A warrior does not know how good he is till he fights a real war on a battlefield. Similarly, all the classes and theoretical knowledge is futile if students do not apply that knowledge practically.

Hence through this article, we try to promote the idea of inculcating a spirit of battle among our students. Once again we bring to you the games of the week and the winners that won so much more than just the tournament.

Our first tournament for the week is the Chess KLUB Open Arena held every Saturday for three hours. Since it is an open tournament, players from all categories and levels are welcome to participate.

This week we saw astonishing participation of one hundred and eight players. The champion among these one hundred and eight masters was Druheen Das, who surprised all of his with his spectacular performance. Druheen played incredible twenty-three games with a win rate of 87%. A match that caught everyone’s eye was between Druheen and Ishant Gandikota.

With a Giuoco Piano Opening, the game took an exciting turn towards the end game. Although the game was equal according to the computer analysis, once the queens exchanged, Ishant blundered a few pawns. Pawns are worth their weight in gold in the end game. The loss of pawns led to Ishant losing his rook and further resigning on the forty-fifth move making Druheen the winner.

The runner up for this event was Vivaan Bhatt who played a great thirty- five games with a win rate of 54%.

On Sundays, we have conducted the Battle Arena tournaments specific to each level, held for three hours.

The first of these is the Beginner Battle Arena where forty-eight of our budding young minds competed against each other. Ayush Sarraf was the champion for the day with a win rate of an incredible 83%. He played a glorious twenty-three games, but his most remarkable game was against Johan Chavara.

Ayush played an extremely attacking game causing Johan’s king to open up in the opening followed by an exchange of the two queens. On the thirty-first move, Ayush blundered his bishop, causing him to be at a disadvantage; however, this was followed by Johan blundering his rook soon after. This blunder caused Johan to resign on the thirty-ninth move, making Ayush the winner.

In the second place, we had Rutvi Senthil who had a win rate of 88%, followed by Vivan Sarraf in the third-place who had a win rate of 78%.

The Intermediate Battle Arena was a real treat to spectate.

61 students participated in this battle with Jai Aditya as the champion of the event. He had an impressive win rate of 74% over the nineteen games that he played. His most exciting game was against Sanjey Ramachandran, our second runner up for the day. Since their queens got exchanged within the first ten moves, both the opponents displayed exceptional skill by using all the minor pieces to the best of their abilities. Sanjey launched a brilliant attack on Jai’s king that won him a rook.

Unfortunately, Sanjey then made a rook blunder which cost him his second rook as well, making him resign on the 27th move, allowing Jai to be victorious. Our runner up here was Nikitha Kanagaraj who had a fantastic win rate of 92%.

The Advanced Battle Arena is always a delight to watch. This week’s champion is Hemanth Samayamantri who had a spectacular win rate of 53% through the nineteen games he played.

However, his most interesting game was against Druheen Das our runner up for the day. This game lasted a gripping sixty moves. Both players played very well and managed to have an equal position through most of the game till Druheen blundered a bishop, allowing Hemanth to use that advantage to win the game.

Although Druheen lost this match, he placed second with a win rate of 62% and was followed by Saketh Chavva in the third place.

On August 26th we see the second round of Battle Arena Tournaments that go on for two hours.

The first of these battles is the Beginner Battle Arena tournament where our budding master put up a brilliant site for our spectators to enjoy. The champion of the afternoon was Dhakshith who had an exceptional win rate over the twelve games he played. His most admirable game was against Ayush Sarraf our runner up for the day.

Although dhaksh1228 blundered his rook in the opening and managed to maintain an advantage for most of the game, Ayush made some mistakes in the end game that eventually cost him the game. Even though Ayush lost this game, he played very well in his other games and secured second place at this event.

In the third place, we had Vivan Sarraf who had a win rate of 58%.

The second event of the day was the Intermediate Battle Arena tournament where forty-six participants took part in this cut-throat competition.

The winner was the supremely talented Vishkan who had a win rate of 76%. His most interesting game was against Adhvik Manoj our second runner up for the day. The two played an extremely aggressive game until Vishkan blundered his bishop in the middle game.

Adhvik exploited this position to the fullest and gradually drove this advantage to victory. Even though Vishkan lost this game, he displayed an extraordinary performance and was our champion. The runner up here was Ashwath Ashok with an impressive win rate of 100%.

The Advanced Battle Arena Tournament also took place on this day where our champion players took part and displayed sheer perfection.

Druheen Das was the star of the day with a win rate of 50%. His most appreciated game was against Ishant Gandikota, our runner up for the day who had a win rate of 50% as well. Druheen made in a pawn blunder in the middle game that gave Ishant a major advantage in the start of the end game, but Ishant missed a fork that eventually cost Ishant the game. Ishant resigned on the 52nd move.

The second runner up was Aman Sreshta with a win rate of 57%.

Seeing so many fresh names through this week’s tournaments has filled our hearts with a great deal of pride, and we expect similar participation and results in the following week as well. We present to you the tournaments for the next week. Congratulations to all the winners!