Havish Venkat – Champion of the Week

Chess KLUB provides students a platform to express their theoretical skills practically every week. Let’s take a look at some brilliant games that took place this week and discuss about our Champions.

Chess KLUB Open Tournament

The week began with our Weekly Open Tournament held on Saturday, 10th April, where we had 66 participants competing against each other. Havish Venkat was the champion here with a brilliant score of 6.6 out of 7, and his incredible win against Vivaan Bhatt was considered the game of the day.

The two played the Russian Game, gaining the ‘e’ file pawns in the opening and exchanging each other’s queens early into the game. On the 13th move, Havish beautifully trapped Vivaan’s Rook, making him a Rook up. The game soon moved to the end game, where Havish made a passed pawn that became a Queen on the 52nd move, and Havish checkmated Vivaan’s king on the 62nd move.

Even though Vivaan lost this game, he completed the tournament with a great score of 5.5 and earned the third position, while we had Rushil Karande in second place with a wonderful score of 6.

Chess KLUB Beginner Tournament

In the Beginner Tournament held on Sunday, we had Harsika Kasilingam as our Champion with an excellent win rate of 63%, followed by Yeshwant Saladi in second place with 63%.

The two played an interesting game in the last round. The game began with the Italian Game, and Harsika blundered a Bishop in the opening. This was followed by Harsika forking Yeshwant’s King and Rook, allowing her to win Yeshwant’s Rook, making her an exchange up. While Harsika was threatening this fork, she missed a Checkmate threat by Yeshwant. Yeshwant invaded Harsika’s King’s territory and checkmated Harsika’s King on the 17th move.

In third place, we had Vaibhav Lokeshwaran with a win rate of 40%. 

Chess KLUB Intermediate Tournament

In the Intermediate Level Tournament held on Sunday, we had Havish Venkat at the top of our winner list once again with a marvellous win rate of 79%.

Havish played a remarkable game against Rishab Ghosh. Havish blundered a pawn in the opening, giving Rishab the advantage of a pawn along with a certain amount of central control. Havish used his Knight and Queen to attack Rishab’s kingside in the middle game, because of which Havish lost a knight in th middle game.

Havish then tried to open up his Rook file to intensify this attack further, in the process of which he lost a Bishop as well. Luckily for Havish, Rishab missed a severe threat that forced checkmate in the next move. Hence, Rishab resigned on the 12th move.

In second place, we had Vivaan Budhian with an excellent win rate of 90%, followed by Vivaan Bhatt in third place with a win rate of 80%. 

Chess KLUB Advanced Tournament

In the Advanced Level Tournament held on Sunday, we had Saket Reddy in the first position with a win rate of 78% Saket played his most commendable game against Sanjey Ramachandran the Italian Game opening.

Saket was a pawn up in the opening, giving him a slight advantage. Sanjey regained this pawn and got back the given advantage. On the 17th move, Saket invaded Sanjey’s king’s territory while Sanjey tried to gain Sanjey’s Rook. On the 18th move, Saket was one move away from giving Sanjey a back rank checkmate, forcing Sanjey to resign.

Although Sanjey lost this match, he gained the third position with a win rate of 54%, and we had Kinjal Chatterjee in second place with a win rate of 73%. 

Beginner Battle Arena

In the Beginner Battle Arena held on Friday, we had Vishwanath Chungi as our Champion with a fabulous win rate of 83%, followed by Arihant Parab in second place with a win rate of 80% and Vaibhav Lokeshwaran in third place with a win rate of 29%.

Vaibhav and Vishwanath played their final round against each other. Vishwanath became a pawn and a knight up in the opening in this game. He then posed a Knight fork on Vishwanath’s Queen and Rook, and Vishwanath won Vaibhav’s rook. Vishwanath then won Vaibhav’s Rook and posed a serious threat to Vishwanath’s king. Vishwanath checkmated Vaibhav’s king on the 45th move with his Queen and Rook. 

Intermediate Battle Arena

In the Intermediate Battle Arena held on Wednesday, we had Ishan Priya at the top of our winner list with a win rate of 79%, with his most remarkable game being against Sabarish Kailasam, our runner up, who had a win rate of 60%.

Sabarish played the Ruy Lopez opening and brought his Rook out to the centre, early into the game. Sabarish blundered his Knight as the game progressed to the middle game. Sabarish regained this advantage by trapping Sabarish’s knight soon after.

Ishan then tactically won Sabarish’s Rook and Bishop and created a passed pawn that became a Queen on the 48th move. On the 53rd move, Ishan checkmated Sabarish’s king with his Queen and Rook.

Our second runner up for the day was Ishaan Ghate with a wonderful win rate of 80%. 

Advanced Battle Arena

Finally, we had the Advanced Battle Arena, where Sanjey Ramachandran was the winner with a win rate of 50%, followed by Vishnu Kannan as our runner up with a win rate of 67% followed by Adithiyaa Vasudevan as our second runner up with a win rate of 40%.

Sanjey played an engaging game against our runner up in the last round. The game began with the Russian Game and Vishnu exchanged two of his minor pieces for Sanjey’s Rook and pawn. Vishnu blundered his Rook in the middle game which was followed by Vishnu falling for a Bishop fork posed on Vishnu’s King and Rook. This forced Vishnu to resign on the 26th move, making Sanjey the winner. 

Conclusion

This week saw some exceptional games and some wonderful names on our winner list and we hope to see similar performances every week.

Congratulations to al the winners.