Ramesh is the Commonwealth Chess Champion

GM R.B. Ramesh is the Commonwealth Chess Champion

Report by Praful Zaveri

GM R.B. Ramesh hails from Chennai, India – the same city as that of World Champion Viswanathan Anand, another Indian Super GM, K. Sasikiran, and thousands of strong players. Well, Chennai has the reputation of churning out chess champions! If you see the composition of any Indian team, you will find that Chennai has most representations, which shows the good chess cult. I would term this as "Anand Effect" or, as my friend, IM Vishal Sareen had summed this in one simple word in one of his earlier ChessBase report – the “Chennai Chess Factory”!

Well, the "Anand Effect" or the success story for "Chennai Chess Factory" continued as Ramesh surprised everybody by winning Parsvnath Commonwealth Chess Championship 2007. It is not that Ramesh was not capable of achieving such a feat, as he was touted as one of the best young challenge to emerge in India. In the past he had won the Indian National Championship convincingly and went on to win the British Open Championship. However; the big guns, top-seeded GM S.S. Ganguly, second seeded Gawain Jones, third seeded Abhijit Kunte and the fourth seeded local hero Parimarjan Negi were in good touch and were considered favorites to win this event.

But, all the calculations went astray from the start as Ramesh pressed on the accelerator to take a lead at the half-way stage. He lost his way for a while but recovered the last ground with a fantastic rear-guard charge to score three consecutive wins in the last three rounds to finish with a score of 8½. He became richer by Rs.137,500 (approximately Euro 2400).

Top-seeded GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly, also from India, finished with an identical score of 8½ but had to content with the second place due to an inferior tie-break. He however; had the consolation of getting the same prize money of Rs. 137,500.

IM Abhijeet Gupta, who finished his Grandmaster title requirement in this tournament to become India’s 17th Grandmaster, had a double celebration by clinching the Bronze Medal with a fantastic performance of 8 points. He bagged the cash prize of Rs.75,000. Abhijeet also won Gold in the Under-20 category.

IM Harika Dronavalli retained her women’s title, which she had won at the last edition of this event at Mumbai. She finished seventh overall in this very strong combined event, which had 13 men’s Grandmasters. By virtue of this performance she got the cash prize of Rs. 40,000. WGM Tania Sachdev finished behind Harika while WGM Nisha Mohota had to be content with the 3rd place.

The Indians also dominated the various age-groups categories as their players won 44 of the 45 medals available. In absence of the defending champion GM Nigel Short, it was left to English GM Gawain Jones to prevent the clean sweep by winning a Bronze in the Under-20 category. Otherwise, the second seeded GM would like to forget this tournament as he found the going very tough.

The big disappointment for the Indian fans was the below-par performance of the prodigal GM, 4th seeded Parimarjan Negi.  The pressure of playing in front of his home ground proved quite heavy for his young shoulders as he just crashed in the second half of the tournament after being well placed with a score of 5/6. However, the Indian playing conditions are said to be tough and, this experience would help Negi to perform to his standards in future tourneys.

The Indian players who won the Gold in various categories are; Meghna C.H. (Under-8), Vaibhav Suri (Boys U-10), Sahaj Grover (Boys U-12), Pratyusha Bodda (Girls U-12), Priyadarshan K (Boys U-14), Padmini Rout (Girls U-14), GM Parimarjan Negi (Boys U-16), Pon N Krithika (Girls U-16), P. Karthikeyan (Boys U-18), WIM Kiran Mohanty (Girls U-18), GM Abhijeet Gupta (Boys U-20) and IM S.C. Sahu (Seniors).

The championship, which was organized by the Delhi Chess Association on behalf of the All India Chess Federation and Commonwealth Chess Association had attracted a record 282 entries in a very strong field, consisting of 13 Grandmasters (GM), 5 Women Grandmasters (WGM), 35 International Masters (IM), 7 Women International Masters (WIM), from 11 Commonwealth countries: Australia, Bangladesh, England, Malaysia, Maldives, Pakistan, Republic of South Africa, Singapore, Sri Lanka, Trinidad & Tobago and host India. A total of 56 foreign participants from the member Commonwealth Countries have created new records on all fronts in this US $20,000 prize fund tournament with the winner pocketing US $4,000.

Ignatius Leong, FIDE General Secretary, with Bharat Singh Chauhan, Treasurer of All India Chess Federation and organizer of this event

The prize distribution ceremony was presided over by Pradeep Jain, Chairman of Parsvnath Developers Ltd., the Sponsors of this event. On this occasion Pradeep Jain said that "Parsvnath is always very supportive of chess which is pegged as a 'Thinkers Game'. Our association with chess championship is to promote the game and take it to the masses. In last six years of our contribution in the game, we have experienced the growing interest of amateurs and eminent players in chess championships. The Parsvnath Commonwealth Championship has emerged as a platform to represent India as the key participant on the global arena". The special guest for this event was Mr. Ignatius Leong, FIDE General Secretary.

The tournament also had an unexpected visitor in GM Sasikiran, who had returned from the World Cup at Khanty wherein he had a creditable outing. Sasi is getting married early next month and everybody is expecting the lady luck to smile on him! The tournament also had unexpected participation from Trinidad & Tobago, West Indies, which is basically remembered as the hometown of the ‘Prince of Cricket’ – Brian Lara or their football team.

Overall Prize Winners

• All available games in zipped PGN

Category Prize Winners

Seniors (Above 50 Years)

Best women

Boys Under 10

Boys Under 12

Girls Under 12

Boys Under 14

Girls Under 14

Boys Under 16

Girls Under 16

Age group Under 18

Under 18 Girls

Age group Under 20

Under 20 Girls

Age group Under 8

Praful Zaveri is based at Mumbai, India. He is a FIDE Instructor (FI) and runs a chess academy. He is author of the chess book for beginners The Chess Course. He is a freelance writer on chess. His ChessBase.com articles include: The Swiss King of India Commonwealth Chess Championship in Mumbai Nigel Short wins Commonwealth Championship 44th Indian National Championship 2006 D.P. Singh has survived his 'Agni Pariksha’ GM Pravin Thipsay triumphs in Mangalore