Nihal visits Akshayakalpa Karnataka State Chess Championship

by Hinduja Reddy - 04/10/2019

The second day of Akshayakalpa Karnataka State Chess Championship proved enthralling for more than one reason. The biggest sensation of the day was undoubtedly Nihal Sarin visiting the tournament venue. The 15-year-old Indian prodigy interacted with selected youngsters and also had an exclusive autograph/photograph session with parents and fans. The rounds too had fair share of ups and downs. Top seed and WIM Isha Sharma had to toil hard for more than three hours to clinch victory against her 8-year-old opponent Chinmay Kowshik; while in the same round the second seeded Prachura P Padakannaya was shocked by 1397 rated Prasiddhi Bhat. Our author, Hinduja Reddy, sends an illustrated report from Bengaluru.

Thirteen-year-old Prasiddhi stuns Prachura!

Thirteen-year-old Prasiddhi Bhat caused a major upset by defeating second-seed Prachura P.P in the 3rd round of Akshayakalpa Karnataka State Open Chess Championship, organized by Innovators Chess Academy at Silicon Academy of Secondary Education in Bengaluru on Thursday.

Prasiddhi, rated 1397, created a major stir after scoring a point against Prachura, rated 2130. The game was roughly equal until Prachura blundered a full piece on move 41 | Photo: Akshayakalpa

Chinmay Kowshik tests top seed Isha Sharma

On the first board, WIM Isha Sharma (left), rated 2182 continued her lead with 3.0/3 points. However, in the third round she had a topsy-turvy encounter against Chinmay Kowshik (right), rated 1408 in a game that lasted for more than 3 hours | Photo: Akshayakalpa

Nihal Sarin Plays Chess with Bengaluru Kids!

India’s Number 1 ranked Junior and World no. 201 Grand Master Nihal Sarin played chess and did interactive Q&A session with Bengaluru kids at the venue. Talking to the media, Nihal Sarin said that he was pleased to interact and play with the budding chess talents of Karnataka. The young Grandmaster was speaking on the sidelines of the Akshayakalpa Karnataka State Open Chess Championship being held in Bengaluru.

On a personal note, the 15-year-old prodigy said he is eager to take his chess to the next level and is looking forward to perform at his best in the upcoming FIDE Grand Swiss, scheduled to take place from October 10 to 21 this year in the Isle of Man.

During the event, Nihal spoke about Akshayakalpa Organic Milk, "It’s heartening to know that Akshayakalpa is promoting chess in a big way in Karnataka. I’m very happy and proud to be part of this event", he said.

The biggest attraction of the day was definitely the World's youngest 2600 player Nihal Sarin visiting the playing venue | Photo: Akshayakalpa

The Indian phenom gladly shared tips with the young participants of the event | Photo: Akshayakalpa

There was also an exclusive photograph and autograph session with parents and players who wanted to meet Nihal | Photo: Akshayakalpa

The 15-year-old prodigy tweeted the following after the event:

Video Gallery

Seven-year old Yuvanesh studies in Christ School, Bengaluru. He has represented Karnataka in various National-level chess championships. Hear him talk about his love for the game.

10-year-old Abhyarth Kumar Mallick of Delhi Public School Bangalore East talks about benefits of chess. Watch this video as he distinctly explains the positives of the royal game.

There are many similarities between Chess and life. Vennala of St. Francis ICSE School Hongasandra shares with us the life lessons she draws from Chess. We couldn't agree more.

Apaar Saxena is 7yrs old. When not juggling with his academics and school assignments in Oakridge International School, he spends time learning chess under Sameer Ghotane & Gahan Mg of Chess SaGa.

When Rishika spoke with us, we did melt like our Butter!!

Results of round two

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	WCM	Sharma Isha	2182	1	1 - 0	1		Abhinav Banerjee	1153	144
2	143		Avyaya Kumara Bhat	1155	1	0 - 1	1		Prachura P.P.	2130	2
3	145		Anoushka Bhatt	1152	1	0 - 1	1		Nambiar Vivek	2030	4
4	147		Advait Ratnakar Vibhute	1149	1	0 - 1	1		Parthasarathy R	1984	5
5	152		Ojaswi M R	1138	1	0 - 1	1		Varma Shabdhik	1947	6
6	7		Santoshkashyap Hg	1931	1	1 - 0	1	AFM	Guna Sushanth Kondisetti	1134	154
7	153		Sripathi Ramaswamy	1135	1	0 - 1	1		Likhit Chilukuri	1926	8
8	9		Rakshith Srinivasan	1899	1	1 - 0	1		Aarya Satish Chikodi	1132	155
9	10		Sharan Rao	1894	1	1 - 0	1		Basavana Gowda P T	1129	158
10	13		Manasa K.	1830	1	1 - 0	1	AFM	Yuvanesh A	1126	160

Results of round three

Bo.	No.	Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	72	Chinmay Kowshik	1402	2	0 - 1	2	WCM	Sharma Isha	2182	1
2	2	Prachura P.P.	2130	2	0 - 1	2		Prasiddhi Bhat	1397	74
3	4	Nambiar Vivek	2030	2	1 - 0	2		Krishna Ragavendran V	1363	80
4	5	Parthasarathy R	1984	2	1 - 0	2		Harshini A	1345	82
5	6	Varma Shabdhik	1947	2	1 - 0	2	WCM	Shriyana S Mallya	1333	84
6	73	Medhansh Rathi	1399	2	0 - 1	2		Santoshkashyap Hg	1931	7
7	8	Likhit Chilukuri	1926	2	1 - 0	2		Gagan B R	1332	86
8	75	Monosij Roy	1392	2	0 - 1	2		Rakshith Srinivasan	1899	9
9	77	Tanmay Srinath	1368	2	0 - 1	2		Sharan Rao	1894	10
10	79	Aaazad G Acharya	1364	2	0 - 1	2		Manasa K.	1830	13

Standings after round three

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	20		Keshav Kothari	U16			1775	3,0	0,0	4,0	6,0
	429		Sarthak Sharma	U08			0	3,0	0,0	4,0	6,0
3	7		Santoshkashyap Hg				1931	3,0	0,0	3,5	5,5
	36	AIM	Abhijit Chutia				1623	3,0	0,0	3,5	5,5
	41		Devi Das Suresh Pai				1615	3,0	0,0	3,5	5,5
	42		Thirunarayanan Sampath Kumar				1610	3,0	0,0	3,5	5,5
	50		Muralidhara G K				1528	3,0	0,0	3,5	5,5
8	1	WCM	Sharma Isha		w		2182	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	4		Nambiar Vivek				2030	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	5		Parthasarathy R				1984	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	14		Jagadish P	U16			1829	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	17	AIM	Kaushik G Iyer	U16			1788	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	29		Bachikar Girish				1698	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	31		Sanjay Sindhia Mh				1682	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	32		Vaibhav Kalpaka	U10			1675	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	33		Anand Vittal T R				1672	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	37		Aravinda B R				1622	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	40	AIM	Sushrutha Reddy				1617	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	43		Apoorv Kamble	U10			1600	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	45		Hariharan S Pillai				1568	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	54		Rishabh Kumara	U16			1499	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	56		Aryagopal				1485	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	58		Karthik S				1459	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	62		Abhishek I Ganiger				1448	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	70		Sanjana Raghunath	F16	w		1424	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	71	AFM	Ravindran R	S60			1419	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0
	74		Prasiddhi Bhat	F16	w		1397	3,0	0,0	3,0	5,0

Complete results and standings

About the author

Hinduja Reddy is a 24-year-old Chess Entrepreneur who lives in Bengaluru. She is a former National Women's B bronze medalist, chess writer, coach and co-founder of ChessMine events.

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