The strongest secret tournament in India!
IM V. Saravanan writes on Facebook: "Psst.... THAT secret tournament has started this year again!" Yes, it's the strongest secret tournament in Indian chess and it is currently in progress in Digboi, Assam. It's a team championship between various units of Petroleum Sports Promotion Board which is employing the big stars of Indian chess. Three teams have the chance of winning the title - BPCL led by Harikrishna Pentala, IOCL consisting of Adhiban, Lalith and others and ONGC which has Sasi and Vidit. IA Vasanth B.H, the chief arbiter of the event, sends us the impressions from Assam.
This is the gathering of some of the best players in Indian chess! But where exactly is it happening? Well, it's taking place in Digboi in the state of Assam. It's PSPB's inter-unit chess tournament. As all the top players of Indian chess (except Anand) are employed by Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) it is compulsory for them to participate in this team event and represent their organization. So Harikrishna plays for BPCL, Vidit and Sasikiran for ONGC, Adhiban for Indian Oil and so on. Just to give you an idea, here are the top ten ranked players participating:
The starting rank:
| No. | Name | FideID | Rtg | FED | Team | Bo. | |
| 1 | GM | Harikrishna P. | 5007003 | 2744 | IND | BPCL | 1 |
| 2 | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 5029465 | 2715 | IND | ONGC-A | 2 |
| 3 | GM | Sasikiran Krishnan | 5004985 | 2680 | IND | ONGC-A | 1 |
| 4 | GM | Adhiban B. | 5018471 | 2655 | IND | IOCL-A | 2 |
| 5 | GM | Ganguly Surya Shekhar | 5002150 | 2650 | IND | IOCL-A | 3 |
| 6 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | 5021596 | 2646 | IND | ONGC-A | 4 |
| 7 | GM | Gupta Abhijeet | 5010608 | 2610 | IND | BPCL | 5 |
| 8 | GM | Gopal G.N. | 5015693 | 2593 | IND | BPCL | 2 |
| 9 | GM | Sengupta Deep | 5008352 | 2586 | IND | ONGC-A | 3 |
| 10 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | 5074452 | 2580 | IND | IOCL-A | 4 |
Check the complete starting rank list
Only three teams have a realistic chance of winning the title, and the battle for being the winner will take place between them. ONGC -A is the top seed with rating average of 2657, BPCL is number two with 2622 and IOCL-A has a rating average of 2607.
ONGC-A
| Bo. | Name | Rtg | FED | FideID | Pts. | Games | |
| 1 | GM | Sasikiran Krishnan | 2680 | IND | 5004985 | 1,0 | 2,0 |
| 2 | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 2715 | IND | 5029465 | 2,0 | 3,0 |
| 3 | GM | Sengupta Deep | 2586 | IND | 5008352 | 1,0 | 2,0 |
| 4 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | 2646 | IND | 5021596 | 2,0 | 3,0 |
| 5 | GM | Debashis Das | 2501 | IND | 5024854 | 1,0 | 2,0 |
BPCL - A
| Bo. | Name | Rtg | FED | FideID | Pts. | Games | |
| 1 | GM | Harikrishna P. | 2744 | IND | 5007003 | 2,0 | 3,0 |
| 2 | GM | Gopal G.N. | 2593 | IND | 5015693 | 2,0 | 3,0 |
| 3 | GM | Venkatesh M.R. | 2428 | IND | 5005779 | 2,0 | 2,0 |
| 4 | GM | Vaibhav Suri | 2542 | IND | 5045185 | 0,0 | 1,0 |
| 5 | GM | Gupta Abhijeet | 2610 | IND | 5010608 | 2,0 | 3,0 |
IOCL - A
| 3. IOCL-A (RtgAvg:2607 / TB1: 4 / TB2: 8) | |||||||
| Bo. | Name | Rtg | FED | FideID | Pts. | Games | |
| 1 | GM | Lalith Babu M R | 2542 | IND | 5024595 | 2,0 | 3,0 |
| 2 | GM | Adhiban B. | 2655 | IND | 5018471 | 2,0 | 2,0 |
| 3 | GM | Ganguly Surya Shekhar | 2650 | IND | 5002150 | 1,0 | 2,0 |
| 4 | GM | Karthikeyan Murali | 2580 | IND | 5074452 | 2,0 | 3,0 |
| 5 | GM | Kunte Abhijit | 2499 | IND | 5002265 | 1,0 | 2,0 |
As Deputy chief arbiter Biswajit Bharadwaj mentioned in his press release, "This is in fact the first time that almost all the top players of the country are playing together in the Northeast region, particularly in Assam. Altogether 66 players including 18 Grand Masters and 7 International Masters from 9 units namely ONGC, BPCL, IOCL, OIL INDIA, MRPL, HPCL, EIL, IOCL(AOD) and NRL are participating in this 5 days event in which competition in both team and individual events in swiss league format will be held."
Results Round 1:
| Round 1 on 2017/12/20 at 10:00 am | |||||
| No. | Team | Team | Res. | : | Res. |
| 1 | ONGC-A | HPCL-A | 4 | : | 0 |
| 2 | OIL-INDIA_B | BPCL | 0 | : | 4 |
| 3 | IOCL-A | EIL | 4 | : | 0 |
| 4 | HPCL-B | IOCL-B | 0 | : | 4 |
| 5 | ONGC-B | IOCL(AOD)-A | 4 | : | 0 |
| 6 | IOCL(AOD)-B | OIL-INDIA_A | 0 | : | 4 |
| 7 | MRPL | NRL | 4 | : | 0 |
Results Round 2:
| Round 2 on 2017/12/20 at 03:00 pm | |||||
| No. | Team | Team | Res. | : | Res. |
| 1 | IOCL-B | ONGC-A | 1 | : | 3 |
| 2 | BPCL | ONGC-B | 4 | : | 0 |
| 3 | OIL-INDIA_A | IOCL-A | 0 | : | 4 |
| 4 | HPCL-A | MRPL | 2 | : | 2 |
| 5 | IOCL(AOD)-A | OIL-INDIA_B | 1 | : | 3 |
| 6 | EIL | IOCL(AOD)-B | 3 | : | 1 |
| 7 | NRL | HPCL-B | 0 | : | 4 |
Until round two things are going as per schedule. Teams ONGC, IOCL and BPCL are all on 4.0/4. The real battle starts from round three onwards as ONGC is pitted against BPCL. The next four rounds will decide who will become the inter-petroleum champion for the year 2017.
The tournament has been organised by Petroleum Sports promotion Board and hosted by Indian Oil Corporation Limited, Assam Oil Division at Digboi from 20th to 24th December 2017 The meet was formally inaugurated by Mritunjay Pramanik, Executive Director, IOCL (Assam Oil Division), A. K Tamuli, General Manager (I/C) IOCL (Assam Oil Division),S pandey, Chief General Manager, Vigilance, IOCL (Assam Oil Division), Amar Jyoti Saikia, General Manager (Zonal Office) IOCL (Assam Oil Division) in the presence of the players, officials, guests and other dignitaries. The event is being conducted by International Arbiter Vasanth Bh of Karnataka as the Chief Arbiter, FIDE Arbiter Biswajit Bharadwaj as Deputy Chief Arbiter and Senior National Arbiter Swaraj Buragohain as Deputy Arbiter.
ChessBase India is the only place where you can find the coverage of this super strong event. We thank International Arbiter Vasanth B.H. for sending us these wonderful pictures and we look forward to some games as well!
