On account of International Chess Day, Chess KLUB hosted a tournament on the 17th of July where we had 93 participants that played against each other through 9 rounds that went on for 6 hours.

The tournament was a massive success, with Shalvi Deshmukh as the Champion with an excellent score of 7 out of 9 points, who won the Grand cash prize of INR 25,000. We had Goutham Krishna H in second place who had a score of 7 and won a cash prize of INR 10,000, followed by Siddharth S in third place with a score of 7 and a cash prize of INR 5,000. In fourth place, we had Hassan Dekhani with a cash prize of INR 3000 and Abishek K in fifth place, which won a cash prize of INR 2000.

To add to this winner list, we had a special category of winners where we had Jeshhar Nekkalapudi as the Best Player in the Under 10 Category, along with Prawin Selvi as the Best Player in the Under 19 Category. This category became even more special, with Sanjana Chandan as our Best Female Player and Krishnaswamy Sankaran Ponnada as our Best Senior Player.

Let’s take a look at some of the best games of the event.

In the 9th round, Goutham Krishna H played an interesting game against Abdul Gafoor K on the 5th board. Goutham began the game with the Sicilian Defense, and the two players exchanged their Queens in the middle game. The two then exchanged one of their Rooks, and they entered the end game with one Rook and a minor piece each, along with both the opponents having two pawns. Although the game was approximately equal, Abdul Gafoor lost on time on the 40th move, making Goutham the winner.

Shalvi Deshmukh played an amazing game on the 6th board in the 9th round against Karthik S. Karthik began the game with the English Opening and both opponents castled on the Queenside. Shalvi then made a Rook battery attacking Karthik’s pawn on the ‘h’ file. Shalvi then won the pawn on the ‘h’ file, which was followed by Karthik posing a Rook pin on Shalvi’s Queen and Bishop, which made Karthik a Bishop up. Karthik then blundered his Rook, and Shalvi posed a severe attack on Karthik’s King, which was to be followed by a checkmate. This attack forced Karthik to resign on the 31st move.

Siddharth S played an impressive game against Hassan Dekhani in the last round on the 3rd board. Hassan began the game with the Caro Kann Defense, and he won a pawn in the opening. Siddharth then won a pawn in the middle game followed by Hassan winning a Rook. The game then took an interesting turn when Hassan blundered his Queen, giving Siddharth a massive advantage. This disadvantage forced Hassan to resign on the 33rd move.

Hassan Dekhani played an aggressive game against our fifth seed Abishek K in the 8th round on the 3rd board. Abishek began the game with the Caro Kann Defense, and he created a passed pawn in the middle game. The two players then exchanged one Rook each, and Hassan won an extra pawn as the game progressed. Hassan then posed a fork on Abishek’s King and Rook, which gave Hassan a massive advantage. This disadvantage forced Abishek to resign on the 48th move.

The event saw some fabulous games and a brilliant winner list. We hope to host many tournaments like this and wish to see such great results every time.

Congratulations to all the winners.