11th Parsvnath Delhi International Chess Festival 2013

11th Parsvnath Delhi International Chess Festival 2013

Former World junior champion Abhijeet Gupta starts as the top seed and hot favourite in Delhi International Chess Festival that got under way on Saturday. A record breaking 700+ participants registered for the biggest ever prize money tournament of the country. The premier section has just over 100 participants and is one of the strongest tournaments, with over 50 titled players participating, including some of the best players from India. The total prize purse is Rs. 1.25 million (= US $22,000 or €16,800).

The premier section also includes GM Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus, Andrey Deviatkin of Russia, Czebe Attila of Hungary, Raset Ziatdinov of United States, Henrik Teske of Germany, Marat Dzhumaev and Dmitry Kayumov of Uzbekistan, which makes the tournament extremely competitive. On the national front we find (behind Abhijeet Gupta) Abhijeet Kunte, B. Adhiban, P. Magesh Chandran and Commonwealth champion M.R. Lalith Babu. The local challenge will be spearheaded by GMs Sahaj Grover and Vaibhav Suri apart from Tania Sachdev, who had a very successful stint recently in a tournament where she played against great masters of the past.

The tournament, which was first held twelve years ago, is split into three different sections. 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.

The customary first move on top board in round one, with top seed former World
Junior Champion Abhijeet Gupta against IM B.T. Murali Krishnan (Gupta won)

The 11th edition of prestigious Parsvnath Delhi International Chess Festival got off to a rousing start with a major upset: unitiled Maharashtra youngster Rakesh Kulkarni (above left), rated 2306, stunned fifth seed Indian GM B. Adhiban, rated 2558, in the opening round.

WGM Padmini Rout, 2288, playing GM Lu Shanglei, of China 2526. Lu won.

GM Magesh Chandran, 2580, playing WGM Soumya Swaminathan, 2315. The GM won.

What, we hear you ask, is with the heavy winter clothing? The organisers have informed us that the temperatures in the Indian capital have dropped to as low as 2°C (= 35.6°F), the lowest temperature in recent history (the coldest ever recorded temperature in New Delhi was minus 0.6°C in 1935). Remember: India is not equipped to deal with freezing temperatures and do not have the powerful heating facilities we know in Europe. The low temperatures occur far too seldom to warrant that.

In the third round Aleksej Alexandrov of Belarus (above right) surged ahead with a hard-fought victory against IM K. Rathnakaran. Alexandrov took his tally to a maximum three points out of a possible three and found himself alone at the top of the tables in this strong event.

Untitled Karthikeyan Murali, rated 2341, held German GM Teske Henrik, 2512, to a draw

IM Saptarshi Roy came up with a spectacular performance to beat fourth seed Andery Deviatkin of Russia in his trademark uncompromising style. Top seed Abhijeet Gupta meanwhile was held to a second draw in the tournament, the beneficiary being Ram S. Krishna who had to defend a slightly worse endgame for a long time.

GM P. Magesh Chandran benefited from a blunder in a level position against...

... Aleksej Alexandrov in the fourth round and defeated the Belarus GM

Magesh Chandran, Lu Shanglei of China, Kirill Kuderinov of Kazakhstan and M.R. Lalith Babu emerged as the new co-leaders, with 3.5/4 points apiece. Twenty players follow the four leaders a half point behind.

IM Kirill Kuderinov of Kazakhstan, rated 2433, in the joint lead

The GM killer of round one, Rakesh Kulkarni, is now at 2.0/4

WGM Soumya Swaminathan of India, rated 2315, has scored 1.5/4 points

Xu Huahua of China, rated 2177, is languishing at 0.5/4 points

Top rankings after round four

• Full standings of all 105 players here

Video impressions by Vijay Kumar

Links Official tournament site 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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