Vishnu Prasanna clinches Olympiad Curtain Raiser Rapid Rating Open with a perfect 9/9

A Record breaking tournament

This was the biggest tournament in terms of participation numbers for many players including GM Vishnu Prasanna, me and many others. Most importantly, getting an opportunity to play at the exact same hall where 44th Chess Olympiad was going to take place and on the very same DGT boards, is certainly priceless to many. All India Chess Federation pulled off a huge successful open tournament, just days before 44th Chess Olympiad took place. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹500000. Top three prizes were ₹35000, ₹25000 and ₹20000 each.

Vishnu - Ravi, Round 9

GM Vishnu Prasanna got the better of IM Ravi Teja S in the last round. They both were at 100% score 8/8. White found a very nice tactical shot 23.Bxg6. There is no good defense for Black. 23...Qxc3 24.Qe5 Qc6 25.Rh3 Kg8 26.h5 f6 27.Bxe8 Nxe8 28.Qxe6+ Qxe6 29.Rxe6 and Black resigned. Vishnu won the tournament and Ravi was placed third.

For those who are wondering about Subhayan Kundu's t-shirt. He was one of the volunteers of the 44th Chess Olympiad. He is also the reigning West Bengal State Rapid 2022 champion. He managed his duties and played superbly to finish second overall which is perhaps the biggest tournament he participated in his life too.

Unfortunately I forgot to take it and I hope someone made a good use of it or keep it as a memory. The loss of this memorabilia mask can only be compensated by my win in the fourth round against Kirtana. I lost 41 Elo rating points. However, this game certainly made me delighted as it was that much special of playing it inside the 44th Chess Olympiad hall.

Kirtana - Shahid, Round 4

I decided to offer my f6-knight as a sacrifice, to get some initiative on the kingside. She took it 16.exf6 Bd6 17.f4 gxf3 18.Nxf3 h3 19.g3 Bxg3 20.Ne3 Bxh2+ 21.Kh1 Qg3 22.Bd1 Bg1 23.Nd5 h2 and we get the following position.

Neither 24.Qg2 nor Nxh2 or Nxg1 work for obvious reasons. Of course, I calculated all these easy lines and some more possibilities like 24.Nc7, Ne1. Everything seemed to be winning for me and practically it is very difficult to defend as White especially when the time is low.

Well, finishing the game with a checkmate certainly gave me a nice feeling 33...Qxf3+ 34.Qxf3 Bxf3#. The game is certainly not perfect. Both side made plenty of inaccuracies. I could have ended the game a lot earlier if I found the precise moves and my opponent could have defended at various occasion too. However, this game quite possibly had my most picturesque finish in my over 25+ long chess career. It is games like these that makes me want to play tournaments again and again.

For more photos, please click here. Game videos will be added over time.

Some tournament statistics

• Highest ever live transmission of DGT boards in an Open tournament - 703 in Round 1 (including walk overs).

• All games were played on DGT boards only. Last round had a live transmission of 570 boards (including walk overs).

• World Rapid and Blitz is the only other semi-open event where all games are played on DGT boards, which is about 100-150 only.

• A total of 3703 games are available online. For a one-day Rapid Rating tournament, this is also another incredible feat.

It was quite difficult to bring the entire main hall of the Olympiad in one frame, so here is a short clip of it.

A total of 1414 players registered, 1175 players including 2 GMs and 8 IMs took part from England, India, Nepal, Norway, Spain, Sri Lanka and United States of America. The nine-round Swiss League Rapid Rating tournament took place on 24th July. The tournament was organized by All India Chess Federation. The time control was 10 minutes + 5 seconds increment.

Download games from chess-results

Final standings in Rapid

Details

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