IIT Bombay hosts its first FIDE Rapid Rating event with 493 participants
Last year, the Aavhan rapid tournament at IIT Bombay was a success. Attracting a crowd of 208 players, it garnered the attention of the best Mumbai players. This year they went a step further and now Aavhan has become a FIDE rapid rating tournament with 493 participants. The whole Mumbai crowd was there for the top prize pf Rs.30,000 and a total prize fund of Rs.2,00,000 and yet they were all surpassed by IM Ravi Teja. In this report we tell you about Ravi's fantastic performance. Our young annotator Arhan Anand has annotated Ravi's game over Mehar Chinna Reddy. We also have an interview with the organizers who plan to soon bring a classical rating tournament to IIT Bombay. Report by Avathanshu Bhat.
Rapid:
IM Ravi Teja was the winner in the rapid category at Aavhan 2019. He stayed rooted in the top spot for the whole tournament, scoring 8.5/9 points. He was undefeated and razed players like Saurav Kherdekar, Meher Chinna Reddy and Krishnater Kushager. A fine display of strength by him, indeed!
When asked, he said he preferred more fast paced action like blitz as compared to rapid. He also felt that Mumbaikars gave a tough fight and acknowledged the fact that the city has strong rapid players. The Andhra lad, who now lives in Gujarat, said he had quite a few games that he had played which he enjoyed. Of them, the following game against Mehar Chinna Reddy was one which he adored! This game was annotated by our expert annotator, Arhan Anand.
Mehar Chinna Reddy vs Ravi Teja annotated by Arhan Anand
Blitz:
The best player when it comes to speed was easily FM Mehar Chinna Reddy. He too scored 8.5 points of 9. He excelled and defeated regular players and strong players alike. On this list are Swapnil Kothari, Sammed Shete, Raahil Mullick and Ketan Patil. He too prefers blitz over rapid, and showed his mettle when put to the test.
So who are we to thank for this tournament? Chinmay is the organizer of the tournament, and the one who made the decision to make Aavhan into a rating tournament. We were able to have a word with him, and we asked a few questions. Here are his insights about chess and how to make it more popular.
Here at IIT Bombay we organize a chess tournament every year in our annual sports festival, Aavhan. This year, we took it up a notch higher and made it a FIDE Rated tournament. The reason behind doing so was to increase the quality of chess in the tournament and give an opportunity to chess enthusiasts in IIT Bombay to get FIDE Rating. Also organizing such a tournament benefits the chess culture in our institute.
Frankly speaking, we were expecting a good participation but 493 participants was a surprise even to us. One of the reasons for such a high participation is that our infrastructure like playing halls, resting area, ample parking space, food arrangements etc. are quite good and we have earned this reputation over the past few years. We also provided accommodation at very reasonable rates which ensured that there were many participants from outside Maharashtra as well. Since this was the first FIDE Rated tournament in our institute, we left no stone upturned to publicize our tournament.
Every year we take new initiatives to popularize chess in our institute like this year chess was made a part of undergraduate curriculum under NSO and also a FIDE Rated tournament was organised for the first time. I personally believe that classical chess is the most testing format of chess and we would surely try to have a classical format in Aavhan in the coming years.
What a successful tournament! We await Aavhan 2020 in anticipation!
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