
52nd National Challenger Chess in Dharamshala
Final report by Sagar Shah
The last round of a qualification tournament is always interesting. The players
in the lead often tend to play it safe and we witness few quick handshakes.
One of the leaders is often quite ambitious and tries to win the championship,
much to the displeasure of his opponent who had come to make a draw! The players
who are trailing the leaders are in a must-win situation and put everything
at stake in order to win.
Something similar was on show on 19th May 2014 at the 13th and the final round
of the 52nd National Challenger’s tournament held at Dharamshala, Himachal
Pradesh. Nine spots were there to be taken. These nine players would qualify
for the National Premier Championship’s to be held in November 2014. The
following was the pairing for the top eight tables in the final round.
There were eight players in the lead with nine points as you can see. GM Vidit
Gujrathi (2606) had the best tie break. As Vidit rightly said, in such tension-filled
last rounds it’s usually the prize money which motivates the players to
go for a win. But here the prize money was so low that there was nothing to
gain and everything to lose. Naturally all the leaders played it safe and made
quick draws.
The real fun started from the fifth board. Sethuraman was able to beat S.L.
Narayanan in a Ruy Lopez, where more than the quality of moves, it was the control
of nerves which helped the young GM to win. On the 6th board Sayantan Das’s
decision to play the Trompowsky was highly questionable. After all it was certain
that his 200 points higher rated opponent would go for the win. But the complicated
opening was just what GM Lalith Babu required. He played a nice game to finish
off his opponent in just 30 moves.
The last game of interest for us was on board seven. Vishnu’s 5.e3 in
the Grunfeld was not so smart and Rajesh equalized without any difficulty. He
never really gave Vishnu a chance at an advantage, which must have frustrated
the GM. In his bid to win Vishnu overstretched so much that finally he was left
with a very difficult position to defend, which he was not able to. Rajesh managed
to win and also finished with 9.5/13.
Thus, we had an eleven-way tie at the top. As GM Pravin Thipsay rightly mentioned
in his post on Facebook, “National Championships are getting tougher day
by day! In the National rapid there was a seven-way tie for top spot, and now
in the National B, it is an eleven-way tie for the title!”
Naturally there were going to be two players who were going to be out of the
top nine qualifiers, and they were GM Abhijit Kunte (2484) and IM PDS Girinath(2312).
The winner of the event was Vidit Gujrathi who played very consistently with
six wins and seven draws to finish with a score of 9.5/13.
Vidit, receiving the winner’s trophy and a cash prize of Rs 60,000 ($1000).
Though Vidit won this extremely strong championship, he wasn’t thoroughly
impressed with his play. When asked about his favourite game from the tournament
he said. “I didn’t play very good games, but if I had to choose
then the game against Swayams was interesting, although the combination against
Rajesh was more attractive.” Here are both the games that Vidit mentioned.
Replay and check the LiveBook here |
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26.Bxf7‼ Bxe4 26...Rxf7 27.Rdxg6+ Kh7 28.Rh6+! Kxh6 29.Qd6+ Kh7 30.Qg6+ Kh8 31.Rh1+ Rh7 32.Rxh7# 26...Qxf7 27.Qxe5+ Kh7 27...Kg8 28.Rdxg6+ Kh7 29.Qh5# 28.Rh1+ Kg8 29.Rh8# 26...Kxf7 27.Rgxg6! 27.Rdxg6? Bxe4! 28.Rg7+ Ke6 27...Qe7 28.Qc4+ Ke8 29.Rge6+- 27.Qe3! Rxf7 27...Qxf7 28.Qxe4+- 28.Qxe4 Rc6 29.Qxg6+ Kf8 30.Qh6+ Ke7 31.Qe6+ 1–0
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Vidit,S | 2606 | Rajesh,V | 2382 | 1–0 | 2014 | D99 | 52nd National Challengers (National ‘ | 6.3 |
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Vidit (left) in a pensive mood in his crucial eighth round encounter with Murali
Karthikeyan. With this game Vidit snatched the tournament lead and never let
go. And here is a small trivia for the readers. What was the other significance
of this game apart from Vidit becoming the leader of the tournament? You can
find the answer at the bottom of this article.
1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 e6 3.Nc3 Bb4 4.e3 0-0 5.Nge2 c6!? 6.a3 Ba5 7.g3 7.b4 Bc7 8.e4 8.Ng3 d5= 8...d6! 8...d5 9.e5 9.Ng3 e5= 7...d5 8.b4 Bc7 9.cxd5 cxd5 9...exd5 10.Bg2 Nbd7! 11.0-0 Nb6 12.e4 Nxe4 13.Nxe4 dxe4 14.Bxe4 Nd5 15.Qc2 h6 16.Nc3 Bb6 17.Rd1 Bd7! 18.Nxd5 exd5 19.Bf3 19.Bxd5 Bg4 19...Qf6! 20.Bxd5 Bxd4 21.Ra2 21.Rb1 Bf5-+ 21...Bg4! 22.Re1 Rad8 22...Rfe8 23.Be3 Bxe3 24.Rxe3 Rxe3 25.fxe3 Be6 23.Qe4 23.Bg2 Be6 23...Rxd5! 24.Qxd5 Be6 25.Rxe6 fxe6 26.Qg2 Rc8! 27.Qf1 Qf3 28.Qe1 28.Rd2 28...e5 29.Be3?! Rc3! 30.a4? 30.Bxd4 exd4 30...Rxe3! 31.-- 31.fxe3 Bxe3+ 32.Rf2 Bxf2+ 32...Kf7 33.Qxe3!+- 33.Qxf2 Qxf2+ 34.Kxf2 Kf7 0–1
- Start an analysis engine:
- Try maximizing the board:
- Use the four cursor keys to replay the game. Make moves to analyse yourself.
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- Drag the split bars between window panes.
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Swayams,M | 2442 | Vidit,S | 2606 | 0–1 | 2014 | E46 | 52nd National Challengers (National ‘ | 9.1 |
Please, wait...

The top three winners of the tournament: Vidit
Santosh Gujrathi (first) with GM Sahaj
Grover (second) on his right and IM P Shyam Nikil (third) on his left
GM Sahaj Grover (2469), after becoming a GM and also playing in the prestigious
C category Tata Steel tournament in 2012, witnessed a slump in form and also
his rating. Maybe with this excellent performance the 19-year-old prodigy is
all set to make his comeback.
The third place winner IM Shyam Nikhil played consistently, garnering 22 Elo
points. This young lad from Tamil Nadu doesn’t speak much, and often it’s
easy to miss him. But with such excellent performances, the world is bound to
take notice of him sooner or later!
Sahaj playing against GM Deep Sengupta (2536) who
finished fourth
GM Deep Sengupta (the picture above is taken from his Facebook page) is a fierce
attacker on the chessboard. Sometimes he wins his games without his opponents
really understanding where they have gone wrong. This can be attributed to his
excellent tactical skills and combinative vision. Deep won the prestigious Hasting’s
tournament in the year 2011. Maybe it is because of the growing defensive abilities
of his opponents or due to some other reasons, Deep has lost almost 60 Elo points
and from his career high Elo of 2589 and is now down to 2536. But finishing
4th here and now having the opportunity to play in the National Premier 2014,
we can surely expect him to be back where he belongs, that is being one of the
top players in Indian chess!
This man is made for big games! S.P. Sethuraman
finished fifth
and qualified for the National Premier
Last year in National Challenger’s 2013 Sethuraman was on the same score
of 8.5/12 and he faced IM K. Ratnakran in the last round. After building up
a winning position, Sethuraman played poorly to lose the game and thus missed
his chance to qualify for the National Premier 2013. But not this year. As already
mentioned before, Sethuraman played with great patience and control on his nerves
to beat S L Narayanan in the last round. This 1993 year born youngster from
India is surely going to make it big.
IM Swayams Mishra (2442) finished sixth and gained 15 Elo points. Quite an
unconventional player, Swayams is phenomenal at blitz chess. His Playchess blitz
rating was at a point more than 2800 (currently 2611). After the tournament,
when asked what was his secret of playing such a successful tournament, he modestly
replied: “My opponents made more mistakes than me!”

IM VAV Rajesh (Elo 2382) played fighting chess throughout the tournament, especially
in his last round game against GM Vishnu Prasanna, which he won and finished
seventh.

Eighth place: India’s comeback man GM Lalith
Babu (2571)
Lalith has becoming famous on two counts now.
- For his phenomenal fighting spirit. At one point in the tournament he was
5.5/9, after he lost both the eighth and ninth games. Things looked pretty
bleak for him. But like a real champion Lalith scored four out of four towards
the end, pulling off a qualification spot which looked simply impossible after
nine rounds.
- For his yellow spectacles which I think are one of their kind in the chess
world!

One of the most pragmatic and practical player in the Indian Chess circuit,
Deepan Chakkravarthy’s style of play is so very unique. With minimum risks
he achieves maximum results. And he is definitely one of the most consistent
performers in India. The last qualification spot was taken up by him.

GM Abhijit Kunte (above) and IM PDS Girinath were the unlucky ones. In spite
of scoring 9.5/13 and tying for the top spot they couldn’t make it to
the top nine.
Final standings (after thirteen rounds)
The National Premier 2014 will consist of total fourteen players. Nine qualifiers
from National Challenger’s, last year’s National Premier winner
Krishnan Sasikiran and the top four highest rated Indian players. Currently
the top four by rating are Anand (2785), Harikrishna (2726), Sasikiran (2669)
and Parimarjan Negi (2643). As Anand will most certainly not play, and Sasikirian
is already qualified as the National Premier champion of 2013, eleven
players from the National Challengers 2014 will be selected. That means both
Kunte and Girinath will qualify for National Premier 2014.
A final goodbye to the chess playing hall of National
Challenger’s 2014. The All India Chess Federation (AICF) must be applauded
for the fact that they chose such a picturesque location for the tournament.
And now to reveal the secret regarding the significance of the game between
Vidit and Murali Karthikeyan from round eight. It was the first time (at least
in the official databases) that Vidit opened a game with the move 1.e4! Many
people watching the game live on the Internet thought it was a transmission
mistake! But it wasn’t and currently Vidit has an astronomical success
rate with 1.e4 –100%!
Part II of this article will follow soon but that will deal almost exclusively
with the beauty of Dharamshala. Many of the beautiful pictures that you have
seen above have been sent to us by IM Venkatachalam Saravanan (2341) who himself
was playing the tournament. Not only a strong chess player, Saravanan is a wonderful
writer and also a great photographer. You will get to witness more of his work
in Part II of this article, which will follow soon.
Photos: IM Ratnakaran Kantholi, Venkatachalam Saravanan