Duc Hoa Nguyen triumphs at 3rd Athens of the East GM Open 2023, Srihari L R second and Nitin third
GM Duc Hoa Nguyen (VIE) scored 8.5/10 to win Velammal Hospital presents 3rd Athens of the East GM Open 2023. He finished a half point ahead of the field. IM Srihari L R and IM Nitin S scored 8/10 each. They were placed second and third according to tie-breaks respectively. Srihari became the sole player to beat the eventual champion, Duc Hoa. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹4000000 + trophies + 100 bicycles and eight scooty, ₹2000000 for Category A. The top three prizes were ₹300000, ₹200000 and ₹150000 along with a trophy each. The winner's trophy Chairman MVM trophy was a lifelike human sized. Photos: IA R Anantharam
Only Srihari L R beats the champion
Vietnam Grandmaster Nguyen Duc Hoa came from behind to win the Velammal Hospital Athens of the East 3td International GM tournament organised by Ananthi Chess Academy at Velammal College Engineering & Technology, Madurai. He scored 8.5 points, including an upset win against the top seeded International Master Aronyak Ghosh of West Bengal. Duc Hoa was awarded a prize money of three lacs rupees.
Duc Hoa positionally outplayed Aronyak in a Benoni defence in 54 moves in the eighth round. In a queen and bishops ending, he capitalised on the dormant bishop of Aronyak to get close to a checkmate position.
IM Srihari L R of Chennai and IM Nitin S of Southern Railway registered wins in the tenth and final round to score eight points and tied for the second and third places. Srihari had a better tiebreak, to be declared as the runner-up. While Srihari received two lacs rupees, Nitin was presented one lac and fifty thousand rupees.
Six players had 7.5 points each and Aronyak Ghosh had the superior Buchholz value to get the fourth place
The tournament had a grand inaugural function, with Mr. M V Muthuramalingam, Chairman of the Velammal group presiding over the function. Dr. M Manickam, President of Tamil Nadu State Chess Association was the Chief Guest and former Vice President of FIDE - Mr. D V Sundar, TNSCA General Secretary - Mr. P Stephen Balasamy and R Srinivasan, Treasurer TNSCA were the Guests of Honour.
IM Ratnakaran K could not stop IM Anuj Shrivatri of Madhya Pradesh from queening his pawn in the rook ending win for the latter in the eighth round. This helped Anuj to finish sixth.
The Belarus grandmaster Alexei Fedorov winner of three titles in the ten IM-norm tournaments held so far, defeated SS Manigandan of Madurai in a Caro-Kann Defence played by the latter. He drew with the champion Duc Hoa in the final round to obtain the sixth place.
IM P Shyaam Nikhil of ICF Chennai sacrificed two pieces against Nitin but could not carve out a win and settled for a draw in the sixth round. Shyaam ultimately finished seventh.
The eighth place went to GM Evgeniy Podolchenko (BLR) who drew with the top seed Aronyak in the final round. In the fifth round, Devesh Anand Naik of Goa shattered the uncastled king side of Podolchenko of Belarus by sacrificing a knight to reach a winning position. But, he could not carry the momentum and a blunder towards the end and totally turned the game in favour of the foreigner.
Nithin Babu recorded a facile win over IM Muhammad Khusenkhojaev (TJK) in the seventh round and also upset GM Deepan in the ninth round. He finished ninth.
IM Asylbek Abdyzhapar had six draws and one win in the last seven rounds. In the fifth round win against FM Maheswaran P of Sivakasi, the latter's extra knight could not stop the connected pawns of Asylbek, who got the tenth rank.
In the much expected clash between the top two seeded International Masters - Aronyak Ghosh and L R Srihari, Aronyak defeated the second seed in a King's Indian Attack. The top seed sacrificed two pawns successively to force Srihari to lose the bishop in a rook and bishop ending. Srihari had to surrender after 55 moves.
A few weak moves by the Madurai Grandmaster Deepan Chakkravarthy helped the Vietnam GM Duc Hoa Nguyen to get three connected passer pawns against three isolated pawns to Deepan in a rook ending. Nguyen had an effortless win in 66 moves.
In the queen pawn game against IM Ratnakaran K of Southern Railway, Srihari was in complete control of the game from the beginning in the sixth round. Even before losing the exchange, Ratnakaran was losing the game. The main reason was that he did not bring his queen into action for the entire game. The only move that his queen made during the game of 37 moves was from d8 to e8.
In an error filled game, Nitin who made less errors against Nithin Babu won the English opening game. In a rook and bishop ending, Nithin Babu had to forego his bishop to stop Nitin’s pawn promotion. The game ended in favor of Nitin after 61 moves.
WIM Sachini Ranasinghe of Sri Lanka upset the International Master Sarwat Walaa of Egypt in the second round.
Another French IM Buscara Sevan was beaten by Priansh Das in the third round.
Mr. Abhinav Chandran, Chairman, Queen Meera School, Madurai inaugurated the GM tournament on the first day.
The tournament was a grand one in all aspects – let it be the prize money, beautiful and massive tournament hall, the inauguration and the prize distribution, free boarding and lodging to all players etc. Naturally, it attracted players from 21 federations, with seven GMs and 19 IMs in the fray.
Velammal Institutions has now become very popular in the chess circle, mainly because of the trio R Praggnanandhaa, R Vaishali and D Gukesh, all products of the Velammal group of schools and playing in the Candidates 2024. No other institution in the world would have produced three players qualified for the Candidates tournament in the same year. Since its inception in 1986, the group of schools is supporting sports a lot and chess in particular. In the span of 37 years, the group has now 60 educational institutions including a medical college, three engineering colleges, arts and science colleges and schools. More than 1,50,000 students are enrolled in the institutions – may be the largest offline strength in India.
Mr. MV Muthuramalingam, Chairman of the Velammal Institutions directly supervised the arrangements of the tournament and has provided all the necessary infrastructure for the successful conduct of the tournament. About 1800 players and about 1200 accompanying persons were provided accommodation and food free of cost. Mr. MVM is dedicated and focussed on offering high-quality values-driven, contemporary learning environments to children and youth at a very affordable cost.
Final standings
| Rk. | SNo | Name | Typ | sex | FED | RtgI | Club/City | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | 15 | GM | Nguyen, Duc Hoa | VIE | 2335 | VIE | 8,5 | 59,5 | 64,5 | 52,75 | 0 | 8 | |||
| 2 | 2 | IM | Srihari, L R | IND | 2467 | TN | 8 | 64,5 | 68 | 52,75 | 0 | 7 | |||
| 3 | 9 | IM | Nitin, S. | IND | 2385 | S.RLYS | 8 | 62,5 | 67,5 | 51,75 | 0 | 7 | |||
| 4 | 1 | IM | Aronyak, Ghosh | IND | 2545 | IND | 7,5 | 63 | 67,5 | 48,75 | 0 | 6 | |||
| 5 | 8 | IM | Anuj, Shrivatri | IND | 2400 | IND | 7,5 | 62 | 66 | 48,00 | 0 | 5 | |||
| 6 | 3 | GM | Fedorov, Alexei | BLR | 2454 | BLR | 7,5 | 59 | 64 | 46,50 | 0 | 6 | |||
| 7 | 4 | IM | Shyaamnikhil, P | IND | 2443 | ICF | 7,5 | 57,5 | 62,5 | 46,50 | 0 | 5 | |||
| 8 | 10 | GM | Podolchenko, Evgeniy | BLR | 2376 | BLR | 7,5 | 56,5 | 60,5 | 43,75 | 0 | 5 | |||
| 9 | 32 | Nithin, Babu | IND | 2102 | KER | 7,5 | 54 | 58,5 | 41,50 | 0 | 6 | ||||
| 10 | 14 | IM | Abdyzhapar, Asylbek | KGZ | 2340 | KGZ | 7 | 61,5 | 66,5 | 45,25 | 0 | 4 | |||
| 11 | 11 | IM | Khusenkhojaev, Muhammad | TJK | 2366 | TJK | 7 | 58,5 | 63 | 40,75 | 0 | 6 | |||
| 12 | 19 | IM | Ratnakaran, K. | IND | 2232 | S.RLYS | 7 | 57,5 | 62,5 | 41,50 | 0 | 6 | |||
| 13 | 5 | GM | Glek, Igor | BEL | 2429 | BEL | 7 | 56 | 61,5 | 42,25 | 0 | 4 | |||
| 14 | 33 | Manigandan, S S | IND | 2016 | TN-MDU | 7 | 56 | 59 | 38,25 | 0 | 6 | ||||
| 15 | 36 | Ram, S. Krishnan | IND | 1988 | BSNL | 7 | 55,5 | 60,5 | 41,25 | 0 | 5 | ||||
| 16 | 13 | GM | Manik, Mikulas | SVK | 2343 | SVK | 7 | 55 | 59 | 37,50 | 0 | 5 | |||
| 17 | 22 | IM | Elgabry, Mohsen | EGY | 2215 | EGY | 7 | 55 | 57,5 | 36,50 | 0 | 7 | |||
| 18 | 35 | Kartik, Kumar Singh | IND | 2005 | MAH | 7 | 53 | 56,5 | 35,50 | 0 | 7 | ||||
| 19 | 120 | Nishant, Abhijeet Jawalkar | IND | 1630 | MAH | 7 | 53 | 56,5 | 35,50 | 0 | 6 | ||||
| 20 | 29 | FM | Jaiswal, Rupesh | NEP | 2131 | NEP | 7 | 51,5 | 56 | 38,75 | 0 | 5 |
About the Author
Prof. Rathinam Anantharam is an A-grade international arbiter. Member of FIDE Arbiters’ Commission, Chairman of Titles Commission in All India Chess Federation, Vice President of Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, Chief Arbiter for six world championships, many Asian, International and National Championships.
The report was edited by Shahid Ahmed
