MEDIA RELEASE- Round 9- 09/09/2009

GM Le Quang Liem of Vietnam won his top board encounter against GM Anton Filippov of Uzbekistan to sit pretty on top of the heap at the 4th Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament being organized by Alekhine Chess Club at Gorky Sadan. With only one round left he is almost assured of the title.

Le employed his favourite Caro-Kann defence and soon there were opposite coloured bishops and a few other pieces on the board. The Vietnamese used his better developed pieces to get in a kingside attack and Filippov had to eventually throw in the towel in a hopeless position. 

GM Viktor Laznicka is closely following the leader half a point adrift. Both Le and Laznicka have already met each other and will be playing different opponents in the final round.

Laznicka won a fine game against Evgeny Postny of Israel to get the sole second spot. He defended the desperate kingside attack of the Israeli to eventually win a pawn in the endgame after which it was easy for him.   

GM Nigel Short could not break through the defences of IM S.Satyapragyan and even though he had the better pawn structure decided to take the draw.

IM R.R.Laxman became the country’s nineteenth Grandmaster after he got a draw against GM Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan. He has completed all his three norms and also the rating threshold of 2500 stipulated by FIDE.

FM Sahaj Grover topped off a wonderful tournament with his maiden GM norm. He drew against IM Sriram Jha. Sahaj already has the requisite number of IM norms but has not yet touched the 2400 rating threshold.

Both Sandipan Chanda and Surya Sekhar Ganguly won their respective games against GM Rustam Khusnutdinov of Kazakhstan and IM B.Adhiban. It dented Adhiban’s chances of getting the GM norm.

Vidit Gujrathi,Shyam Nikhil, Abhishek Das,Ankit Rajpara & Shiven Khosla achieved their nine game IM norms.

According to the organizers the Government has sanctioned the Rs.6 lakhs grant-in-aid for the tournament.

The last round will be held in the morning and will be followed by the prize distribution ceremony at 4:00 p.m. The Hon’ble Mayor of Kolkata Shri. Bikash Ranjan Bhattacharya will be the Guest-in-Chief and renowned Bengali cinema actor Prosenjeet will also grace the occasion.

Top board results :- (points in parenthesis)

GM Anton Filippov(6.5) GM Le Quang Liem(6.5)

GM Viktor Laznicka(7) beat GM Evgeny Postny(6)

GM Nigel Short(6) drew with IM S.Satyapragyan(6)

GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov(6.5) beat GM Merab Gagunashvili(5.5)

GM Aleksej Aleksandrov(6) drew with GM Eltaj Safarli(6)

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly(6.5) beat GM Rustam Khusnutdinov(5.5)

IM R.R.Laxman(6) drew with GM Rauf Mamedov(6)

GM G.N.Gopal (6) drew with GM Parimarjan Negi (6)

GM Sandipan Chanda (6.5) beat IM B.Adhiban (5.5)

GM Jan Markos(5) lost to GM Ni Hua (6)

GM Ziaur Rahman (5.5) drew with GM Vladislav Tkachiev(5.5)

GM Abhijit Kunte (5.5) drew with GM Gadir Guseinov(5.5)

GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili (6) beat GM Deepan Chakkravarthy (5)

IM M.S.Thejkumar (5) lost to GM Abhijeet Gupta(6)

GM Tiger Hillarp Persson(5.5) beat FM Sayantan Das (5)

MEDIA RELEASE-Round 8 – 08/09/2009

GM Le Quang Liem of Vietnam continued to lead after the eighth round of the 4^th Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess tournament being held at Alekhine Chess Club. He was joined at the top by GM Anton Filippov of Uzbekistan.

Even though Le had the advantage of the white pieces he agreed to a quick draw against the defending champion GM Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic.The game was a Queens Gambit declined and lasted for only twenty four moves.

The second board game was a fierce encounter with GM Sandipan making a valiant effort to win against GM Anton Filippov of Uzbekistan. Sandipan even though he had the black pieces managed to gain the positional advantage of the double bishops and pressed hard for a victory, he however fell into acute time trouble and was forced to give up a piece . He eventually resigned in a hopeless position on the seventy fourth turn. The reverses of the Indian players makes it very difficult most of them to get the top spot.     

The third board game was another disappointing draw between the two Azerbaijan Grandmasters, top seed Shakriyar Mamedyarov and Eltaj Safarli. 

IM S.Satyapragyan defeated GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili of Georgia to earn his Grandmaster norm. He is also the highest ranked Indian with six points to his kitty.

IM R.R.Laxman and IM B.Adhiban got creditable draws against GM Parimarjan Negi and GM Rauf Mamedov respectively. Both of them need half a point in the next round to get their GM norms. If it is achieved, it would be Laxman’s third and final norm and Adhiban’s first.

World U-12 Champion Sayantan Das made his maiden IM norm by defeating GM Enamul Hossain of Bangladesh . Sayantan is a trainee at the city-based Goodricke National Chess Academy. Other Indian players who made their IM norms today are WGM Nisha Mohata & C.Praveen Kumar. All the players who have achieved norms have earned nine game norms with a round to spare.

Top board results :-

GM Le Quang Liem (6.5) drew with GM Viktor Laznicka(6)

GM Anton Filippov (6.5) GM Sandipan Chanda (5.5)

GM Eltaj Safarli(5.5 ) drew with GM Shakriyar Mamedyarov(5.5)

GM Evgeny Postny (6) beat GM Jan Markos (5)

GM Rustam Khustnutdinov(5.5) drew with GM Aleksej Aleksandrov(5.5)

GM Rauf Mamedov(5.5)  drew with IM B.Adhiban(5.5)

GM Parimarjan Negi(5.5) drew with IM R.R.Laxman(5.5)

IM S.Satyapragyan(6) beat GM Mchedlishvili Mikheil(5)

GM Magesh Chandran(4.5) lost to GM Nigel Short( 5.5)

FM Sahaj Grover(4.5) lost to GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly(5.5)

IM Himanshu Sharma(4.5) lost to GM G.N.Gopal(5.5)

GM Merab Gagunashvili (5.5) beat IM P.Konguvel(4.5)

GM Ni Hua (5) beat GM Sundararajan Kidambi(4.5)

GM Vladislav Tkachiev(5) beat IM B.T.Muralikrishnan(4)

GM Gadir Guseinov (5) beat IM S.P.Sethuraman(4)

GM Abhijeet Gupta(5) beat GM Tejas Bakre(4)

GM Vadim Malakhatko(4.5) drew with R Arun Karthik(4)

IM K.Rathnakaran(4) lost to GM Ziaur Rahman(5)

FM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (4.5) drew with GM Anuar Ismagambetov(4.5)

Sayantan Das (5) beat GM Enamul Hossain(4)

MEDIA RELEASE-ROUND-7 -  07/09/2009

Grandmaster Li Quang Liem shot into the sole lead after the seventh round at the 4th Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess tournament being held at Alekhine Chess Club. He defeated local Grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly from an inferior position and is now sitting pretty, atop the heap.

The Vietnamese employed the Caro-Kann defence and Surya was on the offensive from the beginning slowly building a position of strength blundered. He however got into acute time trouble and blundered away a couple of pawns after which it was all over.   

GM Sandipan Chanda and Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic, who faced off on the top board could not break their deadlock even though Sandipan defended an inferior position throughout the game. Both of them are in the second position alongwith GM Anton Filippov of Uzbekistan.

Filippov shocked Nigel Short of England from the black side of a Giuoco Piano opening. The Englishman tried the sharp Evans gambit and the Uzbek player gobbled up the pawn and defended coolly. Short then gave up a couple more pawns on the queenside in his bid for an all out attack on the king but he could not succeed in penetrating his opponent’s defenses and had to eventually resign.

Top seeded Grandmaster Shakriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan played an aggressive game to come back into the reckoning for a top spot. He defeated GM Magesh Chandran from the white side of a Reti opening. It was an exciting game with both sides trading counter punches but the Azerbaijani eventually prevailed.

A few other Super Grandmasters are also making a bid for a strong finish, they include Aleksej  Aleksandrov of Belarus, Mikheil Mchedlishvili of Georgia, Parimarjan Negi of India, Evgeny Postny of Israel and Rauf mamedov of Azerbaijan , they all are on 5 points just a point adrift of the leader.

IM R.R.Laxman won against GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh in a long endgame and is zeroing in for his third and final GM norm out here. IM’s  B.Adhiban and S.Satyapragyan are similarly well placed for their  GM norms.

Both local players WGM Nisha Mohota and FM Sayantan Das are also almost assured of their IM norms.

Top Board results:- (points in parenthesis)

GM Viktor Laznicka(5.5) drew with GM Sandipan Chanda (5.5)

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly(4.5) lost to GM Le Quang Liem(6)

GM Nigel Short (4.5) lost to GM Anton Filippov(5.5)

IM B.Adhiban (5) drew GM Parimarjan Negi(5)

GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili (5) drew with  GM Eltaj Safarli(5)

GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov(5) beat GM Magesh Chandran(4.5)

GM Ni Hua (4) lost to GM Rustam Khusnutdinov(5)

GM Enamul Hossain(4) lost to GM Evgeny Postny(5)

GM Aleksej Aleksandrov(5) beat IM Deep Sengupta(4)

GM Rauf Mamedov(5) beat FM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi(4)

MEDIA RELEASE-Round-6- 06/09/2009

 GM Nigel Short of England managed to draw a hard fought battle against GM Sandipan Chanda in the sixth round of the 4th Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament which is being held at Alekhine Chess Club,Gorky Sadan.

He played the offbeat Nimzowitsch defence and managed to get equality very quickly in the opening but Sandipan attacked relentlessly and Short after playing some defensive maneuvers got in some counter play. Both players eventually agreed to split the point in a position which looked slightly better for Sandipan. Two other players now share the lead with Sandipan . GM Viktor Laznicka  of theCzech Republic and Le Quang Liem of Vietnam.

GM Viktor Laznicka played an attacking game with the black pieces against GM Ziaur Rahman to join   the leaders. He took some risks and was rewarded for his persistence.The game lasted fifty four moves.

GM Le Quang Liem was the other victor on the top boards. He defeated GM Enamul Hossain of Bangladesh in forty two moves. The Bangladeshi played the Kings Indian defence and lost a pawn on the queenside his game deteriorated after a few more moves and he gave up the fight in a hopeless position.   

As many as eight players are in the second spot half a point adrift of the leaders. These include Indian Grandmasters Surya Sekhar Ganguly , Parimarjan Negi,Magesh Chandran and IM B.Adhiban.

Surya who is a strong finisher won his game against GM Abhijit Kunte to come back into the reckoning for the top spot.

International Master B.Adhiban continued to impress and he held the higher ranked GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan in twenty six moves of a Sicilian defence game.

FM Sahaj Grover continued his excellent run against the Grandmasters accounting for Super Grandmaster Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan.

Other youngsters who impressed were Vidit Santosh Gujrathi who drew his game against another Super GM Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus , the young local boy Sayantan Das who accounted for Somak Palit and Shyam Nikhil who drew against GM G.N.Gopal.   

Top board results:-

GM Sandipan Chanda(5) drew with GM Nigel Short(4.5)

GM Ziaur Rahman(4) lost to GM Viktor Laznicka(5)

GM Parimarjan Negi(4.5) drew with GM Magesh Chandran(4.5)

GM Le Quang Liem(5) beat GM Enamul Hossain(4)

GM Eltaj Safarli(4.5) drew with IM B.Adhiban(4.5)

GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili(4.5)  beat IM R.R.Laxman (4)

GM Merab Gagunashvili(4) drew with GM Ni Hua (4)

GM Evgeny Postny(4) drew with GM Sundararajan Kidambi(4)

FM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (4) drew with GM Aleksej Aleksandrov(4)

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly(4.5) beat GM Abhijit Kunte (3.5)

Media Release- Round 5- 5/09/2009

GM Sandipan Chanda let GM Le Quang Liem off the hook to draw his game on the first board of the 4th Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess tournament being held at Alekhine Chess Club,Gorky Sadan. Sandipan had a better game but made a slight error in the endgame to let his opponent escape. Sandipan however still continues to lead as all the players chasing him drew hard fought games. A few more joined them and now there are as many as ten players in following pack, who are half a point behind.

On the second board GM Enamul Hossain of Bangladesh played solidly with the white pieces to force a draw against Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan in fifty three moves of a Sicilian defence game. Eltaj had some counter play and even won a pawn but the game eventually fizzled out into a theoretically drawn endgame.    

GM Nigel Short also tried hard to penetrate the Caro-Kann defence of Israeli GM Evgeny Postny but could not make any headway and the point was split after fifty five moves.

Indian GM Magesh Chandran won against super grandmaster Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan in what could be termed a minor upset on the top boards. Magesh opened with his queen pawn and soon had a bind on the centre, he then won an exchange and used his passed pawn on the b file to win another rook after which it was all over.

GM Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic played another solid game to emerge victorious against GM Rustam Khusnutdinov of Kazakhstan in forty seven moves. The Kazakh GM allowed Laznicka the advantage of the double bishops early in the game and then played weakly in the endgame to lose a few pawns.

GM Parimarjan  Negi defeated IM Deep Sengupta and is now lurking in the joint second place. Negi normally is a strong finisher.

Young Vidit Gujrathi accounted for his second GM of the tournament. He defeated Gm Tiger Hillarp Perssson of Sweden and is on course for his sixth IM norm.

FM Sahaj Grover’s fine run against Grandmasters was stopped by GM Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh. 

Important results:- (points in parenthesis)

GM Sandipan Chanda(4.5 ) drew with GM Le Quang Liem(4)

GM Enamul Hossain (4) drew with GM Eltaj Safarli(4)

GM Nigel Short (4) drew with GM Evgeny Postny(3.5)

GM Magesh Chandran(4) beat GM Gadir Guseinov(3)

GM Aleksej Aleksandrov(3.5) drew withGM Deepan Chakkravarthy(3.5)

GM Sundararajan Kidambi(3.5) drew with GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly(3.5)

GM Viktor Laznicka (4) beat GM Rustam Khusnutdinov(3)

GM Parimarjan Negi(4) beat IM Deep Sengupta(3)

GM Abhijit Kunte(3.5) drew withGM Mikheil Mchedlishvili(3.5)

IM B.Adhiban(4) beat GM Vadim Malakhatko(3)

GM Jan Markos (3) lost to IM R.R.Laxman (4)

IM S.Satyapragyan(3.5) drew with GM Merab Gagunashvili(3.5)

GM Ziaur Rahman (4) beat FM Sahaj Grover(3)

GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov(3) drew with  IM Himanshu  Sharma(3)

GM Petr Kostenko(2.5) lost to GM Ni Hua (3.5)

MEDIA RELEASE-ROUND 4-     4/9/2009

Local Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda annexed the sole lead at the 4^th Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament being held at Alekhine Chess Club. He accounted for fellow Indian GM Magesh Chandran in thirty five moves. Even though he had the disadvantage of the black pieces Sandipan used the Semi-Slav defence and got a kingside attack going. Magesh grabbed a queenside pawn and could not bring it back in time to save his unprotected king.

GM Nigel Short drew his first game of the tournament against GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan . He faced the Ruy Lopez opening and the game progressed along theoretical lines with the sixteen year old Azerbaijani holding a slight advantage throughout. Short defended accurately but Eltaj came up with a knight sacrifice which allowed him to force the draw by perpetual check.

On the fifth and sixth boards the Grandmasters circumvented the “no draw upto twenty move” rule imposed by the organisers by signing the peace treaty on the twenty first move. Surya Sekhar Ganguly was paired against Jan Markos of Slovakia on the fifth board and Vadim Malakhatko of Belgium was paired against Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus on the sixth board.

Most of the other top board games were drawn but only after hard fought battles. These included Gadir Guseinov of Azerbaijan ’s draw against Enamul Hossain of Bangladesh.

The top seeded Grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov was shocked by the Vietnamese Grandmaster Le Quang Liem in a long game. Mamedyarov played an irregular defence but it was inadequate and he soon had to defend against the double passed pawns created by his opponent on the queenside. He gave up a piece and came up with some original moves but eventually threw in the towel on the sixtieth move.

On the other top boards Grandmasters Evgeny Postny of Israel and Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic won their games against Indian IM’s Arghadip Das and P.Karthikeyan respectively.

Important results:- (points in parenthesis)

GM Eltaj Safarli(3.5) drew with GM Nigel Short(3.5)

GM Magesh Chandran(3) lost to GM Sandipan Chanda(4)

GM Gadir Guseinov(3) drew with GM Enamul Hossain(3.5)

GM Le Quang Liem (3.5) beat GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov(2.5)

GM Vadim Malakhatko(3) drew with GM Aleksej Aleksandrov(3)

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly(3) drew with GM Jan Markos(3)

FM Sahaj Grover (3) drew with GM Parimarjan Negi(3)

GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili (3) drew with GM Ziaur Rahman(3)

GM Ni Hua (2.5) drew with GM Abhijit Kunte(3)

GM Evgeny Postny (3) beat IM Arghyadip Das (2)

MEDIA RELEASE- Round 3- 03/09/2009

 Local Grandmaster Sandipan Chanda shot in to the lead alongwith four other Grandmasters after the third round of the 4th Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess tournament being organized by Alekhine Chess Club at Gorky Sadan. GM Nigel Short of England, GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan , GM Magesh Chandran of India and GM Enamul Hossain of Bangladesh are the other leaders.

Short won another good game with the white pieces against GM Merab Gagunashvili of Georgia . It was a Caro Kan defence employed by the Georgian and it proved inadequate.   Short used a wicked pin against his opponent’s king to eventually win the game on the fortieth move.

GM Eltaj Safarli of Azerbaijan stopped the winning streak of International Master Himanshu Sharma. The Indian IM was on the defensive from the onset with his Sicilian defence and his exposed king was subjected to a neat combination which would have eventually led to mate. The game lasted twenty six moves.

GM Sandipan Chanda used his white pieces effectively to crush Grandmaster Rustam Khusnutdinov in a Queens Gambit accepted game. The Indian GM won his opponents queen for a rook and a minor piece and used his material advantage to eventually pocket the full point.

GM Magesh Chandran was lucky to win against GM Rauf Mamedov of Azerbaijan . He had two knights against the King and pawn of his opponent but still managed to win a theoretically drawn position when the Azerbaijian GM lost his way in time trouble.

Indian Grandmasters Surya Sekhar Ganguly and Abhijit Kunte took draws in twenty moves against fellow Grandmasters Ziaur Rahman of Bangladesh and Vadim Malakhatko of Belgium respectively.

In the clash of age group World Champions Sayantan Das, the U-12 World champion drew with the U-16 World champion IM B.Adhiban. Sayantan a trainee of Goodricke National Chess Academy was in a winning position with an extra pawn but could not covert his advantage against his more experienced opponent.

  Important results:-

GM Nigel Short (3) beat GM Merab Gagunashvili(2)

GM Ziaur Rahman(2.5) drew with GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly(2.5)

GM Mamaedov Rauf(2) lost to GM Magesh Chandran(3)

GM Sandipan Chanda (3) beat GM Rustam Khusnutdinov(2)

GM Eltaj Safarli(3) beat IM Himanshu Sharma(2)

GM Enamul Hossain(3) beat GM Abhijeet Gupta (2)

GM Abhijit Kunte (2.5) drew with GM Vadim Malakhatko(2.5)

GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov(2.5) beat FM Vidit Santosh Gujrathi (2)

GM Gadir Guseinov (2.5) beat GM Tejas Bakre (1.5)

IM P.Kartikeyan(2) drew with GM Evgeny Postny(2)

GM Aleksej Aleksandrov(1.5)Swapnil Dhopade(1.5)

GM Parimarjan Negi(2.5) beat IM Shyam Sundar(1.5)

IM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury(1.5) lost to GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili(2.5)

IM P.Konguvel (1.5) lost to GM Le Quang Liem (2.5)

GM Tiger Hillarp Persson(1.5) lost to FM Sahaj Grover (2.5)

GM Jan Markos (2.5) beat Arjun Tewari (1.5)

IM Arghyadip Das (2) drew with GM Deepan Chakkra varthy(2)

FM Akshat Khamparia (2) drew withIM Sriram Jha (2)

Abhishek Das (2) drew with IM Deep Sengupta (2)

FM Sayantan Das (2) IM B.Adhiban (2)

MEDIA RELEASE ROUND-2   02/09/2009

International Master Himanshu Sharma and Vidit Santosh Gujrathi caused major upsets in the second round of the 4th Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament being held at Alekhine Chess Club.

Himanshu defeated Grandmaster Viktor Laznicka of the Czech Republic in 61 moves of a Sicilian defence game. Himanshu had a better pawn structure which allowed him to win a pawn and he converted this advantage into a win with a masterful display in the endgame.  

Vidit Santosh Gujrathi was also impressive in his victory over Grandmaster G.N.Gopal . He won a couple of pawns on the queenside and forced his opponent to resign on the 50th move.  

Top seeded Grandmaster Shakhriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan was forced to split the point with International Master Sriram Jha .

International Master Deep Sengupta drew with Grandmaster Gadir Gusenov of Azerbaijan in

International Master B.Adhiban of India held highly rated Grandmaster Aleksej Aleksandrov of Belarus from the white side of a four knight’s game.  Adhiban held the advantage for most of the game and had a better position when the Belarussian Grandmaster repeated moves to get the draw on the fifty first move.

All three International Masters Himanshu, Deep and Adhiban are candidates for Gm norms in this tournament.

Grandmaster Surya Sekhar Ganguly was at his irrepressible best in the second round, against double Gm norm holder and International Master R.R.Laxman. The IM messed up the move order in a Petroff defence and was punished quickly. Ganguly sacrificed a Bishop on the fourteenth turn to open up his opponent’s kingside and Laxman resigned a couple of moves later.

Local U-12 World Champion Sayantan Das caused a flutter when he defeated International Master S.P.Sethuraman. Sayantan is a student of city based Goodricke National Chess Academy.

Meanwhile all the Grandmasters including local Grandmasters Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Sandipan Chanda and Neelotpal Das gathered at the tournament made a joint appeal to whoever finds the passports of the two Belgian Grandmasters to return these to Gorky Sadan . Both these Grandmasters stand to lose a lot of money as they were scheduled to play in tournaments in Sri Lanka and Spain directly after this tournament.

 Important results :-

IM Sriram Jha(1.5) drew with GM Shakhriyar Mamedyarov(1.5)

GM Nigel Short(2) beat GM Petr Kostenko(1)

IM Deep Sengupta (1.5) drew with GM Guseinov Gadir (1.5)

IM B.Adhiban(1.5) drew with GM Aleksej Aleksandrov(1.5)

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly(2) beat IM R.R.Laxman (1)

IM Himanshu Sharma (2) beat GM Viktor Laznicka (1)

GM Mamedov Rauf (2) beat IM M.S.ThejKumar (1)

GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili (1.5) drew with IM P.Konguvel (1.5)

IM S.Satyapragyan (1) lost to GM Sandipan Chanda(2)

GM Le Quang Liem (1.5) drew with IM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury(1.5)

MEDIA RELEASE (Round 1)                     1/10/09

Grandmaster Sundararajan Kidambi was the first casualty of the 4^th Kolkata Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament being organized by Alekhine Chess Club at Gorky Sadan. 13 year old Shiven Khosla accounted for the Indian Grandmaster in only 20 moves of a Ruy Lopez Game. Kidambi blundered a piece on the 17^th move and resigned after a few moves. Shiven is the reigning Asian U-14 champion. The tournament is the strongest in Asia .

Earlier in the day the meet was inaugurated by the Hon’ble Sports Minister Mr.Kanti Ganguly with the traditional lighting of the lamp, also present on the occasion was Mr.Gautam Mohan Chakraborti , Kolkata Police Commissioner, Mr.I.V.Korabaev Senior Counsel of the Russian Federation , Mr.A. Mazirka Director of Gorky Sadan , Mr.Udayan Kanti Ghosh, Joint Secretary of All India Chess Federation and the President of Alekhine Chess Club,  Mr.Kumar Shankar Bagchi. Mr. Kanti Ganguly said “Where there is chess, Alekhine chess club will be there”.

Top seeded Shakriyar Mamedyarov of Azerbaijan was impressive in his victory against B.S.Shivanand. He drummed up a kingside attack and Shivanand was forced to resign on the 39th move when he was about to be checkmated.

The fifth seeded GM Gadir Guseinov was also impressive in his victory over International Master V.Saravanan. With the white pieces in a Sicilian defence,he sacrificed an exchange to eventually win his opponents queen. The game was eventually over on the 28th turn.

In another minor upset third seeded Ni Hua of China was forced to split the point with Rahul Sangma in 46 moves of a French defence . Fancied Indian Grandmaster Parimarjan Negi was also held by International Master Vikramaditya Kamble.

After a few dropouts the total headcount at the tournament stood at 114 participants with 34 Grandmasters and 27 International Masters. Grandmaster Arun Prasad withdrew at the last moment, because of illness.

Important results:- (first round)

GM Shakriyar Mamedyarov beat BS Shivananda

GM Ni Hua drew with Rahul Sangma

GM Gadir Guseinov beat IM V.Saravanan

GM Aleksej Aleksandrov beat Aditya Udeshi

Praveen Kumar lost to GM Mamedov Rauf

Parimarjan Negi drew with IM Vikramaditya Kamble

Anwesh Upadhyay lost to GM Le Quang Liem  

Opening Ceremony on Sept 1, 2009

 Presidium

MR KANTI GANGULY       HON’BLE MINISTER, SPORTS, WEST BENGAL            GUEST IN CHIEF

 MR I.V. KORABAEV           HON’BLE SENIOR CONSUL, RUSSIAN FEDERATION KOLKATA          

 MR GAUTAM MOHAN CHAKRABORTY      COMMISSIONER OF POLICE, KOLKATA                                                     

MR ALEXANDER V MAZIRKA                        DIRECTOR OF GORKY SADAN                                                                                      

MR UDAYAN KANTI GHOSH                          JOINT SECRETARY, ALL INDIA CHESS FEDERATION

 MR BABLU BHATTACHARYA                        MANAGING DIRECTOR, SMER & IMPS

 MR KUMAR SHANKAR BAGCHI                    PRESIDENT, ALEKHINE CHESS CLUB

 MR SOUMEN MAJUMDER                                               SECRETARY, ALEKHINE CHESS CLUB        

 Before the opening ceremony, all the participants & guests were received by the Bengali Girls who danced  accompanied by instrumental music composed on Tagore and showered flowers on them in Indian Tradition. This was well appreciated by all.

 Alekhine Chess Club president, Mr Kumar Sankar Bagchi welcomed all the guests of the presidium and the participants of the meet. He informed that this meet is the strongest Open Meet in Asia dedicated to The Year of Russia in India and that the media release has a clear comparison chart taking details of several Asian meets. He also mentioned that there are two Grandmasters having ELO of 2700+ taking part in this meet whereas, in no Open meet such high rated Grandmasters take part.

 Police Commissioner of Kolkata, Mr Gautam Mohan Chakraborty mentioned that  it is Alekhine Chess Club which always organize strong tournaments like this one and that Indian players will receive ample opportunities to play with high rated players and thereby, may achieve norms or increase ratings. He informed that he would extend himself for the successful and smooth running of the meet.

 Mr Bablu Bhattacharya, Managing Director of School of Management Education and Research, one of the sponsors of the meet, declared that he was happy to be associated with the meet and that he may extend himself in future to sponsor some young talented  chess players of the club. He also mentioned that India has the best IT experts in the world and this game can help all to increase the reasoning power in the brain

 Mr I.V. Korabaev, Senior Consul of the Russian Federation in Kolkata, wished the organisers a grand success and informed in short about the development of Chess in Russia and the necessity of proper training of the young players.

 Mr Alexander V. Mazirka, The Director of Gorky Sadan, expressed his happiness knowing the strongest open meet in Asia is being organized at Gorky Sadan by Alekhine Chess Club. He also informed that he would extend himself for any help within his capacity to Alekhine Chess Club for smooth running of the meet.

 Mr Kanti Ganguly, Hon’ble Minister of Sports, Government of West Bengal, was also very happy to come to inaugurate the strongest open meet at Gorky Sadan. He quoted an advertisement of a soap – “ WHEREVER IS LIFEBOY SOAP, HEALTH IS THERE” and he thinks that “WHEREVER IS CHESS, ALEKHINE CHESS CLUB IS THERE”. He requested to organize any handicapped Chess event at Gorky Sadan. Later he was informed by the club secretary, Mr Soumen Majumder that blind chess players take part in the schools’ chess meets at Gorky Sadan.

Mr Udayan Kanti Ghosh, Joint Secretary of All India Chess Federation, highly praised Alekhine Chess Club for organising 25 international meets and numbers of other chess meets at Gorky Sadan and that this helped many West Bengal Chess Players to achieve International Master and Grandmaster norms.

 After the meet, Sports Minister, Mr Kanti Ganguly came down and met the players and thereafter, on the request of Mr Soumen Majumder, all the participating Grandmasters were requested to come up the stage so that Mr Kanti Ganguly can meet them all. All the participating Grandmaster came up on the stage and Hon’ble Minister Kanti Ganguly wished them all and thanked all who have come from other countries and from other States of our country.

 After all the speeches, the inauguration lamps were lighted by all the distinguished guest of the presidium. The event was formally inaugurated by Mr Kanti Ganguly, Hon’ble Sports Minister of West Bengal, by making the first move on the demonstration board on stage.

 The auditorium was filled to capacity and it was well attended by the media, the print media as well as the electronic media, participants and all the chess enthusiast of the city.

The inauguration was followed by the commencement of the 1^st round games sharp at 3.30pm.