Top seed Narayanan S L dominates IPS Academy 2nd Sultan Khan Cup

by Shahid Ahmed - 01/09/2021

GM Narayanan S L won IPS Academy Online Blitz Open with an unbeaten score of 8.5/9. He finished a half point ahead of the competition. This was Narayanan's third Open Blitz event triumph, hosted by ChessBase India. IM Mitrabha Guha scored sole 8.0/9 and he was placed second. GM Diptayan Ghosh secured third position 7.0/9 as he had a better tie-break among the group of twelve players with the same score. A total of 170 players including 6 GMs, 12 IMs, a WGM and 4 WIMs participated in this event from five different countries across the world. For the first time, a ChessBase India event took place on Tornelo, and it was quite a successful one.

Narayanan remains invincible

IPS Academy organized Sultan Khan Cup for the second consecutive year. Just like last year, this time also they donated the entire prize money for the benefit of the chess players and the sport. GM Narayanan S L continued his great momentum after finishing second at Riga Technical University Open 2021. He won ₹20000 cash prize for his efforts. He started with a double hat-trick of wins and then made a draw, finishing the tournament with two more wins at 8.5/9. IM Mitrabha scored 8.0/9 to secure second place and earned ₹10000. Twelve players finished at 7.0/9. GM Diptayan Ghosh was placed third according to tie-breaks. He received ₹5000 cash prize.

Champion GM Narayanan S L scored an unbeaten 8.5/9

IPS Academy 2nd Sultan Khan Cup 2021 logo

Sannidhya Agrawal from Madhya Pradesh donated ₹11000 to the family of Late Swatantra Jain.

Late Mr. Swatantra Jain

I am writing in reference to Late Swatantra Jain who was an active chess player and chess coach for beginner kids. We have been chess mates since childhood and have been playing chess together for more than couple of decade or so, and I have always known him to be a disciplined and sincere person. - IM Akshat Khamparia.

A great escape

GM Narayanan S L made a double hat-trick by defeating IM Souhardo Basak. However, things were not easy.

Narayanan - Souhardo, Round 6

Position after 47.Bxd4

Black is completely winning in the above position. 47...Nb3 ends the game. Unfortunately for Black, he missed this due to time scramble and played 47...Qxa1 which allowed White to get back and win the game eventually.

Sharp Narayanan

In the penultimate round, Narayanan defeated GM Abhimanyu Puranik.

Narayanan - Abhimanyu, Round 8

Position after 17...Rfe8

Find out why 17...Rfe8 is a blunder and what Black should have done instead.

Narayanan remained undefeated and made only one draw

Replay all games of Narayanan

Endgame endurance

IM Mitrabha Guha scored a fine victory against GM Diptayan Ghosh in the penultimate round.

Mitrabha - Diptayan, Round 8

Position after 64.Nb3

Black made the incorrect decision of going towards the f4-pawn 64...Ke6. Instead 64...Bd7 would have headed towards a draw.

Replay all games of Mitrabha

Runner-up IM Mitrabha Guha 8.0/9 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Pawn power

GM Diptayan Ghosh defeated GM Abhimanyu Puranik in the sixth round using the protected passed pawn.

Replay all games of Diptayan

3rd GM Diptayan Ghosh 7.0/9 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

4th IM Nubairshah Shaikh 7.0/9

5th GM Abhimanyu Puranik 7.0/9 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

6th IM Sayantan Das 7.0/9 | Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

7th FM L R Srihari 7.0/9

8th IM Neelash Saha 7.0/9 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

9th IM Sammed Jaykumar Shete 7.0/9 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

10th Ilamparthi A R 7.0/9

Best Woman 1st - WIM Arpita Mukherjee 6.5/9 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Best Woman 2nd - WIM Srija Seshadri 6.0/9

Best Woman 3rd IM Bhakti Kulkarni 5.5/9 | Photo: Queen's Chess Academy

Best Woman 4th Marium Fatima 5.5/9 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Best Woman 5th WFM Srishti Pandey 5.0/9 | Photo: IA Jitendra Choudhary

16th - IM Souhardo Basak donated his prize ₹1000 to Late Mr. Swatantra Jain's family | Photo: Lennart Ootes/Sunway Sitges Open

Scholarship winners

As mentioned earlier in the tournament announcement, 50% of the entry fee collected ₹37776 has been given to Late Mr.Swatantra Jain's family and the remaining 50% worth ₹37776 is distributed as scholarship to the following players:

IM Anuj Shrivatri won scholarship worth ₹7776

WFM Nityata Jain - ₹5000 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Ayush Sharma - ₹5000

Prakhar Bajaj - ₹5000

Ayush Pattanaik - ₹5000

Sparsh Khandelwal - ₹5000 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Rashi Warudkar - ₹5000

Achal Choudhary - President and founder of IPS Academy

Madhya Pradesh's first IM Akshat Khamparia

IIT-ian, Educationist and Entrepreneur - Achal Choudhary, the founder of IPS Academy | Video: Dilip Awasthi

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Final Standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	1	GM	S.L Narayanan		IND	2624		8,5	51,5	55,0	51,50	0,0	8
2	6	IM	Mitrabha Guha		IND	2467		8,0	48,5	52,5	44,00	0,0	8
3	3	GM	Ghosh Diptayan		IND	2541		7,0	53,0	56,0	40,25	0,0	6
4	8	IM	Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh		IND	2432		7,0	52,0	55,5	41,00	0,0	7
5	2	GM	Puranik Abhimanyu		IND	2580		7,0	51,5	54,5	39,00	0,0	7
6	9	IM	Das Sayantan		IND	2431		7,0	51,0	56,0	41,00	0,0	7
7	13	FM	Srihari L R		IND	2414		7,0	49,5	53,0	39,25	0,0	6
8	12	IM	Neelash Saha		IND	2418		7,0	48,0	53,0	41,00	0,0	7
9	14	IM	Sammed Jaykumar Shete		IND	2412		7,0	48,0	51,5	37,50	0,0	7
10	36		Ilamparthi A R		IND	2000		7,0	47,0	51,0	38,50	0,0	7
11	53		Hruthik Lokesh P		IND	1677		7,0	47,0	51,0	37,00	0,0	7
12	41		Arhan Chethan Anand		IND	1915		7,0	45,0	47,0	34,00	0,0	7
13	31	FM	Aradhya Garg		IND	2198		7,0	44,5	48,0	35,00	0,0	7
14	33		Ayush Sharma		IND	2072	MP	7,0	44,5	47,5	34,50	0,0	7
15	30	WIM	Arpita Mukherjee	w	IND	2206		6,5	46,0	50,0	34,25	0,0	6
16	40		Borgaonkar Akshay		IND	1941		6,5	45,0	48,0	33,00	0,0	6
17	46	AGM	Karthikeyan J.		IND	1860		6,5	40,5	44,5	31,75	0,0	6
18	17		Souhardo Basak		IND	2382		6,0	51,5	55,5	33,00	0,0	6
19	10	IM	A Ra Harikrishnan		IND	2429		6,0	50,5	54,5	34,50	0,0	6
20	5	GM	Venkatesh M.R.		IND	2493		6,0	48,5	52,5	32,50	0,0	6
21	18	CM	Kushagra Mohan		IND	2351		6,0	48,0	50,0	30,50	0,0	6
22	11	IM	Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad		IND	2425		6,0	47,0	51,0	31,00	0,0	6
23	19	IM	Anuj Shrivatri		IND	2350		6,0	47,0	50,5	30,50	0,0	6
24	28	WGM	Srija Seshadri	w	IND	2219		6,0	47,0	50,0	30,00	0,0	6
25	32		Namitbir Singh Walia		IND	2093		6,0	47,0	50,0	29,00	0,0	6
26	24	FM	Jeet Jain		IND	2279		6,0	46,0	49,0	26,50	0,0	6
27	22		Kaustuv Kundu		IND	2311		6,0	45,5	48,5	28,50	0,0	6
28	38		Sivanesan Subramanian		MAS	1977		6,0	43,5	46,5	26,50	0,0	6
29	26	CM	Prraneeth Vuppala		IND	2253		6,0	43,5	44,5	25,50	0,0	6
30	55	AIM	Ashwin Sairam		IND	1670		6,0	43,0	46,5	29,50	0,0	6

Complete standings

Main Prize winners (Top 30)

Rank	Name	Score	Prize money
1	GM Narayanan S L	8.5	20000
2	IM Mitrabha Guha	8	10000
3	GM Diptayan Ghosh	7	5000
4	IM Mohammad Nubairshah Shaikh	7	4000
5	GM Abhimanyu Puranik	7	3000
6	IM Sayantan Das	7	1500
7	FM L R Srihari	7	1500
8	IM Neelash Saha	7	1500
9	IM Sammed Jaykumar Shete	7	1500
10	Ilamparthi A R	7	1500
11	Hruthik Lokesh P	7	1000
12	Arhan Chethan Anand	7	1000
13	FM Aradhya Garg	7	1000
14	Akshay Borgaonkar	6.5	1000
15	AGM J Karthikeyan	6.5	1000
16	IM Souhardo Basak	6	1000
17	IM Harikrishnan A Ra	6	1000
18	GM M R Venkatesh	6	1000
19	CM Kushagra Mohan	6	1000
20	IM Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad	6	1000
21	Namitbir Singh Walia	6	500
22	FM Jeet Jain	6	500
23	Kaustuv Kundu	6	500
24	Sivanesan Subramanian	6	500
25	CM Prraneeth Vuppala	6	500
26	AIM Ashwin Sairam	6	500
27	IM Arghyadip Das	6	500
28	Aaron Mendes	6	500
29	Paras Dilip Bhoir	6	500
30	Windram James	6	500

Best Women

1	WIM Arpita Mukherjee	6.5	5000
2	WGM Srija Seshadri	6	4000
3	IM Bhakti Kulkarni	5.5	3000
4	Marium Fatima	5.5	2000
5	WFM Srishti Pandey	5	1000

Shatranj Samrat Annual subscription

31	Pranav A J	6
32	Aakash G	6
33	Shome Shiv	5.5
34	GM Harsha Bharathakoti	5.5
35	Aditya Bikram Paul	5.5
36	IM P D S Girinath	5.5
37	Daksh Goyal	5.5
38	Vishwajit S	5.5
39	Laddha Yash Jayesh	5.5
40	Agnivo Chakraborty	5.5
41	Ritwik Mallavarapu	5.5
42	FM Nikhil Dixit	5
43	Mithun Ramalingam R	5
44	Rakshith Srinivasan	5
45	Aman Sharma	5
46	Swayham P Das	5
47	Rosh Jain	5
48	Samriddhaa Ghosh	5
49	Sakthimani Adithya	5
50	Souryadipta Sarkar	5
51	Shrutartha Maiti	5
52	IM Maka Purtseladze	5
53	Kiran Bemarkar	5
54	Neeraj Mehta	5
55	Anish Naik	5
56	Sathvik Adiga	5
57	Goyal Saksham	5
58	Aneesh Krishna S	5
59	Thirunarayanan Sampath Kumar	5
60	Shiven Garg	5
61	Riyan Amit Shah	5
62	Divitt Arora	5
63	Patil Jaiveer	5
64	Abhyuday Santhosh	5
65	Krishna Karthik N	5
66	Hari Ananthakrishnan	5
67	Medhansh Rathi	5
68	Priyanka K	4.5
69	Dhruv Khosla	4.5
70	Sriram Alwala	4.5
71	Yaksh Chopra	4.5
72	Yug Sonigara	4.5
73	Nirmale Aditya	4.5
74	Katariya Tanish	4.5
75	Verma Kartik	4.5
76	Thakur Prateek	4.5
77	Pon Nkrithika	4.5
78	Chintan Mathukia	4.5
79	Vedula Raghuram	4.5
80	GM Laxman R R	4

Best MP player

1	Ayush Sharma	7	3000
2	IM Anuj Shrivatri	6	2000
3	Prakhar Bajaj	6	1000
4	WFM Nityata Jain	5	1000
5	Ayush Pattanaik	5	750
6	Anant Joshi	4.5	750
7	Shivansh Tiwari	4.5	750
8	Auditya Sharma	4.5	750
9	Santosh Pal	4	750
10	Ameya Nigudkar	4	750

Lucky prizes

100	Vaibhav Gupta	4	750
150	Vibhor Kulshreshtha	3	750

All prize winners must claim their respective prize two weeks within the publication of this article. Failure to do so will result in forfeiture of the prize. Shatranj Samrat Annual subscription prize winners must send their address in a reply to the prize claim email we will send. For foreigners, you may send a friend or relative's address in India, where you would like it to be delivered.

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