The week began with the much-awaited Chess KLUB Open Tournament where we had 104 enthusiastic students competing against each other.

Saket Reddy was the runner up with an excellent win rate of 80% with his match against Shiven Patel caught particular interest. The opponents shared equal advantage through the opening and middle game. The end game was between the rooks and the pawns where Saket managed to make a passer pawn. To prevent the passer pawn from becoming a rook, Shiven had to sacrifice his rook, which cost him a massive disadvantage. Saket then converted another pawn into the queen making Shiven resign on the 51st move. 

45 young and rising stars participated in the Beginner Battle Arena Tournament held on Sunday.

Johan Chavara stole the light as our number one for the day with a win rate of 72%. Johan played an interesting game against our runner up Reyansh Bansal, who had a marvellous win rate of 80%. Johan opened with the French defence after which he won a bishop in the middle game. The two opponents exchanged their queens in the opening.

In the end game, Reyansh pinned Johan’s bishop and king, allowing Reyansh to gain back his lost bishop. The end game saw four of Johan’s pawns against five of Reyansh’s pawns. Both had double pawns, and Reyansh’s extra pawn was an edge pawn that he would be unable to convert into a queen. Hence the two came to a draw by agreement on the 46h move.

Chaanakya Bowrisetti was the second runner up with a win rate of 73%. 

The Intermediate level tournament had 66 students making this event a thoroughly entertaining one to watch.

Adhvik Manoj was our champion for the day with an impressive win rate of 84%. Adhvik played an engaging game against our second runner up Ansh Gupta, who completed the tournament with a win rate of 65%. Ansh exchanged a bishop and a knight for Adhvik’s rook and a pawn in the opening after which Adhvik became an exchange up by posing a fork on two of Ansh’s rooks. This advantage equalised when Adhvik blundered his bishop in the middle game. Adhvik then pinned Ansh’s queen and king with his rook, giving him a massive advantage. Ansh finally resigned on the thirty-ninth move.

Vivaan Bhatt was our runner up with an excellent win rate of 75%. 

Finally, we had the Advanced Battle, where the masters show us what a great game looks like.

This week Sanjey Ramachandran topped the charts with a win rate of 57%. Sanjey played an aggressive game against our second runner up Adithiyaa Vasudevan, who had a win rate of 50%. Adithiyaa blundered his knight in the opening and then his rook in the middle game. Adithiyaa then positioned his queen in line with Sanjey’s bishop. This led to a discovered attack that cost Adithiyaa his queen. He resigned on the 23rd move. 

The second round of our battle arena tournaments on Wednesday began with the Beginner battle.

Vihaan Thota won this tournament with an admirable win rate of 79%. Vihaan played a commendable against our second runner up – Rayhan Ulla, who had an impressive win rate of 75%. Rayhan blundered a rook in the opening followed by an attack on his king by Vihaan. In the middle game, Vihaan pinned Rayhan’s queen and king, causing Rayhan to lose his queen. Vihaan checkmated Rayhan on the nineteenth move.

In second place we had Johan Chavara with a wonderful win rate of 73%. 

37 students took part in the cut-throat competition that took place in the Intermediate category.

The champion for the day was Adharsh Rajeshkumar, who had an impeccable win rate of 65%. Adharsh played a tactically inclined game against our second seed, Rishab Ghosh, who completed the event with a win rate of 79%. The game began with the three knights opening followed by Adharsh becoming an exchange up in the middle game. Adharsh then used his rook to invade into Rishab’s king’s territory. Rishab missed a rook blunder that Adharsh made while trying to attack Rishab’s king. On the 25th move, Adharsh checkmated Rishab.

Kinjal Nandi, in third place, had a brilliant win rate of 80%. 

In the Advance Battle, we had Druheen Das as our runner up with a record-breaking win rate of 100%.

Druheen played an extremely aggressive game against our second runner up Saket Reddy, who had a win rate of 44%. Saket lost a pawn in the opening followed by an early exchange of queens. Saket blundered his bishop in the middle game giving Druheen a major advantage. The end game was between two rooks and Druheen’s bishop and an extra pawn. Druheen used this extra pawn to make his queen and gained victory on the 75th move. 

Once again, we come to the end of just another incredible week, where we saw some action-packed aggressive games. Hope to see you all the games next week racking your brains all over again. 

Congratulations to all the winners.