Tapan Badamundi clinches 1st SOA Category B Below 2000 Rating Tournament 2024

by Shahid Ahmed - 03/02/2024

Tapan Badamundi scored 8.5/10 to win 1st SOA International GM Chess Festival Category B Below 2000 Rating Tournament 2024. He finished a half point ahead of the rest. Four players - Sudhanshu Ranjan, Akshat Negi, Kolla Bhaavan and Ashutosh Kumar scored 8/10 each. They were placed second to fifth according to tie-breaks. Ashtutosh Kumar skipped the first two rounds and then scored 8/8 in the eight games he played. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹750000. The top three prizes were ₹75000, ₹50000 and ₹40000 along with a trophy each respectively. This was Tapan's first tournament triumph of the year 2024. His last rating tournament triumph was in late December 2023. The four-day eight round Rating tournament was organized by All Odisha Chess Association at SOA Campus 2 in Bhubaneswar, Odisha. Photos: IA R Anantharam

Tapan's first tournament triumph in 2024

Tapan Badamundi of Odisha conceded three draws and remained unbeaten to win the 1st SOA International GM Chess Festival B Category (Below 2000) at the SOA University, Bhubaneswar, collecting a cash prize of ₹75000.Sudhanshu Ranjan of Bihar, Akshat Negi of Delhi, Bhaavan Kolla of AP and Ashutosh Kumar of Bihar scored eight points each to win the second to fifth places respectively. While Sudhanshu received ₹50000, Akshat was awarded ₹40000.

Odisha's very own Tapan Badamundi receives the champion's trophy from Mr. Ganeswar Jena, the Chief Guest and also the father of WIM Saina Salonika

Sudhanshu Ranjan of Bihar is the runner-up

Akshat Negi of Delhi was placed third

Top 3 (L to R): 3rd Akshat Negi 8/10, 1st Tapan Badamundi 8.5/10 and 2nd Sudhanshu Ranjan 8/10

Tapan Badamundi scored an unbeaten 8.5/10, finished a half point ahead of the field and gained 18 Elo rating points

Tapan needed just a draw in the final round to clinch the title and he did it with the runner-up Sudhanshu.

Tapan Badamundi (right) split the point with the eventual runner-up Sudhanshu Ranjan in the final round

After losing to S Gowsalyan of Sri Lanka in the sixth round, Akshat Negi recorded four wins in a row to score eight points and won the third place.

Akshat Negi (right) secured the third rank by recording four wins in a row after his loss to S Gowsalyan of Sri Lanka

13-year-old Kolla Bhavan had a good run in the tournament. He defeated Srijon Saha of WB in the ninth round and drew with Basak Bishal of WB to reach the creditable fourth place.

13-year-old Kolla Bhavan (right) of AP had a creditable performance to get the fourth rank

Ashutosh Kumar did not play the first two rounds; registered eight wins in a row and climbed to the fifth position.

A remarkable achievement by Ashutosh Kumar of Bihar (right). He skipped the first two rounds and managed to share the second place and was declared fifth

Bishal Basak of WB stunned the hitherto sole leader Alluri Bhaskara to emerge leader after seven rounds. But a loss to the eventual winner Tapan in the ninth round put him in the sixth place. Alluri was placed next to him in the rank list.

Bishal Basak (right) upset the leader Alluri Bhaskara in the seventh round which helped him to get the sixth rank. Alluri was placed behind him in the rank list

Harshit Ranjan Sahu (left) won the final round against Rabindra Kumar Ojha of Odisha to clinch the eighth place

Sri Lankan player Sivathanujan’s (right) hat-trick of victories in the last three rounds put him in the ninth place

10-year-old Vyom Malhotra (right) of Haryana drew with Lakshmi Charan Naidu of AP in the tenth round to receive the tenth place

Officials and some arbiters of B Category

A total of 215 players took part from various states across the country, one from Bangladesh and five from Sri Lanka. The four-day ten round Below 2000 Rating tournament was organized by All Odisha Chess Association at SOA Campus 2 in Bhubaneswar, Odisha from 28th to 31st January 2024. The time control of the event was 60 minutes + 30 seconds increment per move.

Final standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB5
1	8		Badamundi Tapan	IND	1779	Odisha	8,5	57,5	62,5	52,50	7
2	1		Sudhanshu Ranjan	IND	1937	Bihar	8	59	64	49,50	7
3	12		Akshat Negi	IND	1710	Delhi	8	56,5	61	49,00	8
4	17		Kolla Bhaavan	IND	1676	Andhra Pradesh	8	56,5	61	48,75	7
5	20		Ashutosh Kumar	IND	1659	Bihar	8	52	60	44,00	8
6	6		Basak Bishal	IND	1797	West Bengal	7,5	62	66	47,00	6
7	7		Alluri Bhaskara Ratna Shanmukha Reddy	IND	1791	Andhra Pradesh	7,5	61	66	48,00	7
8	5		Harshit Ranjan Sahu	IND	1800	Odisha	7,5	55,5	63	44,00	7
9	4		Sivathanujan S	SRI	1821	Sri Lanka	7,5	55,5	59,5	43,25	7
10	55		Vyom Malhotra	IND	1455	Haryana	7	61	65	42,25	6
11	25		Soumick Bandopadhyay	IND	1643	West Bengal	7	60,5	64,5	42,25	6
12	48		Aarit Kapil	IND	1502	Delhi	7	59	62	40,00	6
13	10	CM	Sahu Rajendra Kumar	IND	1741	Odisha	7	58	62,5	42,00	6
14	9		Lalitaditaayyanar Boominathan	IND	1767	Maharashtra	7	57	61	40,50	6
15	28		Srijon Saha	IND	1616	West Bengal	7	57	60,5	39,00	7
16	22		Lakshmi Charan Naidu G	IND	1652	Andhra Pradesh	7	56	60,5	40,75	5
17	107		Raman Siddhardh B	IND	1284	Andhra Pradesh	7	55	59	38,50	7
18	44		Rishan Debnath	IND	1524	West Bengal	7	54	56,5	35,75	5
19	23		Chudasama Ankit	IND	1650	Gujarat	7	53	57	39,50	5
20	26		Sanjit Saha	IND	1621	West Bengal	7	52,5	57,5	38,50	7

Details

About the Author

Prof. Rathinam Anantharam is an A-grade international arbiter. Member of FIDE Arbiters’ Commission, Chairman of Titles Commission in All India Chess Federation, Vice President of Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, Chief Arbiter for six world championships, many Asian, International and National Championships.

The report was edited by Shahid Ahmed

Related news:

	Vyom Malhotra wins 1st SOA Category C Below 1600 Rating Tournament 2024 @ 11/02/2024 by R Anantharam (en)
	Sayantan Das clinches 1st SOA GM 2024, Diptayan Ghosh second and Sambit Panda third @ 08/02/2024 by Shahid Ahmed (en)
	1st SOA GM 2024 R1-5: Teenagers Goutham Krishna H and Vignesh Advaith Vemula are the coleaders @ 01/02/2024 by R Anantharam (en)