Anwesh Upadhyaya is the National Rapid 2017 Champion

by Shahid Ahmed - 20/08/2017

Despite not playing competitive chess regularly due to his studies in Kiev, Ukraine, IM Anwesh Upadhyaya of Odisha managed to win National Rapid Chess Championship 2017 by scoring 9 points out of 11 rounds. It was a race to the finish line between Anwesh and two IM norms holder P. Saravana Krishnan from Tamil Nadu. In the end both of them lost their last rounds, but still managed to finish at the top. Anwesh took the gold and Saravana the silver. We have a detailed report with pictures and many exciting videos by Shahid Ahmed.

IM Anwesh Upadhyaya wins National Rapid Chess Championship 2017

IM Anwesh Upadhyaya of Odisha won National Rapid Chess Championship 2017 by scoring 9 points out of 11 rounds. He led the tournament jointly with P Saravana Krishnan of Tamil Nadu until the ninth Round with seven wins and two draws. Anwesh extended his lead by half a point when he won against IM S Nitin of RSPB in the 10th Round and P Saravana Krishnan drew against GM Neelotpal Das of ONGC. Anwesh was in trouble as he lost his last round against GM Laxman. However, his closest rival Saravana Krishnan also faltered against Deep Sengupta and this resulted in the Anwesh becoming the national rapid champion.

IM Anwesh Upadhyaya receives the Champion’s Trophy and ₹50000 cash

Interview with the National Rapid Chess Champion 2017 IM Anwesh Upadhyaya

The doctor and the chess player:

Anwesh Upadhyaya is an epitome of how one can manage his chess as well as academic career. The boy from Bhubaneshwar is a strong positional player and was one of the brightest hopes from Odisha to become a grandmaster along with Debashis Das and Swayams Mishra. However, at some point Anwesh gave greater importance to his academic career and went to Bogomolet's National Medical College in Kiev, Ukraine.

We all know how difficult the study of medicine is. Anwesh kept studying hard, but at the same time didn't extinguish his desire of playing chess. He kept enrolling for tournaments in and around Ukraine and kept taking part in some closed round robin events as well. In fact, he specially wrote to ChessBase India thanking them for their online blitz tournaments that were held at 6 p.m. IST on Sundays, saying, "These tournaments are perfect for me to stay in touch with chess and keep me sharp. I enjoy them tremendously."

It is this will to excel at both that has helped Anwesh to not only become a doctor but also maintain his Elo at a very solid 2385. Winning the National Rapid Championship ahead of so many grandmasters is surely one of the best achievements of his career. It also shows that working on chess with passion and consistency, no matter how little it is, can always lead to great results.

Here is one of Anwesh's game, his win over Surya Shekhar Ganguly, one of India's best GMs, from the Dubai Open 2011. Ganguly essays his favourite opening against 1.d4, a setup in the King's Indian that he has played in innumerable games and Anwesh prepares well, gets an advantage and wins the game in nice style. Of course, there are many details which need to be looked into to understand that game, but in general it gives you an idea of Anwesh's active positional style of play.

[Event "Dubai op 13th"]
[Site "Dubai"]
[Date "2011.04.11"]
[Round "2"]
[White "Anwesh, Upadhyaya"]
[Black "Ganguly, Surya Shekhar"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "E68"]
[WhiteElo "2432"]
[BlackElo "2643"]
[PlyCount "141"]
[EventDate "2011.04.10"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "UAE"]
[SourceTitle "CBM 141 Extra"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "2011.05.03"]
[SourceVersion "1"]
[SourceVersionDate "2011.05.03"]
[SourceQuality "1"]
[WhiteTeam "Barbican"]
[BlackTeam "Guildford"]
[WhiteTeamCountry "ENG"]
[BlackTeamCountry "ENG"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 g6 3. g3 Bg7 4. Bg2 O-O 5. Nc3 d6 6. Nf3 Nbd7 7. O-O e5 8. e4
exd4 9. Nxd4 Re8 10. h3 Nc5 11. Re1 Bd7 12. Kh2 h6 13. Rb1 a5 14. Ndb5 Bxb5 15.
cxb5 Nfd7 16. f4 h5 17. Qc2 c6 18. bxc6 bxc6 19. Be3 Qc7 20. Rbd1 Rab8 21. Qf2
Ne6 22. Re2 Nb6 23. Rc2 Nc4 24. Bc1 Qe7 25. Na4 d5 26. exd5 cxd5 27. Bxd5 Nd6
28. Re2 Qf6 29. Nc3 Nd4 30. Rxe8+ Rxe8 31. Bg2 N6f5 32. Nd5 Qe6 33. Nc3 h4 34.
g4 Ne3 35. Bxe3 Qxe3 36. Qxe3 Rxe3 37. Rd2 g5 38. Kg1 gxf4 39. Nd5 Nf3+ 40.
Bxf3 Rxf3 41. Ne7+ Kh7 42. Nf5 Bxb2 43. Rxb2 Rxh3 44. Kg2 Ra3 45. Nxh4 Rg3+ 46.
Kf2 Rxg4 47. Nf3 Rg6 48. Rb7 Rc6 49. Rxf7+ Kg8 50. Rd7 Rc3 51. a4 Ra3 52. Rd4
Ra2+ 53. Ke1 Kf7 54. Rxf4+ Ke7 55. Nd2 Ra3 56. Kd1 Ke6 57. Kc2 Kd5 58. Nb3 Ra2+
59. Kc3 Rh2 60. Nxa5 Kc5 61. Nb3+ Kb6 62. Rf6+ Ka7 63. Kb4 Rb2 64. a5 Rb1 65.
Rf7+ Ka6 66. Rf6+ Ka7 67. Rf2 Ka6 68. Kc4 Rh1 69. Rf6+ Ka7 70. Nc5 Rb1 71. Ra6+
1-0

P. Saravana Krishnan receives his 2^nd Prize Trophy along ₹25000 cash and he was the only untitled player to finish in Top 5

GM R R Laxman of RSPB receives his 3^rd Prize Trophy & ₹15000 cash

Last year’s National Rapid Champion, GM Neelotpal Das of ONGC receives his 4^th Prize ₹10000 cash

GM Sriram Jha of LIC had a +6 finish, receives his 5^th Prize ₹8500 cash

GM Deep Sengupta of ONGC who already qualified for World Cup 2017,
finished 6^th to bag home ₹7500 cash

Former Commonwealth Under 13 Champion, Koustav Chatterjee had a fantastic tournament with a +30 finish. He managed to secure 7^th position and ₹6500

IM K Rathnakaran finished 8^th and received ₹6000 cash

IM D K Sharma of LIC had a +4 finish, collects his 9^th Prize ₹5000 cash

IM P Shyamnikhil of RSPB receives his 10^th Prize ₹4000 cash

IM S Nitin of RSPB was 11^th. Prize ₹2500 cash

Local lad CM Aronyak Ghosh finished 12^th & bagged home ₹2500 cash

IM P Karthikeyan receives his 14^th Prize ₹2500 cash

Kaustuv Kundu had a fantastic tournament with a +11 finish and placed 15^th

WGM Soumya Swaminathan brought GM R R Laxman to the brink of a loss and she finished at 16^th position

Veteran GM Praveen Thipsay had a -15 Elo finish and was placed 24^th

The tournament took place in Bhawanipur Education Society College from 1^st – 3^rd August 2017 in which 176 players participated across the country in over 15 different state.

Some video highlights from National Rapid Chess Championship 2017

Anish Rooj missed a Golden Opportunity against GM Neelotpal Das

AGM Ritam Nag holds GM Deep Sengupta to a draw

All Rook Endgames are drawn | Arpan Das vs FM Sai Krishna G V

Not all Rook endgames are drawn | Aditya Basu vs Sa Kannan

IM Anwesh Upadhyay missed a win against P Saravana Krishnan

Kaustuv Kundu outplayed GM Sriram Jha

IM Rohan Ahuja lost to CM Aronyak Ghosh

Not all Opposite Color Bishop Endgames are drawn

GM R R Laxman has a lucky escape against WGM Soumya Swaminathan

IM Anwesh Upadhyaya defeated Baivab Mishra in Same Color Bishop ending

Kaustuv Kundu won from a deadlock position

Anwesh formed Lucena position and won in a Rook and Pawn endgame

GM Deep Sengupta halted Saravana Krishnan's Championship hopes

Final Ranking after 11 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	10	IM	Anwesh Upadhyaya			2385	ORI	9,0	0,0	76,0	81,5	65,00	8,0
2	15		Saravana Krishnan P.			2357	TN	8,5	0,0	76,0	81,5	60,25	7,0
3	1	GM	Laxman R.R.			2530	RLW	8,5	0,0	74,0	79,0	59,75	6,0
4	12	GM	Neelotpal Das			2369	PSPB	8,5	0,0	72,5	77,0	58,00	6,0
5	11	GM	Sriram Jha			2372	LIC	8,5	0,0	68,5	74,0	54,75	8,0
6	2	GM	Sengupta Deep			2529	PSPB	8,5	0,0	67,5	72,5	54,75	8,0
7	37		Koustav Chatterjee			1904	WB	8,0	0,0	76,0	81,0	57,25	7,0
8	6	IM	Rathnakaran K.			2454	RLW	8,0	0,0	74,5	79,5	54,00	7,0
9	13	IM	Sharma Dinesh K.			2369	LIC	8,0	0,0	74,0	80,0	54,75	7,0
10	5	IM	Shyaamnikhil P			2463	RLW	8,0	0,0	73,5	78,5	55,50	6,0
11	4	IM	Nitin S.			2465	RLW	8,0	0,0	73,5	78,5	54,50	7,0
12	33	CM	Aronyak Ghosh			1944	WB	8,0	0,0	71,5	76,0	53,00	6,0
13	3	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi			2486	RLW	8,0	0,0	67,0	72,5	51,75	7,0
14	7	IM	Karthikeyan P.			2429	RLW	8,0	0,0	66,5	72,5	52,00	6,0
15	26		Kaustuv Kundu			2027	WB	7,5	0,0	75,0	79,0	50,25	7,0
16	19	WGM	Soumya Swaminathan		w	2266	PSPB	7,5	0,0	74,5	79,5	50,25	7,0
17	18	IM	Rajesh V A V			2301	TN	7,5	0,0	72,0	77,0	50,25	7,0
18	17		Ram S. Krishnan			2312	TN	7,5	0,0	69,0	74,0	46,25	7,0
19	16	IM	Palit Somak			2332	WB	7,5	0,0	68,0	72,0	45,75	6,0
20	55	AGM	Ritam Nag			1787	WB	7,5	0,0	68,0	72,0	45,50	6,0

National Rapid Chess Championship 2017 Standings

Part II will follow soon with National Blitz report.