Monday, September 11, 2006

Antonio Viani D’ Cunha

The Mangalorean Wonder-kid, the Rising Star, the Pride of the D’Cunha family and the Chess Grandmaster in making is none other than Antonio Viani D’Cunha affectionately called as Viani.

Born on 12-03-1995 in Dubai to a devout, God-fearing couple Mr Harold D’Cunha and Mrs. Lydia D’Cunha, spent his infancy in Derebail Viani was gazing at the chess game from the lap of his mother at the age of 4 while Harold and Lydia were playing. He began moving pawns at the age of 5, started displaying his genius when he was 6 and entered the portals of incredibles of chess at the age of 7. He joined Derrick’s Chess School in Mangalore at the age of 6 ½ to hone his skills on chessboard. Viani’s 2 elder sisters Viona (14) and Mariona (13) are schooling at Victoria Girls High School, Lady Hill Urwa are also known for their chess game.

This young prodigy shows amazing sharpness in the game. The statements made by his trainers at the Derek’s Chess School amply testify this. “I have found an immense quality of a good fighter in him. He is always total when he is on the board”. Mr Derrick Pinto, FIDE Rated player, Mangalore. In the words of Mr Prasanna Rao, National Arbiter, “Viani is a very good player. But more than his game, I appreciate his approach. He is committed, creative and composed. I feel a Grandmaster in making in him.”

Viani lives with his mother Mrs. Lydia and 2 sisters at Anveeth Apartments, near Urwa Marigudi, Mangalore. St. Aloysius College Primary School is lucky to have this prodigy in its portals. His father Mr Harold is working in Dubai.

The constant and consistent efforts of Viani were rewarded in the state level Competitions thus bringing him to the limelight. He was the Runner Up under 13 category in the State Championship held at Hassan in 2006. He secured 8th place in the State Open Federated Chess Championship held at Bangalore in 2006. He was the State Champion in State Under 11 Boys Chess Championship – 2005 held at Mangalore. He was the State Champion in State Under 9 Boys Chess Championship – 2004 held at Shimoga. He was the Runner Up in State Under 9 Boys Chess Championship – 2003 held at Shimoga. He was the State Champion in Under 7 Boys Chess Championship – 2002 held at Sirsi. He was the 4th in the State Under 7 Boys Chess Championship – 2001 held at Bangalore.


Viani earned name and fame in the national level too. He was the Bronze Medallist in National School Team Chess Championship in Under 14 Category held at Vizag during 2006. He was the Runner Up in the National Under 9 Boys Chess Championship – 2004 held at Ahmedabad, thereby qualified to represent India in Asian Youth Chess Championship 2005. He was in 5th position in the National Under 9 Boys Chess Championship – 2003 held at Calicut. He secured ‘Best Under 8 Player’ in ‘B.C. Cochin All India FIDE Rated Tournament’ held at Cochin during 2003. He obtained 17th position in the National Under 7 Boys Chess Championship – 2002 held at Lucknow. He secured 5th position in the National Under 7 Boys Chess Championship –2001 held at Chennai.

Viani’s chess achievements in the international level at a tender age are amazing. He has an international FIDE Rating 1946. He represented India in under 10 Asian Championship at New Delhi, secured 9th place in the under 10 category in Asian Youth Chess Championship-2004 and obtained 5th position in the under 10 category in Asian Youth Chess Championship 2003 held at Calicut.

Viani’s basic chess teacher, inspirer and caretaker mother Mrs. Lydia deserves a lion’s share in the glory of her son. Her support enabled Viani’s chess skill to bloom winning him numerous prizes and certificates in District, Inter-District and Academic level tournaments. But for her constant encouragement this infant genius would have not seen the light of the day.


Konkaniworld.com salutes this young chess champion cum wonder-boy of Mangalore and wishes to see him shining in the international level as a Grand Master. All the best Viani.

Sunday, September 10, 2006

Thejkumar qualifies, N. Sanjay narrowly misses out.

Karnataka's M.S. Thejkumar drew with West Bengal's International Master Roktim Bandyopadhyay to qualify once again for the National A to be held in Rajkot in December. State Champion N. Sanjay narrowly missed out when he could not force a win against C.S. Unni.

The list of qualifiers with their point totals are as under : 1.Lanka Ravi 10; 2. Himanshu Sharma 9.5; 3-29: Suvrajit Saha, Vikramaditya Kamble; Aswin Jayaram; M S Thej Kumar; K Ratnakaran; Prathamesh Mokal; Valay Parikh; Somak Palit; S Poobesh Anand; D Harika; Roktim Bandyopadhyay; R R Laxman; P D S Girinath; Swapnil Dhopade; V Koshy; Sudhir K Sinha; Abhishek Das; Deep Sengupta; B T Murali Krishnan; N S Babu; Syed Anwar Shazuli; Swati Ghate; D K Sharma; T S Ravi; V Saravanan; G Rohit; G B Prakash 9 each; 30. Eesha Karavade 8.5.

There will be 13 new faces in the National `A' to be played at Rajkot from December 18. The debutants are, Aswin Jayaram, K. Ratnakaran, Valay Parikh, Poobesh Anand, Somak Palit, R. R. Laxman, Swapnil Dhopade, Sudhir Sinha, Abhishek Das, Deep Sengupta, Syed Shazuli, G. Rohit and Eesha Karavade.

Friday, September 08, 2006

Thejkumar, N. Sanjay remain in contention.

Karnataka's M.S. Thejkumar and N. Sanjay remained in contention for qualification with only two rounds to go in the National "B" Chess Championship being played at the Karnavati Club in Ahmedabad.

In the 11th round, Thejkumar (2347) drew with WGM Dronavalli Harika (2359) to notch 8 points out of the 11 possible. He will next play triple GM Norm holder G.B. Prakash (2403). His compatriot, Karnataka State Champion N. Sanjay (2324) beat M. Vinaykumar (2231) to take his tally to 7.5 points. He will play Gurpreetpal Singh (2264)in the twelfth round.

In some other results, World Under 12 Champion N. Srinath (2166) shocked IM Rahul Shetty (2304) and Prasanna Rao (2104) beat another upcoming youngster Debashish Das (2205). They have no chance of qualifying however as do the other players from Karnataka - Sriram Sarja, Aniket Pawse and Naveen Hegde (6 pts) and Girish Kaushik (5.5 pts). Fenil Shah (2064) gave the home crowd something to cheer about when he held veteran Nasir Ali (2214) to a draw.

Tuesday, September 05, 2006

Thejkumar slips to 5th place

Karnataka's National 'A' player M.S.Thejkumar (2347) slipped to joint 5th spot along with nine other players when he drew with Kerala's K. Ratnakaran (2439) in the sixth round of the National 'B'. Thejkumar had beaten Abhishek Das (2283) of Jharkhand in the 5th round. He plays IM Poobesh Anand (2416) in the seventh round. IM Suvrajit Saha (2350) is in the sole lead with 6 points, whereas three others - IM Lanka Ravi, Vikramaditya Kamble and P. Shyam Nikhil are on 5.5 points.

The other players from the state did not fare that well either. State Champion N. Sanjay (2324) was beaten by talented youngster Swapnil Dhopade (2071) of Maharashtra. He remained on 4 points by virtue of the defeat and plays Sudhir Sinha (2191) in the next round. Asian 2005 Gold Medallist Girish Kaushik (2008) on 3 points still seems to show some hope as he had beaten higher rated Gajendra Singh (2168) in an earlier round. He plays unrated Abdul Sadique in the seventh round.

Other players from Karnataka, their points position and tomorrow's opponents - Sriram Sarja (2257) 3.5 pts versus Prasanna Rao (2104), Naveen Hegde (2116) 3 pts versus Saurav Roop (1995), Aniket Pawse (2060) 3 pts versus unrated Manohar Lal, Sushruta Reddy (2018) 2 pts versus unrated Riyaz Khan.

Sunday, September 03, 2006

GM Neelotpal Das comments on Karwar tmt ...

GM Neelotpal Das has published his comments on the Karwar tournament which was held in May, 2006. Some extracts from the same which are available on the CPAI website are published below with some of the games -

"A special thanks should go to Sameer Salgaocar for sponsoring this event wholeheartedly. It is highly appreciable that when they are mainly known for sponsoring soccer clubs in India, at the same time they are also trying to promote such unpopular games like Chess."

"I would also like to mention the involvement of two good players N.Sanjay and Arvind Shastri in the tournament which helped the organisers in various ways. The other volunteers were friendly, helpful and with full of enthusiasm and did their best to full fill if there were any problem."

"In all it was a very enjoyable and memorable tournament."


Games of the “All India Open tournament at Karwar, North Karnataka.”

(1) Sharma,U (1938) - Shivanandan,B (2429) [D91]
Karwar, 08.05.2006
[Neelotpal Das]

1.d4 Nf6 2.c4 g6 3.Nc3 d5 4.Bg5 Ne4 5.Bh4 Nxc3 6.bxc3 Bg7 7.e3 c5 8.Nf3 Nc6 9.cxd5 Qxd5 10.Be2 cxd4 11.cxd4 e5 [11...b6; 11...0–0] 12.dxe5 Qa5+ 13.Qd2 Qxd2+ 14.Kxd2 Nxe5 15.Rab1 Nc6 16.Bc4 0–0 17.Rhc1 h6 18.Ke2 Bf5 19.Rxb7 Na5 20.Bxf7+ Rxf7 21.Rxf7 Kxf7 22.Rc5 Rb8 23.e4 Bxe4 24.Rxa5 Rb7 25.a4 Bc6 [25...g5 26.Bg3 g4 27.Nh4 (27.Ne5+ Bxe5 28.Bxe5 Bxg2) 27...Bc3 28.Rc5 Bd4 29.Rc4 Rb2+=] 26.Bg3 Ke6?! 27.Ra6± Kd5 28.Bf4 g5 29.Bd2 Bf6 30.Ne1 Bd8 31.Nc2 Bb6 32.Nb4+ Kc5 33.Nxc6 Kxc6 34.Be3 Re7 35.a5 Kb7 36.axb6 Kxa6 37.bxa7 Kb7 38.h3 Re6 39.g3 Ra6 40.f4 gxf4 41.gxf4 Kc6 42.f5 Kd5 43.f6 Ke6 44.Kd3 Kxf6 45.Kc4 Ra3 46.Kb4 Rxe3 47.a8Q Rxh3 48.Qd5 Rh4+ 49.Kc5 Kg6 50.Kd6 Rf4 51.Ke7 h5 52.Qe5 Rf5 53.Qd6+ Kg5 54.Qg3+ Kh6 55.Ke6 Rf8 56.Qd6 Rf3 57.Qd2+ Kh7 58.Qd5 Rf8 59.Qg5 h4 60.Ke7 Rg8 61.Qh5+ Kg7 62.Qg5+ Kh7 63.Qh5+ Kg7 64.Qf7+ Kh8 65.Kf6 Rg1 66.Qe8+ Kh7 67.Qd7+ Kg8 68.Qc8+ Kh7 69.Qc7+ Kg8 70.Qb8+ Kh7 71.Qa7+ Kh6 72.Qxg1 1–0

(2) Sharma,U - Girinath,P [A90]
Karwar, 07.05.2006
[Neelotpal Das]

1.d4 e6 2.Nf3 f5 3.g3 Nf6 4.Bg2 d5 5.c4 c6 6.0–0 Bd6 7.b3 Qe7 8.Bb2 b6 9.Nbd2 [other alternatives are 9.Ne5 ; 9.Qc1] 9...Bb7 10.Ne5 0–0 11.Rc1 a5 [11...c5 seems more logical] 12.e3 Na6 13.Qe2 Rfc8 14.Rfd1 a4 15.bxa4 Nb8 16.Qd3 Rxa4 17.Qb3 b5 18.cxb5 Rb4 19.Qc2 Rxb5 [19...cxb5 20.Qxc8+ Bxc8 21.Rxc8+ Ne8 22.Ba3±] 20.Nb3 Na6 21.a4 Nb4 22.Qb1 Rb6 23.a5 Ra6 24.Bf1 Ra7 25.Ba3 Na6 26.Bxd6 Qxd6 27.Nd2 Rca8 28.Bxa6 Bxa6 29.Rxc6 Qa3 30.Qb6 Rb7 31.Rc8+! 1–0

(3) Sharma,D - Rathnakaran [E95]
Karwar, 2006
[Neelotpal Das]

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.c4 Bg7 4.Nc3 0–0 5.e4 d6 6.Be2 Nbd7 7.0–0 e5 8.Re1 [8.Be3] 8...exd4 9.Nxd4 Re8 10.Bf1 c6 11.Nb3 Qc7 12.Bf4 Ne5 13.Rc1 Nh5 14.Bg5 h6 15.Bd2 Be6 16.Nd5 Qd8 17.Ne3 Nf4 18.Bc3 Qg5 19.Kh1 Bg4! a very strong and unexpected move 20.f3? [20.Qxd6 Rad8 21.Qc7 Ned3; 20.Qc2 Rad8 21.Nd4 would have been a better choice] 20...Nh3!–+ 21.Qd2 Bxf3 22.Nc2 Ng4 0–1

Thekjumar leads with facile victories.

Karantaka's National "A" player M.S. Thejkumar (ELO 2336) was one of the leaders after the third round in the National "B" after beating Rajesh Diwan (2142) in the second round and veteran V. Hariharan (2205) in the third round here at the Karnavati Club, Ahmedabad. Thejkumar, who finished fourth in the extremely strong field of the Smt. Hirabai Salgaocar Memorial in Goa, will now be fancying his chances to finish in the top 30 and qualify for the National "A" to be held later this year in Rajkot.

His statemate Naveen Hegde (2116) was not so lucky as he went down fighting to Praveen Kumar (2323) in the second round. Hegde had given a good account of himself in Malleshwaram where he had finished fifth in the Karnataka State Championship. Karnataka youngster Sriram Sarja (2257) lost to IM Lanka Ravi (2390) after a bitter struggle in the third round.

There were major upsets as well as IM Deep Sengupta (2420), G. Rohit (2399) and IM R.R. Laxman (2390) seeded three, seven and ten respectively were beaten by Vikas Sharma (2180), Moti Ram (2173) and Virender Singh Negi (2175) in that order, on the leading boards in the second round. In the third round the shocks continued as International Masters V. Saravanan (2383), R. Balasubramanium (2354) and Himanshu Sharma (2386) lost to Laltu Chatterjee (2242), Aswin Jayaram (2078) and Akshat Khamparia (2242) respectively.

IM Satyapragyan shocked by Aniket

Aniket Pawashe (ELO 2060) of Belgaum shocked second seed IM S. Satyapragyan (ELO 2431) in the opening round of the National B Chess Championship being held at the Karnavati Club in Ahmedabad.

Satyapragyan, who holds a GM norm, was unlucky to run into an inform Pawashe who had given a sterling display in the Karnataka State Championship in Bangalore and had finished sixth.

Another major upset witnessed 12 year old WFM Rucha Pujari (ELO 1957) of Maharashtra beat noted coach Gurpreet Pal Singh (ELO 2264) of New Delhi. Singh, who coaches among others World Under 10 Champion Sahaj Grover of New Delhi, found this lass a bit too tough to handle and succumbed eventually.