Most Exciting Event Of The Sub-Continent

By Arvind Aaron

A total of 426 Players from 16 countries battle for the honours in the Rs.11.50 lakh prize fund Parsvnath International Open at Delhi.

On January 17, the event attracted the attention of World Champion Viswanathan Anand who made a visit to the venue. He was garlanded by our FIDE Zone President and Delhi Chess Association Secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan. Not many events in the world get the world champion to make a visit.

The seventh edition of this event runs from Jan 10-17 and has become the most exciting chess event in the entire Indian Sub-Continent. Only a few events in the Persian gulf can compete in terms of prize fund and stature.

This edition commenced with plenty of upsets. Nine year old Hetul Shah of Gujarat became the youngest player to defeat a grandmaster when he beat Nurlan Ibrayev of Kazakhstan.

After the penultimate round, our six-time national champion Surya S Ganguly of Kolkata is in lead with 8/9 and is well placed to win the Rs.2.55 lakh first prize. In the tenth round, Ganguly beat Barua. "I thought Na3 was a mistake by Ganguly, in fact it was not," said Barua who lost.

Dinesh Kumar Sharma of LIC, Kanpur lost a rook pawn ending when his overseas opponent had a bishop and rook pawn in a rook ending. "A block on the second rank should have ensured a draw," observed Roktim Bandyopadhyay.

January 18 was a memorable day for S.P. Sethuraman of Chennai. He drew Grand Master Abhijit Kunte of Pune quickly for his maiden GM norm. Prathamesh Mokal of Pune who needed a draw today for the GM norm lost to Karthikeyan of Chennai and lost his chance. One man's loss is another's gain. Karthikeyan now needs a draw in the final round against a high rated player for his second GM norm.

The venue at Delhi is Modern School on Barakhamba Road and the auditorium is fantastic. Delhi Chess Association has made gradual progress that Gurgaon in Haryana is organising a similar event by inviting the same visiting grandmasters.

All players and those connected with this event get free coffee or tea. The leading games are also live on the Delhi Chess Association website: www.delhichess.com Organising hero of this event, Bharat Singh excels in good human contacts. There are people like Vishal Sareen who are not to be seen but get work silently done. The sponsor is Pradeep Jain, Vice President of the AICF.

Important Results of Round 9 (Indians otherwise stated):

GM Petr Kostenko of Kazakhstan (7.5) drew with GM Mikhail Ulibin of Russia (7.5) ; GM Dibyendu Barua (6.5) lost to GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly (8) ; IM SP Sethuraman (7) drew with GM Abhijit Kunte (7) ; Joydeep Dutta (6.5) lost to GM Neelotpal Das (7.5) ; IM GB Prakash (7) drew with IM R R Laxman (7) ; IM P Karthikeyan (7.5) beat IM Prathamesh Mokal (6.5) ; M S Thejkumar (7.5) beat Vishnu Prasanna (6.5) ; Yuriy Kuzubov of Ukranine (7) beat Shashikant Kutwal (6.5) ; GM Niaz Murshed of Bangladesh (6.5) drew with GM Alexander Areshchenko of Ukraine (6.5) ; GM Ibrayev Nurlan of Kazakhstan (6.5) drew with GM Parimarjan Negi (6.5) ; IM Akshayraj Kore (6) lost to GM Evgeny Gleizerov of Russia (7) ; IM Dinesh Kumar Sharma (6) lost to GM Anuar Ismagambetov of Kazakhstan (7) ; IM Roktim Bandyopadhyay (6) lost to GM Saidali Iuldachev of Uzbekistan (7) ; GM Praveen Thipsay (7) beat IM Shyam Sundar (6) ; IM Deep Sengupta (6) lost to IM Suvrajit Saha (7).

 

More News

Home                                                      Published on 19^th January ,  2009