National School Championship 2016

National School Championship 2016

The Final Ranking List:

ChessBase DVDs as Prizes

The Tiger in Nagpur

by Niklesh Jain - 09/01/2016

The Nagpur Chess Academy on behalf of the All India Chess Federation organized the 5^th National School Chess Championship 2016 at the Naivedhyam Eastoria in Nagpur. The three-day chess bonanza attracted around 720 chess playing schoolchildren to the Orange city. Vishy Anand was the chief guest at this mammoth event. And guess what were the prizes for the winners? - ChessBase DVDs!

All photos by Samruddha Mandaokar and Niklesh Jain

The Nagpur Chess Academy on behalf of the All India Chess Federation organized the 5^th National School Chess Championship 2016 at the Naivedhyam Eastoria in Nagpur from the 5th to the 7th of January. The tournament was a nine round Swiss league with the time-control of sixty minutes per player without increment. The three-day chess bonanza attracted around 720 chess playing schoolchildren to the Orange city. There were in all six age categories (U-7, U-9, U-11, U-13, U-15, U-17) for boys and six for girls making it 12 categories in all. And what were the two best things about the tournament?

Vishy Anand was the chief guest and inaugrated the event and....

...all the first place winners in each of the categories were not only given trophies but also DVDs of ChessBase

So what did Vishy Anand speak and which DVDs were given to the prize winners? More about that will follow but first let's have a look at the tournament venue.

The excellent host: Naivedhyam Eastoria

What a beautiful tournament hall! Around 720 schoolchildren made it to this event!

Chess improves your memory and problem-solving skills, and these children have chosen a good sport to play!

The hall was filled to the brim with kids...

...while the parents waited patiently on the stairs

Arbiters and other officials like Prem Pandit had their hands full with so many children playing at one place; nevertheless, they handled their work exceptionally.

While not all the top players of the country played in the higher age category like U-17 or U-15, many of the brightest talents participated in the younger age groups. For eg. Nagpur's future hopes Mrudul Dehankar and Divya Deshmukh played in the under-13 and under-11 age categories respectively and won the gold medals. Dev Shah who was the world under-8 silver medallist in 2015, won the under-9 section with a 8.0/8 start. And what do we say about the under-7 category. Just that make a note of the names of these cute little winners, because you will be hearing a lot about them in the future! Here are the top three finishers in each of the 12 categories.

Under 7 - Final Category
Rank		Name	Rtg	Club	School	Pts
1		Ilamparthi A R	1199	TN	TN-	8
2		Aarav Lakhani	1120	MAH	MAH-MKM	7½
3		Aarav Dengla	0	MAH	MAH-OISM	7

U-7 Girls Category
Rank		Name	Rtg	Club	School	Pts
1		Sani Deshpande	0	MAH	MAH-CSSA	8
2		Suhaani Lohia	0	MAH	MAH-DAISB	7
3	WCM	Shefali A N	1111	KAR	KAR-SSPS	7

U-9 Girls Category
Rank		Name	Rtg	Club	School	Pts
1		Savitha Shri B	1386	TN	TN-VVC	8½
2		Ratnapriya K	1045	TN	TN-VVSC	8
3	WCM	Prathivya Gupta	1339	DEL	DEL-ASD	7

U-9 Open Category
Rank		Name	Rtg	Club	School	Pts
1	CM	Dev Shah	1726	MAH	MAH-	8
2		Thrish Karthik	1457	TN	TN-MVTM	7½
3	CM	Mullick Raahil	1584	MAH	MAH-DAIS	7½

U-11 Girls Category
Rank		Name	Rtg	Club	School	Pts
1	WFM	Divya Deshmukh	1784	MAH	NGP-BVMCL	8
2		Bhagyashree Patil	1442	MAH	MAH-SS	7½
3		Vijayasubhasri S	1137	TN	TN-	6½

U-11 Open Category
Rank		Name	Rtg	Club	School	Pts
1	CM	Gukesh D	2041	TN	TN VAC	8
2		Samant Aditya S	1705	MAH	MAH-	7½
3	CM	Sadhwani Raunak	2104	MAH	MAH-	7

U-13 Girls Category
Rank		Name	Rtg	Club	School	Pts
1	WCM	Mrudul Dehankar	1731	MAH	NGP BHAV	7½
2		Jishitha D	1698	AP	AP MG	7
3		Rindhiya V	1374	TN	TN VMHS	7


U-13 Open Category
Rank		Name	Rtg	Club	School	Pts
1		Sankalp Gupta	2068	MAH	NGP	8½
2		Erigaisi Arjun	2238	TEL	TEL	8
3		Akshit Kumar J	1684	AP	AP	7

U-15 Girls Category
Rank		Name	Rtg	Club	School	Pts
1		Harshini A	1804	TN	Holy Angel's A I School Chennai	8
2		Pandey Srishti	1953	MAH	V T Convent Nagpur	7½
3		Shah Rutvi	1678	GUJ	Udgan School Ahmedabad	6½

U-15 Open Category
Rank		Name	Rtg	Club	School	Pts

1		Shet Prajwal P	1949	KAR		7½
2		Yash Dhoke	1690	MAH		7
3		Jatin S N	1575	KAR		7

U-17 Girls Category
Rank		Name	Rtg	Club	School	Pts
1	WFM	Potluri Supreetha	1912	AP	AP-SVBV	5½
2	WCM	Isha Sharma	1927	KAR	KAR-SDMEMS	5
3		Priyanka Nutakki	2040	AP	AP-DPS	5

U-17 Open Category
Rank		Name	Rtg	Club	School	Pts
1		Souradip Deb	1907	TRIPURA	TPR-KV	5½
2		Shah Bhaven Jay	1641	MAH	MAH-DAI	5½
3	CM	Sharang Sanjeev Kapoor	2053	GUJ	GUJ-ANAND	5

Complete Standings

Under-09 Girls Champion Savitha Shri B. (1386) of Velammal Vidyalaya of Tamil Nadu

Under-11 Girls Champion Divya Deshmukh (1784) of Nagpur

Under-15 Open Champion Prajwal Sheth (1949) of Karnataka

Under-17 Girls Champion Supreetha Potluri (1912) of Andhra Pradesh [Photo: Amruta Mokal]

This little girl had additional defense mechanism ready in the form of her writing pad

Harshini A. (left) of Tamil Nadu on her way to victory in the Under-15 Girls selection

This boy in the Under-07 open section had his own way to sit and focus…

…while this girl a takes a time-out to reflect where things went wrong.

Cub licking her paw

So, you can checkmate me with that rook?

The top-board clash in the Under-11 Girls section between Bhagyashee Patil (1442) and Divya Deshmukh (1784) ended in a draw.

And that is how you maintain a scoresheet!

Apart from problem-solving skills and memory enhancement, this sport teaches you to fight until the very end, and not back down in the face of challenges.

The tournament is a nerve-wracking experience not just for the children, but their parents as well, who toil hard to support their children’s love for the game.

Top Indian arbiter R. Anantharam was officiated the event as the Chief Arbiter

The first prize winner in each of the twelve categories were given ChessBase DVDs by ChessBase India.

DVDs in envelopes?!! The prize winners were given envelopes with a letter written to them by the founders of ChessBase India. The prizes were DVDs in soft format. The letter contained the entire procedure by which the prizes could be claimed.

The Maharashtra Chess Association under the leadership of the Hon. General Secretary Mr. Dilip Pagay, himself a passionate player, is serious about chess development in the country and his state. The idea of giving ChessBase DVDs means that the organizers are serious about the development of these young talents. The following DVDs were given to each prize winner.

ChessBase 13
My Career by GM Viswanathan Anand Vol.1
My Career by GM Viswanathan Anand Vol.2
Modern Scotch by GM Parimarjan Negi
Learn from the Classics by IM Sagar Shah
Improve your chess with IM Tania Sachdev

As you can see the DVDs were smartly chosen. They include ChessBase 13 which is imperative for any professional chess player. The other five DVDs are all authored by Indian players - Vishy Anand Vol.1 & 2, Parimarjan Negi, Sagar Shah, Tania Sachdev.

What better way to improve at chess than to learn from the five time World Champion himself

Best School In India

Velammal Vidhyalaya

Syna International School

Nagpur is not very far from the Tadoba Tiger Reserve and the Pench National Park, home to India’s national animal, the tiger. In this light, the organizers fittingly hosted the former world champion Vishy Anand, who graced the tournament with his presence.

Vishy took the opportunity to address an issue very close to his heart since the beginning of this millennium – chess for school. In that, he explained how precisely chess helps people, and not just children, become better decision makers.

The tiger checking out his cubs

In the press conference that followed, Vishy did not appear too entertained as the mainstream media, quite predictably, did not pose the Indian ace too many pertinent questions. Nevertheless, Anand did end up sharing his thoughts on important issues: the reason Indian talents appear to be moving forward slower than their foreign counterparts are, and his thoughts about cheating in chess, etc.

ChessBase India reporter Niklesh Jain was at the venue and was quick enough to pull out his mobile and record nearly 15 minutes of the Anand interview for you to enjoy:

Part I of the question- answer session

And here's part II

Vidharbha's first grandmaster Swapnil Dhopade was felicitated by Viswananthan Anand

While Anand was at the venue Abhijit Kunte got the idea of taking a selfie which would break the records of maximum people being captured in a frame!

The original selfie sent to us by GM Abhijit Kunte where Vishy himself is taking the picture

Soon the selfie went viral...

...and was published in Marathi newspapers

...and Times of India picked it up too!

ACP President Emil Sutovsky's post on Facebook

We just cannot get enough of this picture! (Did you know that ‘Selfie’ was the Oxford word of the year for 2013?)

FIDE Instructor Niklesh Kumar Jain, who is the author of this article, loves to train young talent. He strongly believes chess should be the part of every school curriculum, to face the challenges of the 21st century. All that said, he is an extremely helpful and benevolent chess friend. He coordinated ChessBase India’s efforts in covering the 2016 National School Championship.

--ChessBase India will bring you another article on the event shortly with the best games of the winners--