+
Kd8 5.Kf8 wins
AICF CHRONICLE
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MARCH 2019
AICF Calendar March 2019 National Team Chess Championships, Kolkata
DCA Open FIDE Rated Chess Tournament 23 Mar - 27 Mar Haiderpur
Matrix chess Academy open Fide Rating Tmt 26 Mar - 30 Mar Tripura ( West)
3rd Holi Cup Lakecity Open Fide Rating Tmt 28 Mar - 31 Mar Udaipur
Asian Youth Chess Championship 2019 01 Apr - 10 Apr Kaluthara, SL
G.D.Goenka U.P.State U-13 FIDE Rated Chess 01 Apr - 04 Apr Gorakhpur
8th National Schools Chess Championship 03 Apr - 07 Apr Raipur
4 Queen's 2nd Open FIDE Rated Tournament 06 Apr - 10 Apr Ernakulam
Ananthapuri Parents 1st Open FIDE Rated Tmt 11 Apr - 14 Apr Trivandrum
1st Sangrur Heritage FIDE rating open 11 Apr - 14 Apr Sangrur
XXIV Haryana State Under - 13 boys & girls 12 Apr - 14 Apr Gurugram
Karnataka State Under - 13 FIDE rated Open & Girls 12 Apr - 14 Apr Udupi
3rd Unique All India Open FIDE Rating 16 Apr - 20 Apr Quepem,GA
4th Triple 'C' All India FIDE Rating open tmt 17 Apr - 21 Apr Cuttack
Bangalore Open 3 FIDE Rated open 17 Apr - 21 Apr Bangalore,KA,
1st Dombivili Kalyan below 1600 FIDE Rated 19 Apr - 21 Apr Thane
KCA 19th below -1400 Fide Chess tournament 19 Apr - 21 Apr Ernakulam
Unique below 1550 All India Open FIDE Rating 21 Apr - 23 Apr Quepem GA
Smart Girl FIDE Rated Association of Uttaranchal 22 Apr - 26 Apr Uttaranchal
Universal Chess Foundation Open FIDE Rating 22 Apr - 26 Apr East Mumbai
Karnataka State Amateur FIDE Rating 2019 25 Apr - 28 Apr Bangalore
National FIDE Rating open for visually Challenged 25 Apr - 28 Apr Quepem, Goa PSPB Men facing AAI
Universal Chess Foundation Below 1600 Tmt 26 Apr - 28 Apr East,Mumbai,MH
67th Tamilnadu State Open FIDE Rated 26 Apr - 30 Apr Coimbatore
Late Bharatbai Halkude Mem. 3rd Open Fide Rating 29 Apr - 02 May Pune,
9th Hyderabad FIDE Rating for Visually challenged 01 May - 05 May Hyderabad
Belgaum district Chess Association FIDE Rated 01 May - 05 May Belgaum
TN State Under - 13 Open & Girls Championship 02 May - 06 May Hosur,TN
Late Bharatbai Halkude Mem.Fide Rating below 1500 03 May - 05 May Pune
13th Chess Mate The Inter School FIDE Rating team 03 May - 04 May Kolkataa
National Under-13 Boys & Girls Chess Championship 04 May - 12 May Vizag

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Back Cover (Colour) 15,000 1,20,000
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Solution to ‘Puzzle of the month’ on page 19.

The retro analytical question is how did the BK get to a2? It could not have been via a3 or b3 since the white pawns
have attacked these squares throughout the game. So it must have been via d2(e2) and d1.That implies that the BK
must have moved out from e1.So castling is illegal and the key is only 1.Kf2! PSPB Women playing Air India
49
AICF CHRONICLE
48
MARCH 2019
 National Team Chess Championships, Kolkata

Open runners up-AAI :- Maj Gen. Shibnath Mukherjee, NR Vignesh, Coach of AAI, GA Stany, NR
Visakh, Puranik Abhimanyu, IA R. Anantharam, M Shaym Sundar

Women Runners up Air India: -WGM Bakthi Kulkarni, IM Vijayalakshmi S, VS Negi, Coach, WGM
Meenakshi S and WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy