4th Shaastra Rapid Rating witnesses 439 players
GM Vishnu Prasanna, GM Priyadharshan Kanappan, IM D K Sharma, IM Ravi Teja S, GM Laxman R R, IM P D S Girinath and FM Rohith Krishna are in the lead with 5.0/5 at the conclusion of Round 5 of 4th Shaastra Rapid Rating.
The tournament was inaugurated by award-winning coach GM Ramesh RB and Chief Arbiter IA R Anantharam.
GM vs CEO in Round 2
Top seeds as expected made a smooth sailing in Round 1. In Round 2, board no.2 witnessed an interesting pairing between GM Vishnu Prasanna and CEO of Akshayakalpa, Shashi Kumar. Akshayakalpa is also the co-sponsor of the tournament.
Vishnu won the game obviously but his 1301 rated opponent played the opening correctly.
Jayachandra held Shyam Sundar to a draw in Round 3
Round 3 witnessed two major upsets, Jayachandra Srinivas Vellanki (1518) held GM Shyam Sundar M (2504) to a draw. Tayalan Manikandan (1428) shocked IM P Saravana Krishnan (2310).
All participants were given a metallic bottle by Akshayakalpa as seen in the above photo.
Srihari held Srinath to a draw, Nikhil beat Deepan in Round 4
On the top board, FM Srihari L R held top seed of the tournament GM Srinath Narayanan to a draw in what seemed like Srihari missed a win. Of course it was not easy to spot as he was down to few seconds on the clock.
Srihari - Srinath, Round 4
Srihari continued with 37.Rd2 and after a couple of mistakes, the game liquidated into a drawn Rook-knight vs. Rook endgame where Srinath was reluctant to take a draw as he wanted to fight till the end. After making two draw offer rejections, Srinath finally accepted draw as the obvious outcome of the game.
Among other upsets, FM Rohith Krishna S (1883) beat GM Sundararajan Kidambi (2418), Vinay R Jumani (1548) beat GM Shyam Sundar M (2504) and Rohit S (1587) held WGM Nandhidhaa P V (2151) to a draw in Round 4.
Nikhil continues his momentum in Round 5
Vishnu, Priyadharshan, D K Sharma, Ravi Teja, Laxman, Rohith Krishna S and Girinath scored a win each respectively to be among the seven leaders at the conclusion of day 1. IM Siddharth Ravichandran (2370) was held to a draw by CM Nikhil Magizhnan (1893), WIM Michelle Catherina P (2039) drew with IM Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad (2287) and WFM Savith Shri B (1681) held IM Praveen Kumar C (2223) to a draw.
For more photos, click here.
The two-day Rapid Rating Open observes the total participation of 439 players comprising of 7 GMs, 11 IMs, a WGM, 2 WIMs, 3 FMs and a WFM. It is the strongest edition in this tournament's nascent history and perhaps one of the strongest rapid rating tournament in the country of this year. The tournament is organized by Shaastra IIT Madras at IIT Madras on 22nd and 23rd February, co-sponsored by Akshayakalpa and nurtr.
