Indian Chess Raises ₹127003 in the memory of Late Rafiq Khan

by Shahid Ahmed - 17/10/2019

ChessBase India organized a blitz tournament in the memory of India's first Olympiad medal winner Rafiq Khan. The prize money of Rs.51,000 was instituted by Rafiq Khan's friends and admirers from Madhya Pradesh. The total amount that was collected by way of entry fee and donations was Rs.1,27,003. This entire amount will be given to Rafiq Khan's wife Zahida Khan. India's 54th GM Arjun Erigaisi (Indian-Lion) won the event and also Rs.12,400! Karthikeyan Murali and Abhimanyu Puranik were placed second and third according to their tie-break scores. Kaustuv Kundu and R Ashwath were the only two untitled players to have made it in the top 10 by securing seventh and ninth place respectively with a score of 6.0/9 each. Photo: Amruta Mokal

Indian-Lion Arjun Erigaisi wins Rafiq Khan Memorial Blitz

Rafiq Khan was a giant of Indian chess. In an era where no one believed that Indians could compete at a world stage and win medals, Rafiq Khan provided the country with its first individual Olympiad medal at the Malta Olympiad 1980. A silver medal on board three. He has been the former national champion and winner of many strong national and international events. In spite of such achievements, Rafiq Khan and his family could never really enjoy a life filled with comfort. He lived through poverty and most of his life was spent in trying to make ends meet. Rafiq Khan passed away on 18th of July 2019. He is survived by his wife and children. In order to show our gratitude towards his contribution to the sport and also to remember his legacy, ChessBase India organized an online tournament on 6th of October 2019. The prize fund of Rs.51,000 was setup by his friends and admirers from Madhya Pradesh.

The first Olympiad medal winner of India

All the money collected by means of entry fee and donation was to be given to his wife Zahida Khan

The Blitz tournament

The tournament was played at Playchess server

It was heartening to see that strong GMs like Karthikeyan Murali, Aravindh Chithambaram, Arjun Erigaisi, Abhimanyu Puranik, Vishnu Prasanna and R.R. Laxman decided to participate in this event. As many as six GMs and nine IMs participated in this online tournament.

GM Arjun Erigaisi is a regular at ChessBase Online Blitz tournaments. He is always generous about his contributions. This time also he contributed ₹5000. Early in this year he had won the Pulwama Martyrs ChessBase Online Blitz tournament.

GM Arjun Erigaisi won his second ChessBase Online Blitz tournament of the year | Photo: Amruta Mokal.

Arjun's (Indian-Lion) best win was against Laxman in round 7:

Laxman - Arjun, round 7

White just played 22.Ra4. Find out an interesting continuation for Black here

GM Karthikeyan Murali secured first runner-up position by scoring 7.0/9 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Karthikeyan's (fighter64) best win was against the eventual second runner-up of the tournament Abhimanyu Puranik (Pabh) in round three.

World Junior Silver medalist Abhimanyu Puranik also scored 7.0/9 and secured second runner-up position | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Abhimanyu is also a regular at ChessBase Online Blitz tournaments. Last year two days before leaving for World Juniors (and winning the silver medal!), he participated in one of our online events. In the final round, Abhimanyu (Pabh) showcased his attacking skills against Vishnu Prasanna (fidodido).

Vishnu - Abhimanyu, round 9

Abhimanyu played 12...f5 - setting fire on board!

Abhimanyu won the the game in another twelve moves

Final Standings

You can know who these players are by checking their actual name against their Playchess ids in the article here

Main Prize winners

1	GM Arjun Erigaisi	7.5	₹12400
2	GM Karthikeyan Murali	7	₹8000
3	GM Abhimanyu Puranik	7	₹6000
4	GM Laxman R R	7	₹5000
5	IM Raunak Sadhwani	7	₹4000
6	IM Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	6.5	₹3000
7	Kaustuv Kundu	6	₹2000
8	GM Vishnu Prasanna	6	₹2000
9	R Ashwath	6	₹1500
10	IM P Konguvel	6	₹1500

Woman Prize winners

1	WIM Priyanka Nutakki	5.5	₹1400
2	Anusha NLV	5	₹1000

Lucky Prize winners

20	FM Siddharth Jagadeesh	5	₹800
30	Chandar Raju	4.5	₹800
40	Swayangsu Satyakam	4	₹800
50	Ankur Singh Thakur	3	₹800

We had kept three more lucky prizes of Rs.800 each for places 60, 70 and 80. As there were less than 60 participants, this extra amount of Rs.2,400 will be given to the winner Arjun Erigaisi. So instead of Rs.10,000 Arjun wins Rs.12,400.

Top contributors

IM P Konguvel believes in honouring the legends of Indian chess. This was the first time he played an online event and he also contributed Rs.10,000 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

12-year-old Kheerthi Ganta recently has stopped travelling by flights in order to save money which she can donate to good causes. This youngster contributed Rs.10,000! How inspiring is that?

We met Kheerthi in Mumbai at the World Youth Championships 2019 and interviewed her

FM Siddharth Jagadeesh played all the way from Singapore and contributed Rs.10,000 to the noble cause

Vivek Nambiar of Karnataka made a generous contribution oF Rs.10,000 | Photo: Akshayakalpa

Donors who played the tournament

Serial No.	Full name	Rating	Playchess ID	Donation amount
1	GM Karthikeyan Murali	2617	fighter64	1000
2	GM Aravindh Chithambaram	2609	Refresh	1000
3	GM Abhimanyu Puranik	2571	pabh	1000
4	GM Arjun Erigaisi	2544	Indian-Lion	5000
5	GM Vishnu Prasanna V	2505	Fidodido	4000
6	IM Raunak Sadhwani	2479	devil1234	0
7	IM CRG Krishna	2459	crg	1000
8	IM Ravi Teja S	2455	Ravi Teja S	500
9	GM Laxman R R	2444	LAXMAN	1500
10	IM Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	2420	NubairshahShaikh	1000
11	IM Bhakti Kulkarni	2418	bestluck	1000
12	IM Anuj Shrivatri	2390	ANUJ SHRIVATRI	1000
13	WGM Vaishali R	2385	rvaishali2001	1000
14	IM Konguvel P	2370	Konguvel	10000
15	Ashwath R	2340	csk	500
16	IM Neelash Saha	2334	gamechanger	1000
17	FM Siddharth Jagadeesh	2331	siddharthjagadeesh	10000
18	IM Rathnakaran K	2325	RATHNAKARAN	1000
19	Kaustuv Kundu	2318	Kaustuv Kundu	500
20	WIM Priyanka Nutakki	2248	Chess Queen	500
21	Rohit S	2234	rohit2007	500
22	Gaurav Bakliwal	2219	thebiggb	500
23	Girish Chandanani	2169	sanjanachandanani	500
24	Aradhya Garg	2168	Aradhya	500
25	Sahil Tickoo	2167	TheHope	500
26	Sriram Sarja	2138	Indianquant	500
27	Sarvesh Kumar A	2115	Chessencounter	500
28	Amithpal Singh	2102	amithpal15	1064
29	Anusha NLV	2081	anushanlv	500
30	Chandar Raju	2028	chandar900	500
31	Siddharth Sabharishankar	1984	Siddharthsabharishankar	500
32	Sai Manivannan	1926	SAIMANIVANNAN	500
33	Honi Arora	1889	honi12	500
34	A.Anand Sivasankar	1853	anandfan	500
35	Sahil Dhawan	1849	Greatgatsby	500
36	Muthu P	1823	muthu2205	500
37	Sibi Srinivasa Einstein Reddy	1804	sibieinstein	500
38	Peter Anand A	1787	PeterAnand	500
39	Pradhyumna Kumar Kothapalli	1787	Pradhyu	567
40	Ojasva Singh	1690	Ojasva01	500
41	Aaryan Singla	1541	chessmaster2009	500
42	Kheerthi Ganta	1520	Candybond11	10000
43	Aashish Reddy	1471	Aashish2003	500
44	Ankur Singh Thakur	1441	stuart1988	500
45	Raja Mohammad	1391	raza_shah	500
46	Siva Vamsikrishna	1261	Vamsi1993	500
47	Sankaran P K	1251	Enthusiast	500
48	Abhishek D Chandra	1199	adchandra	500
49	Jaiveer Patil	1133	Jaiveerpatil	500
50	Akshaj Patil	1016	Akshaj patil	500
51	Parigyan Chakraborty	1010	Parigyan Chakraborty	1000
52	Anonymous		mraa	1500
53	Swayangsu Satyakam		FUTGEN	1000
54	Mayur Gondhalekar		gonda	708
55	Amit Mishra		AMITM55	500
56	Bharath R		Hockey07	500
57	Dakshesh Dutt		20505337	500
58	Lakshita Dutt		20505329	500
59	Natarajan Rajaswaminathan		RAJA3652016	500
60	Niladri Chakraborty		Niladri_c2009	500
61	Skanda Subramanian		kramnikstudent	500
62	Somasundaran M			500
63	Suhas Murthy		Murthye4	500
	Total			76339

There is only one name we have kept anonymous upon the donor's humble request.

Donors who did not play the tournament

Serial No.	Full name	Donation
1	Vivek Nambiar	10000
2	Ramesh Balasubramanian	6464
3	Sethuraman S P	5000
4	IM Varugeese Koshy	3000
5	GM Ankit Rajpara	1000
6	FM Akash Thakur	1000
7	Maruti Naik	1000
8	Mohammad Suleman	500
9	Neelotpal Das	5000
10	Unclaimed prize money	17700
	Total	50664

A total of ₹127,003 was raised by the Indian chess community. We thank each one of the players who contributed towards this noble cause. All of this money will be given to Rafiq Khan's wife Zahida Khan on behalf of the entire chess community for her husband's immense contribution towards our game.

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Related news:

	Indian chess has raised ₹37672 for Rafiq Khan with one day to go. Contribute now! @ 05/10/2019 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	ChessBase Online Blitz returns this Sunday @ 01/10/2019 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	Donate and play in the Rafiq Khan Memorial Online Blitz - A total prize fund of Rs.51,000 @ 25/09/2019 by Sagar Shah (en)
	From a carpenter to India's first Olympiad medal winner - Remembering the legacy of Rafiq Khan (1946-2019) @ 13/08/2019 by Sagar Shah (en)