Surya Sekhar Ganguly held to a draw in the opening round of National Team 2018

by Shahid Ahmed - 08/02/2018

Karan Trivedi of Gujarat shocked everyone when he held 770 ELO points higher, India's Elite GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly of PSPB in the opening round of 38th National Team Chess Championship 2018 held at KIIT University in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. PSPB made its return to the tournament after they skipped it in 2017. Sanjeeban Nayak of Odisha-MCF-2 also caused another upset by drawing with GM Tejas Bakre of Air India. All seeded women's team whitewashed their lower ranked opponents. We bring you the photos and games from the tournament. Photos by IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Karan Trivedi holds GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly to a draw in the first round of 38th National Team Chess Championship 2018

Karan Trivedi of Gujarat starts the game with 1.e4 against GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly of PSPB | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

The game started in a long theoretical line of French Defense where both players had chances to gain the upper hand but neither capitalized. Eventually Ganguly used his experience and settled for a draw in a King-Pawn endgame which arose from Queen and Bishop vs. Two Rooks and then Bishop vs Rook endgame. Here is the game:

Inaugural move 1.e4 made by Prof. Achyuta Samanta in presence of AOCA President IM Sekhar Sahu | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Founder of Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology and Kalinga Institute of Social Sciences Prof. Achyuta Samanta lights up the ceremonial lamp | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Prof. Achyuta Samanta delivers his inaugural speech | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

AOCA President IM Sekhar Sahu delivers his inaugural speech | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Open section:

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly did not have the perfect start but he is always known to bounce back | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

After having a not-so-impressive Tata Steel 2018, GM B Adhiban is ready to unleash the beast | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

GM G N Gopal had an easy first round | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

After winning the Hastings Masters for the second consecutive year, GM Deep Sengupta will look forward to continue his momentum | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Team Gujarat went down 0.5-3.5 against top seed team PSPB in the first round | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

GM S L Narayanan defeated his opponent rated over 1000 lower without any difficulty | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

GM M Shyam Sundar made a quick work of his opponent in just 32 moves in the Italian Opening | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Team Airport Authority of India whitewashed Services Sports Control Board with a score of 4-0 | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

GM Himanshu Sharma won his opening round game comfortably | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

IM P Karthikeyan smashed his opponent in just 24 moves | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

GM Swapnil Dhopade played a fantastic endgame and won his game | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

India's 50th Grandmaster M S Thejkumar outplayed his opponent in just 34 moves | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Results:

Round 1 on 2018/02/08 at 15:00

Bo.

Gujarat

Rtg

Petroleum Sports Promotion Board

Rtg

½ :3½

1.1

Trivedi, Karan R

1880

Ganguly, Surya Shekhar

2650

½ - ½

1.2

Chudasama, Ankit

1775

Adhiban, B.

2643

0 - 1

1.3

Dave, Sneh

1819

Gopal, G.N.

2593

0 - 1

1.4

Anadkat, Kartavya

1890

Sengupta, Deep

2572

0 - 1

Bo.

Airport Authority of India

Rtg

Services Sports Control Board

Rtg

4 : 0

2.1

Narayanan.S.L,

2573

Nagesh, I V

1552

1 - 0

2.2

Shyam, Sundar M.

2521

Srikanth, K.

1918

1 - 0

2.3

Visakh, N R

2457

Dony, K V

1744

1 - 0

2.4

Rajesh, V A V

2315

Raghvendra, Kumar Mishra

1699

1 - 0

Bo.

Odisha-MCF-3

Rtg

Railway Sports Promotion Board - A

Rtg

0 : 4

3.1

Swain, Narayan

1771

Himanshu, Sharma

2425

0 - 1

3.2

Sriansh, Das

1389

Karthikeyan, P.

2464

0 - 1

3.3

Johnson, Sahoo

1822

Swapnil, S. Dhopade

2531

0 - 1

3.4

Priansh, Das

1576

Thejkumar, M. S.

2500

0 - 1

Bo.

Air India

Rtg

Odisha-MCF-2

Rtg

3½: ½

4.1

Narayanan, Srinath

2530

Mishra, Om

1454

1 - 0

4.2

Swayams, Mishra

2439

Sahoo, Soumya Ranjan

1578

1 - 0

4.3

Bakre, Tejas

2444

Nayak, Sanjeeban

1775

½ - ½

4.4

Satyapragyan, Swayangsu

2398

Rudranarayan,

1710

1 - 0

Bo.

Andhra Pradesh

Rtg

Railway Sports Promotion Board - B

Rtg

0 : 4

5.1

Divya, Teja P

1370

Nitin, S.

2402

0 - 1

5.2

Sai, Kiran Y

1715

Laxman, R.R.

2456

0 - 1

5.3

Mushini, Ajay

1795

Krishna, C R G

2416

0 - 1

5.4

Durga, Surya Krishna Teja Y

1388

Shyaamnikhil, P

2394

0 - 1

Bo.

Life Insurance Corporation

Rtg

Reserve Bank of India

Rtg

4 : 0

6.1

Sriram, Jha

2388

Sanjiv, Kumar

1863

1 - 0

6.2

Sharma, Dinesh K.

2238

AIM

Sheikh, Jahan

1487

1 - 0

6.3

Deshmukh, Anup

2284

Mishra, Rahul

1495

1 - 0

6.4

Agarwal, Brajesh

1899

AFM

Swaroop, Kashyap

1403

1 - 0

Bo.

Odisha-MCF-4

Rtg

Bengal Chess-A

Rtg

½ :3½

7.1

Harshit, Ranjan Sahu

1571

Debarshi, Mukherjee

2303

0 - 1

7.2

Barik, Jagdish

1638

Sumit, Kumar

2191

0 - 1

7.3

Debi, Prasad Nayak

1338

Arpan, Das

2192

½ - ½

7.4

Nayak, Surajit

1487

Samrat, Ghorai

2108

0 - 1

Bo.

Odisha-KiiT

Rtg

Maharashtra-A

Rtg

4 : 0

8.1

Sidhant, Mohapatra

2389

Talekar, Aditya

1413

1 - 0

8.2

Rakesh, Kumar Jena

2387

Mithil, Anande P

1518

1 - 0

8.3

Sahoo, Utkal Ranjan

2252

Gengaje, Pratik

1591

1 - 0

8.4

Badamundi, Tapan

1706

Jadhav, Vishwadeep

1442

1 - 0

Bo.

Odisha-B

Rtg

Bengal Chess-B

Rtg

1 : 3

9.1

Samantaray, Biswanath

1421

Kaustuv, Kundu

2336

0 - 1

9.2

Mohanty, Rajesh

1471

Sonkalan, Bharati

2164

0 - 1

9.3

Lochan, Kumar Das

1581

Suvradeepta, Das

1962

1 - 0

9.4

Mallick, Saswat

1447

Sayantan, Chandra

1854

0 - 1

Bo.

Odisha-A

Rtg

Telangana

Rtg

2 : 2

10.1

Baivab, Mishra

2139

Satyanarayana, G

1427

1 - 0

10.2

Rakesh, Kumar Nayak

2047

Srujan, Keerthan Solletti

1512

0 - 1

10.3

Panda, Raj Santosh

1573

Naga Shashank, D

1700

0 - 1

10.4

Nayak, Rajesh

2263

Srinivas, Allundi

1 - 0

Women's section:

Uttar Pradesh lost to top seed PSPB (Clockwise from top left: IM Eesha Karavade, WGM Mary Ann Gomes, IM Nisha Mohota and IM Padmini Rout) with a score of 0-4 | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Air India (Clockwise from top left: IM Tania Sachdev, WGM Bhakti Kulkarni, WGM Subbaraman Meenakshi and WGM Aarthie Ramaswamy) made a clean sweep of Telengana 4-0

Results:

Round 1 on 2018/02/08 at 15:00

Bo.

Uttar Pradesh

Rtg

Petroleum Sports Promotion Board

Rtg

0 : 4

1.1

Shweta, Priyadarshini

1600

Karavade, Eesha

2386

0 - 1

1.2

Tiwari, Aradhana

1502

WGM

Gomes, Mary Ann

2329

0 - 1

1.3

Mishra, Riya

1430

Padmini, Rout

2325

0 - 1

1.4

Jaiswal, Ayushi

1175

Mohota, Nisha

2256

0 - 1

Bo.

Air India

Rtg

Telangana

Rtg

4 : 0

2.1

Tania, Sachdev

2402

AFM

Advaita, Sharma K

1302

1 - 0

2.2

WGM

Kulkarni, Bhakti

2290

Yagna, Priya Polisetty

1112

1 - 0

2.3

WGM

Meenakshi, Subbaraman

2193

Chaitanya, V.

1813

1 - 0

2.4

WGM

Ramaswamy, Aarthie

2023

Gnanyta, Netha

1 - 0

Bo.

Odisha-MCF-5

Rtg

Airport Authority of India

Rtg

0 : 4

3.1

Biswal, Gitashree

1452

WIM

Pujari, Rucha

2171

0 - 1

3.2

Dibyashrita, Swain

1052

WIM

Parnali, S Dharia

2144

0 - 1

3.3

Shruti, Snehi

WIM

Chitlange, Sakshi

2089

0 - 1

3.4

Rasmita, Kumari Patro

1073

WIM

Srija, Seshadri

2252

0 - 1

Bo.

Tamilnadu

Rtg

Punjab

Rtg

4 : 0

4.1

Rindhiya, V

1848

Sharma, Deepanshi

1222

1 - 0

4.2

Saranya, Y

1966

Kaur, Mandeep

1036

1 - 0

4.3

Divya, Lakshmi R (C)

1926

Smily, Goyal

1 - 0

4.4

Abirama Srinithi, G

1634

Gupta, Rashmi

1167

1 - 0

Bo.

Himachal Pradesh

Rtg

Odisha-KIIT

Rtg

0 : 4

5.1

Santosh, Kumari

1439

Smaraki, Mohanty

1814

0 - 1

5.2

Chahat,

WFM

Salonika, Saina

2151

0 - 1

5.3

Aditri, Nag

Sribrinda, Rout

1564

0 - 1

5.4

Aaina, Vashisht

Aparajita, Gochhikar

1740

0 - 1

Bo.

Life Insurance Corporation

Rtg

Himachal Pradesh-A

Rtg

4 : 0

6.1

WGM

Swati, Ghate

2222

Arsha, Verma Sh Sanjay

1 - 0

6.2

WGM

Kiran, Manisha Mohanty

2101

Bhavna, Devi

1 - 0

6.3

S.Jayaseeli,

1174

Kiran,

1 - 0

6.4

WFM

Bindu, Saritha K.

1565

Pingla, Devi

1 - 0

Round 2 pairings:

Open category:

Bo.

Petroleum Sports Promotion Board

Rtg

Bengal Chess-B

Rtg

0 : 0

1.1

Adhiban, B.

2643

Kaustuv, Kundu

2336

1.2

Gopal, G.N.

2593

Sonkalan, Bharati

2164

1.3

Karthikeyan, Murali

2585

Saptorshi, Gupta

2087

1.4

Sengupta, Deep

2572

Sayantan, Chandra

1854

Bo.

Tamilnadu

Rtg

Airport Authority of India

Rtg

0 : 0

2.1

Sathya, Giri V

1913

Stany, G.A.

2500

2.2

Barath, Kalyan M

2127

Shyam, Sundar M.

2521

2.3

Hari, Madhavan N B

2086

Visakh, N R

2457

2.4

Kumar, S. (C)

1922

Rajesh, V A V

2315

Bo.

Railway Sports Promotion Board - A

Rtg

Bharat Sanchar Nigam Limited

Rtg

0 : 0

3.1

Himanshu, Sharma

2425

Thanki, Hemal Karsanji

2073

3.2

Deepan, Chakkravarthy J.

2516

Ram, S. Krishnan

2197

3.3

Karthikeyan, P.

2464

Sudhakar, Prem Dutt

1737

3.4

Swapnil, S. Dhopade

2531

Jayakumar, P.

1875

Bo.

Odisha-MCF-1

Rtg

Air India

Rtg

0 : 0

4.1

Samal, Ansuman

2022

Narayanan, Srinath

2530

4.2

Pattnayak, Nilsu

1987

Swayams, Mishra

2439

4.3

Das, Susobhit

1856

Bakre, Tejas

2444

4.4

Rabindra, Kumar Ojha

1721

Satyapragyan, Swayangsu

2398

Bo.

Railway Sports Promotion Board - B

Rtg

Assam

Rtg

0 : 0

5.1

Nitin, S.

2402

Santanu, Borpatra Gohain

1989

5.2

Das, Arghyadip

2443

Trailokya, Nanda

1969

5.3

Krishna, C R G

2416

Singh, Soram Rahul

1951

5.4

Shyaamnikhil, P

2394

Neelabh, Jyoti Borthakur

1794

Bo.

Uttar Pradesh

Rtg

Life Insurance Corporation

Rtg

0 : 0

6.1

Shailendra, K Bajpai

2257

Sriram, Jha

2388

6.2

Rishabh, Nishad

1854

Sharma, Dinesh K.

2238

6.3

Katiyar, Prashant

1761

Deshmukh, Anup

2284

6.4

Vikash, Nishad

1661

Agarwal, Brajesh

1899

Bo.

Bengal Chess-A

Rtg

Bihar

Rtg

0 : 0

7.1

Bose, Sayan

1963

Ashish, Raj

1707

7.2

Debarshi, Mukherjee

2303

Rupesh, Ranjan

1866

7.3

Sumit, Kumar

2191

Himanshu, Ranjan

1861

7.4

Arpan, Das

2192

Sudhanshu, Ranjan

2088

Bo.

Defence Accounts Sports Control Board

Rtg

Odisha-KiiT

Rtg

0 : 0

8.1

Vikesh, Nandan Kumar

1838

Sidhant, Mohapatra

2389

8.2

Chandrasekhar, M K

1836

Sahoo, Utkal Ranjan

2252

8.3

Pradip, Tiwari

1948

Badamundi, Tapan

1706

8.4

Ajay, Kumar Rai

1859

Nayak, Sajan Kumar

1719

Bo.

Telangana

Rtg

UP-Kaushambi Academy

Rtg

0 : 0

9.1

Satyanarayana, G

1427

Ashutosh, Kumar Singh

9.2

Srujan, Keerthan Solletti

1512

Kamal, Kumar Gautam

9.3

Naga Shashank, D

1700

Hariom, Chaurasiya

9.4

Ravi, Golla

Abhay, Kumar Singh

Bo.

Gujarat

Rtg

Odisha-A

Rtg

0 : 0

10.1

Trivedi, Karan R

1880

Baivab, Mishra

2139

10.2

Chudasama, Ankit

1775

Rakesh, Kumar Nayak

2047

10.3

Dave, Sneh

1819

Panda, Sambit

2085

10.4

Anadkat, Kartavya

1890

Nayak, Rajesh

2263

Women's category:

Bo.

Petroleum Sports Promotion Board

Rtg

Tamilnadu

Rtg

0 : 0

1.1

Karavade, Eesha

2386

Rindhiya, V

1848

1.2

WGM

Soumya, Swaminathan

2349

Saranya, Y

1966

1.3

WGM

Gomes, Mary Ann

2329

Divya, Lakshmi R (C)

1926

1.4

Mohota, Nisha

2256

WFM

Saranya, J

2077

Bo.

Odisha-KIIT

Rtg

Air India

Rtg

0 : 0

2.1

Hansdah, Namita

1167

Tania, Sachdev

2402

2.2

Smaraki, Mohanty

1814

WGM

Kulkarni, Bhakti

2290

2.3

WFM

Salonika, Saina

2151

Vijayalakshmi, Subbaraman

2352

2.4

Aparajita, Gochhikar

1740

WGM

Meenakshi, Subbaraman

2193

Bo.

Airport Authority of India

Rtg

Life Insurance Corporation

Rtg

0 : 0

3.1

WIM

Pujari, Rucha

2171

WGM

Swati, Ghate

2222

3.2

WIM

Parnali, S Dharia

2144

WGM

Kiran, Manisha Mohanty

2101

3.3

WIM

Chitlange, Sakshi

2089

S.Jayaseeli,

1174

3.4

WFM

Varshini, V

2103

WFM

Bindu, Saritha K.

1565

Bo.

Telangana

Rtg

Karnataka

Rtg

0 : 0

4.1

AFM

Advaita, Sharma K

1302

Tejaswini, M P

4.2

Yagna, Priya Polisetty

1112

Sakshi, S Auradkar

4.3

Chaitanya, V.

1813

Anvita, Aparanji

4.4

Sanvee, R

Sahana, Gobbur

Bo.

Punjab

Rtg

Uttar Pradesh

Rtg

0 : 0

5.1

Sharma, Deepanshi

1222

Shweta, Priyadarshini

1600

5.2

Kaur, Mandeep

1036

Tiwari, Aradhana

1502

5.3

Smily, Goyal

Mishra, Riya

1430

5.4

Kaur, Parminder

1047

Jaiswal, Ayushi

1175

Bo.

Himachal Pradesh-A

Rtg

Odisha-MCF-5

Rtg

0 : 0

6.1

Arsha, Verma Sh Sanjay

Biswal, Gitashree

1452

6.2

Kiran,

Dibyashrita, Swain

1052

6.3

Pingla, Devi

Shruti, Snehi

6.4

Suman, Devi

Rasmita, Kumari Patro

1073

Director of Sports of both KIIT and KISS, Mr. Gaganendu Dash | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

View of the tournament hall | Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

The tournament will go on from 8th - 14th February 2018 at KIIT University in Bhubaneswar, Odisha, organized by All Odisha Chess Association.