Diptayan Ghosh is the top seed at Chess for Youth 2017

by Shahid Ahmed - 05/05/2017

Chess for Youth is back, this time with its 12th edition. This tournament which was the brainchild of Dibyendu Barua, has had some illustrious names that participated in the past. This year more than 900 students will participate to win some exciting prizes, and in general enjoy the game of chess. The premium group (under-25) will witness one of India's top most youngster Diptayan Ghosh in action. ChessBase India author Shahid Ahmed takes you down the memory lane with this curtain raiser.

GM Diptayan Ghosh headlines as the top seed in the 12th Edition of Chess for Youth 2017

Reigning and defending champion GM Diptayan Ghosh will headline the 12^th Edition of Chess for Youth 2017 as the top seed in the Premiere category which is under-25 age group.

This is the second consecutive year where Diptayan will go to the tournament as top seed. Let’s see if he can repeat history by becoming champion again.

The inception of the tournament took place back in 2006 when Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy (DBCA) first laid its roots in Hindustan Park, Kolkata. The target was to create a tournament for the youth of West Bengal which will be an annual event and everyone can look forward to participate in it. With the premiere group (under-25) being open to the rest of the country, players get an opportunity to lock horns with the best of the best the country has to offer.

The tournament has had various star studded appearance in the past. They are: GM Vidit Gujrathi, GM Deep Sengupta, GM Sahaj Grover, GM Swapnil Dhopade (who has won the tournament twice), IM Swayams Mishra, IM Sayantan Das, WGM Mary Ann Gomes, WGM Soumya Swaminathan and IM Padmini Rout who is the only woman to win the Chess for Youth tournament.

FM Joydeep Dutta wins the inaugural edition of Chess for Youth. Do you notice a famous cricketer in the picture?

Both second and third Edition of Chess for Youth were won by GM Deep Sengupta

Deep completed a hat trick by winning the 4th edition as well

Bitan Banerjee won the 5^th Edition of Chess for Youth

6th edition was won again by FM Joydeep Dutta

GM Swapnil Dhopade who was an IM back then won the 7th Edition of Chess for Youth

The only female to have ever won the Chess for Youth is IM Padmini Rout who won the 8th edition

GM Swapnil Dhopade wins it for the second time in the 9th Edition of Chess for Youth in 2014

Debarshi Mukherjee won the 10th Edition of Chess for Youth in 2016

GM Diptayan Ghosh wins 11^th Chess for Youth in 2016

If the strong players is not enough to garner enough attention among the youngsters, then the number of prizes are! No other unrated tournament has this amount of prizes in Kolkata. Besides the tournament being unrated helps strong players to relax and experiment in the tournament without being afraid of losing any ELO Rating points.

This year the top seeds are: Youngest GM of West Bengal who has won multitude of accolades, GM Diptayan Ghosh, Reigning National Under-15 champion FM Mitrabha Guha, 4 times consecutive State Women’s Champion WFM Arpita Mukherjee, Current State Junior & Amateur Champion Kaustuv Kundu and former Commonwealth Under 12 champion Koustav Chatterjee create a strong line up for the fight for the best of the best.

It is an ever-growing tournament where the number of participants always increase by each passing year. This year the number is expected to be above 900. The tournament is appreciated by the parents also as they get to see friendly faces and participate in various impromptu Quiz Contests where they get to test their mettle in chess.

About the author:

Shahid Ahmed is the First AGM (Arena Grandmaster) of India. He is a coach at Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy (DBCA) and The Heritage School. He is also the founder of chesspert.com. He manages the Facebook page of Bengal Chess Association and DBCA.