Karnataka Chess

Girish bags bronze in National Subjunior!

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 12:35:00 +0000

Karnataka's wonderboy and former World Under 10
Champion Girish Koushik added one more feather
in his cap by finishing third in the National
Subjunior Chess Championship which concluded at
Mangalore today. In an exciting finish, Girish needed
just a draw in the last round to emerge as Champion
but somehow lost his final encounter. He nevertheless
will be part of the Indian team to play in the next
World Under 16 Olympiad in Turkey and that will give
him some valuable experience.

Girish finished on eight and a half points
just a shade behind winner Aditya Udeshi of
Maharashtra and K. Priyadarshan (T.N.) who finished
with 9 points and were first and second respectively.
Girish, who is the current Asian Under 12 Champion
and National Under 11 Champion, will be gaining a
whopping 33 points from this tournament alone!

Other Karnataka boys to have done well were M.G. Gahan
and Antonio Viani D'Cunha who finished 9th and 10th
respectively. They both ended with eight points each
in their kitty. As in the National Under 13, Karnataka
had three boys in the top 10 and this reflects the trend
in the youngsters' performances and the determined efforts
of their coaches.

In the Girls section, Shrishti J. Shetty finished fifth
with 7.5 points. She will be gaining 16 points from
this event. Shrishti had earlier won the Silver medal in
the Commonwealth Chess Championships in New Delhi in
the Girls Under 14 section in 2007. Vanessa D'Souza,
who still has some more years to participate in this
category finished a creditable 18th with 6.5 points
with a gain of 24 elo rating points!

Inauguration of National Subjunior, Mangalore

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Thu, 04 Dec 2008 04:47:00 +0000

The 34th National Sub-junior and 25th Sub-junior girls' chess championship, jointly organized by the South Kanara District Chess Association (SKDCA) and the United Karnataka Chess Association (UKCA) under the auspices of the All India Chess Federation, was inaugurated at Subrahmanya Sabha on Wednesday November 26.

Earlier, addressing the large gathering after inaugurating the event, Sameer Salgaocar (Vice President, All India Chess Federation) said that a chess revolution is taking place in Karnataka as many tournaments, camps and chess related events have been organised in the state in a relatively short span of two years. 'At the same time, we have to support emerging players to achieve new heights', he added.

Four budding champions from the state - Girish Kaushik (Current Asian Under 12 Champion and National Under 11 Champion), Arjun Bharat (World Schools Under 9 Champion), K. Manasa (Nationals Girls Under 17 Bronze medallist) and Nihal Manjunath (Under 13 Bronze Medallist) were felicitated and presented momentoes and cash awards on this occasion. Shrikrishna Udupa of Shimoga, who won the Gold Medal for the Fourth Board in the 13th Olympiad for the Visually Impaired in Greece last month was also honoured at this ceremony.

R. Hanumantha (Secretary UKCA) thanked AICF for allocating this prestigious tournament to Karnataka and promised many more initiatives on the behalf of UKCA. He praised the efforts of the SKDCA team and its President M.S. Gururaj and singled them out for their 'dedication and total devotion to the sport'.
Thirunavakkarasu, Principal General Manager BSNL, and Sucharitha Shetty, President, Zilla Panchayat, played the inaugural chess moves. The diaries of SKDCA were released by Harikrishna Punaroor, former president, Kannada Sahitya Parishad. Atchutananda Reddy, President - United Karnataka Chess Association, released the calendar of SKDCA. M R Vasudeva, Director, Mangalore International Airport, presided over the function.

M.S. Gururaj (President SKDCA) welcomed the gathering and Mrs. Lydia D'Cunha (Secretary SKDCA) proposed the vote of thanks.

(Report prepared by R. Hanumantha (Secretary UKCA))

Manasa bags bronze in Under 17 Nationals!

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 04:07:00 +0000

K Manasa of Mangalore representing Karnataka,
won the bronze medal in the National Under 17
age group girls Chess Champoinships held at
Kalash Mangal Hall Aurangabad in Maharashtra
from 8th to 16th October 2008. She will be
gaining 9 ELO rating points for her efforts.

This is the selection event for the next year's
Indian Team for the Asian Youth Chess Championships
in the Boys and Girls sections was conducted
by the Marathwada Chess Association on behalf
of All India Chess Federation (AICF).

Pon. N. Krithika of Tamil Nadu was the winner
whereas reigning National Junior Girls Champion
Bhakti Kulkarni of Goa finished runner up.
K. Shruthi, Manasa's teammate, finished a creditable
9th.

The complete results can be found at

http://chess-results.com/tnr16554.aspx?lan=1

Girish wins Telegraph Chess!

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Sat, 13 Sep 2008 03:52:00 +0000

The 20th edition of The Telegraph Schools' Chess
Championship was held at Gorky Sadan, Kolkata
between 2nd and 8th September 2008. Karnataka's
Girish Koushik won the event with a round to spare.
He made 9 Points out of 10 rounds.

Following him closely was Sayantan Das. The local
lad who is a student of Alekhine Chess Academy also
has a bright future. The event which is known as the
Talent Spotting Event of the country has even featured
bright foreign stars such as Rustam Kasimdzhanov and
Antoaneta Stefanova who went on to become World Champions.

Let us hope that young Girish can follow in their
footsteps ...

Girish wins Gold in Asian Youth!

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Sat, 26 Jul 2008 05:21:00 +0000

Karnataka wonderkid Girish Kaushik won
the Asian Youth Chess Championships
Boys Under 12 section in grand style by
a margin of one and a half points to get
his second Asian youth Gold medal.

Although Girish had lost to topseeded
Shiven Khosla of Maharshtra in the third
round, the young FIDE Master subsequently
recovered to win 5 games in a row. In the last
round, he completed the formality of a draw
with Vietnamese Tran Truan Minh to register
an ELO rating performance of 2258. Girish's
next big test will be the World Youth Chess
Championships to be played in Vietnam in the
month of October.

Shardul Gagare who lost to Girish in the seventh
round finished third in the same section. K. Manasa,
the other player from Karnataka, finished eighth
in the Girls Under 18 section with a fifty percent
score in seven rounds. P. Uthra of Tamil Nadu won
the Gold medal in this section.

Girish Kaushik's Gold medal was one of the six won
by India, and the contingent finished with a whopping
tally of 21 medals which is indeed a remarkable feat.

Viani gains twelve ELO points in Benasque

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 17:39:00 +0000

Name ANTONIO Viani D'cunha
Starting rank 193
Rating national 0
Rating international 2114
Ratingperformance 2192
FIDE rtg +/- 12,0
Points 5,5
Rank 160
Federation IND
Ident-Number 0
Fide-ID 5027330

Rd. SNo Name RtgI RtgN FED Club/City Pts. Res. we w-we K rtg+/-
1 466 AGÜES MONTOLIU Maria 0 1890 ESP Val 3,5 w 1
2 45 GM DE LA VILLA GARCIA Jesus Maria 2458 2468 ESP Nav 6,5 s 0 0,12 -0,12 25 -3,00
3 344 ALONSO IGUAL Ignacio 1906 1880 ESP Val 3,5 w ½ 0,77 -0,27 25 -6,75
4 330 PLO PALACIAN Sandra 1925 1909 ESP Ara 4,0 s 1 0,75 0,25 25 6,25
5 73 FM RECUERO GUERRA David 2417 2400 ESP Ast 6,5 w 1 0,14 0,86 25 21,50
6 57 IM COLLAS Didier 2439 0 FRA 7,0 s 0 0,13 -0,13 25 -3,25
7 56 FM ANTOLI ROYO Joaquin Miguel 2441 2410 ESP Ara 6,0 w 0 0,13 -0,13 25 -3,25
8 306 SANMARTIN AGUSTIN Alvaro 1951 1974 ESP Ara 5,0 s 1 0,72 0,28 25 7,00
9 117 FM PRIYADHARSHAN K 2297 0 IND 6,5 w 0 0,26 -0,26 25 -6,50
10 324 MAZA BROTO Pablo 1934 1903 ESP Ara 4,5 s 1K

Thej gets his third GM norm!

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Mon, 19 May 2008 17:32:00 +0000

Thejkumar now needs just a few more
ELO rating points to become Karnataka's
first Grandmaster. He completed his
third and final GM norm in the Mayor's
Cup in Mumbai when he drew with Abhijit
Kunte in the penultimate round.

His performance including two wins over
foreign Grandmasters -

Name Thejkumar M S
Starting rank 23
Rating 2414
Rating national 0
Rating international 2414
Ratingperformance 2531
FIDE rtg +/- 21,7
Points 8
Rank 10
Federation IND
Club/City KAR

Rd. SNo Name Rtg FED Pts. Res.
1 249 Lakshmanan Veeraraghavan 1798 IND 4,0 w 1
2 136 Aravind Subramanian N 2099 IND 7,0 s 1
3 87 Nimmy A G 2217 IND 6,5 w 1
4 108 Neelakantan Narayanan 2160 IND 7,0 s 1
5 8 GM Rahman Ziaur 2511 BAN 9,0 w 1
6 1 GM Krasenkow Michal 2624 POL 9,0 s 0
7 66 Arun Karthik R 2281 IND 7,5 w 1
8 14 GM Safin Shukhrat 2481 UZB 7,5 s 1
9 3 GM Macieja Bartlomiej 2599 POL 8,5 w ½
10 6 GM Kunte Abhijit 2547 IND 9,0 w ½
11 2 GM Koneru Humpy 2603 IND 9,0 s 0

Karnataka's G. A. Stany also went unbeaten
in this tournament and gained 26 ELO points for
his efforts.

Thej Kumar becomes an IM

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Thu, 03 Apr 2008 16:24:00 +0000

State Champion and National 'A' Player M.S.Thej Kumar
completed his third and final IM norm to become the
third International Master from Karnataka (after Ravi
Hegde and D.V.Prasad) when he drew against Swapnil
Dhopade in the 9th round of the 3rd Kolkata Grandmaster
tournament.

Born on the 1st of January, 1981, Thej Kumar hails
from Mysore and was recently employed with Southern
Railways on Sports Quota. He gained 5 precious ELO
rating points in Kolkata to take his provisional rating
to 2419.

April FIDE List

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Sun, 23 Mar 2008 07:18:00 +0000

These are some of Karnataka's outstanding
players. Almost all the players have
done well again, especially among the
kids. Thejkumar needs just one more norm
to become an International Master!

If you want your name added,
please write me an email at

sasalgaocar@gmail.com

M.S. Thejkumar 2414 (+32)
D.V. Prasad 2391 (-18)
N. Sanjay 2355 (+1)
Arvind Shastry 2275

Kids :-
G.A. Stany 2213 (+58)
Viani D'cunha 2128 (+67)
Girish Kaushik 2108 (+6)
M.G. Gahan 2087 (+80)
Niranjan Navalgund 2085 (+20)

Thej makes second GM norm!

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Tue, 12 Feb 2008 15:39:00 +0000

It was another proud day for Karnataka chess as
M.S. Thejkumar made his second 9 round GM norm in
the National 'A' Championship being played
in Chennai.

He needed just a draw in the last round and
proposed it to his opponent GM Barua before the
game. Barua refused but had to sign the peace
treaty later after 46 moves of a hard fought game.
Earlier Thej had beaten B. Adhiban in the eighth
round to bring himself within striking distance
of the norm.

Through 10 rounds, he has given a performance of
2560 and is gaining 24 ELO points for his efforts.
He stands sixth in the current rankings and a strong
finish may see him in the top 3.

Adhiban,B (2401) - Thejkumar,M S (2382) [B04]
1.e4 Nf6 2.e5 Nd5 3.d4 d6 4.Nf3 dxe5 5.Nxe5 c6 6.c4 Nb4
7.Be3 Bf5 8.Nd3 e5 9.Nxb4 Bxb4+ 10.Nc3 Qa5 11.Qb3 exd4
12.Bxd4 Na6 13.Be2 0-0-0 14.Be3 Nc5 15.Bxc5 Bxc5 16.0-0 Rd2
17.Rac1 Re8 18.Bf3 Qb6 19.Qxb6 axb6 20.Na4 Bd4 21.g3 Bh3
22.Bg2 Bxg2 23.Kxg2 Ree2 24.Rcd1 Rxf2+ 25.Rxf2 Rxf2+
26.Kh1 Bc5 27.a3 Rc2 28.Rf1 f6 29.Re1 Kd7 30.Rd1+ Kc7
31.Re1 Bd6 32.Re8 Rxc4 33.Rc8+ Kxc8 34.Nxb6+ Kc7
35.Nxc4 b5 36.Nd2 Kb6 37.Kg2 Ka5 38.Kf3 Ka4 39.Ne4 Be7
40.Nd2 f5 41.Kf4 Bf6 42.b3+ Kxa3 43.Kxf5 Bc3 44.Ne4 Kxb3
45.Ke6 Kc4 46.Kd6 b4 47.Nc5 Bd4 48.Ne4 Kd3 0-1

Thej's wins

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 17:53:00 +0000

2nd round - IM Ashwin,Jayaram (2478) - Thejkumar,M S (2382) [D61]

1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 e6 4.Nc3 Be7 5.Bg5 0-0 6.e3 Nbd7
7.Qc2 c5 8.cxd5 Nxd5 9.Nxd5 Bxg5 10.h4 Bh6 11.Nc3 cxd4
12.Nxd4 Nb6 13.g4 g6 14.0-0-0 Qe7 15.h5 Bg7 16.f3 e5
17.Ndb5 Be6 18.hxg6 hxg6 19.Rd2 Rfd8 20.Rdh2 a6
21.Na3 Rac8 22.Nab1 Nd5 23.Qe4 Nb4 24.a3 Bb3
25.Nd2 Na2+ 26.Kb1 Nxc3+ 27.bxc3 Qxa3 0-1

3rd round - Thejkumar,M S (2382) - IM Sriram,Jha (2457) [A48]

1.d4 Nf6 2.Nf3 g6 3.Bf4 Bg7 4.e3 0-0 5.Be2 c5
6.c3 d5 7.Nbd2 Qb6 8.Qb3 Nc6 9.0-0 c4 10.Qxb6 axb6
11.h3 b5 12.a3 Bf5 13.g4 Be6 14.Ne5 Nd7 15.Nxd7 Bxd7
16.Bf3 e6 17.Bd6 Rfd8 18.e4 Bh6 19.Rad1 Be8
20.Bg3 f6 21.Rfe1 Bf7 22.Nf1 Re8 23.Bg2 dxe4
24.Bxe4 f5 25.Bxc6 bxc6 26.Be5 Red8 27.h4 Bf8
28.Ne3 c5 29.Bf6 Rdc8 30.dxc5 Bxc5 31.g5 Be8
32.Nc2 Kf7 33.Nd4 Bxd4 34.Rxd4 Ra6 35.Kh2 h5
36.Kg3 Rc7 37.Red1 Raa7 38.Rd6 Bd7 39.Bd8 Rcb7
40.Bb6 Rxb6 41.Rxb6 e5 42.f4 exf4+ 43.Kxf4 Be8
44.Rdd6 Kg7 45.Ke5 Bf7 46.Rxb5 Re7+ 47.Kf4 Re4+
48.Kf3 Be8 49.Rb8 Kf7 50.Rd4 Re1 51.Rxc4 1-0

Thej starts well in 'A'

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Thu, 07 Feb 2008 16:36:00 +0000

State Champion Thejkumar started well in
the National 'A' with victories over two
International Masters in the first three
rounds. Statemate and former State champ
N. Sanjay is also doing well with draws
against two grandmasters - Neelotpal Das
and R.B. Ramesh.

Name Thejkumar M S
Starting rank 24
Rating 2382
Rating national 0
Rating international 2382
Ratingperformance 2667
FIDE rtg +/- 19,0
Points 3,5
Rank 3
Federation IND
Club/City KAR
Ident-Number 0

Rd. SNo Name Rtg FED Club/City Pts. Res.
1 2 GM Kunte Abhijit 2550 IND PSPB 3,5 w ½
2 8 IM Ashwin Jayaram 2478 IND T.N. 1,0 s 1
3 12 IM Sriram Jha 2457 IND LIC 2,5 w 1
4 1 GM Ganguly Surya Shekhar 2579 IND PSPB 4,0 w ½
5 3 GM Gopal G N 2528 IND PSPB 3,5 s ½

Thejkumar wins State Championship

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Thu, 10 Jan 2008 08:47:00 +0000

Top seed M.S. Thejkumar (2382) won the Mangalore FIDE-rated State Open chess championship which concluded here on Wednesday.

Thej, who finished on the same score of 7.5 points with G.A. Stany (2155), claimed the title on a better progressive score.

Both Thej and Stany had to be content with draws in their final round games against P. Gopalkrishna (7) and M.G. Gahan (7) respectively.

The results: Open: 1. M.S. Thej Kumar, 2. G.A. Stany; Youngest player: Sudhanva Bharadwaj (2).

Boys: U-7: 1. J. Ashwin (4), 2. S. Vasishta (2); U-9: 1. Sharan Rao (5), 2. R.U. Ananthram (5). U-11: 1. Naren N. Kumar (5.5), 2. H.A. Amogha (5.5). U-13: 1. S. Shreeshan (6), 2. Antonio Viani D’ Cunha (6); U-15: D. Benadikar Shashank (5.5), 2. Rammohan Bhandary (5.5)

Girls: U-9: 1. M. Tulsi (3), 2. R. Akshatha (3); U-11: 1. L. Andria D’ Souza (5.5), 2. Shalon Joanne Pais (4); U-13: Seema Melita Crasta (4); U-15: 1. Pavitra Jagtap (6), 2. Bhargavi Alva (4).

Best unrated player: D. Abhijith (6); Best South Kanara player: Prakash V. Rao (6); Best woman player: Anitha D’ Souza (1); Best veteran player: N.R. Raghuraman (5.5).

Thej catching up with DVP; kids shine!

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Fri, 28 Dec 2007 08:30:00 +0000

In the latest FIDE Ranking list to be released
on January 1st 2008, Grandmaster norm holder
M.S. Thejkumar will be within striking distance
of over taking International Master D.V. Prasad
at the top of the Karnataka rankings.

The former National Under 25 champion will be
gaining 27 points from a sterling display in the
Chakradharpur, Jharkhand Open tournament
to go upto 2382 whereas the former National Champion
and veteran IM will remain at 2409. This distance
will be still less once the Commonwealth ratings
are taken into account.

Some of the youngsters are also gaining impressively
in the list. Among them is Belgaum lad Niranjan
Navalgund who will be gaining 53 points courtesy an
excellent effort in the SPIC tourney in Tuticorin. Also,
G.A. Stany will be adding 58 points after a superb
display in the National Junior Championship in
Aurangabad. With a spectacular display in the National
Subjunior Championships, the largest gainer will be Antonio Viani
D'Cunha whose rating will shoot up a whopping 73 points
in the January list. The kids stand to gain even further after
the National Under 13 performances are taken into
account in the April 2008 list!

Some important ratings are

IM D.V. Prasad 2409
M.S. Thejkumar 2382 (+27)
N. Sanjay 2354
Arvind Shastry 2275
G.A. Stany 2155 (+58)
FM Girish A. Kaushik 2102 (+16)
Niranjan Navalgund 2068 (+53)
Antonio Viani D'Cunha 2061 (+73)
M.G. Gahan 2007 (+2)
R. Hanumantha 1963
Sushrutha Reddy 1957 (-22)
Vijay Bharat 1931
Shrishti J. Shetty 1923 (+7)
Arjun Bharat 1811 (-14)

5 Karnataka kids in top 20, all gaining ELO!

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Sun, 23 Dec 2007 09:50:00 +0000

(Photo - Girish Kaushik receiving his prize from
Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi with Asian Women's
Champion Tania Sachdev and AICF Treasurer Bharat
Singh Chauhan also present)

Karnataka lads did well in the Parsvanath
National Under 13 Chess tournament which
concluded at the Bapu Samaj Seva Kendra,
New Delhi. In fact, three of the kids finished
in the top 10 and there were 5 in the top 20
which reflects the ever increasing strength of the
coaching prowess in the State led by the veteran
IM D.V. Prasad, State Secretary Hanumantha,
Arvind Shastry, N. Sanjay, M.S. Thejkumar
and the other mentors.

Niranjan Navalgund, of Belgaum, finished 6th. The
lad is surely going places. Having beaten strong IM S.P.
Sethuraman and eventual winner in the National Subjunior,
he consolidated his presence in his own age group with a fine showing
here. He finished with 8.5 points and will gain 4 ELO points
from this event.

M.G. Gahan of Mangalore and FIDE Master Girish Kaushik
of Mysore finished with 8 points and were awarded 7th and 8th place
respectively. Gahan, who is largely self taught, will be gaining
a whopping 56 points, whereas Girish who learns from his
father Arun Kaushik will be benefiting by 5 ELO.

D. Yashas will another significant gainer with 27 ELO points and
13th place. He notched 8 points as well. Antonio Viani D' Cunha,
also of Mangalore, was the fifth kid in the top 20 with 7.5 points
and 18th place. He will be gaining 7 ELO points for his efforts.

The Karnataka contingent will be happy to know that AICF has
decided to hold the 2008 version of the National Subjunior in
their home state. Perhaps with favourable conditions, one of them
can make it to the National squad and represent the country in
the World and Asian Youth Championships in 2009.

Karnataka bags 2 silver and a GM norm!

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 14:52:00 +0000

Karnataka players struck it rich in the
Commonwealth Chess Championships
which concluded in New Delhi with its
players bagging two silver medals and a
Grandmaster norm in the tournament.

In the Girls Under 14 section, Shristi Shetty
won the silver medal ahead of National Subjunior
Champion Shalmali Gagare of Maharashtra who had
incidentally just come back after bagging the bronze
in the World Youth Chess Championships in the
same section in Antalya, Turkey. Shristi's performance
is the first outstanding performance by a Karnataka lass
in a long time and we hope that she will build on it.

Last year's World Under 10 Boys Champion Girish Kaushik
finished second in the same section in the Commonwealth.
This is his second silver this year, the first coming in the
Asian Youth in Al Ain, U.A.E.

The best performance though was from none other than
M.S. Thejkumar who bagged a Grandmaster norm for his
efforts. This former National Under 25 Champion had incidentally
never made an IM Norm so this will really boost his morale. He also
finished 15th in the overall standings. All in all, it was a rich booty
for the Karnataka contingent and credit goes to Mr. Hanumantha and
his team in the UKCA for spurring on the players!

Thejkumar continues to impress

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 15:55:00 +0000

After drawing with two Grandmasters earlier,
former Under 25 National Champion
M.S. Thejkumar (ELO 2355) of Karnataka kept his
hopes alive for an International Master Norm when he
drew with 15th seed Grandmaster elect Abhijeet Gupta (ELO 2470)
of Bharat Petroleum in the sixth round of the Commonwealth
Chess Championships being played in New Delhi.

Abhijeet needed a win to get to 2500 ELO and thus
become India's 17th Grandmaster. Thejkumar had other ideas
and effectively paried all his threats to garner half a point
after 29 moves of the Queen's Gambit Declined opening.
Considered one of the upcoming youngsters of
Karnataka, Thejkumar had equality throughout the game
and when down to their final minutes on the clock,
both the players agreed for a truce in a Rook and
pawn ending. Both Thejkumar and Gupta are on 4.5 points,
just one point behind the leaders.

Antonio Viani D'Cunha (ELO 1988) of Mangalore was not
so lucky when he went down fighting to IM K. Rathnakaran
(ELO 2433) in 43 moves of a King's Indian Attack. The Keralite
International Master, who had won the Ranjit Patkar tournament
in Karwar, used his spatial advantage on the Queenside well to
gradually wear out the youngster. Earlier, in the fourth and fifth rounds,
the 12 year old had beaten Aditya Udeshi (ELO 2355) and Sohan
Phadke (ELO 2259) both of Maharashtra in exciting games.
Antonio has justification to be elated as he will be gaining
tremendous number of valuable ELO points
from this tournament if he continues in this vein.

In other important results, M.G.Gahan (ELO 2005) defeated
P. Phoobalan (ELO 2250) and G.A. Stany held P. Karthikeyan
(ELO 2340) to a draw. Veteran IM D.V. Prasad also had no
difficulty in putting it across Laisram Imocha (ELO 2272).

Thejkumar leads the charge for Karnataka

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Thu, 06 Dec 2007 14:41:00 +0000

After drawing with 5th seed Grandmaster Abdulla
Al Rakib (ELO 2506) of Bangladesh in the third
round, former Under 25 National Champion
M.S. Thejkumar (ELO 2355) of Karnataka kept himself in the
hunt for an International Master Norm when he
drew with another Grandmaster - Deepan
Chakravarty (ELO 2492) of Madurai - in the fourth round
of the Commonwealth Chess Championships
being played in New Delhi.

Thejkumar is one of the promising youngsters of
Karnataka. Today he showed that by holding his
fancied opponent to a draw in a Queen's Indian Defence
Opening after 19 moves. 6th seeded Deepan's Kingside position
had weakened a bit and and Thejkumar had control
of the open 'C' file when the peace treaty was signed so
the Grandmaster has to consider himself to be a trifle
lucky to salvage a half point from this encounter.

G. A. Stany (ELO 2097) also did well to hold Pakistani
Tanvir Gilani (ELO 2300) to a draw in the third round.
Finally Antonio Viani D'Cunha (ELO 1988) upset the
applecart of Gujarati Praful Mehta (ELO 2207) by beating
him in a nice game to notch his second point in three
encounters.

Karnataka kids start off with victories

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Mon, 19 Nov 2007 04:15:00 +0000

All three Karnataka kids - World Under 10 Champion Girish
Kaushik, M. Satvik and Arjun Bharat - started with
victories in the World Youth Chess Championships
which got underway in Antalya, Turkey.

FIDE Master Girish Kaushik (ELO 2086),
who is starting as the 3rd seed in the Under 10
section, defeated unrated Onat Kantarli of Turkey
with the white pieces. He will next be playing Ayan
Akhmetov of Kazhakastan in the second round.

M. Satvik (ELO 1907), a former Asian bronze medallist,
defeated unrated De-Dao Linson Lim of Singapore.
The 17th seeded Satvik will next play Christophe Gelas
of France in the next round. Both Girish and Satvik
will be fancying their chances of winning a medal
now as the top seed Candidate Master Joshua Ruiz (ELO 2048)
of Colombia was held to a draw in the first round.

Arjun Bharat (ELO 1825), starting as the fourth seed in the
Under 8 section, defeated unrated Jordan Kuzmanovic in the
first round and next plays unrated De Li Derek Lim of
Singapore. This opponent has to be taken seriously
as he has beaten Asian Gold Medallist G.V. Revanth
Reddy (ELO 1625) in the earlier round.

In the Boys Under 14 Section, topseeded
IM S.P. Sethuraman (ELO 2427) had no
problems whatsoever in disposing off
Jonathan Tordeur (ELO 1988) of Switzerland
in just 29 moves of an English Attack
in a Sicilian Defence Opening. However, in the
Boys Under 12 section, National Champion
Fenil Shah was (ELO 2124) shocked by unrated
Iskandar Aripov of Uzbekistan in what can be considered
a major blow to the Indian contingent's chances!

Girish finishes 3rd

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Wed, 31 Oct 2007 17:57:00 +0000

World Under 10 Champion FIDE Master
Girish Arun Kaushik had to remain
content with the third place at the conclusion
of the National Under 11 Championships
organised in Kozhikode, Kerala.

Girish finished with 8.5 points in the 11 round
tournament. The winner was Shiven Khosla
of Maharashtra who finished with 9 points. He
edged out Sayantan Das of West Bengal by
virtue of a better progressive tiebreak score.
Top seeded G.V. Sai Krishna performed much
below expectations and finished 12th.

Girish's next tournament is the World Youth
Chess Championships in Antalya, Turkey
next month. Karnataka chess lovers will hope
that he will bring greater laurels for the state
and the country in this event.

Girish in joint second after 7 rounds

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Mon, 29 Oct 2007 03:05:00 +0000

World Under 10 Champion Girish Kaushik
was in joint second place at the end of the
seventh round in the National Under 11
Chess Championships being played at
Kozhikode.

Shiven Khosla of Maharashtra is in the lead
by a clear point. Girish and 7 others will
try to catch up with him in the remaining four
rounds of the event.

Important results (seventh round):

Boys: Shiven Khosla 6.5 bt P.V.S.M. Praveen Kumar 5; Sayantan Das 5.5 drew with R. Eswar 5.5; Ayush Jugle 4.5 lost to Girish A. Kaushik 5.5; Shardul Gagre 5.5 bt Prabhu Anand 4.5; S. Kaushik 5.5 bt Utkal Ranjan Sahu 4.5; Chandrashish Majumdar 5 drew with J. Nishin 5; Sheikh Nubair Shah 5.5 bt G. Akash 4.5; Vasatha Ruba Varman 4.5 lost to Prince Bajaj 5.5; Ragesh Kumar Naikr 4.5 lost to Vaibhav Suri 5.5; Aubhropratim Manna 5.5 bt Osama Saleem 4.5.

Girls: Michelle Catherina 5 lost to P.V. Nanditha 6.5; G. Aiswarya 6 bt G. Lasya 5; Akanksha Gupta 4.5 lost to Navya Vyshnavi 6; P. Balakannamma 4 lost to Sweety Patel 5; Sonakshi Rathore 5 bt Sreeja Seshadri 4; Sunyasakata Satpathy 5 bt Nisha Patkar 4; Parnali Dharia 4 lost to Shweta Gole 5; S.E. Meenu Priya 4.5 drew with T. Navya 4; N. Akshaya 5 bt T.R. Nandini 4; R. Maduravani 4 drew with Soumy Mukherjee 4.

Satvik, Arjun in the top 10

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Sat, 20 Oct 2007 12:06:00 +0000

2006 Asian Under 8 Bronze medallist
M. Satvik (ELO 1907) and Arjun Bharat
(ELO 1825) finished 5th and 9th respectively
to keep Karnataka's flag flying high in the
National Under 9 Championship which
concluded at Bangalore.

Arjun Bharat defeated tough customer 2007 Asian
Under 8 Gold Medallist G.V. Revanth Reddy (ELO 1625)
of Andhra Pradesh in the last round encounter.
Had it not been for Arjun's shock first round defeat,
he would have had a better tiebreak and finished
even higher in the prize list. Nevertheless, he
should his recuperative powers and fighting
qualities to finish 9th in this extremely
competitive field.

M. Satvik also did well to stand 5th in the prize
list. Akshay Bharadwaj (ELO 1923) and
R. Parthasarthy stood 24th and 38th respectively.
In the Girls section, it was Andria D'Souza who was
the pick of the lot and she stood 12th in the prize
list. T.C. Meghana and M. Tulsi stood 21st and 22nd
respectively.

Coming on the back of a good display in the National
Subjunior championship in Chennai, this was also an
excellent display by the Karnataka youngsters. Credit
must be given to the coaching team which includes
IM D.V. Prasad, Arvind Shastry, M.S. Thejkumar,
Hanumantha, N. Sanjay and others.

Both Satvik and Arjun will be off to play in the World
Youth Chess Championships to be held in Antalya,
Turkey next month and all the good wishes of the
Karnataka chess lovers will be with them in their efforts!

Boys (final round): Diptayan Ghosh (9.5) drew with Sidhanth Mohapatra (9); Ch Mohineesh (8.5) drew with Sardara Preet (8.5); M. Satvik (8.5) bt Ashwath P. Hari (7.5); Arjun Bharat (8.5) bt Gv. Revanth Reddy (7.5); M. Karthikeyan (7.5) lost to Harikrishnan Mohanan (8.5); Adarsh P. Yeshwanth (8.5) bt Maniar Thirth (7.5).

Girls: Sunya Sakta Satpathy (8) lost to GK Monisha (9.5); Sweety Patel (8.5) bt M. Mahalakshmi (8); Shoumi Mukherjee (9) bt Akhankya Kabi (7); C.H. Meghana (8) bt Divya Garg (7); Ivana Maria Furtado (8) bt Gauri Keshav Hadondkar (7).

Diptiyan and Monnisha lead

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Fri, 19 Oct 2007 05:23:00 +0000

Diptiyan Ghosh (ELO 2006) of West Bengal remains the only undefeated player in the boys' section. He scored a crushing win today against Adarsh Yeshwant (ELO 1717) of Tamil Nadu to remain in sole lead at the end of 10th round. The game followed irregular Queen Pawn opening and Diptiyan achieved a dominating position on 28th move. Black's King was pushed in a compromising position and thereafter Diptiyan checkmated his opponent on 39th move.

Sidhanth Mohapatra (ELO 1996) of Orissa played brilliantly to outplay Ashwath Hari (ELO 1704) of Tamil Nadu. The game followed Scotch opening and by 18th move Black's rook proved too menacing for white's 2 minor pieces and Sidhanth won by checkmating his opponent on 58 th move.

Mohineesh C H (ELO 1925) of Andhra Pradesh scored a perfect win against Athul Krishna (ELO 1560) of Kerala on the third board. Mohineesh opted for Queen Pawn opening and by the start of endgame; Mohineesh achieved winning position to checkmate his opponent in 66 moves.

M. Satvik (ELO 1907) and Arjun Bharat (ELO 1825) of Karnataka drew their respective games against their opponents whereas Akshay Bharadwaj (ELO 1923) lost his game against unrated Karthikeyan M of Tamil Nadu.

Diptiyan is being closely followed on the second spot by Sidhanth Mahapatra. One more round remains to be played in this prestigious event.

In the girls' section, G K Monnisha (ELO 1705) of Tamilnadu defeated top seed Sweety Patel (ELO 1983) of Gujarat in an interesting game arising out of Sicilian Pelikan defence. Monnisha checkmated her opponent in 48 moves. On the second board, M. Mahalakshmi (ELO 1710) of Tamil Nadu defeated her compatriot unrated R. Abirami.
Monnisha is in the sole lead with 8.5 points and she is being closely followed by Mahalakshmi and Shoumi on 8 points.

Smooth start to National Under Nine

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Sun, 14 Oct 2007 07:22:00 +0000

The twentyfirst edition of the prestigious National Under 9 Chess Championship for Boys and Girls respectively got off to a smooth start on Friday at St. Joseph's PU College campus in Bangalore. 212 boys and 93 girls are playing in this event.

In the Boys section, the seeded players had a no difficulties. However, the seventh board saw a minor upset when Hemant Kumar (ELO 1886) of AP was held to draw by unrated M. Karthikeyan of Tamil Nadu in the second round. On the top board in third round, top seed Diptayan Ghosh (ELO 2006) of West Bengal had an easy outing against Ashwath of AP in an Italian game opening. White blundered a piece on 16th move to lose easily against highly rated Diptayan. Ghosh next plays Aswath P. Hari (ELO 1704) of Tamil Nadu in the fourth round.

On the second board, Chetan Basu played an inaccurate Marshall Attack variation with black pieces to lose 2 pawns by just move 19. White only had to open up Black's kingside to post a crushing win. Chinmay Routray won easily against S. Kumar in an irregular Sicilian defence. Kumar lost an exchange on move 25 to hand over the win to Chinmay.

Karnataka's top rated players in this category - Akshay Bharadwaj (ELO 1923), M. Satvik (ELO 1914), Shabdik Verma and R.V. Anantharam are playing according to the expectations. Akshay Bharadwaj posted an impressive win against Daniel Rajan of TN on the fifth board. Satwik also finished the game in style on board 6 against Hetul Shah of Gujarat. Totally 18 players are sharing the lead in Boys' section with 3 points.

In the girls section second seeded Shoumi Mukherjee (ELO 1766) of West Bengal played a wonderful game against Bansi Prathima of AP to post a win on the top board In a major upset, Dharani sree of TN defeated FIDE rated and National Under 7 Champion Meghana C H (ELO 1716) of Kerala on the second board. M. Mahalakshmi (ELO 1710) of TN also had an easy win on the third board. She defeated Kavya SS of Tamil Nadu. Amongst the Karnataka girls, Andrea D'souza drew her game against Sunya Sakta Satpathy of Orissa. Totally, 8 players are in the lead with 3 points each before the start of the 4th round.

Nice finish by the kids from Karnataka

noreply@blogger.com (wizard) — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 03:35:00 +0000

All the leading participants from Karnataka won their
last round games to finish well in the
National Subjunior Chess Championships
which concluded here at Chennai today.

Pick of the lot was Antonio Viani D'Cunha (ELO 1988) who
beat Under 11 National Champion Fenil Shah (ELO 2124)
in a Closed Sicilian game. Although D'Cunha was seeded
43rd at the start of the event he finished 8th which is a
tremendous performance from him.

World Under 10 Champion and FIDE Master Girish Kaushik
(ELO 2086) beat Ajay Srikanth (ELO 2028) of Tamil Nadu
to finish on 7.5 points and in 14th place after having been seeded
25th initially.

G.A. Stany (ELO 2097) and Niranjan Navalgund (ELO 2012)
won their last round games as well and finished 25th and
53rd respectively. A speical mention must also be made of
Shristi J. Shetty (ELO 1916) who beat J. Sahari (ELO 1836)
of Andhra Pradesh to finish with 7 points and in 13th place
in the Girls section.

To conclude, this was a wonderful performance by the
Karnataka youngsters and more bright performances
can be expected from them in the days to come!

Antonio Viani D'cunha (1988) - Fenil Shah (2124)
1.e4 c5 2.Nc3 e6 3.f4 d5 4.Bb5+ Bd7 5.Bxd7+ Qxd7 6.d3 Nf6 7.e5 Ng8
8.Nf3 Nc6 9.0-0 Be7 10.Ne2 h5 11.c3 Nh6 12.Bd2 Nf5 13.a3 c4 14.Ng3
Nxg3 15.hxg3 Bc5+ 16.d4 Be7 17.Nh2 g6 18.g4 hxg4 19.Nxg4 Na5 20.Kf2
0-0-0 21.Be3 Rh5 22.g3 Rdh8 23.Kg2 Nb3 24.Rb1 Qd8 25.Qf3 Qg8 26.Rh1
Qh7 27.Nf2 Rh2+ 28.Rxh2 Qxh2+ 29.Kf1 Rg8 30.Ke2 Qh7 31.Rh1 Qg7 32.g4
Rh8 33.Rh3 Rh4 34.Rxh4 Bxh4 35.Qh3 Bd8 36.g5 Kd7 37.Qh6 Qg8 38.Ng4 Na5
39.Nf6+ Bxf6 40.gxf6 Nc6 41.Qg7 Qe8 42.Kf3 Nd8 43.Kg4 Kc6 44.Kg5 a6
45.Kh6 Kd7 46.Kh7 Nc6 47.Qh6 Nd8 48.Kg7 Nc6 49.Qh8 Kd8 50.f5 gxf5
51.Qh5 Ne7 52.fxe7+ Kxe7 53.Bg5+ 1-0

Girish A Koushik (2086) - Srikanth Ajay (2028)
1.d4 d5 2.Nf3 Nf6 3.c4 dxc4 4.Nc3 a6 5.e4 b5 6.e5 Nd5 7.a4 e6 8.axb5
Nb6 9.Qc2 Bb7 10.Be3 Qd7 11.bxa6 Rxa6 12.Rxa6 Nxa6 13.Be2 Nb4 14.Qb1
N4d5 15.0-0 Be7 16.Ne4 h6 17.Nfd2 Nxe3 18.fxe3 Bd5 19.Rc1 Qc6 20.Bf3
Qb7 21.Nxc4 Nxc4 22.Rxc4 0-0 23.Qc2 Qa6 24.Rxc7 Bd8 25.Rc3 Bxe4
26.Bxe4 Bg5 27.g3 h5 28.Kg2 Bh6 29.Bf3 g6 30.Be4 Kg7 31.Qf2 Bg5 32.Rc7
Qb6 33.Rb7 Qa5 34.h4 Bd8 35.b4 Qa4 36.b5 Kg8 37.Qc2 Qa5 38.Bxg6 Qe1
Lost On Time. 1-0

Raju S (1872) - Stany G A (2097)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4 cxd4 4.Nxd4 Nf6 5.Nc3 e5 6.Ndb5 d6 7.Bg5 a6
8.Na3 b5 9.Bxf6 gxf6 10.Nd5 f5 11.c3 Bg7 12.exf5 Bxf5 13.Qf3 Be6
14.Nf4 d5 15.Nxe6 fxe6 16.Qh5+ Ke7 17.Nc2 e4 18.a3 Qe8 19.Qh3 Qg6
20.Be2 Qg5 21.Rd1 Raf8 22.0-0 Ne5 23.Kh1 Ng6 24.Qg3 Qxg3 25.hxg3 h5
26.Rde1 h4 27.g4 Nf4 28.Nb4 Ra8 29.a4 bxa4 30.Bxa6 a3 31.Bb7 Raf8
32.bxa3 Bxc3 33.Nc6+ Kd6 34.Rb1 Nd3 35.Kg1 Nc5 36.Rfc1 d4 37.Rxc3 dxc3
38.Na5 Rb8 39.Rb6+ Ke7 40.Nc6+ Kf6 41.g5+ Kg7 0-1

Shristi J Shetty (1916) - Sahari J (1836)
1.e4 c5 2.Nf3 d6 3.d3 Nc6 4.g3 g6 5.Bg2 Bg7 6.0-0 e5 7.Nbd2 Nge7 8.c3
0-0 9.h3 h6 10.Nh2 Kh7 11.Nc4 Be6 12.Ne3 Qd7 13.g4 g5 14.Nf5 Ng6
15.Nf3 Nce7 16.d4 Rad8 17.Nxg7 Bc4 18.Nh5 f6 19.Re1 Qe8 20.Ng3 Be6
21.Nf5 Bxf5 22.exf5 Nf4 23.Bxf4 gxf4 24.Nh4 Rg8 25.Ng6 Nxg6 26.fxg6+
Kh8 27.Be4 Rg7 28.Qd2 Re7 29.Bf5 Kg7 30.Rad1 b6 31.dxc5 bxc5 32.b4
cxb4 33.cxb4 Qa4 34.Rc1 Qa3 35.Kg2 d5 36.Rc5 Qa4 37.Rxd5 Rxd5 38.Qxd5
Qxb4 39.Rc1 Qb7 40.Qxb7 Rxb7 41.a4 Re7 42.a5 e4 43.a6 e3 44.fxe3 fxe3
45.Kf1 Kg8 46.Rc8+ Kg7 47.Rb8 e2+ 48.Ke1 Re3 49.Rb7+ Kg8 50.Rxa7 Rxh3
51.Kxe2 white won in 84 moves 1-0