The fight for 16 Commonwealth Golds!

by Sagar Shah - 07/07/2019

The Commonwealth Championships are unique because along with the open event, you have 14 age category events simultaneously going on. When 7th of July draws to an end, we would have 16 different Commonwealth Champions from under-8 to under-20 and open section. In this report we have begun with our focus on the age category events where winners have already been decided in some sections, while in some the last round will see full fledged fights. In the open, Abhijeet Gupta has been joined by two Indian youngsters at the top, Aravindh Chithambaram and S.L. Narayanan. In this report you get some nice pictures, analysis, videos and much more. IM Sagar Shah reports from the venue.

Their feet are bare, they move without fear, the lines of experience are yet to be formed, but they are already a force to reckon with! They are future of Indian chess! | Photo: Sagar Shah

Under-8 girls

It is almost certain that Aishani Pathak will win the gold. She has a 100% score, she is one point ahead of her rivals and she has the best tiebreak! | Photo: Sagar Shah

Ranking after round 6

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2	Aishani Pathak	IND	1213	6,0	0,0	22,5	25,5
2	5	Daksha Rudra	IND	1123	5,0	0,0	20,5	23,0
3	8	Yatee Kothari	IND	1080	5,0	0,0	20,5	22,5
4	6	Aggarwal Tashna	IND	1101	4,5	0,0	21,5	23,5
5	4	Lakshana Subramanian	IND	1155	4,5	0,0	19,5	20,0
6	18	Arhashirsha Biswas	IND	0	4,5	0,0	16,0	18,0
7	7	Kolagatla Alana Meenakshi	IND	1094	4,0	0,0	21,0	23,5
8	38	Sequeira Jennica	IND	0	4,0	0,0	20,0	20,5
9	25	Mahadev Rushita Haju	IND	0	4,0	0,0	19,5	22,0
10	3	Prisha Kesarwani	IND	1203	4,0	0,0	19,5	21,5

Under-8 Open

Vivaan Saraogi is leading the tournament with 5.0/6, but he has others who are on the same score | Photo: Sagar Shah

Local lad Rosh Jain is on 5.0/6 | Photo: Sagar Shah

Chinmay Kowshik drew with Vivaan and is also on 5.0/6 | Photo: Sagar Shah

After a fourth round loss to Ethan Vaz, former under-7 national champion Amogh Bisht is back in the reckoning and is on 5.0/6

Rosh Jain takes on Chinmay Kowshik, while Vivaan is up against Amogh Bisht. It's going to be a fight to the finish in the under-8 open section in the final round.

Standings after round 6

Rk.	SNo	Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2	Vivaan Vijay Saraogi	IND	1464	5,0	0,0	21,5	24,0
2	1	Rosh Jain	IND	1510	5,0	0,0	18,0	20,5
3	4	Chinmay Kowshik	IND	1385	5,0	0,0	18,0	20,5
4	6	Amogh Bisht	IND	1355	5,0	0,0	17,5	20,5
5	5	Jaivardhan Raj	IND	1384	4,5	0,0	20,0	20,5
6	8	Adharsh K	IND	1283	4,5	0,0	17,0	19,0
7	21	Rudradaman Mertia	IND	1033	4,5	0,0	16,5	18,5
8	3	Ethan Vaz	IND	1441	4,0	0,0	22,0	25,0
9	13	Aman George Thomas	IND	1109	4,0	0,0	21,0	24,5
10	10	Ayushman Mohanty	IND	1248	4,0	0,0	20,0	22,0

Under-10 girls

Hiya Panchal managed to beat the sole leader Shefali AN and moved to 5.0/6 | Photo: Sagar Shah

Highly focussed Sneha Halder is on 5.0/6 | Photo: Sagar Shah

Shriyana Mallya, last year's under-8 Commonwealth Champion, would like to now win the under-10 gold

Standings after round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	5	WCM	Shriyana S Mallya	IND	1316	5,0	0,0	20,0	22,5
2	1		Sneha Halder	IND	1474	5,0	0,0	19,0	21,0
3	7		Panchal Hiya	IND	1295	5,0	0,0	18,0	21,5
4	13		Srishanthi G	IND	1240	4,5	0,0	21,0	23,5
5	4	WCM	Shefali A N	IND	1337	4,5	0,0	21,0	22,0
6	11		Aswinika Mani R	IND	1254	4,5	0,0	15,5	17,0
7	3		Arshiya Das	IND	1345	4,0	0,0	20,5	23,5
8	44		Shanjula Senthil	IND	0	4,0	0,0	20,0	23,0
9	9		Sachi Jain	IND	1271	4,0	0,0	17,5	18,5
10	6		Pournami S	IND	1314	3,5	0,0	20,5	23,5

Open under - 10

The favourite in the under-10 section was Ilamparthi AR. The youngster has been dominating his age category nationals and with a rating of 2036 is already a very talented youngster. However, he was unable to get the better of Yash Bharadia in round 6 and Yash is now close to the gold medal with 5.5/6.

Yash Bharadia is the sole leader with 5.5/6 | Photo: Sagar Shah

Standings after round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2		Bharadia Yash	IND	1942	5,5	0,0	22,0	24,0
2	1		Ilamparthi A R	IND	2036	5,0	0,0	21,0	23,0
3	9		Daaevik Wadhawan	IND	1603	5,0	0,0	20,0	22,0
4	3	CM	Manon Reja Neer	BAN	1850	5,0	0,0	19,5	22,5
5	7		Md Imran	IND	1659	5,0	0,0	17,5	20,0
6	8		Aakash G	IND	1622	4,5	0,0	19,0	20,5
7	33		Vedant Mistry	IND	1286	4,5	0,0	18,5	19,5
8	6		Daakshin Arun	IND	1667	4,5	0,0	16,5	18,5
9	19		Suhaas A	IND	1470	4,5	0,0	15,5	17,5
10	37		Rounaiv Rana	IND	1264	4,0	0,0	21,0	24,5

Under-12 girls

Riddhi Patel from Gujarat is the sole leader with 5.5/6 | Photo: Sagar Shah

Standings after round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	10	WCM	Patel Riddhi R	IND	1404	5,5	0,0	17,0	18,5
2	7		Tejaswini G	IND	1451	5,0	0,0	15,0	17,0
3	5		Rout Yashita	IND	1453	4,5	1,0	21,0	23,0
4	14		Mythri Maddisetty	IND	1380	4,5	0,0	17,0	18,0
5	16		Jahnavi Sri Lalita Mareddy	IND	1370	4,0	0,0	18,0	20,0
6	20		Tejasvee Naresh Singh	IND	1193	4,0	0,0	16,5	19,0
7	13		Sai Mahati A	IND	1394	4,0	0,0	15,5	17,5
8	8		Tejaswi R	IND	1426	3,5	0,0	22,0	24,5
9	12		Cera Dagaria	IND	1395	3,5	0,0	21,0	23,5
10	17		Sindhusree K	IND	1370	3,5	0,0	19,5	22,0

Under-12 Open

Youngster from Punjab Tanmay Jain is well and truly on course for his first Commonwealth title. Tanmay has a one point lead over the field and needs just a draw to clinch the title. | Photo: Sagar Shah

Rankings after round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	6	CM	Tanmay Jain	IND	1837	5,5	0,0	20,0	23,0
2	8		Garv Gaur	IND	1797	4,5	0,0	23,0	25,0
3	7		Chilukuri Sai Varshith	IND	1804	4,5	0,0	19,5	22,5
4	11		Shaik Sumer Arsh	IND	1733	4,5	0,0	19,5	21,5
5	3		Shreyash Shuvam Patnaik	IND	1885	4,5	0,0	19,0	22,0
6	2		Harsh Suresh	IND	1887	4,5	0,0	19,0	21,5
7	1		Pawar Harshit	IND	1917	4,5	0,0	19,0	21,0
8	24		Bang Atharva	IND	1446	4,5	0,0	16,5	18,0
9	16		Dandekar Anuj	IND	1608	4,0	0,0	19,0	20,5
10	19		Mrithyunjay Mahadevan	IND	1569	4,0	0,0	16,0	18,0

Under-14 girls

It seemed as if Divya would run away with the title in the under-14 section. However, she was halted by Dhyana Patel. She is back now in the lead with 5.0/6, but is not the sole leader | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Vyshnavi Chinman beat Dhyana Patel in round 6 and is now in joint lead with Divya. Vyshnavi and Divya will play each other in the final round and it will be a good game to witness! The winner will become the champion! | Photo: Sagar Shah

Standings after round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	IND	2373	5,0	0,0	19,0	22,0
2	4	WCM	Chinnam Vyshnavi	IND	1664	5,0	0,0	18,5	20,5
3	6		Yash Jyoti Bir	IND	1646	4,5	0,0	18,0	20,5
4	2	WFM	Dhyana Patel	IND	1900	4,0	0,0	21,5	24,5
5	7		Velpula Sarayu	IND	1640	4,0	0,0	20,5	22,5
6	3		Boramanikar Tanisha S	IND	1720	4,0	0,0	19,0	21,0
7	5		Shivika Rohilla	IND	1648	4,0	0,0	18,0	21,0
8	12		Femil Chelladurai	IND	1446	4,0	0,0	18,0	20,0
9	14		Sanjana Raghunath	IND	1427	4,0	0,0	17,5	19,0
10	16		Hemakshi Chauhan	IND	1375	3,5	0,0	20,0	21,5

Under-14 Open

Srihari LR is on 5.0/6. He was a pawn up against Kashish Jain, but couldn't convert it into a win | Photo: Sagar Shah

This is another section which is going to be closely contested. Aditya Varun Gampa takes on Rohith Krishna and Srihari will fight against Aaditya Dhingra.

Standings after round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2	FM	Srihari L R	IND	2200	5,0	0,0	21,5	23,5
2	1	FM	Rohith Krishna S	IND	2312	5,0	0,0	20,0	22,0
3	9		Aditya Varun Gampa	IND	1918	5,0	0,0	16,0	18,5
4	13		Smit Devon	RSA	1743	4,5	0,0	18,5	21,0
5	7		Aaditya Dhingra	IND	1931	4,5	0,0	16,0	18,0
6	5		Jain Kashish Manoj	IND	1970	4,5	0,0	16,0	18,0
7	11		Komal Srivatsav Sajja	IND	1832	4,5	0,0	15,0	17,5
8	8		Adarsh Tripathi	IND	1927	4,0	0,0	20,5	23,5
9	3		Manish Kumar (2006)	IND	2055	4,0	0,0	20,0	22,0
10	6		Aniruddh Chatterjee	IND	1952	4,0	0,0	17,0	19,0

Under-16 girls

Leading right from the start Bristy Mukherjee is all set to win the gold in the under-16 girls. She is on 5.5/6 and has a one point lead over the field | Photo: Sagar Shah

Standings after round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2	WCM	Bristy Mukherjee	IND	1862	West Bengal	5,5	0,0	20,0	22,5
2	9		Meenatchi Rajam V	IND	1564	Tamilnadu	4,5	0,0	18,5	21,0
3	8		Rindhiya V	IND	1573	Tamilnadu	4,0	0,0	21,5	24,0
4	1	WFM	Jain Nityata	IND	2135	Madya Pradesh	4,0	0,0	20,5	24,0
5	4	WCM	Arushi Kotwal	IND	1744	JK	4,0	0,0	19,5	22,0
6	3		Adane Narayani	IND	1859	Maharastra	4,0	0,0	17,5	20,0
7	7		Sahoo Ankita	IND	1586	Orissa	4,0	0,0	17,5	19,0
8	5		Sudipa Haldar	IND	1678	West Bengal	3,5	0,0	18,5	21,0
9	6		Routray Priyanka	IND	1647	Orissa	3,5	0,0	17,5	20,0
10	12		Shreetu Bhavikbhai Nandi	IND	1328	Gujrat	3,5	0,0	17,5	19,0

Under-16 Open

Since the tournament began, the result in this section was never in doubt. Arjun Erigaisi with 6.0/6 has already won the gold | Photo: imsa.cn

Standings after round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	IND	2531	6,0	0,0	19,0	22,0
2	7		Dhrupad Kashyap	IND	1884	4,5	0,0	18,0	20,5
3	3		Soham Kamotra	IND	2136	4,5	0,0	16,0	18,5
4	4		Jinan Jomon	IND	2053	4,0	0,0	20,0	22,5
5	5		Tanmay Chopra	IND	2001	4,0	0,0	19,5	21,5
6	8		Esshan Wadhawan	IND	1859	4,0	0,0	19,0	21,0
7	15		Kadam Rishi R	IND	1718	4,0	0,0	19,0	20,0
8	6		Aan Sikka	IND	1899	4,0	0,0	18,0	20,5
9	2	FM	Ajay Karthikeyan	IND	2216	3,5	0,0	22,0	24,5
10	11		Uttam Prakash Sharma	IND	1824	3,5	0,0	21,0	23,0

Under-18 girls

With 5.5/6 Priyanka K has a half point lead. She has to win her final round to secure her gold medal | Photo: Sagar Shah

Standings after round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1		Priyanka K	IND	2217	5,5	0,0	18,5	21,0
2	2	WFM	Sanskriti Goyal	IND	1948	5,0	0,0	19,0	21,5
3	3		Pandey Srishti	IND	1882	4,0	0,0	19,5	21,5
4	4		Mudaliar Nandini	IND	1609	4,0	0,0	19,0	21,0
5	5		Jinal Yagnik	IND	1202	3,5	0,0	19,5	19,5
6	9		Manya Sharma	IND	1063	3,0	1,0	14,5	14,5
7	10		Drishti Grover	IND	1062	3,0	0,0	12,5	12,5
8	8		Mahima Jaiswal	IND	1084	2,5	0,5	20,0	20,0
9	7		Jaiswal Kritika	IND	1141	2,5	0,5	19,5	21,0
10	6		Villoen Sharise	RSA	1184	2,0	0,0	15,5	15,5

Under-18 Open

Just like Arjun has done it in under-16 section, Iniyan has dominated the under-18 section with 6.0/6 and has won the gold | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Standings after round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	IM	Iniyan P	IND	2524	Tamilnadu	6,0	0,0	19,0	22,0
2	9		Deota Snehil S	IND	1972	Chattisgarh	4,5	0,0	18,0	19,5
3	2	FM	Manu David Suthandram R	IND	2415	Tamilnadu	4,0	0,0	21,5	24,0
4	6		Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi	IND	2032	Maharastra	4,0	0,0	20,0	23,0
5	8		Gaurav Rajesh Zagade	IND	1979	Maharastra	4,0	0,0	20,0	21,0
6	3		Arjun C Krishnamachari	IND	2212	Tamilnadu	4,0	0,0	15,5	18,0
7	4		Panesar Vedant	IND	2092	Maharastra	3,5	0,0	21,5	25,0
8	10		Dubey Sanchay	IND	1823	Utter Pradesh	3,5	0,0	21,5	24,0
9	7		Vinay Thomas Abraham	IND	2020	Kerala	3,5	0,0	17,0	19,5
10	18		Tiwari Shivansh	IND	1593	Madya Pradesh	3,5	0,0	17,0	18,5

Under-20 girls

In spite of losing the sixth round, Vishwa Shah is still at the top of the standings with 4.5/6 | Photo: Sagar Shah

Rutuja Bakshi beat Vishwa Shah and opened up the tournament! | Photo: Sagar Shah

Standings after round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	7		Shah Vishwa	IND	1734	4,5	0,0	21,0	22,5
2	5	WIM	Chandreyee Hajra	IND	1868	4,5	0,0	19,5	21,5
3	4	WFM	Potluri Supreetha	IND	1873	4,5	0,0	19,0	21,0
4	3		Bakshi Rutuja	IND	1958	4,5	0,0	17,5	18,0
5	2	WFM	Bommini Mounika Akshaya	IND	2063	4,0	0,0	19,0	21,0
6	8		Rathi Dhanashree	IND	1685	4,0	0,0	14,5	15,0
7	1	WFM	Makhija Aashna	IND	2067	3,5	0,5	17,0	18,5
8	6		Eesha Ajay Sarda	IND	1752	3,5	0,5	16,5	18,0
9	9		Ishvi Aggarwal	IND	1664	3,0	0,0	19,5	21,0
10	11		Poornima Gupta	IND	1467	3,0	0,0	18,5	20,5

Under-20 Open

Suyog Wagh leads the under-20 section with 5.0/6 along with... | Photo: Sagar Shah

...Indrajeet Mahindrakar | Photo: Sagar Shah

Standings after round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	FM	Wagh Suyog	IND	2242	Maharastra	5,0	0,5	19,5	22,5
2	6		Mahindrakar Indrajeet	IND	2092	Maharastra	5,0	0,5	18,5	21,5
3	9		Pattnayak Nilsu	IND	1967	Orissa	4,5	0,0	17,0	19,0
4	11		Karthik Sai Ch	IND	1864	Telangana	4,0	0,0	19,5	21,0
5	8		Rohit S	IND	2001	Tamilnadu	4,0	0,0	18,5	21,0
6	3	FM	Dushyant Sharma	IND	2168	Punjab	4,0	0,0	17,5	20,0
7	19		Mckenzie Lionel Joseph	IND	1596	Tamilnadu	4,0	0,0	17,5	20,0
8	16		Dutta Sarthak	IND	1702	Utter Pradesh	3,5	0,0	20,5	21,0
9	5		Sarbojit Paul	IND	2093	West Bengal	3,5	0,0	19,5	21,5
10	4		Kumar Gaurav	IND	2110	Bihar	3,5	0,0	18,5	21,0

Open Section: Abhijeet, Aravindh and Narayanan lead Commonwealth Championships 2019

Swapnil Dhopade fought on board no.1 against Abhijeet Gupta. After a relatively even opening and middlegame, he was suddenly in grave trouble in the endgame as he found himself a pawn down. He had to defend for over 140 moves to finally get the half point | Photo: Sagar Shah

Abhijeet faltered in this crucial position with ...Rh6. Instead ...Kg3 would have given him the full point and a half point lead going into the last round

S.L. Narayanan was up against Deepan Chakkravarthy and somewhere deep in the middlegame, he got into a completely lost position. Deepan was just not able to finish his opponent. Narayanan got his chance, capitalized on it and joined Abhijeet at the top. | Photo: Sagar Shah

If you were in Deepan's (White's) shoes here, how would you continue?

Deepan needed to play more carefully in a completely winning position. He took the loss as a powerful learning experience. | Photo: Sagar Shah

When in a must win situation, follow the game of Aravindh Chithambaram. The risks he takes, the sharp calculations he makes is simply amazing! | Photo: Sagar Shah

In game Aravindh went a little too far. His move 12.0-0-0 should have simply ended his game had Lalith Babu played a little more accurately. But as they say, no one ever won a championship without taking risk! Well, it seems Aravindh is all set to give it his all to win the Commonwealth title!

Lalith tried to fight tooth and nail against Aravindh, but just fell short in the end | Photo: Sagar Shah

Arjun Erigaisi managed to play a fine game to get the better of Debashis Das | Photo: Sagar Shah

This loss puts Debashis out of medal contention | Photo: Sagar Shah

Tania Sachdev fought hard, but eventually lost in a rook endgame against P. Iniyan | Photo: Sagar Shah

It was an interesting battle between two young talents of Indian chess Divya Deshmukh and Aaryan Varshney | Photo: Sagar Shah

It was nice to see that the parents (Gaurav Varshney on the left and Divya's parents) having a good time with each other while their kids fought it out on the board! | Photo: Sagar Shah

Srithan Saypuri, the youngster from Telangana is gaining 128 Elo points here | Photo: Sagar Shah

The battle between two of India's recent GMs Swayams Mishra and P. Karthikeyan ended in a draw | Photo: Sagar Shah

Sanskriti Goyal and Vaishali had the same outfit, the India jacket. The game ended in Vaishali's favour. | Photo: Sagar Shah

Results of round 8

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	10	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2488	5½	½ - ½	6	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2606	1
2	5	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2557	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Narayanan.S.L	2603	2
3	3	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2598	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2571	4
4	7	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	2526	5	1 - 0	5½	GM	Debashis Das	2544	6
5	19	IM	Tania Sachdev	2401	5	0 - 1	5	IM	Iniyan P	2525	8
6	9	IM	Swayams Mishra	2493	4½	½ - ½	5	GM	Karthikeyan P.	2445	14
7	11	IM	Krishna C R G	2481	4½	½ - ½	4½	FM	Wagh Suyog	2250	28
8	12	GM	Kunte Abhijit	2478	4½	1 - 0	4½	WIM	Mahalakshmi M	2245	30
9	25	FM	Navalgund Niranjan	2326	4½	1 - 0	4½	GM	Laxman R.R.	2437	15
10	17	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	2414	4½	1 - 0	4½	FM	Aaryan Varshney	2196	36
11	27	IM	Saravana Krishnan P.	2290	4½	1 - 0	4½	IM	Nitin S.	2398	20
12	29		Bhambure Shantanu	2248	4½	1 - 0	4½	WGM	Kulkarni Bhakti	2380	21
13	58	WFM	Sanskriti Goyal	1951	4½	0 - 1	4½	WGM	Vaishali R	2338	24
14	13	GM	Thejkumar M. S.	2458	4	1 - 0	4		Kumar Gaurav	2082	45
15	39	WIM	Michelle Catherina P	2182	4	0 - 1	4	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	2434	16

GM Sahaj Grover's mother Sangeeta had her own clothes stall at the same venue, but not in the chess tournament, but at completely different event. | Photo: Sagar Shah

Men on a mission - AK Verma, Secretary of Delhi Chess Association and Bharat Singh Chauhan, Secretary AICF | Photo: Sagar Shah

The man who makes sure all the game are live AnandhBabu VL | Photo: Sagar Shah

Standings after round 8

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	2	GM	Narayanan.S.L	IND	2603	Kerala	6,5	0,0	36,5	40,0
2	1	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	IND	2606	Delhi	6,5	0,0	36,5	40,0
3	3	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	IND	2598	Tamilnadu	6,5	0,0	36,0	39,5
4	10	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	IND	2488	Maharastra	6,0	0,0	37,5	40,5
5	7	GM	Erigaisi Arjun	IND	2526	Telangana	6,0	0,0	35,5	39,0
6	8	IM	Iniyan P	IND	2525	Tamilnadu	6,0	0,0	30,5	33,5
7	27	IM	Saravana Krishnan P.	IND	2290	Tamilnadu	5,5	0,0	38,5	42,5
8	6	GM	Debashis Das	IND	2544	Orissa	5,5	0,0	37,0	40,5
9	5	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	IND	2557	Tamilnadu	5,5	0,0	35,5	39,5
10	4	GM	Lalith Babu M R	IND	2571	Andra Pradesh	5,5	0,0	34,5	38,0
11	12	GM	Kunte Abhijit	IND	2478	Maharastra	5,5	0,0	33,5	37,5
12	24	WGM	Vaishali R	IND	2338	Tamilnadu	5,5	0,0	33,0	35,5
13	14	GM	Karthikeyan P.	IND	2445	Tamilnadu	5,5	0,0	33,0	35,5
14	29		Bhambure Shantanu	IND	2248	Maharastra	5,5	0,0	32,5	36,0
15	25	FM	Navalgund Niranjan	IND	2326	Karnataka	5,5	0,0	31,5	35,0
16	17	WIM	Divya Deshmukh	IND	2414	Maharastra	5,5	0,0	31,5	34,0
17	16	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	IND	2434		5,0	0,0	35,0	39,0
18	13	GM	Thejkumar M. S.	IND	2458	Karnataka	5,0	0,0	34,5	38,5
19	35	FM	Srihari L R	IND	2214	Tamilnadu	5,0	0,0	34,5	38,0
20	19	IM	Tania Sachdev	IND	2401	Delhi	5,0	0,0	34,5	37,5

Video Gallery:

Vaibhav Gautam is unable to walk, unable to speak, but he let's his moves on the board do the talking. Suffering from Cerebral Palsy, right since birth, Vaibhav found the sport of chess to be a perfect one to pursue. His father Manoj has put in a lot of energy and effort to make it possible for his son to compete at important events. Vaibhav started with an Elo of 1019 and is now all the way up to 1293! Get to know this gem of Indian chess and how he plays as we witness one of his games where he puts a 1922 rated player in grave trouble.

Shantanu Bhambure was a talented youngster around seven years ago, but he quit chess to pursue his engineering. From Mumbai, he went to Pune and finished his education. He became a Mechanical Engineer from the Sinhagad University. Time for a job hunt, right? Well, Shantanu felt that it was enough time away from his first love, and decided to come back to chess. From a rating of 2052 in August 2017, he began playing chess seriously and now has a rating of 2275 as on 1st of July 2019. We try to understand how Shantanu made this comeback and also check his eighth round win at the Commonwealth Championships 2019 against Bhakti Kulkarni - the current women's national champion.

S.L. Narayanan was not feeling well after round 6 and was planning to withdraw his name from the event. But he decided to play on, and what a wonderful decision it was. He beat two strong opponents - Arjun Erigaisi in round 7 and Deepan Chakkravarthy in round 8. With 6.5/8, he is now in joint lead along with Abhijeet Gupta and Aravindh Chithambaram. In the final round Narayanan takes on Aravindh on the top board. In this video we have Narayanan analyzing his win over Deepan Chakkravarthy from the black side of the English and also telling us some of his training methods as to how he works on late opening and middlegame positions.

A lot of players say chess is life, but they don't live that sentence! O.T.Anilkumar from Kerala perfectly fits the term "Chess is Life!" He is 56 years old and has won the Kerala State Championships seven times. His highest rating was 2316, and he is now down to 1989, but he doesn't really worry. For him playing chess is more important. In order make ends meet, he doesn't coach students, but he plays training games with him. He feels that he can play chess at the good level, and this is excellent training for youngsters who need playing practice. Also he brings his students to tournaments and takes care of them, which helps him to cover his tournament expenses! In this video we see Anilkumar's chess strength as he beats IM Nisha Mohota with the white pieces.

Related news:

	Abhijeet Gupta wins the Commonwealth title for a record fifth time! @ 08/07/2019 by Sagar Shah (en)
	How can a 2600+ GM be unemployed when Indian chess is booming? @ 06/07/2019 by Sagar Shah (en)
	Mr. Commonwealth beats India's triple national champion @ 03/07/2019 by Sagar Shah (en)