10th KIIT International about to begin!

by Sagar Shah - 26/05/2017

It is one of the most prestigious events in India. The 10th edition of KIIT International chess festival begins from the 26th of May 2017. 17 grandmasters and 21 International Masters will fight it out in field of 246 players from 12 countries for the first prize of Rs.2,00,000. ChessBase India's Sagar Shah is in Bhubaneshwar along with his wife Amruta Mokal. He sends us a report of all the happenings just before the tournament is about to begin.

Getting ready for the KIIT International chess festival

At the Mumbai airport! Amruta Mokal would be playing in the A category, while yours truly would be bringing you up to date reports! Not really happy with the fact that I am not playing as can be seen from my expression!

That's the easiest way to recognize that someone has come to pick up chess players at the airport!

Odisha tourism wishing you a happy Buddha Poornima at the Bhubaneshwar airport!

The Gujarati boys: Manush and Fenil Shah

The entrance of the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT)

As soon as you enter the campus of KIIT you can feel a break from the polluted and noisy outsides and start enjoying the greenery within!

Yes, it's truly beautiful!

KIIT is one of the leading educational institutions in India

Accommodation provided is nothing exquisite, but has all the basic amenities

That's where the tournament will be played

The spacious and well lit tournament hall, that has been prepared for the opening ceremony

Wonderful paintings like this can be found on all the walls of the main playing hall

When you have nearly 1,000 players (in A+B+C category) it is always going to be an organizational challenge

Mohammad Fahad from Bangladesh with his father. The boy has become a regular participant of big tournaments happening all over India and that is surely grooming him into a strong player.

IM Shekhar Sahu (right) invites the legendary 84-year-old Nasir Ali Syed. From Nasir Ali's expression it is quite clear that he loves playing chess and being in a chess atmosphere.

Secretary of the Delhi Chess Association A.K. Verma chatting with Fenil Shah

Talent from Karnataka 10-year-old Pranav Anand with his grandmother

Perhaps one of the best chess sketch artist Chandreyee Hajra. I was able to convince her to make my sketch next! Here is one of her sketch:

India's super coach GM R.B. Ramesh

Home like food is made available to all the participants

Amonatov Farrukh is the top seed of the tournament. Diptayan Ghosh (right) is the second seed.

Starting rank top 50 seeds

No.		Name	ID	FideID	FED	Rtg	sex	Club/City
1	GM	Amonatov Farrukh	0	14700077	TJK	2632		TJK
2	GM	Ghosh Diptayan	0	5045207	IND	2569		WB
3	GM	Tukhaev Adam	0	14109476	UKR	2557		UKR
4	GM	Rahman Ziaur	0	10200037	BAN	2526		BAN
5	GM	Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib	0	10200444	BAN	2503		BAN
6	GM	Debashis Das	440	5024854	IND	2496		ODI
7	GM	Deviatkin Andrei	0	4121260	RUS	2481		RUS
8	GM	Nguyen Duc Hoa	0	12401358	VIE	2481		VIE
9	GM	Grover Sahaj	0	5021103	IND	2478		DEL
10	GM	Kotanjian Tigran	0	13301250	ARM	2471		ARM
11	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	0	5024218	IND	2457		TN
12	GM	Babujian Levon	0	13301993	ARM	2438		ARM
13	GM	Neelotpal Das	0	5003512	IND	2438		WB
14	GM	Reefat Bin-Sattar	0	10200207	BAN	2437		BAN
15	IM	Khusenkhojaev Muhammad	0	14700247	TJK	2433		TJK
16	IM	Nitin S.	0	5018277	IND	2426		TN
17	GM	Murshed Niaz	0	10200010	BAN	2423		BAN
18	GM	Laxman R.R.	0	5005361	IND	2417		TN
19	IM	Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari	0	25004964	IND	2410		KAR
20	IM	Krishna Teja N	0	5001498	IND	2406		AP
21	IM	Girish A. Koushik	0	5038448	IND	2401		KAR
22	IM	Das Sayantan	0	5034426	IND	2396		WB
23		Sidhant Mohapatra	260	5028698	IND	2393		ODI
24	IM	Iniyan P	0	25002767	IND	2392		TN
25	IM	Krishna C R G	0	5018625	IND	2392		AP
26	IM	Akash G	0	5040299	IND	2391		TN
27	IM	Sardana Rishi	0	25004301	AUS	2390		AUS
28	IM	Padmini Rout	625	5029295	IND	2380	w	ODI
29	IM	Rathnakaran K.	0	5005507	IND	2378		KER
30	IM	Ravi Teja S.	0	5017220	IND	2369		AP
31	FM	Rathanvel V S	0	25002112	IND	2361		TN
32	FM	Andyka Pitra	0	7103255	INA	2358		INA
33		Navalgund Niranjan	0	5030854	IND	2351		TN
34		Saravana Krishnan P.	0	5018382	IND	2345		TN
35	FM	Sai Krishna G V	0	5028280	IND	2339		AP
36	FM	Thakur Akash	0	5008514	IND	2338		MAH
37	CM	Erigaisi Arjun	0	35009192	IND	2338		TEL
38	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	0	5002974	IND	2326		WB
39		Arjun Kalyan	0	35018701	IND	2322		TN
40	FM	Karthik Venkataraman	0	25006479	IND	2317		TN
41	IM	Rajesh V A V	0	5029317	IND	2314		TN
42	IM	Prasad Devaki V	0	5000050	IND	2312		IOCL
43		Raahul V S	0	25035525	IND	2311		TN
44		Aradhya Garg	0	25006746	IND	2304		DEL
45		Gaikwad Siddhant	0	25010239	IND	2295		MAH
46	GM	Ziatdinov Raset	0	2015323	USA	2291		USA
47		Muthaiah Al	0	5092442	IND	2289		TN
48	CM	Gukesh D	0	46616543	IND	2283		KAR
49		Akash Pc Iyer	0	5006775	IND	2282		TN
50		Kaustuv Kundu	0	5056900	IND	2274		WB

Full list of players can be seen here

First round of the A group will take place at 3 p.m. on 26th of May. The B and C category tournaments will be held simultaneously with the A group. The B event will be from 26th to 29th and the C from 30th of May to 2nd of June.

ChessBase India will bring you detailed coverage of this event. So stay tuned.

A very good way to prepare yourself for the event is to solve some light tactics. The tactics trainer in the ChessBase Account is a great tool to polish your tactical skills. Here is one of the positions that I solved today. White to play and win. Please leave your answers in the comments section below.