Srinath Narayanan wins LIC 3rd Kolkata International Open 2018

by Sagar Shah - 24/05/2018

GM Srinath Narayanan wins LIC 3rd Kolkata Open International Grandmasters Chess Tournament 2018 at The Newtown School, jointly organized by Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy and AllSport Foundation. Srinath made a quick draw with GM Shyam Sundar to clinch the title. He finished with a performance rating of 2737 and got richer by ₹3 lacs. GM Deepan Chakkravarthy finished at first runner-up position by winning his last two games thanks to his devastating attacks. Top seed and one of the candidate for FIDE Presidency, GM Nigel Short secured the second runner-up position. We have a detailed report with games, positions, photos and videos from the last round and the prize distribution ceremony.

Srinath wins the tournament in a fairy-tale ending

GM Srinath Narayanan scored 7.5/9, bagged home the champion's trophy and ₹3 lacs cash

Srinath talks about his aim for the tournament after he won it

Srinath raring to go before the last round

Srinath drew with GM Shyam Sundar M in Sicilian Scheveningen in just 27 moves. Since it was the final round and the championship was on the line. He need not take any unnecessary risks and settled for a draw by threefold repetition.

GM Shyam Sundar shares his difficulties of being unemployed

GM Deepan Chakkravarthy also scored 7.5/9. Due to a lower tie-break score, he was placed 2nd. Deepan received a trophy and ₹2 lacs cash

Deepan continued his devastating attack in the final round and claimed GM Deep Sengupta as his victim, handing him his second straight loss.

Can you think like Deepan? Find out the best move for White here.

Can you think like Deepan again? Find out the best move with an idea for White here.

Find out the final stage of Deepan's path of destruction

Top seed GM Nigel Short scored 7.0/9 and finished at third position due to a better tie-break score

Let's hear what the candidate for FIDE Presidency had to say at the Prize Distribution Ceremony

Nigel Short speaks after receiving his prize

Nigel Short faces the prodigal FM Erigaisi Arjun who scored his maiden GM norm

Second seed of the tournament GM Abhijeet Gupta drew with GM Vladimir Burmakin of Russia in the last round and finished at 14th position and the latter finished at 9th

Abhijeet's game against Burmakin became quite exciting at the later part of the game, in the endgame, however Burmakin defended not only well but also threatened to turn things out before Abhijeet put brakes on his opponent's ideas.

Final moments from the game between Abhijeet Gupta and Vladimir Burmakin

Reigning National Junior Champion and Kathmandu Open 2018 winner IM Harsha Bharathakoti continued his impressive performance by defeating GM Sandipan Chanda in the last round

Here Sandipan could have easily repeated moves and got a draw easily but he wanted to play for a win

Things could have been different if Black played the best move here. Can you find it?

Things seemed to have got out of hand as the White King marched down to Black's territory. However there is still some hope left. Can you find it?

Final moments of the game between Harsha Bharathakoti and Sandipan Chanda

Photo Gallery:

The match we all wanted to see but didn't happen in Kolkata Open 2018

AICF Secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan with GM Nigel Short, the next president of FIDE?

What do you think they were speaking about? Share your thoughts

GM Shyam Sundar M scored 7.0/9, remained undefeated and secured 4th position. He won ₹1.2 lacs cash | Photo: Sagar Shah

FM Erigaisi Arjun had an impressive performance scoring 7.0/9 and earned his maiden GM norm | Photo: Sagar Shah

Harsha Bharathakoti continued his impressive performance, scored 7.0/9 and finished at 6th position | Photo: Sagar Shah

GM Adam Tukhaev started well but could manage to finish at 7th position with a score of 6.5/9 | Photo: Sagar Shah

GM Ivan Rozum was also a sole leader of the tournament at some point but he finished at 8th position with a score of 6.5/9 | Photo: Sagar Shah

Veteran GM Vladimir Burmakin of Russia scored 6.5/9 and played steady throughout the tournament to secure 9th position

Familiar face in the Indian circuit, GM Farrukh Amonatov did not have the best tournament as he had a 10th position finish with a score of 6.5/9

12-year old AGM Jubin Jimmy gained a massive 154 ELO Rating points with a performance rating of 2322 | Photo: Sagar Shah

WIM R Vaishali won the first prize in Best female category | Photo: Amruta Mokal

WGM Mary Ann Gomes got the second prize in Best female category

Priyanka Nutakki secured her maiden IM norm

Video Gallery:

AICF Secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan inaugurates the final round

Surya Sekhar Ganguly speaks about Dibyendu Barua and few other things

Final moments: GM Abhijeet Gupta - GM Vladimir Burmakin

Final moments: Interesting Queen and Passed Pawn Ending

Starting moments of Final round

Amazing Sportsman Spirit shown by GM Sandipan Chanda

The entire closing ceremony

Results of final Round

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	14	GM	Narayanan Srinath	2525	7	½ - ½	6½	GM	Shyam Sundar M.	2518	15
2	1	GM	Short Nigel D	2656	6½	½ - ½	6½	FM	Erigaisi Arjun	2488	21
3	16	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.	2516	6½	1 - 0	6	GM	Sengupta Deep	2563	8
4	2	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2619	6	½ - ½	6	GM	Burmakin Vladimir	2528	13
5	25	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti	2463	6	1 - 0	6	GM	Sandipan Chanda	2573	7
6	10	IM	Nihal Sarin	2551	6	½ - ½	6	IM	Nguyen Van Huy	2462	26
7	41	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari	2400	6	0 - 1	5½	GM	Tukhaev Adam	2551	9
8	3	GM	Karthikeyan Murali	2617	5½	1 - 0	5½	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	2456	27
9	4	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	2608	5½	1 - 0	5½	GM	Neelotpal Das	2452	28
10	6	GM	Rozum Ivan	2581	5½	1 - 0	5½	IM	Das Sayantan	2437	30
11	32	IM	Nitin S.	2432	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V	2532	11
12	12	GM	Lalith Babu M R	2531	5½	½ - ½	5½	IM	Ravi Teja S.	2338	57
13	19	GM	Neverov Valeriy	2496	5½	1 - 0	5½	IM	Tran Minh Thang	2404	38
14	39	IM	Rahul Srivatshav P	2402	5½	0 - 1	5½	GM	Rahman Ziaur	2495	20
15	68	IM	Sangma Rahul	2295	5½	0 - 1	5½	IM	Iniyan P	2469	23
16	5	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.	2597	5	1 - 0	5	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	2338	56
17	73	WGM	Gomes Mary Ann	2290	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Tran Tuan Minh	2512	17
18	63		Sekar B	2304	5	0 - 1	5	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2505	18
19	22	IM	Vignesh N R	2485	5	1 - 0	5		Ashwath R.	2288	75
20	81		Sahoo Utkal Ranjan	2281	5	½ - ½	5	GM	Laxman R.R.	2444	29

Final Standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	w	we	w-we
1	14	GM	Narayanan Srinath		IND	2525	AIR INDIA	7,5	0,0	49,5	53,5	44,00	6	7,5	5,12	2,38
2	16	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J.		IND	2516	RLYS	7,5	0,0	42,0	45,0	38,00	7	7,5	6,04	1,46
3	1	GM	Short Nigel D		ENG	2656	ENG	7,0	0,0	47,5	51,0	38,75	5	7	6,67	0,33
4	15	GM	Shyam Sundar M.		IND	2518	TN	7,0	0,0	45,5	49,5	37,75	5	7	6,12	0,88
5	21	FM	Erigaisi Arjun		IND	2488	TEL	7,0	0,0	43,0	46,0	32,75	6	7	5,30	1,70
6	25	IM	Harsha Bharathakoti		IND	2463	TEL	7,0	0,0	39,5	43,5	34,00	6	7	6,22	0,78
7	9	GM	Tukhaev Adam		UKR	2551	UKR	6,5	0,0	48,5	51,5	34,25	6	6,5	5,93	0,57
8	6	GM	Rozum Ivan		RUS	2581	RUS	6,5	0,0	48,0	52,0	35,25	6	6,5	6,05	0,45
9	13	GM	Burmakin Vladimir		RUS	2528	RUS	6,5	0,0	45,5	49,5	34,50	4	6,5	5,78	0,72
10	4	GM	Amonatov Farrukh		TJK	2608	TJK	6,5	0,0	44,5	49,0	34,25	5	6,5	6,79	-0,29
11	10	IM	Nihal Sarin		IND	2551	KER	6,5	0,0	44,0	47,5	33,50	4	6,5	6,54	-0,04
12	3	GM	Karthikeyan Murali		IND	2617	PSPB	6,5	0,0	43,5	47,5	33,00	6	6,5	7,28	-0,78
13	20	GM	Rahman Ziaur		BAN	2495	BAN	6,5	0,0	43,0	47,0	32,50	5	5,5	5,20	0,30
14	2	GM	Gupta Abhijeet		IND	2619	PSPB	6,5	0,0	43,0	47,0	31,25	5	6,5	7,05	-0,55
15	11	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V		IND	2532	TN	6,5	0,0	42,5	45,5	32,25	5	6,5	7,21	-0,71
16	19	GM	Neverov Valeriy		UKR	2496	UKR	6,5	0,0	41,0	43,5	30,25	5	6,5	6,86	-0,36
17	26	IM	Nguyen Van Huy		VIE	2462	VIE	6,5	0,0	40,0	44,0	31,25	5	6,5	6,74	-0,24
18	23	IM	Iniyan P		IND	2469	TN	6,5	0,0	37,5	39,5	28,25	5	6,5	7,42	-0,92
19	8	GM	Sengupta Deep		IND	2563	PSPB	6,0	0,0	49,0	53,0	31,50	6	6	5,76	0,24
20	7	GM	Sandipan Chanda		IND	2573	WB	6,0	0,0	47,5	51,5	32,00	4	6	6,16	-0,16
21	12	GM	Lalith Babu M R		IND	2531	PSPB	6,0	0,0	46,5	50,0	31,50	4	5	5,16	-0,16
22	41	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari		IND	2400	KAR	6,0	0,0	45,5	49,5	32,00	5	6	5,13	0,87
23	33	CM	Gukesh D		IND	2426	AP	6,0	0,0	45,5	49,0	30,75	5	6	5,48	0,52
24	22	IM	Vignesh N R		IND	2485	TN	6,0	0,0	44,5	47,5	29,00	5	6	5,94	0,06
25	17	GM	Tran Tuan Minh		VIE	2512	VIE	6,0	0,0	44,0	48,0	30,25	5	6	6,46	-0,46
26	57	IM	Ravi Teja S.		IND	2338	RLYS	6,0	0,0	44,0	47,0	29,50	4	5	3,83	1,17
27	100		Nguyen Phuoc Tam		VIE	2210	VIE	6,0	0,0	43,5	46,5	29,00	6	6	3,42	2,58
28	82		Neelash Saha		IND	2280	WB	6,0	0,0	42,0	45,0	28,25	5	6	4,68	1,32
29	5	GM	Aravindh Chithambaram Vr.		IND	2597	TN	6,0	0,0	40,0	44,0	27,75	5	6	7,66	-1,66
30	52		Kaustuv Kundu		IND	2360	WB	6,0	0,0	40,0	42,5	25,50	5	6	5,93	0,07

Articles related to the tournament:

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FIDE Presidential candidate GM Nigel Short headlines LIC 3rd Kolkata Open 2018

Round 1: Short's last holiday event before campaign

Round 2: Vantika Agrawal shows how to beat a 2600+ GM

Round 3: And then there were eight

Round 4: Gukesh beats Aravindh Chithambaram

Round 5: Ivan Rozum shows you what the art of being means

Round 6: Momentary lapse in concentration costs Rozum the full point

Round 7: It's Deep, Short and Srinath!

Round 8: Deep disaster causes Srinath to take sole lead