Harshit wins Silver in u1800 at Phuket Blue Chevaliers International Chess Open

Phuket: Talented Lucknow youngster, Harshit Amarnani, has won the second place in the u1800 Section at the Blue Chevaliers International Chess Open 2023 in Phuket, Thailand, this last week. The field was a tough one with top players from Australia, the US, Singapore, and several Asian countries. 

Lucknow's Harshit Amarnani receiving the second prize of 3,000 Baht in the u1800 Section at the Blue Chevaliers International Chess Open 2023 in Phuket, Thailand.

However, the youngster put himself through a tough back-to-back tournament schedule from June-end to July. 

First, it was the Prague International Chess Festival 2023 followed by the Sachovy Festival Ceske Budejovice in Czechoslovakia and then Phuket, Thailand. 

His notable games in Prague included a draw with Fide Master Daniel Barrish of South Africa and win over David Hak of Czechoslovakia. After playing in Prague for over a week, Harshit was back to the board right away at the Sachovy Festival Ceske Budejovice Open 2023 with notable games including a draw with Candidate Master Bruno Steiner of Austria and win over Alexander Oliver Mai of Iceland. 

It's tremendous hard work to play 26 rated tournament games within a month and notch up almost 100 Fide rating points. 

Harshit (third from left) with his hard-earned prize at the Blue Chevaliers International Chess Open 2023.

"The schedule was gruelling and I chose it, torturing my family more than myself," laughs Harshit, "But it was the best way to spend my college vacation. Unless one goes through the grind, one cannot expect improvement. I felt the extended international tournament exposure has given me valuable experience that will help me organise my further training. I'm still far from my goals."

Wise words from the humble and hard working youngster who is already one of the top-rated juniors in Uttar Pradesh. His Fide rating now jumps to 1878. 

An alumni of the Lucknow La Martiniere Boys' College, Harshit is currently studying Psychology and Entrepreneurship at the Ashoka University.

Harshit can be contacted for sponsorship via his Facebook page.

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Protect your Queen Campaign Tournment: Respecting Girls in Chess, Society

Pawan, Ayush star jn CCBW "Protect your Queen" Awareness Campaign Chess Tournament; Aiman Best WomanL

Lucknow: Senior Lucknow player Pawan Batham, and 14-year-old Ayush Saxena from Shahjahanpur, tied for the first place at the "Protect your Queen" chess tournament at Hotel De Global Park, Nirala Nagar, today. Both scored 5.5/6 points and all credit to Ayush for drawing with top seed Pawan. The winner's trophy went to Pawan on tiebreak score. Aiman Akhtar was Best Woman with 4.5 points followed by Pooja Kashyap and Vineeta Agarwal.

Chess Club Black & White (CCBW) organised the tournament as part of a campaign launched by 13-year-old Prisha Garg of Kunskapsskolan School. Prisha says, "Chess is a sport where boys and girls can compete at the same level but, sometimes, boys tease and harass when they lose to a girl." 

Garima Gupta, Educationist and Young Indian Scientist, awarded by late President Abdul Kalam, with prize winners at a chess tournament to promote respect for girls, at Hotel De Global Park, Nirala Nagar.

She added, "Not just in chess, in society as a whole, my campaign is not about punishing errant boys but about creating awareness in society. Chess is a great way to say girls are capable as well." India Women's Chess No. 2, Dronavalli too has reported being harassed at the international level. 

Special prizes at the event included: Best Chess Dad 1st and 2nd Kuldeep Kumar and Kanishka Deva Rastogi. Best Chess Mom was Shweta Bharti. Best chess-theme-royalty dress prize went to Arun Singh who wore a dazzling turban to the tournament. 

Chief guest Garima Gupta, educationist and Young Indian Scientist, awarded by late president Abdul Kalam, gave away the prizes.

*Final Standings*

1st-2nd Pawan Batham, Ayush Saxena 5 pts (on tiebreak) 3rd Arun Singh 5, 4th Sameer Mukherjee 4.5 pts, 5th-8th Krishna Tejas T, Nikhar Saxena, Harshit Arora, Abhishek Srivastava 4 pts 9th Sudhir Verma 3.5 pts 10th-12th Aniket Mohan, Parth Bhalla, Vinay. 

*Best Veteran* 1st Ajit Kumar Srivastava 4 pts, 2nd UB Singh 3.5 pts 

*U15* 1st Arnav Tripathi 4 pts, 2nd Prisha Garg 2 pts

*13* 1st Atharv Thapliyal 4 pts, 2nd Arjun Garg 3.5 pts

*U9* 1st Aja Thapliyal 2.5 pts, 2nd Yuvaan Grover 2 pts.

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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

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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.

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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.

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Chandigarh Chess Assn Shocks Chess Players with No Prizes, High Entry Fee

Chandigarh, Nov 15: Chandigarh chess players were in for a shock Wednesday when the Chandigarh Chess Association (CSA) announced a tournament with no prizes yet high entry fee.

Senior local players got together to petition the Chandigarh Chess Association and the All-India Chess Federation against the "step-motherly" treatment. A senior player, on condition of anonymity, said, "Right next door, Punjab organised a similar tournament with prizes. The entry fee was similar. But, the prizes and playing conditions somewhat justified the tournament entry fee."

Another young player's father added, "An association selection tournament is not a privately organised event. We can always skip a private organiser's tournament if we don't like the conditions or are not happy with prizes etc. But this is a bonafide, duly supported by the government and All-India Chess Federation tournament. The purpose of the association is to promote chess in the region. They get federation and government financial support. A local player does not wish to skip this  selection tournament as it's an "official event" and has its own prestige so as to speak. They can hold a separate open tournament to earn money." 

Just justify the entry fee and the very organising of the tournament for professional players with cash prizes and at least trophies and certificates for kids, asks Chandigarh Chess community. Associations have resources why not help players? Players need voting rights and a say. If it's only selection trial then reduce the entry fee to nominal or free as is the norm.

He said, "They must make the event worthwhile for all chess players. What will happen is only children of certain academies will play and get to represent Chandigarh at the Nationals. No professional senior player will attend this tournament. The organisers are possibly happy with no senior chess players turning up to play."

Another player added, "What happens is that no genuine professional player from Chandigarh will find it worth the effort. Children from private academies will be sent here and asked to play. The parents, in fear of being banned or sidelined, will send their kids paying the high entry fee for no returns. Who will gain? Eventually, the top-four players going to the Nationals will not be the true representatives of Chandigarh chess players. It's like India team for Olympiad is selected by bypassing all top Grandmasters."

Senior players added, "More than anything else, we ask why an association exists if not to promote chess? Why elections have not been held for years to allow some chess to happen here? There has not been an open rating chess tournament in Chandigarh by the association for at least several years. Why does this association exist? Just to report to All-India Chess Federation that it has conducted the mandatory selection tournament and then sleep for the entire year?"

"The so-called main academies of the city will go on fleecing some parents with fake promises of building their children's career and insist that the kids go play this tournament. In effect, nothing will happen. Unless real chess promoters are part of the association, the sport cannot be promoted across the country. Any players who do something, succeed without association aid."

The letter sent to the All-India Chess Federation by senior chess players of Chandigarh reads as follows: 

The 32nd Chandigarh Chess Championship, run by the Chandigarh Chess Association for qualifying in the MPL Senior National Chess Championship 2022, is scheduled to take place at Chandigarh Baptist School in Sector-45D, 160047, from November 25 to November 27, 2022.

The cost of the event is INR 700 plus INR 250 for AICF Registration.

Even with appropriate entrance costs, the tournament's lack of any prize money worries us. The lack of monetary incentives for winners considerably reduces the likelihood of recruiting professional chess players who rely on the game for their living.

Chess competition, training, and play all come with their own set of costs. Without prizes, an official AICF chess tournament is unable to draw professional players since it cannot cover the costs of training and participating in the event.

THE PLEA
We kindly request that you look into the situation and take the necessary steps to guarantee that the fair play requirements are adequately followed in the upcoming competition for the benefit of chess.

Comments on this report by our staff writer may be emailed to editor@blackandwhiteindia.com

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