Oliver Barbosa conquers Kolkata 2014

Oliver Barbosa conquers Kolkata 2014

By Sagar Shah

It was already five hours into the final, tenth round. All the games were completed except one: on the top board a battle between two of the most talented youngsters of India, GM Vidit Gujarathi (2602) vs GM Lalith Babu (2575), was still under way. The crowd had gathered around the board in huge numbers. The winner of the tournament was undecided. Oliver Barbosa had made a draw with Ziaur Rahman and was sitting at the top of the table at 7.5/10. But Vidit was on seven points, and if he were to draw his game, he would have been the champion due to his better tie break.

The extremely tense top board game between Vidit Gujarathi and Lalith Babu

GM Oliver Barbosa and GM Lalith Babu both finished with 7.5/10, but the Philippine player won the Sixth Kolkata Open 2014 due to his better tiebreak.

A jubilant Oliver Barbosa flanked by runner-up Lalith Babu and third placed GM Abhijit Kunte

The Kolkata Open, formerly known as the Goodricke Open, was held in Gorky Sadan, Kolkata, from 18th to 27th March 2014. The tournament is one of the strongest opens in Asia and has a long pedigree, with the likes of Smyslov, Korchnoi, Anand, Bologan, Short and many more star players having taken part in previous editions.

This year we saw 27 GMs, 18 IMs and four WGMs taking part. Players from 13 countries were there, making it a truly global event. The average rating of this tournament was an astonishing 2394, in spite of the fact that 77 players were participating. The strength of the tournament can be gauged when top seed GM Nigel Short played GM Sundaranjan Kidambi (2400) in the very first round.

The total prize fund of the event was 1,400,000 Indian Rupess (approx US $ 23,300). It was ten-round tournament with a time control of 90 mins for 40 moves and 30 mins for the rest of the game, with an increment of 30 secs from the first move. Every round began at 14.00 IST, except for the last round which began at 10.00 IST.

GM Oliver Barbosa of Philippines who won the tournament played some excellent chess and finished unbeaten with five wins and five draws and a rating performance of 2688. He bagged the winner's purse of 400,000 rupees (approx $6,500). What was amazing was that Oliver faced seven GMs and three IMs and in spite of such strong opposition scored heavily. He recorded wins over strong 2600+ players like Levan Panstulaia and Konstantin Landa, and his hard working and determined nature can be seen from his cover picture on his Facebook page:

When I got the chance to talk with him after the tournament, his humility and down to earth nature could be easily seen. “When I came to Kolkata one day before the tournament," he said, "I didn’t even know the player’s list. I was pleasantly surprised to see that so many strong 2600+ players had registered. I thought to myself, a top five finish would really be good. But I played well and won the tournament and I am very happy.” About the strength of his opponents he said: “It was barely possible to underestimate anyone, and Indian players I think are very strong. Even a 2100 player here can beat a GM if you take him lightly.” This was Oliver’s third tournament victory in India, after he had once won the Bhubaneshwar Open and the Delhi Open. However this was definitely the strongest tournament of the three.

Oliver’s favourite game from the tournament was the one against Konstantin Landa where as White he gained a small advantage. It seemed absolutely nothing at first. Slowly and steadily, just like Capablanca, he ground his strong Russian opponent down. To outplay such a player like Landa with just a miniscule edge speaks volumes of Barbosa’s talent. Here is the game.

With a live rating of 2580 I consider Oliver Barbosa one of the finest talents, not just from the Philippines but also from Asia. He seems extremely focussed and hardworking, and what separates himself from the rest is his will to win. You must definitely watch his queen endgame against Levan Pantsulaia, where in spite of being down to his last few seconds and facing stiff resistance from the Georgian GM, he showed amazing tenacity to win the position. Le Quang Liem won the Kolkata Open in 2009 and shot into prominence on the world level pretty soon. I sense something similar on the cards for Oliver!

The top seed and biggest attraction of the event was definitely Nigel Short. Being a World Championship finalist, who locked horns with the great Garry Kasparov in 1993, Nigel is nothing short of a legend in the chess world. However in Kolkata, as Nigel would say, like the English cricket batsmen he just couldn’t get going. The tournament started off badly for him when he couldn’t win a won endgame against GM Kidambi in the first round. And it went really bad when he lost his third round game against GM Ziaur Rahman.

Nigel was terribly dejected after his loss to Ziaur Rahman

He started making his way back to the top but could not reach the absolute top boards. After the tournament he said, “I am just gathering steam now. Too bad the tournament is already over!”
His twelfth position finish was not something Nigel was proud of. However, his presence surely enhanced the aura of the event.

GM Lalith Babu finished with a score of 7.5/10 and was the runner-up of the event. In spite of losing the third game to Deepan Chakravarthy, Lalith fought back with a sizzling 4.5/5 finish to clinch the silver medal. There is something extremely unique about this 20-year-old talent. He is able to find excellent resources even in lost positions, and his "never say die" spirit helps him to turn many of the inferior positions in his favour.

Known in Indian chess circles as Dada ("elder brother" in Marathi), Abhijit Kunte was one of the best players of the country during the period of 2000-2005. He has been the national champion on many occasions and also the British champion in the year 2003. Of late he had been performing quite poorly and his rating had dipped quite low to 2439. But everyone is aware of his class. It was only a matter of time before he would come back to form. Just when Anand showed his supreme form in Candidates 2014, Abhijit Kunte did the same in the Kolkata Open, gaining 31 elo points with his 2671 performance . He dispatched strong GMs like SP Sethuraman (2578), Deep Sengupta (2529), and Abdulla-Al-Rakib (2518). If Kunte keeps up this form, then I am sure we can see him back in the 2500 Elo range pretty soon!

Touted as one of the biggest talents of Indian chess, GM Vidit Gujarathi finished fourth at the tournament. He knows when to press the accelerator and when to use the brakes. Thus, you can see his 20 odd moves nice win over GM Debashish Das, and also his safe draws against GM Kunte and GM Chakravarthy. It was only because of his last round loss to GM Lalith Babu (see above) that he failed to become the champion. The 2013 World Junior bronze medallist has a very bright future ahead of him and I surely think he will soon cross the 2700 elo barrier!

GM B Adhiban (2608) who had shot to fame earlier by entering the quarter finals of the World Cup 2013, had broken into 2600 with a strong performance at Gibraltar Open. He finished fifth at the Kolkata Open. His style of preparing before the game by listening to music is going to gain a lot of followers! Is it the secret to reach 2600?!

Finishing sixth in the tournament is not such a big deal for a strong player like GM Ziaur Rahman (2486) from Bangladesh. However, the fact that he remained unbeaten with a performance of 2688, and also beat two strong players, Nigel Short and Sergey Fedorchuk, and at the same time gained 26 Elo points, means that he had a tournament of his life! Great play by the Bangladeshi genius!

Final Ranking after ten rounds

• Full results of all 77 players here

All pictures by Amruta Mokal, who is the wife of our reporter

– Part two will follow soon –

Links Official tournament site All games in PGN (thanks to TWIC) The games are being broadcast live on the official web site and on the chess server Playchess.com. If you are not a member you can download a free Playchess client there and get immediate access. You can also use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs.