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The 52nd Indian National Challenger’s 2014 took place in the extremely beautiful town of Dharamshala from 9th-19th May. It was won by the super strong Indian youngster GM Vidit Gujrathi (2606). You can read about it in our previous report. IM V Saravanan, who was playing in the event, sent us some breathtaking impressions he captured.
Dharamshala is situated in the northern part of India in the state of Himachal Pradesh. It is one of the most scenic destinations in the whole of India. The entire city is covered with dense coniferous trees which are mainly Deodar cedar trees.
The city nestled between the high ranging Dhauladhar ranges. With dense pine and deodar forests, streams, cool healthy air, the nearby snowline – Dharamshala has everything for a perfect holiday...
... especially when the clouds disappear and the sun illuminates the surrounding mountains
While you walk through the city, you find huge trees that are completely withered
Walk a few meters more and you see one colvered with violet blossoms!
A soccer field with a backdrop of the Himalayas – the ideal training camp for Magnus?
Winding green roads a sight to behold…
The Bhagsu waterfalls is a popular tourist destination
A beautiful sight: the water cascading down from a height of around thirty feet
Downstream you find chess people climbing around the waterfall
Chief Organiser Sudarshan Kumar Sharma with Chief Arbiter Rangaramanujam Srivatsan
The roadside "Chai Wallahs" or tea vendors. As you can see, Messers Kundan Lal and Rinku Choudhary run their establishments right next to each other. But the street of hustle bustle promises them a steady stream of clientele.
For this man a shanty covered with tarpaulins hoisted
on bamboo sticks, with a portable
gas stove, some pot and a few bread rolls are good enough to make a living
India is a home to lot of deities. Naturally in many shops you can find the pictures of Indian gods whom people belonging to different religions worship. The state of Himachal Pradesh situated next to Punjab, so the Sikh icons Guru Nanak (who laid the foundations of Sikhism) and Guru Gobind Singh are found aplenty in posters.
And being next to the Himalayan range, Lord Shiva
is very
much present as well, Mount Kailash being his mythical abode…
But definitely the place is the most famous for
the living legend Tenzing Gyatso,
the 14th Dalai Lama who has made Dharamshala the center of Tibetan Administration
Mcleodganj, the hill where the temple of the Dalai Lama is located
The famous Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association...
The tournament hall is the green building next to the athletic field
Arbiters pose in front of the cricket club, the tournament hall and the Himalayas
Inside the hall is filled to the capacity with chess players
Though this was supposed to be an article just on the beauty of Dharamshala, we cannot stay away from the temptation of publishing a few pictures of the participants who are unknown but are seen to be playing chess with complete dedication.
Indian IM Nikil P. Shyam, 2422, finished third with 9.5/13 points
IM K. Rathnakaran, rated 2397, scored 8.5/13
IM Ponnuswamy Konguvel, 2363, 8.5/13 points
WGM Bhakti Kulkarni, 2258, scored 8.0/13 points
GM Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi, rated 2453, finished with 8.0/13
IM M.S. Thejkumar, rated 2460, scored 7.0/13 points
2510 rating average rating: GM Vidit Gujrathi (2606), GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhary (2453), GM Deepan Chakravarthy (2513), GM Abhijit Kunte (2484), GM Sahaj Grover (2469), GM Deep Sengupta (2536)
Slightly lower Elo average but just as much pleasure in the game – and so much cuter!
| Rk. | SNo | Ti. | Name | Rtg | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 |
| 1 | 1 | GM | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | 2606 | 9.5 | 106.0 | 98.5 | 82.25 |
| 2 | 11 | GM | Grover Sahaj | 2469 | 9.5 | 105.5 | 98.0 | 78.25 |
| 3 | 18 | IM | Shyam Nikil P. | 2422 | 9.5 | 102.5 | 95.5 | 77.00 |
| 4 | 4 | GM | Sengupta Deep | 2536 | 9.5 | 102.5 | 94.5 | 78.75 |
| 5 | 2 | GM | Sethuraman S.P. | 2582 | 9.5 | 102.0 | 94.5 | 76.50 |
| 6 | 16 | IM | Swayams Mishra | 2442 | 9.5 | 101.5 | 95.0 | 76.75 |
| 7 | 23 | IM | Rajesh V A V | 2382 | 9.5 | 101.0 | 94.0 | 75.75 |
| 8 | 3 | GM | Lalith Babu M.R. | 2571 | 9.5 | 99.5 | 92.0 | 76.75 |
| 9 | 6 | GM | Deepan Chakkravarthy J. | 2513 | 9.5 | 98.0 | 91.5 | 75.25 |
| 10 | 9 | GM | Kunte Abhijit | 2484 | 9.5 | 97.5 | 90.5 | 73.75 |
| 11 | 35 | IM | Girinath P.D.S. | 2312 | 9.5 | 95.5 | 90.0 | 70.75 |
| 12 | 24 | IM | Karthikeyan P. | 2380 | 9.0 | 100.0 | 94.0 | 69.75 |
| 13 | 15 | GM | Laxman R.R. | 2450 | 9.0 | 99.5 | 92.0 | 71.75 |
| 14 | 8 | GM | Shyam Sundar M. | 2486 | 9.0 | 92.5 | 86.5 | 65.25 |
| 15 | 37 | IM | Murali Krishnan B.T. | 2299 | 9.0 | 92.5 | 86.5 | 64.00 |
| 16 | 19 | IM | Anurag Mhamal | 2420 | 9.0 | 91.0 | 85.0 | 64.00 |
| 17 | 29 | IM | Himanshu Sharma | 2350 | 8.5 | 105.5 | 98.0 | 70.50 |
| 18 | 10 | IM | Karthikeyan Murali | 2475 | 8.5 | 104.5 | 97.5 | 70.75 |
| 19 | 12 | GM | Vishnu Prasanna. V | 2467 | 8.5 | 101.0 | 94.0 | 67.75 |
| 20 | 7 | GM | Debashis Das | 2501 | 8.5 | 97.0 | 90.0 | 65.75 |
| 21 | 22 | IM | Rathnakaran K. | 2397 | 8.5 | 95.0 | 88.0 | 63.75 |
| 22 | 17 | IM | Swapnil S. Dhopade | 2434 | 8.5 | 93.0 | 87.0 | 63.75 |
| 23 | 28 | IM | Nitin S. | 2357 | 8.5 | 93.0 | 86.5 | 61.25 |
| 24 | 21 | Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan | 2402 | 8.5 | 92.5 | 86.0 | 60.75 | |
| 25 | 27 | IM | Konguvel Ponnuswamy | 2363 | 8.5 | 92.0 | 86.0 | 57.25 |
| 26 | 44 | Patil Pratik | 2259 | 8.5 | 90.5 | 84.0 | 60.50 | |
| 27 | 41 | Karthik V. Ap | 2276 | 8.5 | 90.0 | 84.0 | 57.50 | |
| 28 | 25 | IM | Das Sayantan | 2373 | 8.5 | 86.5 | 81.0 | 59.50 |
| 29 | 32 | IM | Sangma Rahul | 2333 | 8.5 | 86.5 | 80.5 | 59.25 |
| 30 | 79 | Agarwal Brajesh | 2065 | 8.5 | 82.5 | 77.5 | 51.25 |
IM Venkatachalam Saravanan is not only strong chess player but also an excellent writer as well as a photographer. When not in action on the chessboard, you can spot him with non-chess book. A voracious reader, he has a great vocabulary. ChessBase thanks him for bringing such a beautiful place like Dharamshala to the notice of the chess world.
Special thanks to Arjun. K. Mohan for sending some nice additional pictures.
LinksYou can use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com. |
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