Parsvnath Delhi International: Aleksandrov takes clear first

11th Parsvnath Delhi International Chess Festival 2013

The tournament, which was first held twelve years ago, was split into three different sections. The 'A' section has a prize purse is Rs. 1.25 million (= US $22,000 or €16,800). The ‘B’ section, for players rated below 2200 rating, has a prize pool of Rs. 300,000 (€4,200 or US $5,500), while the section ‘C’, reserved for players rated below 1900 Elo rating, has a prize fund of Rs. 600,000 and will start on the 9th of January.

Round nine: Karthikeyan, Rathnakaran make GM norms

Untitled 13-year-old Murali Karthikeyan (above) scored his maiden grandmaster norm after securing a draw against Commonwealth champion M.R. Lalith Babu in the ninth and penultimate round of the premier section of the Parsvnath International Chess Tournament. IM K. Rathnakaran also joined the party by making his second GM norm, defeating top seed Abhijeet Gupta.

At the top of the tables GM Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus (above) pulled himself closer to winning the tournament at the expense of Marat Dzhumaev of Uzbekistan.

GM Marat Dzhumaev in the round nine game he lost against Aleksandrov

With just one round to go, Aleksandrov is sitting pretty in the tournament on 7.5 points from nine games, enjoying a half point lead over nearest contender Henrik Teske of Germany. Five players – Kiril Kuderinov, Vaibhav Suri, P.Magesh Chandran, Rathnakaran and Dzhumaev share the third spot with 6.5 points apiece.

After a lucky victory against Grandmaster Sahaj Grover in the previous round, it turned out to be another good day for Teske as he simply outclassed Jahongir Vakhidov of Uzbekistan. Amongst other top games, Suri played out a hard-fought draw with Kuderinov while Magesh Chandran scored a fine technical victory over Czebe Attila of Hungary.

The hero of the day however was former Under-12 World Champion Murali Karthikeyan, who played another nerve-wracking game in the tournament. The Chennai-based youngster lost a pawn in the endgame, but fought on well to force parity against Lalith Babu. The achievement makes Murali the youngest grandmaster norm holder in the country currently.

Rathnakar defeated Gupta from a slightly worse middle game arising out of a Center Counter opening. Gupta blundered to land himself in to difficulties and then Rathnakaran pushed for victory with some precise play.

Round ten: Aleksej Aleksandrov wins premier section

Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus won the premier section of Parsvnath International Chess Festival, after drawing with GM Henrik Teske of Germany in the tenth and final round of the tournament. Aleksandrov finished with eight points out of a possible ten, clear first ahead of...

... Marat Dzhumaev of Uzbekistan, who finished second with best tiebreak score.

It turned out to be a three-way tie for the second spot, and Teske (above) finished third while Indian Grandmaster Vaibhav Suri ended fourth. Aleksandrov won the winner’s purse of Rs. 300,000, while Dzhumaev took home Rs. 200,000.

Amongst the Indians Vaibhav Suri got the biggest check of Rs. 75,000


Meanwhile, Kumar Gaurav deservingly won the Category C tournament of the festival,
scoring nine points out of a possible ten to pocket the Rs. 100,000 winner’s purse.

The tournament produced an Indian record in terms of participation as in all 899 participants took part in three different categories. In terms of prize money offered too, it was a giant leap forward as the total prize fund of the festival was at 2.05 million Rupees, bettering the highest prize fund ever offered by over 30%.

The Delhi Chess Association is known to honour its stars, and this time was no exception. Four players were felicitated with a cash award of Rs. 25,000 each. GM Abhijeet Gupta and Tania Sachdev were rewarded for their excellent show in the Chess Olympiad where they won individual medals, while Sahaj Grover got the honour for becoming the latest grandmaster. Grandmaster Abhijeet Kunte was also rewarded for his contribution as the trainer of Indian women team in the Chess Olympiad in Istanbul, where the Indian women had finished best-ever in fourth place.

Top final rankings (after ten rounds)

• Full standings of all 105 players here

Links Official tournament site All available games in PGN (not in very good condition) Top 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.

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