2nd Heritage Schools' Chess Festival

by Shahid Ahmed - 06/07/2017

The second edition of the Heritage School Chess Festival was held from 5th-9th June 2017. The event attracted more than 125 students and 20 schools from all across West Bengal. Besides the team, rapid and blitz championships, the tournament also inaugurated India's first chess newspaper! We have a mammoth report by Shahid Ahmed filled with not only pictures and tournament information, but also perfectly captured videos of interesting battles on the board.

South Point dominates 2nd The Heritage School Chess Festival 2017

The 2nd The Heritage Schools' Chess Festival 2017 was organised jointly by The Heritage School and Bengal Chess Association in association with Global Chess Foundation. The five-day long festival held from 5-9 June 2017 attracted around 150 students and 10 schools from all around West Bengal. It featured team events in both boys and girls categories, a blitz tournament and a rapid tournament.

In the team championship, South Point High School clinched the title prize in the Boys’ category. In the Girls’ event, it was Shri Shikshayatan which emerged victorious. Both winning teams finished with a perfect score of 4.0/4. While Mitrabha Guha and Aditya Basu played a pivotal role in securing the title for South Point High School in the Boys’ section, exuberant play by Samriddhaa Ghosh and Sudipa Haldar helped Shri Shikshayatan cruise to victory.

South Point High School receives their Championship TrophyL to R: FM Mitrabha Guha (C), Anustoop Biswas, CM Aronyak Ghosh & Aditya Basu

Shri Shikshayatan receives their Championship Trophy
L to R: Samriddhaa Ghosh (C), Srijita Sarkar &Sudipa Haldar

FM Mitrabha Guha won the Best Board Prize for Board No.1

Srijit Paul won the Best Board Prize for Board No.2

CM Aronyak Ghosh won the Best Board Prize for Board No.3

Aditya Basu won the Best Board Prize for Board No.4

Samriddhaa Ghosh won the Best Board Prize for Board No.1

Sudipa Haldar won the Best Board Prize for Board No.2

Shinjini Sengupta won the Best Board Prize for Board No.4

DPS North secured the 1st Runner Up Position among Boys
L to R: Arpan Das (Jr), Srijit Paul (C), Subhayan Kundu & Oishik Kundua

St Lawrence High School secured the 2^nd Runner Up Position among Boys
L to R: Mehul Gupta, Sayandeep Roy, Souranshu Roy Chaudhuri & Dipanjan Chowdhury (C)

Lakshmipat Singhania Academy secured the 1^st Runner Up Position among Girls (L to R) :Shinjini Sengupta, Sanika Sengupta, Vedika Agarwal & Ananya Bothra (C)

Indus Valley World School secured the 2^nd Runner Up Position among Girls
L to R: Aarantha Roy, Eka Narayan (C), Shreya Rakshit and Chandrima Sarkar

Videos from the event:

Subhayan Kundu of DPS North draws with CM Aronyak Ghosh of South Point High School

Queen endings are always interesting | Aditya Basu vs Arpan Das - Part 1

Queen endings are always interesting | Aditya Basu vs Arpan Das - Part 2

Anustoop Biswas escapes a Photographic Draw due to a wrong claim

2nd The Heritage Schools’ Team Chess Championship Boys Standings

2nd The Heritage Schools’ Team Chess Championship Girls Standings

FM Rajdeep Sarkar wins 2nd The Heritage Schools’ Blitz Chess Championship 2017

The blitz tournament witnessed a close fight among the tournament leaders in the final rounds. Going into the last round, FM Mitrabha Guha was leading the rest of the field by a half point margin but was only able to draw his final round game. This gave the rest of the field a chance to catch up with him. FM Rajdeep Sarkar and Ritabroto Ganguly were the ones who made the most of this opportunity and winning their games to catch Guha on the top spot. After nine rounds, three players were tied for the first spot with a score of 7.5/9 - FM Rajdeep Sarkar, FM Mitrabha Guha and Ritabroto Ganguly. Unfortunately for Guha, who was leading the tournament before the last round, his final round draw lost him the title prize. Even though he was tied for first in the final standings, the tiebreak was in Rajdeep Sarkar’s favour.

FM Rajdeep Sarkar received a certificate and ₹3000 cash for becoming the Champion

FM Mitrabha Guha collected a Certificate and ₹2500 cash for securing 2^nd position

Ritobroto Ganguly received a Certificate and ₹2000 cash for securing 3^rd position

Top seed, Srijit Paul received a Certificate and ₹1300 cash for securing 4^th position

CM Aronyak Ghosh received a Certificate and ₹1200 cash had a +8 finish by securing 5^th position

Reigning State Champion Neelash Saha received a Certificate and ₹1000 for securing 6^th position

WFM Arpita Mukherjee received a Certificate and ₹1000 cash finishing seventh. She was the only girl to finish among Top 10

Video impressions:

Samriddhaa Ghosh pulls the biggest upset of the tournament

FM Rajdeep Sarkar plays Opposite Color Bishop Endgame accurately

CM Aronyak Ghosh converts material advantage into a win

FM Mitrabha Guha wins clinically in a Same Color Bishop Ending

CM Aronyak Ghosh draws against FM Mitrabha Guha

FM Rajdeep Sarks runs out of time against FM Mitrabha Guha

Ritam Nag loses due to an Illegal move in an anti-climactic way

FM Mitrabha Guha wins 2nd The Heritage Schools’ Rapid Chess Championship 2017

Even though Guha missed out on winning the title prize in the blitz tournament, he made no mistake in clinching first at the rapid event of the festival. And just like the blitz event, the rapid tournament too was closely fought. In the end, three players were tied for first. Ritam Nag was leading the tournament by half a point after the penultimate round. But just like Guha in the blitz tournament, Nag was only able to secure a draw. Having won their final round games, Mitrabha Guha and Srijit Paul succeeded in catching Nag and tie for first. Since Guha had the better tie-break, he was declared the winner.

FM Mitrabha Guha receives the Champion’s Trophy in presence of GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly & Bengal Chess Association Secretary IM Atanu Lahiri

AGM Ritam Nag finished at 2^nd position scoring 7.5 points and took home ₹20000 and a trophy

Srijit Paul secured 3^rd position scoring 7.5 points and took home ₹15000 and a trophy

Anustoop Biswas remained undefeated, secured 4^th position, scored 7 points and took home ₹12000 and a memento

Koustav Chatterjee secured 5^th position scoring 7 points and took home ₹10000 and a memento

Aditya Basu scored 6.5 points, had a +8 finish by securing 6^th position. He won ₹8000 and a memento.

Shuban Saha scored 6.5 points and secured 7^th position. He received ₹5000 and a memento.

Sonkalan Bharati scored 6.5 points and secured 8^th position. He won ₹4000 and a memento.

Arka Sengupta secured the 9^th spot and won ₹3000 and a memento

Neelash Saha scored 6.5 points to secure 10^th position. He won ₹3000 and a memento.

Some video impressions:

Subhayan Kundu battles it out in a Queen vs Double Queen endgame

Aditya Basu plays the endgame correctly Part 1

Aditya Basu plays the endgame correctly Part 2

Arpan Das Jr draws with Anustoop Biswas after a good Combination

Koustav Chatterjee uses Pawn Power in a Queen Ending

FM Mitrabha Guha wins a Rook vs Bishop Endgame

‘The Chess Bengal’, a newspaper which would exclusively cover chess was launched at the festival!

Another interesting happening at this event was the launch of India’s first Chess newspaper entitled ‘The Chess Bengal’. The newspaper will be published in English and Bengali on a bimonthly basis and will cover all major chess events around the globe.

The tournament was jointly organized by The Heritage School and Bengal Chess Association in association with Global Chess Foundation. Souvik Chakraborty who is the backbone of Global Chess Foundation was instrumental in this tournament.

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.