Chess Club Black & White (CCBW)

Wednesday, March 12, 2025

Anchal Rastogi wins 3rd Maha Shivratri Chess, Rachit Yadav Junior Champion

Caption: Chief guest Fariduddin Abbasi, Director, Silverstone Group, with prize winners of the 3rd CCBW Maha Shivratri Chess at Kapoor's Inn.

Defending champion Anchal Rastogi (Central GST) took home the winner's trophy on tiebreak ahead of Pawan Batham (State Tax Department) and Saeed Ahmad (Lucknow Chess Centre) with 6/7 points on Sunday at the 3rd Maha Shivratri Rapid Open Tournament. Chess Club Black & White (CCBW) hosted the tournament at Kapoor's Inn Banquets & Suites in Kapoorthala, Lucknow, on Sunday. All three scored 6 points.

Tournament Champion Anchal Rastogi

Junior Champion Rachit Yadav

Chief guest Fariduddin Abbasi, Director, Silverstone Group, gave away the prizes.

Anchal dropped a point only to Saeed in a Queens Gambit Declined game. Saeed found a great pawn break to set his centre pawns rolling to the last rank. However, Saeed blundered and lost his game versus Pawan. Pawan, in turn, lost a pawn and his game to Anchal.

Rachit Yadav was the junior champion with 6 points and Aadi Saxena was runner up with 5.5 points. Kaustubh Mishra, and Advika Tiwari were the stars of the under-10 section. Shah Murad Alam won the under-13 section.

Tournament hall at Kapoor's Inn at Kapoorthala

Senior citizens' section winners were KK Khare and KK Kesarwani 4 points each. UB Singh was third with 2.5 points. KK Gupta and RK Gupta were close with 2 points each.

Other results
Best Unrated: 1st Nikhar Saxena 3.5 points, 2nd Shatrugan Rawat 3 points

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Weissenhaus Players Decide to Call Tour Winner Freestyle Chess Champion

February 10, 2025 – At a Sunday evening meeting in Weissenhaus with organizer Jan Henric Buettner, 12 Freestyle Chess Players Club members unanimously decided that the 2025 Grand Slam Tour winner in December (South Africa) will be titled "Freestyle Chess Champion." They also plan to form their own independent association with a qualified legal team to represent their interests.

The Sunday evening meeting, following the first day of the quarterfinals, included all Freestyle Chess Grand Slam participants in Weissenhaus and remote members of the Freestyle Chess Players Club. They agreed to temporarily avoid using "world" to counter FIDE's unfounded claims of ownership over such word.

"This was never our intention, as we have always called our events 'G.O.A.T. Challenge' or 'Grand Slam,'" said Jan Henric Buettner. "It’s important to note that this decision was made by the players, not by Freestyle – and certainly not by FIDE." The title "Freestyle Chess Champion" will apply for the 2025 season. At year’s end, organizers and players will review and discuss the 2026 Tour, including the title at stake.

Another key outcome of Sunday’s roundtable in Weissenhaus was the players’ plan to establish an independent association representing top chess players, staffed with a qualified legal team. This move comes in direct response to recent clashes with FIDE.

Last month, FIDE demanded that players sign a legally questionable document, setting an inconvenient deadline right after the Tata Steel Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, where many were competing. The document required them to (i) acknowledge an alleged obligation not to compete in non-FIDE events crowning a World Champion or similar title and (ii) accept a ban from future FIDE World Championship cycles if they violated this rule.

The players, some still teenagers, were notified by FIDE’s Legal Director and were given no chance for legal counsel to review the demand. "These repeated harassments are outrageous," said Buettner. "We strongly oppose FIDE’s coercive tactics, which pressure players to forgo their right to choose which events to play."

"We were ready to take all necessary action to defend the freedom of the players." But in Sunday’s meeting, players unanimously agreed to ignore FIDE’s demands, refusing to be forced into choosing between exciting new events and future FIDE participation.

Monday marks the second day of quarterfinals in Weissenhaus, the first of five tournaments in the 2025 Freestyle Chess Grand Slam, which features a $750,000 prize fund.

Harshit wins 3rd Sunita Verma Memorial Chess, Kushal Dey Jr. Champion

Caption: Chief Guest and Awadh ITI Principal Agni Shikha Verma with prize winners at the 3rd Sunita Verma Memorial Rapid Chess 2025 in Lucknow.

Lucknow’s top rated junior, Harshit Amarnani, won the 3rd Sunita Verma Memorial Chess Rapid a point ahead of a very strong field with 6.5/7 on Sunday.

Veteran coach and senior player Arif Ali was runners-up with 5.5 points dropping a point to another veteran coach Sayeed Ahmad of the Lucknow Chess Centre. Five players tied for third place with five points each including Pawan Batham, Kuldeep Shankar, Anchal Rastogi, Sayeed Ahmad and Suchitra Tandon. Pawan took the trophy on a better tie-break. Following him was Kuldeep Shankar who works with the Parliament in New Delhi and was recently felicitated by Lok Sabha Speaker Om Birla for excellence in chess.

Chief Guest and Awadh ITI Principal Agni Shikha Verma gave away the prizes to all the winners. Ms Verma is a philanthropist, yoga practitioner and well known for her social contribution in supporting especially women and the underprivileged.

Another star of the tournament was eighteen-year-old Suchitra Tandon who made it to joint third despite being unrated.
Raghav Awasthi and Abhigyan Katiyar 4 points each won the under 16 rated section.

Hrothbertina Hilton was the best woman player with 3 points. The best senior citizen players were RP Gupta with 4 points and Kamalesh Kumar Kesharwani with 3.5 points.
All credit to eighteen-year-old Shabad Kesarwani for winning the Brave Beginner prize despite being an unrated player among top-rated players of the city.

Kushal Dey from Unchahar won the junior section with a fantastic 6/7, followed by Divyansh Singh 5.5/7.

Best Junior Girl prize went to nine-year-old Advika Tiwari.
Best children’s section checkmating combinations were by seven-year-old Atharv Sarin Shukla.

Other Top Results
Under 10: 1st Advik Singhal 4.5 points, 2nd Kaustub Mishra 4 points
Under 13: 1st Aqib Jalil 5 points, 2nd Meer Shukla 4.5 points
Under 16: 1st Aadi Saxena 5.5 points, 2nd Daksh Arora 5 points

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