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It’s the beginning of the beginning at Pune, as we enter the final bend of the run up to the World Junior Chess Championship 2014 at Pune, Maharashtra.
Endless cups are coffees consumed, as the fine-tuning takes place
for the successful conduction of the event.
It’s a barrage of meetings at the five-star Hyatt Pune, as brainstormings take place on visa, forex, check-ins, webcast, menu, venue, room-nights, transportation, pickups…
GM Abhijit Kunte, third from right, thick in the action
For an event of such magnitude, it is crucial to have the hotel’s full-fledged support,
and the Hyatt Pune has shown an excellent attitude so far.
A fresh looking lobby awaits all participants for check-in…
The ambience in some of the public spaces is breathtakingly beautiful
The rooms are invitingly luxurious as well
The restaurant with a view of the garden – cosy and inviting
Just a couple of days after the end of the tournament, on the 22nd and 23rd one of the biggest Hindu festivals of India arrives: the ‘Diwali’ (or Deepavali, as we in South India refer to), the festival of lights, fire-crackers and sweets. It is celebrated as the anniversary of the charismatic god Krishna slaying the demon Narakasura, all over the country.
Getting ready for the festival, the hotel has kept specially hand picked sweets,
packed beautifully, all around the place, for sale
Hyatt has even spruced up their pub, ‘Fish Bowl', promising to extend operational hours late
into the night, with an impressive wine rack array at the entrance. Quite inviting, really...
The organisation is in full gear by now. The Facebook and Twitter handles of the event are already busy, creating a buzz before the championship, not to forget the official website. Most of the games will be webcast live on the event, while video feeds will be provided for the top two boards in both the sections.
An impressive array of titled players of the state of Maharashtra have been lined for live web commentary during the event – former World Junior Girls Champion WGM Soumya Swaminathan along with IM Sagar Shah, IM Prathamesh Mokal, and WGM Swati Ghate, along with yours truly.
Now, we have nothing much to do, waiting for the players to arrive. Of course, as the country gets stronger and deeper in terms of chess strength, there is always the underlying optimism, hoping that the yellow metal will once again be won by two of the biggest Indian hopefuls, Vidit Gujrathi and Padmini Rout. And both look at Pune as one of their favourite hunting grounds, having strong roots with the city and the Maharashtra Chess League, in particular.
Vidit Gujrathi was the captain of the winning team of the 2014 edition...
... and Padmini Rout was the best woman player of both the editions held so far
And eagerly awaiting a special guest, a little big guy who is coming up very fast among the ranks, winning the world Under 10 crown at Durban just a few of days ago – Nihal Sarin (photo above), from Kerala, the state from the south western coast of India.
We have a total of 139 players from 47 countries participating in the open section,
among them 18 GMs and 20 IMs, led by Russian GM Vladimir Fedoseev with Elo 2677
No. | Name of the Player | Title | Rating | Country | Criteria |
1 | Vladimir Fedoseev | GM | 2677 | Russia | Extra |
2 | Robin van Kampen | GM | 2638 | Netherlands | Invited |
3 | Wei Yi | GM | 2638 | China | Invited |
4 | Jorge Moises Cori Tello | GM | 2630 | Peru | Invited |
5 | Vidit Santosh Gujrathi | GM | 2602 | India | Extra |
6 | Karen Grigoryan | GM | 2595 | Armenia | Invited |
7 | Benjamin Bok | GM | 2587 | Netherlands | Extra |
8 | Jan Krzysztof Duda | GM | 2576 | Poland | Invited |
9 | Lu Shanglei | GM | 2550 | China | Extra |
10 | Grigory Oparin | GM | 2546 | Russia | Invited |
11 | Aleksandar Indic | GM | 2539 | Serbia | Extra |
12 | Vladislav Kovalev | GM | 2532 | Belarus | Invited |
13 | Kamil Dragun | GM | 2530 | Poland | Extra |
14 | Nijat Abasov | GM | 2527 | Azerbaijan | Extra |
15 | Ankit Rajpara | GM | 2509 | India | Extra |
16 | Mikhail Antipov | GM | 2508 | Russia | Extra |
17 | Pouya Idani | IM | 2499 | Iran | Invited |
18 | Sahaj Grover | GM | 2492 | India | Extra |
19 | Ulvi Bajarani | GM | 2483 | Azerbaijan | Invited |
20 | Quinten Ducarmon | IM | 2479 | Netherlands | Extra |
21 | Toms Katans | IM | 2479 | Latvia | Invited |
22 | Diptayan Ghosh | IM | 2473 | India | Extra |
23 | Jakhongir Vakhidov | IM | 2471 | Uzbekistan | Invited |
24 | Aravindh Chithambaram | IM | 2467 | India | Extra |
25 | Karthikeyan Murali | IM | 2462 | India | Extra |
26 | Narayanan Srinath | IM | 2443 | India | Extra |
27 | Aryan Tari | IM | 2440 | Norway | Invited |
28 | Gagare Shardul | IM | 2440 | India | Extra |
29 | Prasanna Raghuram Rao | IM | 2438 | India | Extra |
30 | Das Sayantan | IM | 2423 | India | Extra |
We have 78 participants from 32 countries in the girls section, including five WGMs and 11 WIMs, where again Russian Alexandra Goryachkina (above photo by Yelena Dembo's Chess Academy) with Elo 2430 defends her title.
No. | Name of the Player | Title | Rating | Country | Criteria |
1 | Alexandra Goryachkina | WGM | 2430 | Russia | Extra |
2 | Meri Arabidze | WGM | 2411 | Georgia | Invited |
3 | Padmini Rout | WGM | 2354 | India | Extra |
4 | Daria Pustovoitova | FM | 2354 | Russia | Invited |
5 | Sarasadat Khademalsharies | WGM | 2324 | Iran | Invited |
6 | Lisa Schut | WIM | 2317 | Netherlands | Invited |
7 | Ni Shiqun | WIM | 2309 | China | Invited |
8 | Nguyen Thi Mai Hung | WIM | 2307 | Vietnam | Invited |
9 | Zhai Mo | WIM | 2302 | China | Extra |
10 | Marina Brunello | FM | 2281 | Italy | Extra |
11 | Sabina Ibrahimova | WIM | 2249 | Azerbaijan | Invited |
12 | Sarvinoz Kurbonboeva | WFM | 2228 | Uzbekistan | Invited |
13 | Anna Agnieszka Iwanow | WIM | 2210 | Poland | Invited |
14 | Klara Varga | WIM | 2210 | Hungary | Invited |
15 | Ann Lindsay Chumpitaz | WIM | 2201 | Peru | Invited |
16 | Irina Petrukhina | WFM | 2182 | Russia | Extra |
17 | Ivana Maria Furtado | WIM | 2182 | India | Extra |
18 | Mona Khaled | WGM | 2173 | Egypt | Invited |
19 | Gu Tianlu | WIM | 2161 | China | Extra |
20 | Pujari Rucha | WFM | 2154 | India | Extra |
But did we tell you that we have special guests too, among whom the one who will bound to hold our attention will be a pleasant but formidable guy from Netherlands? Yes, Erwin l’Ami is going to be here to assist the Dutch players here, among them the impressive Robin van Kampen and Benjamin Bok.
As traditionally, it will be a 13 round swiss, with the first round on the 6th of Oct, and the last round on 20th Oct, with a rest day on the 13th of October. As they say, watch this space!
Activity | Time | Date |
Opening Ceremony | 19:00 | 5th October, 2014 |
Technical Meeting | 22:00 | 5th October, 2014 |
Round 1 | 15:00 | 6th October, 2014 |
Round 2 | 15:00 | 7th October, 2014 |
Round 3 | 15:00 | 8th October, 2014 |
Round 4 | 15:00 | 9th October, 2014 |
Round 5 | 15:00 | 10th October, 2014 |
Round 6 | 15:00 | 11th October, 2014 |
Round 7 | 15:00 | 12th October, 2014 |
Free Day | 13th October, 2014 | |
Round 8 | 15:00 | 14th October, 2014 |
Round 9 | 15:00 | 15th October, 2014 |
Round 10 | 15:00 | 16th October, 2014 |
Round 11 | 15:00 | 17th October, 2014 |
Round 12 | 15:00 | 18th October, 2014 |
Round 13 | 10:00 | 19th October, 2014 |
Closing Ceremony | 18:00 | 19th October, 2014 |
Departure of Delegations | 20th October, 2014 |
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