Indian National Championship won by Surya Ganguly

5.1.2007 - Normally the championship of this chess superpower is a massive 22-player round robin event. This time it was staged as a 13-player Swiss with 45 participants. The venue was idyllic – the picturesque Atul Club in the State of Gujarat, 180 km north of Mumbai. The winner, who took his fourth Indian title, was Surya Sekhar Ganguly. Picture report.

Indian National Championship

By Praful Zaveri

The Atul 44th National 'A' Chess Championship was held from 18th to 29th December 2006 at the picturesque Atul, District Valsad (State of Gujarat), which is approximately 180 Kms north of Mumbai. For the first time the All India Chess Federation (AICF) experimented with the new format of 13-round Swiss League instead of the marathon 22-player's all-play-all.

The Atul Club – venue of the National 'A' Chess Championship of India

The 44th edition of the Indian National Championship, better known as the National 'A' Chess Championship, was expectedly won by the top-seeded and defending champion, GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly, who powered his way to his fourth consecutive title with a score of 9/13.

The Champion - GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly at work...

... and with the prize for his endeavors.

Final standings

Rk		Name	Rtg	Pts
1	GM	Ganguly Surya Shekhar	2573	9
2	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy	2501	8½
3	IM	Arun Prasad S	2424	8½
4		Rohit G	2393	8
5	IM	Suvrajit Saha	2356	8
6		Gopal G N	2397	8
7	GM	Kunte Abhijit	2524	8
8	GM	Neelotpal Das	2490	8
9	IM	Roy Chowdhury S.	2423	8
10	WGM	Harika Dronavalli	2353	7½
11	IM	Gupta Abhijeet	2481	7½
12	IM	Sengupta Deep	2420	7½
13	IM	Prathamesh Sunil	2335	7½
14		Murali Krishnan B T	2364	7½
15	IM	Sundararajan Kidambi	2451	7½
16	GM	Barua Dibyendu	2471	7
17		Rathnakaran K	2422	7
18	IM	Poobesh Anand S	2416	7
19		Palit Somak	2306	7
20	GM	Thipsay Praveen M	2494	6½
21	IM	Venkatesh M R	2466	6½
22	IM	Ravi Lanka	2408	6½

23	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy	2407	6½
24		Aswin Jayaram	2322	6½
25	IM	D P Singh	2507	6½
26	GM	Bakre Tejas	2447	6½
27		Parikh Valay	2394	6½
28	IM	Saravanan V	2383	6½
29		Syed Anwar Shazuli	2241	6½
30	IM	Ravi Thandalam S.	2335	6
31	IM	Babu N Sudhakar	2290	6
32	GM	Ramesh R B	2491	6
33		Thejkumar M S	2322	6
34	IM	Himanshu Sharma	2387	6
35		Abhishek Das	2307	6
36	WGM	Swathi Ghate	2385	5½
37		Kamble Vikramaditya	2346	5½
38	IM	Girinath P D S	2344	5½
39	IM	Roktim Bandyopadhyay	2332	5½
40	WGM	Karavade Eesha	2321	5½
41	IM	Prakash G B	2403	5½
42	IM	Laxman R R	2324	5
43		Swapnil Dhopade	2209	5
44	IM	Koshy Varugeese	2325	5
45		Sinha Sudhir Kumar	2182	3

All games in zipped PGN
Official Atul web site

Picture gallery

Second place to GM Deepan Chakravarthy

Third place for IM Arun Prasad

Fourth place: G. Rohit

Fifth: IM Suvrajit Saha (right), here in his game against Barua

Sixth place: G.N. Gopal

Tenth place: WGM Harika Dronavalli, who remained unbeaten

Nothing went right for WGM Swathi Ghate, who finished at 36

An impression of the tournament venue

Some pool-side analysis

The 'Live Coverage Team' – they did all the running to bring us the games live!

Part two of Praful Zaveri's report to follow soon – with some fairly explosive material.

Feedback and mail to our news service Please use this account if you want to contribute to or comment on our news page service

Tagged with:

FIDE's new world championship format

9.12.2006 - Since 1998 the FIDE world championship has been a 128-player knockout event, which never really found acceptance amongst chess players and fans. In 2005 the format was changed to an eight-player double round robin, with the knockout transforming into a "World Cup". Now FIDE has tabled a plan to merge the two. Interesting proposal.

Kasim beats Uzbek national team 4:1

1.2.2007 - Clock simuls are something special: the master has the same time as each of his opponents, to whom he has to attend individually. They can move whenever they want. Under such circumstances to face a team of five players, including a bevy of grandmasters, is a daunting task. It was undertaken by former FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov. Report and interview.

Indian National Championship won by Surya Ganguly