Abhijeet Gupta and Swati Ghate are Commonwealth Champions 2017

by Jitendra Choudhary - 11/07/2017

We can officially call him Mr. Commonwealth. Yes that's how common it has become for Abhijeet Gupta to win the Commonwealth Championship! This is his fourth title in a span of five years! Vaibhav Suri won the Silver and Tejas Bakre the bronze. In the women's section Swati Ghate won the final round to clinch the gold, while the silver went to Mary Ann Gomes and the bronze to Tania Sachdev. In this report we have pictures of all the winners, including the 14 age category medalists.

Grandmaster and former world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta came up with an inspired performance in the final round to crush Aleksandar Wohl of Australia and annexed the gold medal in the Commonwealth Chess Championship 2017.

Mr. Commonwealth!

The Delhi-based GM stretched his total Commonwealth titles to four in the last five years and completed a hat-trick of titles. In 2015, he had won the title in Delhi and had won the 2016 edition at Sri Lanka. Gupta was in his elements in the final round as Wohl found no defense. Playing white, it was a queen pawn game by the Indian and Wohl chose an off-beat system that soon spelt doom. The middle game was one sided as Wohl struggled on all parts of the board and it took just 24 moves for Gupta to wrap the issue.

[Event "Commonwealth Chess-ch 2017"]
[Site "Delhi"]
[Date "2017.07.10"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Gupta, Abhijeet"]
[Black "Wohl, Aleksandar H"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E01"]
[WhiteElo "2625"]
[BlackElo "2355"]
[Annotator "Sagar Shah"]
[PlyCount "47"]
[EventDate "2017.??.??"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. g3 Bb4+ 4. Nd2 $5 {This has been Gupta's weapon at this
event. Developing the knight to d2 might be unambitious, but it leads to fresh
position, something that Abhijeet is looking for.} O-O 5. Bg2 d5 6. Ngf3 Nbd7
7. O-O c6 8. Qc2 b5 9. c5 Qe7 $2 {As Alex Wohl writes on his blog, after
making this move I just wanted to resign the game!} (9... Ba5 {Trying to
reroute the bishop to c7 is a normal move. But White is still better after} 10.
e4 dxe4 11. Nxe4 $16) 10. Nb3 $1 {The bishop is going to be trapped with a3
now.} Qd8 11. Bf4 Ne4 12. Ne5 Nxe5 13. dxe5 a5 14. Rfd1 a4 15. Nd4 $1 (15. Bxe4
axb3 16. Bxh7+ Kh8 17. axb3 $18) 15... Qc7 (15... Nxc5 16. Nxc6 $18) (15...
Bxc5 16. Bxe4 Bxd4 17. Bxh7+ Kh8 18. Rxd4 $18) 16. a3 Ba5 17. Bxe4 dxe4 18.
Qxe4 {White has won a pawn and Black has no compensation.} Bb7 19. Nf3 {
The knight is going to rerouted from g5-e4.} Qe7 (19... h6 {was better, but
then the result was not going to be altered.}) 20. Ng5 g6 21. Qe3 Rfd8 22. Ne4
Rxd1+ 23. Rxd1 Rd8 24. Rd6 {Wohl had a bad day at the office. Abhijeet made
simple and strong moves and became the Commonwealth Champion for the fourth
time in his life!} 1-0

“Every championship or tournament is special but somehow I am able to bring out good chess especially in the Commonwealth in last few years”, said Gupta after the game. The four times champion pointed out that he played decently right through. “I was better in most of the games I won but I was worse against Tejas (Bakre) in the penultimate round. In general I am satisfied about my play here and hope to take this forward in the next few events”, he said.

The top three finishers: Abhijeet Gupta - gold, Vaibhav Suri (left) with the silver and Tejas Bakre won the bronze

Vaibhav Suri played out a draw with fellow GM Abhijit Kunte, who finished fourth, while Bakre took advantage of M.S. Thej Kumar's win-at-all-costs approach.

Never to be discounted Abhijit Kunte finished fourth

For Alex Wohl, who has retired from competitive chess, finishing fifth is nothing short of a dream tournament. He beat many strong players at the event.

The Women’s Championship was won by Swati Ghate who got rewarded for some excellent play in the early phase of the event. In the final round Ghate defeated Indian junior champion Kumar Gaurav. The Silver here went to Mary Ann Gomes while last year’s champion Tania Sachdev had to be content with the bronze. In fact Tania was completely winning against Swapnil Dhopade in the last round, but she botched it up in time pressure. A win would have secured her the gold!

Swati Ghate flanked by Mary Ann Gomes and Tania Sachdev

At the start of the tournament we had asked our readers as to who do they think will win the Commonwealth Women's title. We received 18 comments and one of them was "Swathi Ghate!" Alright, we will forgive the spelling error!

Shyam Prasad is the winner of the three months ChessBase Premium Account. Shyam please write to us at chessbaseindia@gmail.com to claim your prize.

The Commonwealth Champions 2017 - Abhijeet Gupta and Swati Ghate!

The AICF Secretary with the winners. Bharat Singh can be quite pleased with the job done in holding such a huge international event in India.

Gopakumar Sudhakran receiving the overall Commonwealth Chess trophy on behalf of Team India

Winners of the Veteran's prize!

Winners of the 1st Delhi State Media tournament. The event was won by Rakesh Rao.

Team Maharashtra! The state won 13 medals in all (5 golds, 5 silvers and 3 bronze). This was much more than any other state. (Many players are missing in this photo).

Results of Round 9:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2625	6½	1 - 0	6½	IM	Wohl Aleksandar H.	2355	23
2	6	GM	Kunte Abhijit	2504	6	½ - ½	6½	GM	Vaibhav Suri	2558	3
3	7	IM	Thejkumar M. S.	2491	6	0 - 1	6	GM	Bakre Tejas	2449	15
4	26	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2324	6	½ - ½	6	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2450	14
5	12	GM	Gagare Shardul	2472	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2527	4
6	5	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2517	5½	½ - ½	5½	IM	Tania Sachdev	2404	17
7	10	GM	Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib	2480	5½	½ - ½	5½	IM	Krishna C R G	2399	19
8	11	GM	Ankit R. Rajpara	2474	5½	½ - ½	5½	IM	Sardana Rishi	2379	21
9	20	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	2392	5½	½ - ½	5½	GM	Thipsay Praveen M	2419	16
10	9	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2482	5	½ - ½	5½	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2331	25

Complete results

Rank after Round 9:

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	IND	2625	7,5	0,0	49,0	52,5
2	3	GM	Vaibhav Suri	IND	2558	7,0	0,0	49,5	54,0
3	15	GM	Bakre Tejas	IND	2449	7,0	0,0	47,0	51,0
4	6	GM	Kunte Abhijit	IND	2504	6,5	0,0	48,0	51,0
5	23	IM	Wohl Aleksandar H.	AUS	2355	6,5	0,0	45,5	50,0
6	14	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	IND	2450	6,5	0,0	43,0	45,5
7	26	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	IND	2324	6,5	0,0	42,0	46,0
8	5	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	IND	2517	6,0	0,0	49,5	52,5
9	2	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2593	6,0	0,0	47,0	51,0
10	31	WGM	Swati Ghate	IND	2278	6,0	0,0	46,0	50,0
11	10	GM	Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib	BAN	2480	6,0	0,0	45,5	50,5
12	12	GM	Gagare Shardul	IND	2472	6,0	0,0	45,5	49,5
13	8	GM	Grover Sahaj	IND	2484	6,0	0,0	45,0	49,0
14	27	FM	Mitrabha Guha	IND	2301	6,0	0,0	45,0	48,5
15	21	IM	Sardana Rishi	AUS	2379	6,0	0,0	45,0	48,0
16	20	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	IND	2392	6,0	0,0	44,5	48,0
17	7	IM	Thejkumar M. S.	IND	2491	6,0	0,0	44,0	48,0
18	25	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	IND	2331	6,0	0,0	43,0	47,5
19	11	GM	Ankit R. Rajpara	IND	2474	6,0	0,0	42,5	46,5
20	4	GM	Rahman Ziaur	BAN	2527	6,0	0,0	41,5	45,5

Complete Rankings

Age groups:

This was the first time that age category events were separated from the main tournament. It led to some excitement as players of the same age competed with each other. We have pictures of all the prize winners along with final standings and links to chess-results page. In all the pictures the gold is in the centre, silver on the left and bronze on the right.

Under-8 Open:

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	11	Sriansh Das	IND	1271	6,0	0,0	26,5	29,5
2	2	Manon Reja Neer	BAN	1580	5,5	0,0	28,5	31,5
3	9	Tanish Sai Kavuru	IND	1301	5,5	0,0	23,5	26,0
4	13	Sparsh Bisht	IND	1268	5,0	0,0	30,0	33,5
5	1	Ilamparthi A R	IND	1604	5,0	0,0	26,5	29,0
6	17	Aarav Dengla	IND	1177	5,0	0,0	26,0	29,0
7	23	Abhyuday Santhosh	IND	1113	5,0	0,0	22,5	24,0
8	20	Nirnay Garg	IND	1135	5,0	0,0	21,0	22,5
9	3	Priansh Das	IND	1539	4,5	0,0	28,5	31,5
10	5	Sadbhav Rautela	IND	1484	4,5	0,0	27,0	30,0

Complete list

U-8 Girls

Bronze is here, so is silver where is the gold?

"I had just gone to have an ice cream!"

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	WCM	Shefali A N	IND	1217	6,0	0,0	25,0	28,0
2	7		Panchal Hiya	IND	1050	5,5	0,0	30,0	32,0
3	3	WCM	Suhaani Lohia	IND	1139	5,5	0,0	27,5	28,5
4	13		Ankita Sahoo	IND	0	5,5	0,0	23,5	25,5
5	4		Sneha Halder	IND	1106	5,0	0,0	27,5	30,5
6	5		Aswinika Mani R	IND	1101	5,0	0,0	25,5	28,0
7	21		Dakshitha Anand	IND	0	5,0	0,0	22,5	24,5
8	17		Arushi Srichandan	IND	0	5,0	0,0	22,5	24,5
9	16		Arshiya Das	IND	0	4,5	0,0	27,0	28,5
10	30		Spoorvika G	IND	0	4,0	0,0	25,0	27,5

Complete list

U-10 Open

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	4	CM	Mullick Raahil	IND	1732	6,0	0,0	28,0	31,0
2	7		Mohanty Soyamsree	IND	1635	6,0	0,0	27,5	31,0
3	9	AFM	Bhavik Ahuja	IND	1615	5,5	0,0	28,5	31,5
4	13	CM	Prraneeth Vuppala	IND	1488	5,0	0,0	31,0	34,5
5	5		Patnaik Shreyash Subham	IND	1714	5,0	0,0	29,0	32,5
6	1		Renjith Sravan	NZL	1847	5,0	0,0	29,0	32,0
7	3	CM	Shahil Dey	IND	1775	5,0	0,0	27,0	30,5
8	12		Jain Adi	IND	1538	5,0	0,0	26,5	29,0
9	21	AFM	Pawar Harshit	IND	1429	5,0	0,0	26,5	28,5
10	6		Chilukuri Sai Varshith	IND	1705	5,0	0,0	24,5	28,0

Complete list

U-10 Girls

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2	WCM	Sahithi Varshini M	IND	1498	6,0	0,0	29,5	33,0
2	8		Sinthia Sarkar	IND	1290	5,5	0,5	29,0	32,0
3	1		Savitha Shri B	IND	1670	5,5	0,5	28,0	31,5
4	9		Patel Riddhi R	IND	1271	5,0	0,0	25,5	28,0
5	3		Yashavishree N	IND	1415	5,0	0,0	25,0	27,0
6	10		Anishka Vikram	IND	1238	5,0	0,0	23,5	26,5
7	5		Shivika Rohilla	IND	1375	5,0	0,0	23,0	25,5
8	11		Kheerthi Ganta	IND	1214	4,5	0,0	27,0	30,5
9	6		Tejaswi R	IND	1335	4,5	0,0	26,5	29,5
10	7		Weerawardana Oneli Vihanga	SRI	1304	4,5	0,0	19,0	20,5

Complete list

U-12 Open

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	CM	Rohith Krishna S	IND	2137	6,5	0,0	27,5	30,5
2	4		Adarsh Tripathi	IND	1858	5,5	0,5	30,0	33,0
3	2		Sreeshwan Maralakshikari	IND	2001	5,5	0,5	25,0	28,0
4	8		Zia Tahsin Tajwar	BAN	1781	5,0	0,0	25,0	28,0
5	15	CM	Silva Kevin Ranidu	SRI	1683	4,5	0,0	29,5	32,0
6	9		Samip Roy	IND	1774	4,5	0,0	27,5	30,5
7	6		Pranesh M	IND	1794	4,5	0,0	26,0	29,0
8	12		Harshad S	IND	1749	4,5	0,0	26,0	29,0
9	10		Jain Kashish Manoj	IND	1767	4,5	0,0	25,0	28,0
10	18		Saypuri Srithan	IND	1657	4,5	0,0	24,5	26,0

Complete list

U-12 Girls

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	WFM	Divya Deshmukh	IND	2045	6,5	0,0	28,5	32,0
2	2		Bhagyashree Patil	IND	1636	5,5	1,0	27,0	30,0
3	4	WCM	Dhyana Patel	IND	1598	5,5	0,0	27,5	30,5
4	8		Pavalachandran Ashvini	SRI	1340	4,5	0,0	26,5	29,5
5	13		Mapa M M W H	SRI	1225	4,5	0,0	26,5	29,5
6	6		Sathwika N	IND	1411	4,5	0,0	25,5	28,5
7	5		Meenatchi Rajam V	IND	1486	4,0	0,0	29,0	31,5
8	9		Vijayasubhasri S	IND	1340	4,0	0,0	24,5	25,5
9	24		Stuurman Aliche	RSA	0	4,0	0,0	23,0	25,0
10	12		Panda Miracle	IND	1275	4,0	0,0	22,0	25,0

Complete list

U-14 Open

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	IND	2324	6,0	0,5	29,0	32,5
2	3		Sankalp Gupta	IND	2255	6,0	0,5	28,0	29,5
3	16		Banerjee Ashutosh	IND	1826	5,5	0,0	23,5	26,0
4	2	FM	Mohammad Fahad Rahman	BAN	2275	5,0	0,0	28,0	31,0
5	6	CM	Kushagra Mohan	IND	2003	5,0	0,0	27,5	31,0
6	15		Mohamed Anees M	IND	1830	5,0	0,0	27,5	30,5
7	11		Aan Sikka	IND	1877	5,0	0,0	24,5	27,5
8	12		Alok Sinha	IND	1874	4,5	0,0	25,5	28,0
9	4		Moksh Amit Doshi	IND	2154	4,5	0,0	24,5	27,5
10	19		Anadkat Kartavya	IND	1795	4,5	0,0	24,5	27,5

Complete list

U-14 Girls

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2	WFM	Salonika Saina	IND	2079	6,0	0,0	27,0	30,0
2	3	WCM	Jyothsna L	IND	1964	5,5	0,0	30,5	34,5
3	1	WFM	Jishitha D	IND	2145	5,0	0,0	29,5	32,5
4	7		Bristy Mukherjee	IND	1652	5,0	0,0	27,0	30,5
5	4	WFM	Lakshmi C	IND	1952	5,0	0,0	25,0	28,0
6	12		Abhirami Madabushi	IND	1536	5,0	0,0	23,5	25,5
7	9		Arushi Kotwal	IND	1635	4,5	0,0	27,5	29,0
8	14		Rindhiya V	IND	1485	4,5	0,0	23,5	24,5
9	16		Madhani Shilpee	IND	1464	4,5	0,0	23,0	24,5
10	8		Dahampriya H K T Dewnethmie	SRI	1641	4,5	0,0	18,5	19,5

Complete list

U-16 Open

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	11		Vatsal Singhania	IND	1908	6,0	0,0	27,5	31,0
2	7		Pruthu Deshpande	IND	2058	5,5	0,0	27,5	31,0
3	1	FM	Mitrabha Guha	IND	2301	5,0	0,0	28,0	31,5
4	2	FM	Nitish Belurkar	IND	2283	5,0	0,0	27,0	29,5
5	4		Dileep Kumar R	IND	2271	5,0	0,0	26,5	30,0
6	3		Harikrishnan.A.Ra	IND	2272	5,0	0,0	26,5	28,5
7	27		Aadit Bhatia	IND	1630	5,0	0,0	22,0	24,0
8	6	WFM	Tarini Goyal	IND	2068	4,5	0,0	29,0	32,0
9	13		Dubey Sanchay	IND	1898	4,5	0,0	26,0	28,0
10	12		Shakthi Vishal J	IND	1906	4,5	0,0	22,0	22,5

Complete list

U-16 Girls

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	Priyanka K	IND	2081	5,5	1,0	27,5	31,0
2	3	Ghosh Samriddhaa	IND	1854	5,5	1,0	27,0	30,5
3	7	Toshali V	IND	1735	5,5	1,0	27,0	30,0
4	2	Makhija Aashna	IND	1947	4,5	0,0	25,5	28,5
5	6	Abirama Srinithi G	IND	1751	4,5	0,0	24,0	26,5
6	5	Sanskriti Goyal	IND	1805	4,5	0,0	23,5	25,5
7	8	Kaur Palkin	IND	1723	4,0	0,0	27,0	27,0
8	14	Laheri Nitya	IND	1460	4,0	0,0	23,5	23,5
9	11	Archi Agrawal	IND	1482	4,0	0,0	22,5	25,0
10	15	Nivetta T	IND	1425	3,5	0,0	28,0	31,5

Complete list

U-18 Open

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2	Jayakumaar S	IND	2173	6,5	0,0	26,0	29,0
2	1	Audi Ameya	IND	2219	5,5	0,0	26,5	29,0
3	3	Adhithya S	IND	2067	5,0	0,0	27,5	30,0
4	9	Barath Kalyan M	IND	1940	4,5	0,0	26,0	27,5
5	6	Dassanayake D M G S	SRI	2015	4,0	0,0	22,0	24,0
6	5	Kamdar Udit	IND	2038	4,0	0,0	21,0	22,5
7	8	Hemanth Raam	IND	1955	4,0	0,0	21,0	22,5
8	11	Ambarish Sharma	IND	1826	4,0	0,0	20,5	22,0
9	4	Grahesh Y	IND	2063	3,5	0,5	25,5	27,0
10	15	Mckenzie Lionel Joseph	IND	1702	3,5	0,5	24,0	26,5

Complete list

U-18 Girls

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	WIM	Aakanksha Hagawane	IND	2334	6,0	0,0	25,5	28,5
2	3	WCM	Ananya Suresh	IND	1920	5,5	0,0	26,0	28,5
3	2	WCM	Chandreyee Hajra	IND	2124	5,0	0,0	24,5	25,0
4	4	WCM	Isha Sharma	IND	1878	4,0	0,0	27,0	29,5
5	7		Mehendi Sil	IND	1571	4,0	0,0	25,0	27,5
6	11		Niharika Ch	IND	1355	4,0	0,0	25,0	25,5
7	6		Gunawardana I M T M	SRI	1579	4,0	0,0	24,5	25,0
8	8		Jegatha B	IND	1545	3,5	0,0	20,5	23,0
9	5	WCM	Mendis Dasuni Hansika	SRI	1715	3,0	0,0	24,0	26,5
10	12		Debarpita Ghosh	IND	1260	3,0	0,0	18,0	18,5

Complete list

U-20 Open

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	3	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	IND	2392	5,5	0,5	28,5	32,5
2	1	GM	Gagare Shardul	IND	2472	5,5	0,5	27,0	30,5
3	12	AGM	Krishnater Kushager	IND	2065	5,0	0,0	23,5	25,0
4	15		Pimpalkhare Vedant	IND	1932	5,0	0,0	20,0	21,0
5	2		Sidhant Mohapatra	IND	2404	4,5	0,0	28,0	31,0
6	5	CM	Raja Rithvik R	IND	2205	4,5	0,0	23,0	25,5
7	14		Kumar Gaurav	IND	2014	4,0	0,0	26,5	29,5
8	10	FM	Doluweera Minul Sanjula	SRI	2092	4,0	0,0	25,5	26,5
9	9		Pranavananda V	IND	2102	4,0	0,0	24,5	27,0
10	4		Shailesh Dravid	IND	2260	4,0	0,0	23,5	26,0

Complete list

U-20 Girls

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	3	WFM	Arpita Mukherjee	IND	2100	6,0	0,0	24,0	26,5
2	1	WIM	Parnali S Dharia	IND	2140	5,0	0,0	27,5	31,0
3	2	WIM	Chitlange Sakshi	IND	2112	5,0	0,0	26,0	29,0
4	6		Pandey Srishti	IND	1930	5,0	0,0	20,5	20,5
5	7		Priyamvada Karamcheti	IND	1848	4,0	1,0	26,0	28,0
6	4	WFM	Bidhar Rutumbara	IND	2007	4,0	0,0	24,0	26,5
7	5		Meghna C H	IND	1976	3,5	0,0	25,5	28,0
8	8		Ankitha Goud Palle	IND	1779	3,5	0,0	24,5	24,5
9	13		Thakare Seeya	IND	1444	3,5	0,0	20,5	20,5
10	9		Talukder Umme Taslima Protiva	BAN	1753	3,5	0,0	20,5	20,5

Complete list

Replay the games:

Following live games of the Commonwealth had been made very easy. All you needed to do was click on the link below. Apart from just watching the live games, you can also view the games of the previous rounds (and download them if you are a ChessBase Account Premium Member). There's also some light analysis of the games done by using the Tactical analysis feature.

Replay the games live by clicking on this link

Articles on Commonwealth 2017 on ChessBase India:

Commonwealth Chess Championships 2017 begin today

Live Games from Commonwealth 2017

Round one: Kumar Gaurav stuns GM Ziaur Rahman

Round two: A full blooded King's Indian fight

Round three: Women power prevails

Round four+five: Five leaders after five rounds

Round six: Vaibhav Suri takes the sole lead

Round seven: Abhijeet Gupta all set for his fourth title

Round eight: Commonwealth Chess 2017 heading towards an exciting finish

About the author:

Jitendra Choudhary is a chess trainer in Delhi. He is from Madhya Pradesh, but shifted to Delhi to pursue his passion related to chess. He currently teaches students, works as an arbiter and would like to dedicate more time to being a chess journalist.