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IM Arghyadip Das wins 1st Queen’s Gambit Rapid Chess

by Shahid Ahmed - 22/01/2017

The 1st Queen's Gambit rapid chess was held on the 14th and 15th of January 2017 in Kolkata. It was a strong tournament with the first prize of Rs.15,000 and the participation of two IMs and one WGM. IM Arghyadip Das of Railways emerged victorious followed by IM Suvrajit Saha. The most impressive part about the tournament was the organization - no spot entries, beginning the games on time and ending them before the schedule. Tournament organizer Shahid Ahmed sends us an illustrated report.

IM Arghyadip Das of Railways won the 1st Queen’s Gambit Rapid Chess Tournament 2017 held at St. Lawrence High School in Kolkata on 14th & 15th of January 2017. He scored 8.0/9 and won the championship trophy ahead of IM Suvrajit Saha as his tie-Break score was better. He made quick work of reigning State Junior and State Amateur Champion of West Bengal Kaustuv Kundu in the last round to secure his championship.

IM Arghyadip Das receives his Championship trophy and ₹15000 which is designed after the chess piece ‘Queen’ from GM Dibyendu Barua 

There was no clear leader until the last round. The leaders kept changing from the sixth round. However, both IMs Arghyadip and Suvrajit showed their class and got back into the title fray before the final round, despite both of them making draws in the third round against young kids who were much lower rated.

 

Upon conversing with the champion Arghyadip Das before he was crowned, I got to know that he decided to play this tournament in Kolkata while playing Hastings Masters where he finished joint second. It is quite delightful as an organizer to know that considering the fact the he barely plays in India let alone in his hometown, the ‘City of joy’, Kolkata. He was quite happy with the way the tournament was organized as well as the venue. He decided to play the tournament as this was the first tournament in West Bengal with the official time control as National and World Rapid.

All age group Prize winners. There were four age categories Under 8, 10, 12 & 14. There were six prizes for boys & three for girls.

IM Suvrajit Saha collecting his 2nd prize of ₹10000

FM Mitrabha Guha won his 3rd prize of ₹7000

 

Reigning State Junior & State Amateur Champion Kaustuv Kundu receives 4th prize of ₹4000

WGM Mary Ann Gomes receives Best Woman Prize from Father & Vice Principal of the school Rafael Hyde

Despite having a good start, Mary Ann Gomes did not finish it as strong as she would have liked. She was quite delighted to play the tournament as she was also happy with the venue, the way the tournament was organized, food and hospitality. She also told me to organize more tournaments like this which start on time and finish ahead of the schedule.

 

It was our motive to set a new benchmark in West Bengal to start a tournament on time without any delay and finish it also on time. Well, we finished each day’s games as well as Prize Distribution one hour before the scheduled time. Thanks to the wonderful panel of arbiters.

L to R: Gautam Bhattacharya (Supporting Staff), NA D N Chatterjee, Chief Arbiter IA Asit Baran Chowdhury, FA Debabrata Das, NA Swapan Adhikari

Lunch distribution to the participants

There was a small Chess Quiz for non-participants (Guardians and accompanying persons) having various prizes from bags to the latest Harry Potter books.

Oldest participant of the tournament 87 years old Mr. Madhu Sudan Mukherjee receives a special participation prize. He has never submitted any entry fee over the phone. He always visits Bengal Chess Association even at this age and submits the entry fee on his own.

There were 25 main prizes, 36 age group prizes, best Woman and best veteran prize. Total number of participants were 202. We had to refuse a lot of spot entries as we did not want to compromise a player’s experience. Our motto was always to make sure that this is ‘A tournament for Players.’ We can only hope that we managed to do that.

 

A short video of Round 3 game between IM Arghyadip Das and Soumma Chakraborty

Final Ranking after 9 Rounds

Rk. SNo   Name Typ sex FED Rtg Pts.  TB1   TB2   TB3   TB4   TB5 
1 1 IM Das Arghyadip     IND 2429 8,0 0,0 50,0 54,0 47,75 42,5
2 3 IM Suvrajit Saha     IND 2318 8,0 0,0 48,5 50,0 43,75 41,5
3 9 FM Mitrabha Guha     IND 2035 7,5 0,0 49,0 53,0 41,75 41,0
4 11   Kaustuv Kundu     IND 2026 7,0 0,0 50,5 54,5 40,00 42,5
5 16   Arpan Das     IND 1927 7,0 0,0 49,5 53,0 38,50 41,5
6 7   Debasish Mukherjee     IND 2060 7,0 0,0 49,0 51,5 39,00 42,0
7 50   Souhardo Basak 10B   IND 1356 7,0 0,0 46,5 47,0 36,00 40,0
8 29   Bodhisatya Pal     IND 1646 7,0 0,0 46,0 50,0 37,75 39,5
9 5   Chattarjee Laltu     IND 2091 7,0 0,0 45,0 48,5 36,00 38,5
10 27   Satya Sekhar Mitra     IND 1695 7,0 0,0 43,0 47,0 35,00 37,0
11 2 WGM Gomes Mary Ann   w IND 2327 6,5 0,0 51,0 55,0 39,75 43,5
12 38   Rounak Pathak     IND 1511 6,5 0,0 51,0 53,5 35,25 43,0
13 20   Samrat Ghorai     IND 1875 6,5 0,0 50,5 55,0 38,75 43,0
14 4   Arindam Mukherjee     IND 2217 6,5 0,0 50,5 55,0 36,50 42,5
15 45   Samip Roy 12B   IND 1417 6,5 0,0 48,5 51,5 36,50 41,5
16 6   Anurag Jaiswal     IND 2075 6,5 0,0 48,0 51,5 35,00 41,0
17 14   Bose Sayan     IND 1974 6,5 0,0 47,0 51,0 34,25 39,0
18 18   Subhajit Bhattacharyya     IND 1913 6,5 0,0 46,0 50,0 34,25 39,5
19 39   Shuban Saha 14B   IND 1500 6,5 0,0 45,5 48,5 32,25 38,5
20 66   Arunava Bhattacharjee 14B   IND 1212 6,5 0,0 44,5 49,0 34,25 38,0

Complete Final Ranking List

 

About the Author:

Shahid Ahmed is the First AGM (Arena Grandmaster) of India. He is a coach at Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy (DBCA) and The Heritage School. He is also the founder of chesspert.com. He manages the Facebook page of Bengal Chess Association and DBCA.


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