Kolkata GM Open 2018 Round 1: Short's last holiday event before campaign
It's a gathering with diverse personalities that makes the 3rd Kolkata GM International 2018 so interesting. As the top seed you have the former World Championship Finalist and the current FIDE Presidential Candidate Nigel Short. Strong GMs like Abhijeet Gupta, Karthikeyan Murali, Aravindh Chithambaram are going to give Short a hard time when it comes to winning the first prize. And when it comes to young talents this tournament is quite unparalleled. You have Nihal Sarin, Gukesh, Raahil Mullick and manny other youngsters. In the first round we had quite a few good games and upsets as well. We bring you all the action from Newtown school in Kolkata.
A casual chat on Facebook has turned the 3rd Kolkata International Grandmaster Chess tournament into one of the focal points for the world of chess. GM Dibyendu Barua, the main organizer of the tournament pinged Nigel Short on Facebook about his plans in the month of May. Nigel agreed to come down to Kolkata to play at the event. Perhaps, at the point when Short accepted the invitation to play, he was not sure that he would be running for the FIDE President's position. As on today, Nigel Short is in the middle of an extremely important fight with the FIDE officials trying to find the whereabouts of the FIDE bank funds that were transferred a few days ago. The battle off the board is so intense and filled with traps that we wonder how is Nigel going to focus on his play on the board. He begins the Kolkata International GM 2018 as the top seed.
Starting rank
| 1 | GM | Short Nigel D | 0 | 400025 | ENG | 2656 | ENG | ||
| 2 | GM | Gupta Abhijeet | 438942013 | 5010608 | IND | 2619 | PSPB | ||
| 3 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | 455372013 | 5074452 | IND | 2617 | TN | ||
| 4 | GM | Amonatov Farrukh | 0 | 14700077 | TJK | 2608 | TJK | ||
| 5 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | 403962013 | 5072786 | IND | 2597 | TN | ||
| 6 | GM | Rozum Ivan | 0 | 24104272 | RUS | 2581 | RUS | ||
| 7 | GM | Sandipan Chanda | 545472014 | 5004225 | IND | 2573 | WB | ||
| 8 | GM | Sengupta Deep | 463782013 | 5008352 | IND | 2563 | PSPB | ||
| 9 | GM | Tukhaev Adam | 0 | 14109476 | UKR | 2551 | UKR | ||
| 10 | IM | Nihal Sarin | 420312013 | 25092340 | IND | 2551 | KER |
This is going to be far from a holiday for Nigel as some of the best junior and senior players from India have gathered at the event. Usually you do not see many Indian GMs playing in Indian events, but Kolkata is an exception. Abhijeet Gupta and Karthikeyan Murali, 2600+ spearhead the Indian challenge. Aravindh Chithambaram, three Elo points short of the 2600 mark, is the fifth seed and all eyes will be on tenth seeded Nihal Sarin to see if he can achieve his final GM norm. 28 grandmasters are competing in this 207 player event where you have participants from 13 countries fighting it out for the top prize of Rs.3,00,000.
Hasan Mehdi vs Nigel Short
Nigel didn't think twice before sacrificing his rook on c3. The idea is very common in the Sicilian and the Bangladeshi player had great difficulties in dealing with Black's simple moves on the queenside after the sacrifice.
Another game which was highly interesting and which was one of the three nominees for the best game of the day prize was Swapnil Dhopade's brave victory over A. Harshini. Swapnil sacrificed an exchange out of the opening and played a very strong game to overcome all the complications and bring home the full point.
Game of the Day Prize:
Everyday, there will be a Facebook Poll on selecting the best Game of the Day. The voters will be joined by Grandmasters Suryasekhar Ganguly and Dibyendu Barua, and International Master V.Saravanan. Join the Polls and select the best game of every round. The winner of the selected game will be awarded a Prize at the tournament hall. In case of a drawn game being adjudicated as the best game, both the player will receive an award.
The three games that have been nominated for the game of the day prize have been covered above: Hasan Mehdi - Short, Rahman Syed - Chanda and Dhopade - Harshini.
Senthil Maran vs Vishnu Prasanna
Results of round one:
| Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | No. | ||||
| 1 | 102 | FM | Mehdi Hasan Parag | 2207 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Short Nigel D | 2656 | 1 | ||
| 2 | 2 | GM | Gupta Abhijeet | 2619 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | CM | S M Sharon | 2204 | 103 | ||
| 3 | 104 | CM | Aditya Mittal | 2199 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | 2617 | 3 | ||
| 4 | 4 | GM | Amonatov Farrukh | 2608 | 0 | ½ - ½ | 0 | Krishnater Kushager | 2195 | 105 | |||
| 5 | 106 | CM | Bharath Subramaniyam H | 2190 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | 2597 | 5 | ||
| 6 | 6 | GM | Rozum Ivan | 2581 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | Ajay Karthikeyan | 2189 | 107 | |||
| 7 | 108 | FM | Rahman Syed Mahfuzur | 2188 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Sandipan Chanda | 2573 | 7 | ||
| 8 | 8 | GM | Sengupta Deep | 2563 | 0 | 1 - 0 | 0 | Bhambure Shantanu | 2188 | 109 | |||
| 9 | 111 | Godbole Atharva | 2181 | 0 | 0 - 1 | 0 | GM | Tukhaev Adam | 2551 | 9 | |||
| 10 | 10 | IM | Nihal Sarin | 2551 | 0 | ½ - ½ | 0 | Panda Sambit | 2181 | 112 |
Pairings of round two
| Bo. | No. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | Result | Pts. | Name | Rtg | No. | ||||
| 1 | 1 | GM | Short Nigel D | 2656 | 1 | 1 | WIM | Vaishali R | 2316 | 60 | |||
| 2 | 59 | FM | Raja Rithvik R | 2316 | 1 | 1 | GM | Gupta Abhijeet | 2619 | 2 | |||
| 3 | 3 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | 2617 | 1 | 1 | WIM | Vantika Agrawal | 2296 | 66 | |||
| 4 | 5 | GM | Aravindh Chithambaram Vr. | 2597 | 1 | 1 | Saurabh Anand | 2294 | 72 | ||||
| 5 | 61 | Pranav V | 2315 | 1 | 1 | GM | Rozum Ivan | 2581 | 6 | ||||
| 6 | 7 | GM | Sandipan Chanda | 2573 | 1 | 1 | FM | Gajwa Ankit | 2290 | 74 | |||
| 7 | 63 | Sekar B | 2304 | 1 | 1 | GM | Sengupta Deep | 2563 | 8 | ||||
| 8 | 9 | GM | Tukhaev Adam | 2551 | 1 | 1 | Sai Vishwesh.C | 2288 | 76 | ||||
| 9 | 65 | FM | Mohammad Fahad Rahman | 2296 | 1 | 1 | GM | Lalith Babu M R | 2531 | 12 | |||
| 10 | 13 | GM | Burmakin Vladimir | 2528 | 1 | 1 | Vatsal Singhania | 2283 | 78 |
Video interviews:
Rani Hamid is one of the most inspiring personalities in Bangladesh chess. She started playing competitive chess after she was married and had four children! She won the Asian Zonal when she was 73 years old. Here's the story 21-time Bangladeshi Champion. Check out the video as she narrates many interesting incidents eapecially the one with Vishy Anand.
GM Dibyendu Barua is the main organizer of the Kolkata GM Open 2018. In this video he tells us about his involvement behind the organization of the Kolkata Open. What is his motivation to organize such an event? Barua also apologizes to the participants of B group for cancelling the tournament at the last moment. Kolkata GM Open 2018 is perhaps the only event in India where so many Indian GMs participate. We asked Barua the reason for the same, and his answer: "I am just very lucky!"
Opening ceremony:
Sen has been instrumental in developing the New Town in Kolkata, the part of the city where the tournament is taking place. He showed full support towards promoting chess in the New Town giving special emphasis that a man versus machine match should be held.
Visually Challenged team:
In what was a magnanimous gesture by the organizers, the entire visually challenged team of India (top five players) were given free entries at the Kolkata Open 2018, along with free boarding and lodging facilities. Kishan Gangolli, Ashvin Makwana, Aryan Joshi and Soundarya Pradhan are playing at the event. This is an ideal platform to prepare for the World Team Championship that will be taking place in Sofia, Bulgaria, in July 2018.