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TCW and dpCA are the finalists in ACL Challengers League 2018

by Shahid Ahmed - 10/12/2018

Telugu Chess Warriors and d'pawn Chess Academy won emphatically against Intermezzo and Royal Knight Chess Academy in their respective semi-final match. dpCA won their match first with a score of 3-1 followed by TCW making their way to the final by defeating Intermezzo 2.5-0.5, Sarath Chandra missed the match due to illness. Captain Snehil Konatham held his nerve and defeated National under-17 champion, Vedant Panesar, in a crunch time pressure situation. Ravi of RKCA lost a drawn endgame and a missed win too against Rahul of dpCA. Pawan played another model game to outplay Abhinav of RKCA. We bring you the best games of the semi-finals and photographs. Photo: TCW/dpCA

TCW and dpCA score emphatic victories in the semi-final

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The logo of Academy Chess League by ChessBase India

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TCW scores the first win of the semi-final

Kheerthi Ganta of TCW continues her phenomenal run in Challengers League. She is at 4.0/4. Photo: TCW

Kheerthi Ganta has defeated another member of Intermezzo, Vedant Panesar in round 4 and in semi-final she scored a convincing win over Amardeep Bartakke. Amardeep made a few inaccuracies which allowed Kheerthi to gain the upper hand and have the first victory for her team in the semi-final.

Amardeep made a mistake here with 18...Nc4 which went unpunished. Find out what did Kheerthi miss here

Ravi misses a win before he blunders in a draw position

In a roller coaster of a game, Rahul got a lucky win | Photo: dpCA

Ravi of RKCA did not start well in the opening. He was worse out of the opening, however he managed to exchange his queen after Rahul played inaccurately and managed to equalize. However he got a wonderful opportunity of winning in the endgame which he missed and then eventually missed a draw too.

White's last move 37.Rb2 is a blunder. Why?

It is evident that the position is a draw. However Ravi made the final mistake of the game with 55...Bg7

Himanshu loses against Mayank in a slightly worse Knight endgame

Himanshu lost against 9-year old Mayank who made a good comeback in the league after starting with a loss | Photo: RKCA

Himanshu's loss against Mayank meant, team dpCA was tied at 1-1. However since Nirmalya of RKCA was absent, dpCA was in the lead at 2-1, despite Himanshu's loss. Now Pawan needed a draw for the team to advance to the finals.

For a 9-year old Mayank to win this with ease tells us what he is going to show in the coming days

Pawan ensured his team's place in the final with a win

One thing we know for sure, when Pawan plays whether over the board or online matches, he gives his 100% | Photo: dpCA

Pawan is known for analytical skills, his unwavering passion for the game. Even if he knows he needs just to draw his game for his team to advance to the finals, he will not take an easy draw. He wants to play the game and whatever happens happens. Of course he does play with true grit and goes for the win only. Pawan gets the best game of the round prize.

Black just developed his Bishop with 17...Bb7. What would be your reply?

Hari Charan draws after a marathon game

Hari Charan escaped the jaws of loss several times and managed to salvage a draw | Photo: TCW

In a long grueling battle lasting for over 1.5 hours and spanning 95 moves, Hari Charan steered his ship out of the storms several times before finding a safe shore of draw.

Snehil won a thriller in time pressure

Captain Snehil kept his cool and won in time pressure, making sure his team goes to the final | Photo: TCW

Snehil Konatham managed to equalize easily with Black pieces in Vienna Game. He launched a counter attack on the queenside after his opponent Vedant went for a breakthrough on the kingside. Snehil kept his cool and prevailed in the time pressure.

In the unrated category, Maestro Chess Academy Attackers is the sole leader with a score of 17.0/24 at the end of 6th round, followed closely behind are City Chess Club at the 2nd position with 15.0/24 points. Maestro Chess Academy Fighters are at the 3rd spot with 13.0/24.

There is a close fight for the championship in the unrated category

Round 6 unrated category results:

3rd Dec Maestro Chess Academy Attackers 2-2 d'pawn Chess Academy
  Dhruvan Reddy (Dhruvan2009) 0-1 Aastha Borakhade (Aastha_dpawn)
  Aryan Tutiki (AryanT2010) 1-0 Himal Dodeja (MyLovlu)
  Shaurya (shaurya9) 1-0 Mahika Dodeja (MyVardhan)
  Aarush Reddy (Aarushreddy28) 0-1 Shamit Agrawal (Shamit_dpawn)
4th Dec Bangalore Chess Academy - 1 1-3 Maestro Chess Academy Fighters
  Sriram Tangirala (Venkata_tangirala) 0-1 Aahlad Karthik (Karthik2005)
  Aditya Kamath (Aadik) -+ Shreyas Reddy Palley (Shreyas_palley)
  Rahul Badrinath (Bshanmug) 1-0 Amrutha Bhagavathula (Amrutha2007)
  Sreenjoy Modak (Sreeking) 0-1 Eshwar S Pratap (eshwars2009)
5th Dec Bangalore Chess Academy - 2 0-3 City Chess Club Bhuj
  Sidhant V Vernekar (Sidhantvv) 0-1 Nirav Ganwani (Dragon emperor789)
  Sai Krishna (Saikrish) 0-1 Daksh Thacker (Dakshthacker8664)
  Ranak Saxena (Ranak) 0-1 Prashant Joshi (Klunger)
  Srushti Srikanth (Srushtisrikanth) -- Nakul Manjule (Nakul233)
6th Dec Dark Knight Chess Academy 3-1 Maestro Chess Academy Warriors
  Shubham Kamble (Srkchess7) 1-0 Jaya Hari Chandana (Jayahari)
  Akshay Joglekar (AkshayJ) 1-0 Chanikya Bellam (Chanikya)
  Ashwath Viswanath (Ashwath Viswanath) 0-1 Vansh Kabra (Vanshkabra21)
  Eshaan Godbole (Eshaan) 1-0 Aditya Sreeram (aditya sreeram)

 

Semi-final rated category results:

8th Dec Intermezzo (2149) 0.5-2.5 TeluguChessWarriors (1609)
  Vedant Panesar (Brainboy123) 0-1 Konatham Snehil (Snehilindia)
  Ketan Boricha (yoey03) -- Sarath Chandra K (def987abc123)
  Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi (aakash-dalvi) 0.5-0.5 Haricharan Sai (Charan_13)
  Amardeep S Bartakke (Aditya2003) 0-1 Kheerthi Ganta (Candybond11)
8th Dec Royal Knight Chess Academy (1578) 1-3 d'pawn Chess Academy (2225)
  Mayank Chakraborty (Mayank Chkraborty) 1-0 Himanshu Chhabra (Chhabrachess)
  Abhinav Dubey (Rakeshdubey) 0-1 Pawan Dodeja (iamnotIM)
  Nirmalya Chakraborty (Neevjain) -+ Nagare Akhilesh (Nagareakhilesh)
  Ravi Kant Tiwari (Rothinchess) 0-1 Rahul Verma (Rahul_dpawn)

 

Aim of the Academy Chess League (ACL):

There are many chess academies all over the world. However, in terms of playing practice and partners they are bounded by geographical limitations. The Academy Chess League by ChessBase India wants to overcome these limitations and barriers and ensure that academies, schools and institutions situated in one part of the world can compete against teams anywhere on the planet. The aim is to play high quality chess and that's why the time control of 45 minutes + 10 seconds has been decided. ACL is an initiative by ChessBase India that will be played online on the Playchess platform. Over 300 players from 50 institutions have registered with us for the 1st Super League that has begun from the 1st of July. The second league witnessed 15 teams consisting of about 100 players. ACL 2nd Super League will soon follow, so stayed tuned!

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