Aravindh Chithambaram wins Sunway Sitges 2017, crosses 2600!

by Avathanshu Bhat - 30/12/2017

The IV Sunway Sitges International Chess Tournament officially ended on the 23rd of December 2017. But the memories will still linger on. Aravindh Chithambaram's victory was the highest point of the tournament, while side events made it special. For Aravindh the year has ended on a high. He very nearly won the National Premier, secured a bronze at the World Junior and now clinched the gold at this super strong open event. What's more the boy will be 2600 on the published rating list on 1st of January! A pictorial report with loads of videos, games analysis and more by Avathanshu Bhat.

What a fantastic feeling when you are in foreign lands and your own country star player wins the tournament! GM Aravindh Chithambaram yet again showed his supremacy by winning the Sunway Sitges International chess Festival 2017 and received a trophy and a cash prize of 5000 euros. The tournament was not an easy cake for Aravindh to slice. With the 26 GMs and 35 IMs it was a very strong event.

It all hinged on the final round encounter between Aravindh who had the white pieces and Zdenko Kozul. Last rounds have not been Aravindh's forte in the past. But the youngster from Chennai is fast improving. After his last round debacle against Debashis Das at the National Premier 2017, he came back strongly to win against Xu Xinagyu and clinch the bronze. At the Sunway Chess Festival, this is how things looked at the start of the final round:

Final round pairing:

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	14	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2586	6½	1 - 0	6½	GM	Kozul Zdenko	2607	8
2	2	GM	Shankland Samuel	2662	6	1 - 0	6	IM	Hambleton Aman	2474	29
3	3	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh	2638	6	1 - 0	6	GM	Peralta Fernando	2556	17
4	19	IM	Santos Latasa Jaime	2536	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Melkumyan Hrant	2633	4
5	7	GM	Bologan Victor	2607	6	0 - 1	6	IM	Dann Matthias	2517	21
6	11	GM	Predke Alexandr	2599	6	0 - 1	6	IM	Gascon Del Nogal Jose Rafael	2479	27

There was a pack of hungry ten players on six points waiting to pounce on Aravindh and Kozul in case they made a draw. However, the Chennai lad was not going to have any of these complications. He played a fine game of chess, sacrificed a rook towards the end and checkmated the black king! With it, he was able to take the sole first spot at the Sunway Sitges Chess Festival 2017.

Aravindh, congratulations! 5000 euros, that's some big money!

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	RtgI	RtgN	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	14	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.				IND	2586	0		7,5	49,0	53,5	39,0	38,0 ...	0,0
2	2	GM	Shankland Samuel				USA	2662	0		7,0	50,0	54,0	36,0	35,0 ...	0,0
3	21	IM	Dann Matthias	H			GER	2517	0		7,0	47,5	51,5	36,5	35,5 ...	0,0
4	3	GM	Salem A.R. Saleh				UAE	2638	0		7,0	43,5	48,0	35,0	34,0 ...	0,0
5	27	IM	Gascon Del Nogal Jose Rafael				VEN	2479	0	Madrid	7,0	42,0	45,5	33,5	32,5 ...	0,0
6	4	GM	Melkumyan Hrant				ARM	2633	0		6,5	50,0	54,5	37,5	36,5 ...	0,0
7	8	GM	Kozul Zdenko				CRO	2607	0		6,5	49,0	53,5	36,0	35,0 ...	0,0
8	1	GM	Motylev Alexander				RUS	2675	0		6,5	46,0	50,5	33,5	32,5 ...	0,0
9	19	IM	Santos Latasa Jaime	H			ESP	2536	0	Extremadura	6,5	44,5	48,5	34,0	33,0 ...	0,0
10	13	GM	Sokolov Ivan				NED	2589	0	Can	6,5	44,5	48,5	34,0	33,0 ...	0,0
11	5	GM	Zubov Alexander				UKR	2626	0		6,5	44,5	48,0	32,5	31,5 ...	0,0
12	36	IM	Cernousek Lukas				CZE	2456	0		6,5	38,5	42,5	30,0	29,0 ...	0,0
13	11	GM	Predke Alexandr				RUS	2599	0		6,0	49,5	53,0	34,0	33,0 ...	0,0
14	29	IM	Hambleton Aman	H			CAN	2474	0		6,0	48,5	52,0	36,0	35,0 ...	0,0
15	33	IM	Bilguun Sumiya	H			MGL	2459	0		6,0	47,5	52,0	32,5	31,5 ...	0,0

With this win Aravindh also crossed 2600 Elo mark! By the way, we really love the trophy!

Take a look at one of his games against GM Alexander Motylev. It shows one of Aravindh's biggest qualities as a chess player. He doesn't really care about edge in the opening. He readily takes a slightly inferior position out of the Sicilian Taimanov and then makes it very difficult for his opponent to make progress. When Motylev loses his patience in time pressure, Aravindh converts it into a full point!

GM Alexander Motylev had to settle for eighth place although he started off as the top seed

The second place went to the jubilant GM Samuel Shankland...

...while GM Saleh Salem followed suit with the third place.

The much talked-about GM Awonder Liang had a tough time fighting his ill health.

However, Awonder took the time to join me for a short interview. What a matured message from a young GM!

Should I call you a sir or a buddy!

Indian player WIM Mahalakshmi scored her second WGM norm. Despite her broken laptop, she fought strong and hard.

Interview with M. Mahalakshmi

IM Aman Hambleton from Canada managed to get his third GM norm and has now joined the elite Grandmaster club. He is known for being a very stylish man, due to his hair and beard. But it turns out there is a story behind it. Find out by watching this interview:

Aman Hambleton reveals the secret of his long beard!

It's always fun catching up with Tania Sachdev

Raahul V S(bottom right) and Dev Shah(bottom left) increased their ratings, while Nandhidhaa(top) missed a WGM norm by a whisker

B-Category Prizes

And the prizes go to Nadal Fajardo Ricard(1st prize), Guret Ahmet Unal(2nd prize) and Gil Vega Marcel(3rd prize)

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo	Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	RtgI	RtgN	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	7	Nadal Fajardo Ricard			D	ESP	1946	2126	Barcelona, Club Escacs	7,5	47,0	51,0	38,5
2	17	Gurel Ahmet Unal	H		D	TUR	1918	0		7,0	44,5	48,0	34,5
3	4	Gil Vega Marcel				ESP	1978	2144	Colmena, La C.E.	7,0	44,5	47,0	33,0
4	9	Vargas Drechsler Carlos	H		D	ESP	1935	2107	Tres Peons C.E.	7,0	44,0	47,5	37,0
5	16	Vallbona Domingo Joan	65 H		D	ESP	1918	2073	Tres Peons C.E.	6,5	49,0	53,5	36,0
6	14	Martinez Perez Pablo			D	ESP	1924	2097	Colon Sabadell Chessy	6,5	42,5	47,0	32,0
7	19	Cano Sevilla Ivan			D	ESP	1887	2083	Barcelona, Club Escacs	6,5	40,5	44,5	29,5
8	45	Shreyas S Nikam			E	IND	1762	0		6,0	49,0	54,5	32,0
9	38	Costa Trave Jaume			E	ESP	1792	2041	Granollers-Canovelles	6,0	43,5	46,5	31,5
10	26	Martinez Perez Sergio	16		D	ESP	1857	2012	Colon Sabadell Chessy	6,0	43,5	45,5	30,0

Here is an interesting game of Nadal Fajardo Ricard (the eventual winner) against Costav Trave Jaume:

What Sunway Sitges means to me:

Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival is not just a chess tournament. It was a carnival for all chess players, lovers, parents, kids and entertained everybody. The organizers have taken this tournament to the next level. Be it free bicycle rides, the wine tasting, tapas workshop, conferences by various GMs, simul events and of course, the brilliant night blitz, everything was done very tastefully.

The wine tasting(left), tapas workshop(top right) and night blitz(bottom right)

Everything had grace and a flow to it. The immaculate timings, the exquisite playing hall and the amazing analysis room and the ever-smiling staff will always be close to me. The tournament ended on a sweet note with everyone being gifted with a large cake, and a box of chocolates all encased in sweet memories.

The analysis room(top), the generous gift(bottom right) and the family entwined in bicycles (bottom left) are all things I won't forget!

The organizers said that the purpose of the Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival is to have everyone leave with happy memories. And believe me I think they have done just that. On a personal note, this was my first time as a reporter while playing in a tournament. ChessBase India gave me a huge responsibility, and of course they were there at the other end for the support I needed.

Meeting strong players from all over the world, interviewing them, the organizer, trying to learn the culture and language of a new place is certainly a great experience. I met Hagen Tejo and Frans Roes from Netherlands who are very interesting people, and are both writing books, the former on chess and the latter on science.

Prize being given to the Under-16 champion by yours truly! A Magnus Carlsen master Class DVD signed by Magnus Carlsen himself (It was signed by the World Champion at the World Cup 2017 where ChessBase India founders Sagar Shah an Amruta Mokal were present)

Chess has discovered new horizons to me, and gives me the wings to fly.

Sitges, you will be missed until next time!

Official tournament website

Live games

About the author:

Avathanshu Bhat is a 12-year-old chess player from Mumbai. Apart from being a chess fanatic, he is a voracious reader and his favourite books include Wonder by R.J. Palacio, Lord of the rings by J.R.R. Tolkien and the complete adventures of Feluda by Satyajit Ray. He loves Daniel King and enjoys his Power Play DVDs very much. He maintains his own blog. Like his FaceBook page for more updates!

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