Chess Club Black & White (CCBW)

Monday, March 20, 2023

Anchal wins Maha Shivratri Chess Chess, Kamlesh Kumar Kesharwani Best Veteran

Lucknow: Anchal Rastogi won the Maha Shivratri Chess Open hosted by Chess Club Black & White (CCBW) at a city hotel with 6.5 points in 7 rounds. Sayeed Ahmad, who had been co-leader throughout the tournament lost to Anchal in the sixth round, but won his final round to be second with 6 points.

Kamlesh Kumar Kesharwani scored 4.5 to win the the best veteran +60 category. RP Gupta was second and Ajit Kumar Srivastava was third in the veterans' category. Aiman Akhtar was Best woman with three points ahead of Jusfica Lilium Lobo on tiebreak. Pooja Kashyap was third with 2.5 pts. State Co-ordinator of Sarv Shakthi Peeth Trust, Dr Anup Srivastava, gave away the prizes. All players were hosted to complimentary lunch and received dhoop and gifts on the auspicious occasion of Maha Shivratri.

Chief guest, State Co-ordinator of Sarv Shakthi Peeth Trust, Dr Anup Srivastava, with winners of the Maha Shivratri Chess Open hosted by CCBW at Hotel De Global Park in Nirala Nagar.

*Top standings*
(Lucknow unless stated otherwise)

1st Anchal Rastogi, 6.5 pts; 2nd-3rd Saeed Ahmad, Pawan Batham, 6 pts; 4th Rajesh Kumar Srivastava, 5.5 pts;

U13: 1st Parth Gupta, 5 pts; 2nd-5th Mahir Agarwal, Medhansh Raj, Gaurang Jaiswal, Shubh Srivastava, 4 pts;

U15: 1st-3rd Aarav Gupta, Chinmay Vajpayee, Pranav Rastogi, 4 points; 4th-5th Aadi Chandra, Ujjwal Raj Srivastava, 3 pts

U9: 1st Mohd Ismail Siddiqui, Prayagraj, 4 pts; Akshat Srivastava 3 pts, Yuvaan Grover, 2 pts; 4th Satvik Anand, Prayagraj, 1.5 pts

FM Arvinder Preet Singh Wins Two-Day MCD Chess Open in Lucknow

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.

KK Khare wins Krishan Baldev Mahana Chess Memorial for Veterans

Lucknow: Seasoned veteran player, KK Khare of Lucknow, won the Krishan Baldev Mahana Memorial Chess for Veterans (those born 1962 and before) with a perfect score here today. Defending champion Qamar Naim was second.

Vinayak Rao, Lucknow, returning to play after many years, dropped a point only to Khare, to be third on tie-break along with Balgovind Awasthi, Kanpur.

The highlight of the tournament was an exciting game between Vimal K Bhatia, Lucknow, playing White vs Qamar Naim. Bhatia was winning all the way in the Rook endgame for the title but blundered.

Ms Rocio Perez from Mexico City was chief guest. Winners received trophies and all players were felicitated with a shawl, pen, framed group photo.

This is the only chess tournament for those aged 60 and above in India hosted regularly by Chess Club Black & White (CCBW) with free entry and lunch. Hopefully, many such tournaments will now start happening. Chess is surely an amazing sport for senior citizens.

The children of the club also got a chance to play with the senior chess players of Lucknow, Kanpur, Bahraich, Bareilly, Jhansi, Allahabad, Orai and Varanasi.

Final results
Kapil Kumar Khare 5pts, Qamar Naim, Vinayak Rao, Bhatia Vimal K, Balgovind Awasthi 4 pts, Mohd. Sabir Siddiqui, Basant Singh 3.5 pts, Shakiluddin, Santosh Kumar Srivastava, Sharad Sharma, Kamlesh Kumar Kesharwani, RK Gupta, KM Shukla, Kranti Kumar Gupta 3 pts, UB Singh, Shaikh Zafar Ullah 2.5 pts, RS Kashyap, Rambabu Sachan, Mool Chand, RP Gupta, Zahid Ali, Harish Srivastava, Ajit Kumar Srivastava, Ambuj Agarwal, Anurag Srivastava, Aslam Ahmad, Jitendra Singh Saxena, Mahana S, Parashuram, Deep Saxena, Dhruv Narayan 2 pts.