Krishna Teja wins National U-25

by Priyadarshan Banjan - 21/11/2015

The city of Patna, the capital of Bihar, hosted the 24^th edition of the National U-25 Championship. This tournament was the final age-category National event of the year 2015 and managed to attract sixty-three players. Newly minted IM Krishna Teja N. of Andhra Pradesh won the tournament with 8.5/9. We have pictures, analysis and choice tactics for you.

Krishna Teja wins National U-25

The Patliputra Sports Complex, Patna, Bihar hosted the 24^th edition of the National U-25 Championship from 12 October 2015 to 19 October 2015. The time control was 90 minutes per player for the whole game plus 30 seconds increment per move.

The top two players from this tournament qualify for the next edition of the National-B Championship. The tournament was a nine-round swiss with sixty-three players. The tournament turned out to be an ideal platform for the youngsters from Bihar to hone their skills.

The spacious playing arena

IM Krishna Teja N. (2313)

Andhra Pradesh’s IM Krishna Teja N. stormed into the sole lead after five rounds and never let it go to win the tournament by a comfortable half-point margin. He showed remarkable resilience in fighting back from numerous worse positions, even going on the win those games! He dropped only a single draw – to the top seed Himal Gusain (2326) – to score 8.5/9.

IM Krishna Teja (2313) facing Himal Gusain (2326)

[Event "24th National Youth (Under-25) Chess Ch"]
[Site "Indoor Stadium , Patliputra S"]
[Date "2015.10.16"]
[Round "6.1"]
[White "Krishna Teja, N."]
[Black "Gusain, Himal"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "A00"]
[WhiteElo "2313"]
[BlackElo "2326"]
[PlyCount "189"]
[EventDate "2015.10.13"]
[EventRounds "9"]
[EventCountry "IND"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. Nf3 e6 3. c4 c5 4. g3 cxd4 5. Nxd4 d5 6. Nf3 {A unique move.} ({
More usual is continuing development with} 6. Bg2 e5 7. Nf3 d4 8. O-O (8. Nxe5
$4 Qa5+)) 6... Nc6 7. cxd5 Qxd5 8. Qxd5 Nxd5 9. a3 g6 {Black probably chose to
place Bf8 on the long diagonal, to not allow white from doing the same himself.
} ({However, it may be better to improve Bc8 with} 9... e5 {leading to a
reversed Dragondorf structure.}) 10. e4 Nf6 11. Bd3 Bg7 12. Bd2 {White decides
to counter Bg7's influence on the long diagonal.} O-O 13. Bc3 Rd8 14. Ke2 b6
15. b4 (15. Nbd2 {would have been an ideal choice, developing all the pieces
before committing action.} Bb7 16. Rac1 Rac8 17. Rhd1 $11) 15... Bb7 $15 16.
Nbd2 Ng4 17. Bxg7 Kxg7 18. Rhc1 Nge5 19. Nxe5 Nxe5 20. Bb5 a6 21. Ba4 b5 $2 ({
A better idea is to improve the rooks with} 21... Rd4 $1 22. f3 (22. Rc7 Rad8
23. Rd1 Bxe4 $17) 22... Rad8 23. Ra2 b5 24. Bd1 R4d7 $15) 22. Bb3 Nc6 23. Ke3
a5 24. bxa5 Rxa5 25. Rc5 Rda8 26. Rac1 R8a6 27. Nb1 Rb6 28. f3 Ra8 29. R1c3 Kf8
30. Bd1 Nb8 31. Rb3 Bc6 32. Be2 Nd7 33. Rc2 Ke7 34. Rb4 f5 $11 35. Rcb2 fxe4
36. fxe4 Ra5 37. h4 e5 38. g4 Nc5 39. g5 Bd7 (39... Rb7 40. Bg4 Rb8 41. Be2 Kd6
42. Bf1 Kc7 $11) 40. Kf2 Na4 41. Rd2 Bc6 42. Ke3 (42. Rc2 Bd7 43. Nd2 Kd6 44.
Rc1 $14) 42... Rb8 43. Rc2 Rb6 $2 44. Rc1 (44. Nd2 Bd7 45. Nf3 Re6 46. Bf1 Nb6
47. Rb3 Nc4+ 48. Bxc4 bxc4 49. Rxc4 $14) 44... Ra8 45. Bd1 Kd6 46. Nd2 Rba6 47.
Be2 Nc5 48. Bxb5 Rxa3+ 49. Ke2 Ra2 50. Bxc6 Kxc6 51. Ke1 Ra1 52. Rbc4 Rxc1+ 53.
Rxc1 Kd6 54. Rd1 Ke6 55. Rb1 Ra4 56. Rb6+ Kd7 57. Kf1 Ra1+ 58. Ke2 Ra2 59. Ke3
Kc7 60. Rb5 Kc6 61. Rb8 Ra3+ 62. Ke2 Rh3 63. Nf3 Nxe4 64. Nxe5+ Kd5 65. Nf3 Rg3
66. Rb7 Rg2+ 67. Ke3 Nd6 68. Rxh7 Ra2 69. Rh8 Nf5+ 70. Kd3 Ra3+ 71. Ke2 Ke4 72.
Nd2+ Kf4 73. Nc4 Rc3 74. Nb6 Rc2+ 75. Kd3 Rh2 76. Nd5+ Kf3 77. Rf8 Rh3 78. Kd2
Kg3 79. Rf6 Nxh4 80. Ne3 Rh2+ 81. Kd3 Ra2 82. Rf1 Nf3 83. Nc4 Ra6 84. Rb1 Nxg5
85. Rb6 Rxb6 86. Nxb6 Kf2 87. Nd5 Nh3 88. Ke4 Kg3 89. Ne7 g5 90. Nf5+ Kf2 91.
Nh6 Ke2 92. Kf5 Kf3 93. Nf7 Kg3 94. Nxg5 Nxg5 95. Kxg5 {Maybe, they were
trying to complete the century.} 1/2-1/2

Himal Gusain (2326)

Chandigarh’s Himal Gusain (2326) finished second after giving away two draws and winning the remaining games. He scored 8.0/9, a clear 1.5 points ahead of the remaining field.

Tournament after tournament, it is becoming certain that Himal possesses phoenix-like abilities. Almost on a regular basis now, the Chandigarh lad is burnt to the ground, yet he manages to stage a comeback:

Gusain (Black) had been fighting piece odds with Vivekananda L (1753), who has just played Rb3. Just in the nick of time, Black played…

Final Standings:

Ranking List

View the complete standings here.

Sa Kannan (2029) scored 6.5/9, to finish third on tiebreak. He believes he can beat Magnus Carlsen in arm wrestling and always plays 1. d4(!)

Rajarshi Dutta (1873) scored 6.5/9 as well, finishing fourth. He is the 2015 West Bengal Sub-Junior Champion

Manigandan SS (2131) of Tamil Nadu was fifth with 6.0/9

Barath L (1948) of Tamil Nadu also scored 6.0/9, finishing sixth

Shrutarshi Ray (1953) of West Bengal was seventh with 6.0/9

Eighth with 6.0/9: Vivekananda L (1754) of Karnataka

Barath Kalyan M (2125) of Tamil Nadu was ninth with 6.0/9

Some choice tactics:

Barath, L. - Subramanian, R M.

White was alert to grab his chance

Divyanshu, Hasija - Kadav, Omkar

White noticed a simple tactic in the air

Kadav, Omkar - Anubhav, Kumar Jha

Black erroneously grabbed the b3 pawn with his Bishop. What plan had White foreseen?

If you find the answers to the above problems, then do post them on our under-25 Nationals post on Facebook. We will let you know whether your answer is correct or not.

All pictures by Sa Kannan