Lucknow: Fide Master Arvinder Preet Singh from Ludhiana won the two-day My Chess Dreams (MCD) Rapid Open Chess today. Singh, the 2018 World Amateur Champion, dropped a point only to Anchal Rastogi of Lucknow. Rastogi steered into an endgame two pawns up but, despite the win, was third on tiebreak. Vivek Kumar Shukla from Kanpur beat all other top players to be second.
Among the veterans, KK Khare, Lucknow was first half a point ahead of Qamar Naim, Bahraich and Mohd Aslam, Lucknow.
Among the kids, seven-year-old Mohd Ismail Siddiqui from Allahabad performed way above his level to be first in under-9. The Best Woman prize went to Aiman Akhtar of Lucknow a point ahead of Purnima Saxena and Jusfica Lilium Lobo. Chess Club Black & White CCBW-Lucknow) hosted the all-India prize money tournament.
Top standings
1st-4th Arvinder Preet Singh, Vivek Kumar Shukla, Anchal Rastogi, Saeed Ahmad 7.5 pts each;
5th-6th Arif Ali, Pawan Batham 6.5 pts;
7th-12th Ravi Shanker, Shadab Khan, Chandra Prakash, Arun Pratap Singh, Prashant Pandey, Krishna Tejas T 6 pts;
13th-14th Ashfaq Ahmad, Shalabh Agarwal 5.5 pts
U9 Age-group
1st Mohd Ismail Siddiqui, Allahabad 5 pts; 2nd Yuvaan Grover, Lucknow 3 pts; 3rd-4th Akshat Srivastava, Ahaan Khanna Das, Lucknow 2.5 pts
U13 Age-group
1st-2nd Lakshya Nigam, Shubh Srivastava Lucknow, 5 pts each; 3rd Gauransh Jaiswal, Lucknow 4.5 pts
U15 Age-group
1st Arnav Tripathi, Lucknow 4 pts, 2nd Pradyumn Kumar Pandey, Lucknow 3 pts, 3rd Ayush Mishra, Lucknow 2 pt.
