7th Parsvnath International Rating Chess Tournament

The event, organised by the Capablanca Chess Club, is took place from January 11th to 19th in the Modern School, Barakhamba Road, New Delhi. The event was a ten-round Swiss, and the winner was Indian GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly, who beat Russian GM Mikhail Ulibin on tie-break points. Ganguly received Rs.200,000 (US $4,500) Indian Rupees of the total prize fund of Rs.11,50,000.

In the final round National Champion Ganugly settled for a quick draw against P Karthikeyan, while Ulibin got better of M S Thejkumar. The two ways tie was resolved by Bucholz points, and Ganguly edged out Ulibin with just half point. Grandmaster Petr Kostenko drew his final game against Indian Grandmaster Neeltopal Das and finished a creditable third with 8 points.

P Karthikeyan and S P Sethuraman achieved grandmaster norm during this tournament and finished fourth and fifth respectively. International Master Prathamesh Mokal also achieved Grandmaster norm while Shahikant Kutwal, Prantik Roy and Arindam Mukherjee secured their International Master norms.

Shalmali Gagare bagged the best women prize while Altykenov Yerlan of Kazakhstan finished first among the unrated players. Joshi G B and Arunima Kalra become the best Delhi Player and Best Delhi Girl respectively.

In the closing ceremony, Air Marshal JN Burma AVSM VSM, Air Officer-in-Charge Administration, Indian Air Force gave away the prizes in presence of Shri. Harish Rawat, Member of Parliament and D V Sundar, Secretary All India Chess Federation.

Final standings after ten rounds (first 23 of 425 players)

The playing venue in New Delhi, India

The playing hall

The school grounds, where the students are doing what Indians do best (apart from chess)

Cricket! How long do you think an international cricket game lasts?

Parimarjan Negi vs Petr Kostenko in round seven (Kostenko won in 53 moves)

One of India's great talents: GM Parimarjan Negi, 2600, who scored a below-par 7.5/10

13th: untitled Praveen Kumar, IND, rated 2360, who scored 7½/10 like Negi

27th: IM Boris N Katalymov from Kazakhstan, 2367

Anand's visit inspired Ganguly to beat Kostenko

One of the truly honored guests at the Parsvnath Tournament was World Champion Vishy Anand, who received a tumultuous welcome.

Anand arrives at the tournament in Delhi

Everyone wants a signature from the champ

The daily Parsvnath press release stated: "The visit of world champion Vishy Anand to tournament hall boosted his second in the World Championship 2008, national champion Surya Shekhar Ganguly, to beat overnight sole leader Kazakh grandmaster Petr Kostenko in the eighth round of 7th Parsvnath International Open Chess Tournament here at Modern School on Saturday. Ganguly displayed sheer class to beat Kostenko from the white side of Sicilian Defence after 70 moves. During the course of the round World Champion Viswanathan Anand along with his better half Aruna visited the tournament hall and it was a pleasant experience for the players and spectators."

Was Ganguly receiving secret inspiration from Anand – in violation of the FIDE doping rules?

Links

• Official Delhi Chess Association web site
• All games in zipped PGN
  The games, which were published round by round by the official site, were compiled at great risk to his health by Mark Crowther of TWIC. Mark writes: "I would plea with the bulletin editors to put together the material they have created in one database, look at it, and ask themselves whether the mess they created was really intended. What they did was reasonably well documented but the incompatibility of the live material from Monroi and that which the bulletin editors created produces a horror show."