Sayeed wins CCBW Chess for Freedom, Prayagraj's Yaqoob Junior Champion

 

Chief guest Dr Akash Vikram with prize winners of the "CCBW Chess for Freedom" chess tournament.

Veteran player Sayeed Ahmad of the Lucknow Chess Centre won the CCBW Chess for freedom tournament with a perfect 7/7, two-points ahead of Anubhav Singh, Mohd Ismail Siddiqui (Prayagraj), and Udit Gupta (Varanasi). Hrothbertina Hilton won the Best Woman prize (4 points). She also took home the mixed doubles team first prize partnering with Ved (7.5 points). The highlight of the tournament was former state champion Sameer, the twenty-three-year-old Sameer partner with his super-senior octogenarian grandmother to win the mixed-doubles team second prize (6.5 points).

Tournament Champion Sayeed Ahmad

Junior Champion Yaqoob Husain

The best veterans (+60 age group) Sakiluddin (4.5 points), Rajinder Mahana (4 points), R P Gupta (3.5 points), Ajit Kumar Srivastava (3.5 points) and Sharad Kumar Pandey (2.5 points)

Nine-year-old Ismail along with father Rashid powered to top spot in the family section with (8 points), followed by father-son Ashish Kumar and son Ishaan with (6 points).

Ishu Srivastava fought well to win the Brave Beginner prize among all the sharks.

Teenager Yaqoob Husain (Prayagraj) played extremely attacking chess to win the junior section with (6.5 points). Ayush Goswami, with his strong middlegame, was runner-up with (5.5 points).

Author of Bhagavad Gita with chess, FIDE International Arbiter Naveen Karthikeyan, speaking at the tournament, discussed his book Zih-e-Lucknow, which traces Lucknow's history with chess and how the chess playing queen, Begum Hazrat Mahal, led India's first war of independence riding an elephant. "Chess is not about war, it is about creative freedom of the mind within a disciplined framework of rules and respect for everyone."

Dr Akash Vikram, professor at the Lucknow University, gave away the prizes.

Top results:

Under 10: 1. Shahab Murad Alam, 4.5 pt, 2-4. Amay Rajendra, Rajvansh Goel, Advik Singhal, 4 pts.

Under 13: 1-3. Ishaan Kumar, Arjun Garg, Saksham Srivastava 5 pt.

Under 16: 1. Om Pandey, 4.5 pt, 2-3. Shubh, Pratham Neogi, 3.5 pt.

Best Unrated: 1. Sanjeev Kumar, 4.5 pt, 2. Nikhar Saxena, 4 pt, 3. Ashish Kumar, 3 pt, 4. Kanak Kumar, 2.5 pt, 5. Aditya Gupta Johri, 2 pt.

More photos in Facebook album (including newspaper clippings): https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?vanity=ChessCCBW&set=a.918168180350462

News Links:
- https://nationalnewsvision.com/saeed-ahmed-wins-ccbw-chess-for-freedom-chess-tournament/
- https://theindianview.in/news_id/67179
- https://telescopetoday.in/archives/47848
- https://www.jubileepost.in/saeed-ahmed-wins-ccbw-chess-for-freedom-chess-tournament/

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Aarav Garg, Sayeed Ahmad tie for First at Lions vs Cubs Chess Tournament

Lucknow: Student and teacher, fourteen-year-old Aarav Garg, and veteran Lucknow player, Saeed Ahmad, of Lucknow Chess Centre displayed a fantastic performance scoring 6.5/7 points to tie for first at the Lions vs Cubs Chess at a Hotel Golden Apple, Mahanagar.

Three people tied for second with 5 points each including Shatrughan Rawat, Shadab Khan (Lakhimpur), and top woman player Vartika R. Verma. Vartika has proved to be Lucknow's strongest woman player consistently making it to the top-10 in the Open category for the last one year. Parth Pande and Nikhar Saxena, both nineteen, excelled in tactical play.

Caption: Chief Guest GMJH Global MD Javed Khan with prize winners of the Lions vs Cubs Chess at a Hotel Golden Apple in Lucknow.

In the under-16 category, ten-year-old Ameya Rajendra and 14-year-old Ujjwal Raj Srivastava impressed with 5.5 points each.

"This was a special-format tournament Lions vs Cubs developed by Chess Club Black & White (CCBW) to help unrated youngsters learn from rated senior citizens," said Fide International Arbiter and chess author Naveen Karthikeyan. He said, "These senior citizens became chess experts before the Internet era. Today, an app on your cellphone plays stronger than the world champion. It's easy to practice. How did our senior citizens play so well? It's pure human ability. We must treasure our senior citizens."

CCBW honorary director, UP champion, Dr Junaid Ahmad said, "We want to create chess opportunities for all levels of players. Some players felt, as an organiser, we would lose out on entry fee but that's never been our purpose. We are a charitable society. The more chess happens and the more the marginalised players get opportunities, we will benefit as a community. The All-India Chess Federation too has many such formats. We will continue with our all-women and all-senior citizen formats also."

Aarav Garg 1st in the Lions vs Cubs Chess.

 

Top results

(Lucknow unless mentioned)
1-2. Aarav Garg, Sayeed Ahmad 6.5 pts 3-4. Shatrughan Rawat, Shadab Khan (Lakhimpur) 5 pts. 5. Neeraj Chaurasiya 4.5 pts, 6-10. Sanjeev Mishra (Kanpur), Ratnesh Shanker Verma, Nikhar Saxena, Zafar Mahboob, Ayush Singh 4 pts.

Senior Citizens
1-2. Sharad Kumar Sharma, Rajendra Mahana 4.5 pts 3-4. RK Gupta (Jhansi), Kamlesh Kumar Kesharwani, 4 pts 5. Sakiluddin 3 pts

Women
1. Vartika R Verma 5 pts,
2. Vinky Dixit 2 pts

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