Himal Gusain wins Delhi Open FIDE Rated

by Gopakumar Sudhakaran - 30/03/2017

Delhi Chess Association is probably the best chess association in India. There simply remains no contest when it comes to the quality and professionalism in the tournaments. Like the Wright brothers who invented the concept of humans flying in airplanes, the Delhi chess fraternity has invented the idea of professional chess players making money with the prize fund. One such tournament finished this week with 727 players and 17 lakhs 17 thousand rupees in prize.

Himal Gusain wins Delhi Open FIDE Rated

The Delhi Chess Association Open FIDE Rated Chess Tournament was held at Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium New Delhi from 25-29 March 2017.

A total number of 727 players which includes seven International Masters and 619 International rated players from different parts of India and four foreign federations participated in the event which was spread over five days with a time control of 90 minutes and 30 seconds increment from move 1. The total prize fund of the event was Rs.17,77,000.

The Tournament was played under Swiss System with nine rounds and had International Master Himanshu Sharma of Railways as the top seed. With Round one starting on time and the players went into their business mode from the start itself.

The tournament progressed on expected lines as seeded players registered comfortable victories on earlier part of the event. Unexpectedly, top seed Himanshu Sharma suffered a shock defeat against Badvath Anand in the fourth round and which changed the complexion of the event.

Delhi youngster Ankit Gajwa emerged as the sole leader after seventh round matches with six and half points but his presence in the leaders table did not last long as he lost crucial eighth round match against second seed Himal Gusain, which made the tournament wide open.

In the final round, top seed Himanshu Sharma defeated Abhishek Das.

Fourth seed S Ravi Teja got better of Kadav Omkar

And second seed Himal Gusain defeated West Bengal youngster Aronyak Ghosh to make a three way tie for the winner’s trophy.

But better tie break score helped Himal to clinch the title along with a cash award of Rs.1,01,001/-

...while Ravi Teja finished as the first runner up and pocketed a cash prize of Rs. 75000/-. Top seed Himanshu Sharma satisfied with third spot finished to secure Rs. 50000/- as cash prize.

In the rating category of 1999-1600, Kadav Omkar of Maharashtra secured first prize with Rs. 71,000/-.

In Below 1599 category, Leeladhar Kachroo of Haryana won the first prize to pocket same amount as cash prize.

Anusha NLV of Andhra Pradesh adjudged as best female player while Rajesh Dwivedi of Madhya Pradesh become best among unrated players.

Akash Sharthchandra Dalvi of Maharashtra, Sourath Biswas of West Bengal and Daaevik Wadhawan of Delhi finished best among Under-15, Under-12 and Under-8 age categories respectively. Herschelle Gupta and Aanya Agarwal become Best Delhi player and Best Delhi girl player respectively.

In a colourful closing ceremony, Shri. Bharat Singh, CEO All India Chess Federation, gave away the cash prizes and trophies to the winners.

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	2		Gusain Himal				IND	2453	CHAN	8,0	0,0	54,0	48,0	46,5	52,75
2	4	IM	Ravi Teja S.				IND	2377	RLYS	8,0	0,0	53,0	47,0	45,5	51,25
3	1	IM	Himanshu Sharma				IND	2494	RLYS	8,0	0,0	49,0	44,5	41,5	47,00
4	3	IM	Krishna C R G				IND	2394	RLYS	7,5	0,0	53,0	48,0	45,5	47,75
5	7	FM	Rakesh Kumar Jena				IND	2315	ODI	7,5	0,0	53,0	47,5	45,5	46,25
6	6		Saravana Krishnan P.				IND	2345	KVB	7,5	0,0	53,0	47,0	45,0	47,25
7	15		Pranav Shetty				IND	2209	MAH	7,5	0,0	52,5	47,0	44,5	46,75
8	14		Lokesh N.				IND	2211	TN	7,5	0,0	51,5	46,0	44,0	45,75
9	5	IM	Palit Somak				IND	2364	RLYS	7,5	0,0	50,5	45,5	43,0	44,75
10	19	FM	Ramakrishna J.				IND	2135	AB	7,5	0,0	50,0	45,0	42,0	43,50