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Manipal 03+04: Top seeds have smooth sailing

by Priyadarshan Banjan - 28/12/2015

The second day of the National-B for the Blind was good for the top-two seeds, who won their games without much difficulties. The third seed Krishna Udupa, though, tasted defeat in the third round. In the FIDE Open, a handful of experienced players were held to draws by their young lower-rated opponents. We bring you a pictorial report from Manipal.

Manipal 03+04: Top seeds have smooth sailing

The top two seeds at the National B Chess Championship for the Blind, 2015 had smooth sailing as they duly dispatched their lower-rated opponents without much fuss. The second day of the tournament that witnessed the third and the fourth round of this prestigious event was a hard day of work for most players...

The top-seed Kishan Gangolli (2044) [right] of Karnataka on his way to victory over Soundarya Kumar Pradhan (1591) in the third round.

Kishan also won the fourth round encounter and is now on 4.0/4.

 Darpan Inani (1995) of Gujarat beat Atul Kakade (1574) of Maharashtra in the third round. He is also at 4.0/4, and will play Kishan tomorrow.

Darpan Inani lost his sight at the age of four – a victim of the Steven Johnson Syndrome. Nevertheless, he never lost his vision, for which chess came as a fresh breath of life. In 2010, at the age of 16, Darpan became the youngest National Blind Chess champion ever, the youngest unsighted National Champion across all the sports in India’s history.

 

You may be surprised to know that he has been a topper in a school with sighted children for most of his life! Right now, he is in the final three years of the Chartered Accountancy course in the Institute of Chartered Accountancy of India (ICAI), widely believed to be amongst the toughest courses in this country.

 


The visualization skills chess has developed in him has played a major role in helping Darpan excel in his academics.

 

He is an idiosyncratic, confident and extremely positive young man, focused on achieving what he desires, in chess as well as life. If you meet him, you will also ‘see’ that Darpan has always possessed wisdom that belies his age. He hopes to become an entrepreneur in the future.

 

For Darpan Inani, chess is a sport which has changed his life in more than one ways. “Basically, there is no other sport except for chess wherein visually impaired can compete on an equal footing with the sighted,” Darpan says. “Other games like cricket, soccer, etc. are played by the ones without sight as well, but they are always visually impaired vs. visually impaired games. We cannot play football or similar sports with the sighted players in its originality. Chess is the only sport which allows me to compete at par with the sighted.”

Krishna Udupa (1829) of Karnataka was shocked in the third round by...

...Balaraman P. (1590) of Kerala.

We told you about the Braille Slate in our previous report. Notice the small dots in the slots provided? This is how the Braille notation on the slate looks like.

Partially sighted players, usually, use the scoresheet, and they have to move that close to it to be able to see it.

 The founder of AICFB, Mr. Charudatta Jadhav, is 'overseeing' the event.

Final Ranking after Round 04:

 

Rk. SNo   Name FED Rtg Club/City Pts.  TB1   TB2   TB3 
1 1   Kishan Gangolli IND 2044 KAR 4,0 8,0 6,0 9,50
  2   Darpan Inani IND 1995 GUJ 4,0 8,0 6,0 9,50
3 4   Patil Shirish IND 1823 MAH 3,5 9,5 6,5 9,75
4 5   Gaurav Gadodia IND 1784 MAH 3,5 9,0 6,5 9,25
5 16   Balaraman P IND 1590 KER 3,5 8,5 6,5 8,25
6 22   Deeptyajeet De IND 1549 W B 3,5 7,5 5,5 7,00
7 13   Yudhajeet D E IND 1620 W B 3,5 7,5 5,5 5,75
8 14   Waghmare Sachin Lahu IND 1612 MAH 3,5 6,5 5,0 6,25
9 15   Soundarya Kumar Pradhan IND 1591 ODI 3,0 9,0 7,0 6,00
10 7   Swapanil Shah IND 1755 MAH 3,0 8,5 6,5 7,25

Check the pairings for Round 05 here.

Manipal University FIDE Open

The tournament witnessed a handful of upsets on the second day...

IM D.V. Prasad (2345) was held to a draw in the third round by... 

 Anand Vittal TR (1629) of Karnataka

National U-17 Champion FM Rajdeep Sarkar (2223) settled for a draw with...

 ...Vishwanath Jeyaraman (1604) of Tamil Nadu

 IM M.S. Thejkumar (2439) seemed to be in difficulties in the fourth round, but he eventually won...

...after his opponent Shubham Kumthekar (1923) of Maharashtra went wrong in time-trouble. 

 Anilkumar O.T. (2060) of Kerala drew with...

 ...Aditya Kalyani (1712) of Karnataka

 Arvind Shastry (2209) could not break the defences of ...

 ...eleven-year-old Kerala boy Abhiram Sudheesh.

 IM G.A. Stany (2421) had a tough fourth round game, but he survived and moved to 4.0/4.

 M.G. Gahan (2255) had no problems in defeating...

Nandini Saripalli (1745), who clicked most of the pictures for this report, yet again.

Final Ranking after Round 04:

Rk. SNo   Name Typ sex FED Rtg Club/City Pts.  TB1   TB2   TB3 
1 2 IM Stany G.A.     IND 2421 KAR 4,0 9,0 6,0 12,00
2 13   Kulkarni Vinayak     IND 2043 KAR 4,0 9,0 6,0 10,00
3 1 IM Thejkumar M. S.     IND 2439 SWR 4,0 8,5 6,0 11,00
  14   Ojas Kulkarni U16   IND 2000 KAR 4,0 8,5 6,0 11,00
5 4 IM Girinath P.D.S.     IND 2317 SCR 4,0 8,5 6,0 10,50
6 7   Vijay Keerthi K.     IND 2248 KAR 4,0 8,0 6,0 10,00
  18   Chandar Raju U16   IND 1950 KER 4,0 8,0 6,0 10,00
  19   Sameer Ghotane     IND 1938 KAR 4,0 8,0 6,0 10,00
  23   Balkishan A.     IND 1925 KAR 4,0 8,0 6,0 10,00
10 5   Muthaiah Al * U16   IND 2297 TN 4,0 8,0 6,0 9,50

Check the pairings for Round 05 here.