Vardaan Nagpal wins DCA Open 2019

by Shahid Ahmed - 28/03/2019

16-year old IM Vardaan Nagpal of New Delhi won DCA Open 2019. Despite never being in the lead as he drew his third round game, Vardaan had everything in his favor in the final round and managed to win the entire tournament. There was a four-way tie at 8.0/9, the champ edged ahead due to a better tie-break score. Untitled Bharat Kumar Reddy Potluri had a fantastic as he drew with two IMs and defeated one in the last round to secure first runner-up position. FM Matta Vinay Kumar also played brilliantly as he drew with the eventual champion of the tournament in round 7 and defeated top seed IM Sayantan Das in the final round to secure second runner-up position. Photo: Rupesh Kumar

Vardaan surprises everyone by winning DCA Open 2019

IM Vardaan Nagpal receives the Champion's Trophy from AICF Secretary. He won ₹101000 | Photo: Rupesh Kumar

16-year old Vardaan Nagpal suffered an early setback in round 3 as he drew with much lower rated Sanchit Anand. However after that he did not seem to slow down and made only one draw in round 7 against the eventual runner-up FM Vinay Matta Kumar. Here is a game annotated by the champion himself.

Bharat Kumar Reddy Potluri had a fantastic tournament scoring 8.0/9, remained undefeated and finished as the first runner-up. He won a beautiful trophy and ₹75000 | Photo: Rupesh Kumar

Bharat drew with two IMs and defeated one in the final round. His performance rating was 2337 and he increased his ELO rating by 41 points | Photo: Rupesh Kumar

FM Matta Vinay Kumar also scored 8.0/9 and remained undefeated. Due to a lower tie-break score he had to be content with second runner-up position. He also won a trophy and ₹50000 | Photo: Rupesh Kumar

Despite leading the tournament throughout, luck did not favor the Australian IM Rishi Sardana in the final round and his tie-break score turned out to be quite low. He finished with 8.0/9 at 4th place and bagged home ₹40000 | Photo: Rupesh Kumar

IM Rajesh VAV of Tamil Nadu scored 7.5/9 and he was placed 5th. He won ₹30000 | Photo: Rupesh Kumar

IM Somak Palit of West Bengal scored 7.5/9 and finished at 6th position. He won ₹21000 | Photo: Rupesh Kumar

Lokesh N started out as the 17th seed, he finished at 7th position by scoring 7.5/9. He also won ₹21000 | Photo: Rupesh Kumar

IM Al Muthaiah had a slightly worse tournament considering the fact that he had won two tournaments last month. He scored 7.5/9 and was placed 8th. He got ₹21000 | Photo: Rupesh Kumar

FM Ankit Gajwa of Madhya Pradesh scored 7.5/9 and finished at 9th position. He also won ₹21000 | Photo: Amruta Mokal

IM Ra A Harikrishnan of Andhra Pradesh scored 7.0/9 and secured 10th position. He won ₹21000 | Photo: Rupesh Kumar

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	K	rtg+/-
1	7	IM	Vardaan Nagpal			IND	2378	DEL	8,0	0,0	53,5	58,5	51,25	7	10	-0,1
2	15		Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri			IND	2218	AP	8,0	0,0	53,0	57,0	49,50	7	20	41,0
3	19	FM	Matta Vinay Kumar			IND	2146	Andhra Bank	8,0	0,0	52,5	57,5	50,25	7	20	30,4
4	3	IM	Sardana Rishi			AUS	2417	AUS	8,0	0,0	52,5	57,0	49,75	7	10	11,3
5	6	IM	Rajesh V A V			IND	2413	TN	7,5	0,0	52,5	57,5	46,75	6	10	-1,9
6	8	IM	Palit Somak			IND	2330	WB	7,5	0,0	51,5	56,0	44,75	6	10	2,6
7	17		Lokesh N.			IND	2157	TN	7,5	0,0	51,0	55,5	44,50	7	20	20,4
8	2	IM	Muthaiah Al			IND	2426	TN	7,5	0,0	50,0	54,5	44,25	6	10	-3,2
9	10	FM	Gajwa Ankit			IND	2286	MP	7,5	0,0	48,5	53,0	44,25	6	20	-12,6
10	5	IM	Harikrishnan.A.Ra			IND	2413	TN	7,0	0,0	54,0	59,0	44,00	6	10	-6,2
11	29		Pimpalkhare Vedant			IND	2046	MAH	7,0	0,0	52,0	56,0	42,00	5	20	28,8
12	13	IM	Deshmukh Anup			IND	2257	MAH	7,0	0,0	51,5	55,5	41,25	6	10	-4,2
13	18		Manigandan S S			IND	2157	TN	7,0	0,0	51,5	55,5	40,75	6	20	0,0
14	45		Vinay Raj Bhatt			IND	1965	UTT	7,0	0,0	49,5	53,5	38,50	7	20	17,0
15	23		Soham Kamotra	U15		IND	2110	J&K	7,0	0,0	49,5	52,5	37,00	7	40	26,0
16	9	CM	Aronyak Ghosh			IND	2326	WB	7,0	0,0	49,0	53,5	38,75	6	20	-8,8
17	52		Shubham Shukla			IND	1948	PUN	7,0	0,0	49,0	53,0	38,00	7	20	18,2
18	48		Saranya Y		w	IND	1955	TN	7,0	0,0	47,0	51,5	37,00	6	20	10,6
19	40		Aishwin Daniel			IND	1971	MP	7,0	0,0	47,0	51,0	39,25	6	20	-11,2
20	50		Stanley Samson P.			IND	1951	TN	7,0	0,0	47,0	51,0	37,25	6	20	4,2
21	11	FM	Sauravh Khherdekar			IND	2272	MAH	7,0	0,0	46,5	50,5	38,25	6	20	-24,8
22	91		Sudarshan Malga			IND	1850	MP	7,0	0,0	46,5	50,5	37,75	6	20	31,6
23	65		Sooraj M R			IND	1910	KER	7,0	0,0	46,0	50,0	38,00	6	20	15,8
24	12	CM	Kushagra Mohan	U15		IND	2258	TEL	7,0	0,0	46,0	49,5	36,75	5	20	-24,0
25	26		Dahale Atul			IND	2102	MAH	7,0	0,0	45,5	49,5	36,75	6	20	-4,2
26	53		Abhijith M			IND	1945	KER	7,0	0,0	45,0	49,5	37,00	6	20	2,6
27	33		Bhattacharya Niladri Shekhar			IND	2000	WB	7,0	0,0	45,0	48,5	37,00	6	20	-2,2
28	4	IM	Rakesh Kumar Jena			IND	2416	ODI	7,0	0,0	43,5	48,0	36,50	7	10	-12,8
29	16		Deepak Katiyar			IND	2162	RAJ	7,0	0,0	42,5	46,5	35,75	6	20	-22,0
30	34		Anadkat Kartavya	U15		IND	1998	GUJ	7,0	0,0	42,5	46,0	34,00	7	40	-30,4

Complete Standings

Complete Prize winners list

The tournament was organized by Delhi Chess Association at Hotel Caspia in New Delhi from 23rd to 27th March 2019. Over 610 players from five different countries Australia, Germany, Nepal, Turkey and India, participated in this five-day 9-round Swiss League tournament having 136 prizes in total worth ₹ 1818000.

An interview was conducted by the author of this article with the champion of the tournament IM Vardaan Nagpal.

Shahid Ahmed (SA): How does it feel to win DCA Open 2019? Did you expect to win it before you started your tournament?

Vardaan Nagpal (VN): Of course it feels great to win the tournament and as it started just a week after I finished my schools final exams and it was a very last minute decision to play which was made just a few days before the tournament. I wasn’t expecting to win anything and just wanted to play the best games I could and see what happens as I was playing after a nearly 3 month gap from chess.

Vardaan had a meteoric rise last year which we covered here

SA: What do you plan on doing with the prize money?

VN: I will probably use the prize money for chess related things like playing tournaments and buying books to be able to improve my play further.

SA: Whom will you thank for your success?

VN: I would like to thank my parents who have always been supportive towards me in every way and everyone who has wished well for me.

SA: Who is your coach?

VN: Currently I don’t have any formal coach.

Vardaan en route making three IM-norms and a GM-norm in ten tournaments

SA: How does it to feel win a tournament after more than a year?

VN: It feels great to win a tournament after a long time, even though I have had many ups and downs in the past. I have never given up hope and stopped trying. I believe that it is just a key factor to get success in any field.

SA: You have won State Amateur, State Under-25 and Delhi Open 'C' before. Out of all the triumphs, which one is your favorite and why?

VN: I’d say that Delhi open C 2015 was my favorite as back then I wasn’t that serious about chess but that result which was completely unexpected motivated me to work harder and set higher goals for myself.

SA: Which school are you studying in? In which standard?

VN: I’m studying in Modern School Vasant Vihar, New Delhi and just starting class 12.

Vardaan attended Jacob Aagaard's training camp in April 2017

SA: How do you balance chess and studies? Which one do you prefer more?

VN: I usually take breaks for as long as necessary at the time to study for my exams. Recently I didn’t play for about 3 months due to exams. I also attend school from time to time but the rest of the time I try to focus on chess fully.

SA: How much support do you get from school for chess?

VN: My school is very supportive towards me as they allow me to take holidays from school whenever I need to go for tournaments.

SA: What's next for you?

VN: I definitely plan on playing some tournaments in the near future but I haven’t made any plans as of yet.

SA: Thanks for speaking with ChessBase India and I wish you all the best in your future endeavors.

VN: Thank you.

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