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This event took place in New Delhi from April 2nd to 4th on initiative of the All India Chess Federation under the aegis of World Chess Federation and with the support of Embassy of Israel in New Delhi. It was staged at Airport Authority of India Officers’ Institute, Safdarjung Airport, New Delhi. It was meant to commemorate the year 2012, which is special for both India and Israel as far as the game of chess goes: from May 10th this year, first sons in chess from both countries – Viswanathan Anand and Boris Gelfand – will battle it out for the ultimate title of the World Champion in Moscow. The New Delhi encounter was organized as a curtain raiser to the World Championship.
Besides GM Krishnan Sasikiran, the second highest rated player in the country after Anand, National Champion Abhijeet Gupta, GM B Adhiban and GM G N Gopal completed the Indian line up. The Indians were firm favourites to beat their Israeli counterparts, consisting of the highly regarded GM Illya Smirin, assisted by GM Tal Baron, GM Vitaly Golod and IM Gil Popliski.
Blindfold games: each player executed his lase move with a piece on the
board...
... and an arbiter armed with a notebook kept track of the games and their
legality
The unique match was played over three days, with each player facing all players of the other country at least once. For the first time ever, there were blindfold, rapid and blitz games together in the match. The blindfold and rapid games had an identical time control of 25 minutes for the entire game with a ten second increment after every move is played. The blitz games had three minutes, with an increment of two seconds per move. The games were broadcast live on Playchess and the Internet in general.
The Indians team outclassed their Israeli counterparts 29.5-18.5. Second highest rated Indian GM Krishnan Sasikiran paved the way for his team’s victory, scoring massively (7.5 out of a possible eight) on the final two rounds. Winning seven games in all, Sasikiran just conceded a single draw when he could not force matters against Vitali Golod in the rapid game.
Higher ranked on all four boards, the Indian victory was expected, but the way it came might give reasons for smile to world champion Viswanathan Anand, who plays the next match against Boris Gelfand of Israel in May this year. The Indians had held a healthy lead in the opening round which they built on, on the final day as well.
A tense moment in one of the rapid games
The second day started with Abhijeet Gupta striking form against Ilia Smirin in the blindfold game that he won without much ado. Sasikiran also caused the damage for the Israelis with a vital victory against Golod, and by the time the final round began the Indian victory was only a matter of time.
From Israel’s perspective, GM Baron Tal was on the receiving end throughout the match and went on to lose all 12 games that he played against Indians. The best Israeli player was Ilia Smirin, who scored eight points in all and was especially effective in the last day, where he scored 3.5/4. International Master Gil Popliski scored 4.5 points while Vitali Golod ended up with six points in all.
Sasikiran was by far the best Indian as well as the best player in the meet, scoring a total of 9.5 points out of a possible 12. B Adhiban and Abhijeet Gupta scored seven and half and six and half points respectively while first day hero Gopal lost steam and ended up with six points in all.
Krishnan Sasikiran (right) and his team mates receive the trophy for the
overall win
The Israelis receive their prizes for the first India-Israel match
Chairman of Airports Authority of India Mr. V P Agrawal distributed the prizes in a ceremony organized soon after the matches. The AAI sponsored the event.
Match 1, April 3rd 2012
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Match 2, April 4th 2012
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Match 3, April 5th 2012
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LinksYou can also use ChessBase 11 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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