Let the fastest player win!

by Shahid Ahmed - 31/07/2017

GM Deep Sengupta & GM R R Laxman will be the top seed in National Rapid and Blitz Chess Championship 2017 respectively. The Championship will take place from 1^st – 4^th August 2017 in Bhawanipur Education Society College, Kolkata, West Bengal. The Total Cash Prize for National Rapid is ₹175000 and for National Blitz ₹75000. What is very interesting is that the tournament has a zero tolerance rule, in a city that is known for its traffic and the round begins at 9 a.m. You have to be fast off the board as well!

Curtain Raiser for National Rapid and Blitz 2017

Around 200 players across the country are expected to participate in a 4-day event in which 6 GMs, 9 IMs and 1 WGM have already confirmed their entries. The tournament will follow the Zero Tolerance Rule. It will be an event to watch out for. While watching these rapid and blitz games will be fun, we will also see how many games get decided on Zero Tolerance Rule. I say about Zero Tolerance because from 2^nd – 4^th August, the first round of the day is scheduled to start at 9 a.m. in a city where Traffic played a huge role in deciding the National Premier Champion in 2012.

Reigning National Rapid Chess 2016 Champion GM Neelotpal Das is going to defend to his title along with 5 more GMs

GM Deep Sengupta who already qualified for World Cup 2017 will also fight for National Rapid Chess Championship

After winning Xtra Time Rapid Rating in Kolkata earlier this summer, GM R R Laxman returns to the City of Joy, only this time to claim the National Rapid & Blitz title as he loves to play Rapid & Blitz

After winning Bhopal Open 2016, GM Sriram Jha is looking to win another tournament

Veteran GM Pravin Thipsay played a topsy turvy tournament at commonwealth, losing to a 1900 player, but also beating two GMs Sahaj Grover and Deepan Chakravarthy. It will be interesting to see him in action!

Local lad GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury will try to make his mark in his hometown

After finishing 3^rd in National Women Challengers 2017 few days ago,
WGM Soumya Swaminathan will look to provide strong competition in both National Rapid & Blitz

9 IMs who will battle it out are, Top L to R: Rathnakaran K, Nitin S & Anwesh Upadhyaya. Mid L to R: P Karthikeyan, D K Sharma & Somak Palit
Bottom L to R: VAV Rajesh, S Satyapragyan & Rahul Shetty

The tournament will be organized by Bengal Chess Association. There will be 11 Rounds of Rapid games, each game consisting of 15 mins + 10 seconds increment and 11 Rounds of Blitz games, each game consisting of 3 mins + 2 seconds increment. The Champion of both National Rapid & Blitz will qualify for World Rapid & Blitz Chess Championship 2017.

Starting rank for Rapid

No.		Name	FideID	FED	Rtg	Club/City
1	GM	Sengupta Deep	5008352	IND	2529	Wb
2	GM	Laxman R.R.	5005361	IND	2516
3	IM	Nitin S.	5018277	IND	2465
4	IM	Shyaamnikhil P	5024218	IND	2463
5	IM	Rathnakaran K.	5005507	IND	2454
6	IM	Karthikeyan P.	5018226	IND	2429
7	IM	Satyapragyan Swayangsu	5004306	IND	2417
8	GM	Thipsay Praveen M	5000033	IND	2387
9	IM	Anwesh Upadhyaya	5028949	IND	2385
10	GM	Sriram Jha	5001668	IND	2372
11	GM	Neelotpal Das	5003512	IND	2369	Wb
12	FM	Sai Krishna G V	5028280	IND	2369
13		Saravana Krishnan P.	5018382	IND	2356	Tn
14		Ram S. Krishnan	5010519	IND	2316	Tn
15	IM	Rajesh V A V	5029317	IND	2301	Tn
16	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan	5016193	IND	2266
17	IM	Shetty Rahul	5000513	IND	2238	Ai
18	IM	Rohan Ahuja	5090598	IND	2178
19		Joshi Govind Ballabh	5000262	IND	2149
20		Sharma Danesh	24639893	GER	2077

The starting rank for national blitz is not available yet on chess-results, but keep an eye out here.

ChessBase India contest:

We have a very exciting prize in store for you. If you are able to guess both National Rapid and Blitz Champion correctly you get to choose any product from the ChessBase India shop (single product, not combo). But mind you, you have to get both the champions right! And that too before the end of 31st of July.

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.