Benny Aizenberg Wins 4th Gujarat GM 2026; 3 Indian Players Score IM Norms

by Devansh Singh - 14/06/2026

Israeli International Master Benny Aizenberg scored 8/10 points to win the 4th Gujarat International Open Grandmasters Tournament 2026. It was a three-way tie for the 1st place as Benny Aizenberg, Nguyen Quoc Hy, and Abhijeet Gupta scored 8/10 points each to finish in the top 3 places according to tiebreak scores. The tournament witnessed a historic milestone as three promising talents achieved their International Master (IM) norms. Photos: Mr. Bhavesh Patel

3 International Master Norms

The Idea behind these huge events is always to give an opportunity to local players to play and score IM/GM norms within the country. The tournament was strictly above 1900 to maintain a high average rating, which actually helped 3 of our Indian players score their IM Norms.

CM Aadik Theophane Lenin: A shining star from Kerala with a FIDE rating of 2129, scored 6.5/10 points to increase his rating by a massive 150.8 points and got a performance rating of 2467. Aadik defeated 2 Grandmasters and 1 International master en route to his norm.
Aadik Theophane Lenin receiving his Norm certificate
FM Kaivalya Sandip Nagare: After 7 rounds, this talented player from Maharashtra was leading the tournament with an unbeaten 6.5/7 points. He lost only 1 game in the tournament, and it was against the champion, Benny Aizenberg. Kaivalya played with a rating performance of 2484 and increased by 43.8 rating points.
Kaivalya Sandip Nagare receiving his IM Norm certificate
FM Aditya Varun Gampa: Aditya started the tournament with 3 wins and then drew his next 3 games against experienced IMs and GMs. Coming from Andhra Pradesh, this boy played with a performance rating of 2411 and increased his rating by 22 points.

Aditya Varun Gampa

Champion: Benny Aizenberg of Israel wins the tournament and receives ₹4,00,000 and a huge trophy

Runner-up: Nguyen Quoc Hy of Vietnam

Mr. Commonwealth: Abhijeet Gupta secured 3rd place

Top 3 finishers (L to R): Runner-up Nguyen Quoc Hy, Champion Benny Aizenberg, and Abhijeet Gupta

The Tournament was held at the Veer Savarkar Sports Complex, Ahmedabad, from 1st to 8th June 2026. In the final round, Benny Aizenberg signed a draw with Nguyen, while Abhijeet Gupta shared the point with Srihari L R to finish in 3rd place. All top 3 finishers were on 8/10. A total of 19 GMs and 30 IMs took part in this classical event, making it a huge success.

In the 8th round, Benny defeated the sole leader, Kaivalya Sandip Nagare, with white pieces

Puzzle of the Day

Black just played Bb6. Can you find Mate in 4?? The position is from the game of Benny Aizenberg and Kaivalya Sandip Nagare.

White to play, Mate in 4

A grand and beautiful place to play chess: Veer Savarkar Sports Complex

Check out this tournament hall

The man behind making this event a huge success. Tournament Director: FA Bhavesh Bhai Patel

Check out the live stream of the final round and closing ceremony | Video: Gujarat State Chess Association

Check out the Available Games

Check what happened in Ahmedabad through Lens

The tournament was inaugurated by Mr. Dev Patel (Secretary, AICF & President, GSCA), Ms. Krishna Gadhiya (Secretary, GSCA), Mr. Gagan Narang (Padma Shree and Rajiv Gandhi Khel Ratna Awardee), GM Tejas Bakre (GSCA), GM Ankit Rajpara (GSCA), and Mr. Bhavesh Patel (GSCA).

Inaugration ceremony

Ethan Vaz scored 7.5/10 to finish in 4th place

Paichadze Luka secured the 5th place

Game on!!

Beautiful trophies for the winners

6th Place: GM Srihari LR

7th Place: FM Kaivalya Sandip Nagare

8th Place: GM Mayank Chakraborty

The team of Arbiters

Ms. Aditi Singh (Sports Authority of India), Mr. Bhavesh Patel (GSCA), Mr. Tejas Bakre (1st GM of Gujarat), Mr. Ankit Rajpara (2nd GM of Gujarat), and Mr. Mayur Patel (GSCA) specially remained present and felicitated all the winners and heartily congratulated them for their brilliant success in such a prestigious championship.

Guests and Organising Committee

IM Benny Aizenberg in action

IM Nguyen Quoc Hy

Prize List

Final Ranking after 10 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB5	TB6
1	13	IM	Aizenberg, Benny	ISR	2466	ISR	8	61,5	66,5	52,75	6	2
2	21	IM	Nguyen, Quoc Hy	VIE	2422	VIE	8	60	65	51,5	6	2
3	2	GM	Gupta, Abhijeet	IND	2540	RAJ	8	58,5	62	47,25	7	4
4	3	IM	Vaz, Ethan	IND	2522	GOA	7,5	60,5	64,5	46,25	5	3
5	5	GM	Paichadze, Luka	GEO	2492	GEO	7,5	59	64,5	46,75	6	2
6	14	GM	Srihari, L R	IND	2450	TN	7,5	59	64	46,5	5	0
7	43	FM	Nagare, Kaivalya Sandip	IND	2327	MAH	7,5	59	64	44,75	6	2
8	4	IM	Mayank, Chakraborty	IND	2505	ASM	7,5	58	63	46,5	6	2
9	16	IM	Harsh, Suresh	IND	2435	TN	7,5	57	62,5	46,25	5	1
10	15	IM	Ayush, Sharma	IND	2440	RSPB	7,5	56,5	61,5	45,5	6	3
11	22	IM	Rakhmatullaev, Almas	UZB	2408	UZB	7,5	56	61	44,5	6	2
12	17	GM	Aleksandrov, Aleksej	BLR	2433	BLR	7,5	55	59	43,75	6	4
13	18	IM	Apoorv, Kamble	IND	2431	KAR	7,5	53,5	57	41,75	5	3
14	30	IM	Manish, Anto Cristiano F	IND	2370	TN	7,5	53	55,5	39,25	7	3
15	7	IM	Levin, Guy	ISR	2487	ISR	7	58	63	43	5	4

Details