Double delight for Neelash Saha at LBHM Chess Festival 9th Rapid Rating Open 2023
IM Neelash Saha scored an unbeaten 8.5/9 to win Late Bharatbai Halkude Memorial Chess Festival 9th Rapid Rating Open 2023. He finished a half point ahead of the field. This is his second consecutive rating tournament in as many days. GM Sayantan Das, CM Soham Datar and Shriraj Bhosale scored 8/9 each. They were placed second to fourth respectively. Neelash drew against Sayantan in the penultimate round. Both of them remained undefeated. Soham missed the first round. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹200000. The top three prizes were ₹25001, ₹15000 and ₹10000 along with a trophy each. This was Neelash's third rating tournament triumph overall in 2023. Photo: IA R Anantharam
Neelash clinches two rating tournaments in two consecutive days
International Master Neelash Saha of South-Eastern Railways won two titles in a space of two days, a rare feat, at the LBHM Chess Festival organized by Aryans Enterprises, Pune at the Dhruv Global School. He was the outright winner with 8.5 points, conceding only one draw to his Kolkata mate GM Sayantan Das.
Sayantan, CM Soham Datar and Shriraj Bhosale both of Maharashtra scored eight points and secured the second to fourth places in that order.
The dramatic fifth round saw the debacle of a grandmaster and three international masters – third seeded IM Aditya S Samant to Viresh Sharnarthi of the same state and seventh seeded IM Ratnakaran K of Southern Railway to Atharva Madkar of Maharashtra and IM Charkravarthy Reddy of Telangana to S Rutherford of Tamil Nadu. GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury suffered his second loss of the tournament in four rounds, as he lost to Siddhant Saluke of Maharashtra.
Similar to the open tournament, IM Neelash Saha emerged sole leader at the end of the seventh round with seven victories, by beating R Sailesh of Tamil Nadu. The other joint leader GM Sayantan Das had to be satisfied with a draw against Nithin Babu of Kerala.
Nithin Babu continued his good run in the tournament by beating the fifth seeded IM Kushagra Mohan to share the lead after the eighth round, with IM Neelash (7.5 points each), who drew with GM Sayantan on the top board. Before entering the final round, seven players had seven points each to their credit.
Neelash did not show any mercy and defeated Nithin in the final round to clinch the second title in two days, with 8.5 points. Sayantan Das defeated S Mohit of Tamil Nadu, Soham Datar defeated Sourabh Mhamane of Maharashtra and Shriraj Bhosale of Maharashtra got the better of S Gokulakrishna of Tamil Nadu.
A total of 512 players including 2 GMs and 6 IMs participated from various parts of the country, one from Singapore and two from USA. The one-day nine-round Swiss league Rapid Rating tournament was held on 18th May 2023. It was organized by Aryan Enterprises Pvt. Ltd. at Dhruv Global School, Handewadi, Undri in Pune, Maharashtra. The time control of the tournament was 10 minutes + 5 seconds increment from move no.1.
Final standings
| Rk. | SNo | Name | Typ | sex | FED | Rtg | Club/City | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | TB4 | TB5 | ||
| 1 | 4 | IM | Neelash, Saha | IND | 2328 | WB | 8,5 | 52,5 | 57 | 53,00 | 0 | 8 | |||
| 2 | 1 | GM | Das, Sayantan | IND | 2413 | WB | 8 | 52,5 | 57 | 48,50 | 0 | 7 | |||
| 3 | 11 | CM | Soham, Datar | IND | 2102 | MH | 8 | 50 | 52 | 47,00 | 0 | 8 | |||
| 4 | 15 | Bhosale, Shriraj | IND | 1948 | MH | 8 | 46,5 | 50 | 44,50 | 0 | 8 | ||||
| 5 | 13 | Nithin, Babu | IND | 1977 | KL | 7,5 | 55,5 | 60 | 47,50 | 0 | 7 | ||||
| 6 | 5 | IM | Kushagra, Mohan | IND | 2308 | TG | 7,5 | 53,5 | 58 | 47,25 | 0 | 7 | |||
| 7 | 62 | Singla, Aaryan | IND | 1496 | MH | 7,5 | 52 | 56,5 | 46,00 | 0 | 6 | ||||
| 8 | 3 | IM | Samant, Aditya S | IND | 2367 | MH | 7,5 | 51,5 | 56 | 46,00 | 0 | 7 | |||
| 9 | 34 | AGM | Rutherford, S | IND | 1617 | TN | 7,5 | 51 | 55 | 44,25 | 0 | 7 | |||
| 10 | 22 | Ankur, Mahesh Gokhale | IND | 1800 | MH | 7,5 | 50,5 | 55,5 | 44,75 | 0 | 7 | ||||
| 11 | 9 | FM | Thakur, Akash | IND | 2135 | MH | 7,5 | 47,5 | 52,5 | 42,25 | 0 | 7 | |||
| 12 | 7 | IM | Ratnakaran, K. | IND | 2226 | SRLY | 7,5 | 47 | 51,5 | 41,75 | 0 | 7 | |||
| 13 | 25 | Mhamane, Sourabh | IND | 1736 | MH | 7 | 53 | 58 | 42,00 | 0 | 7 | ||||
| 14 | 19 | Sailesh, R | IND | 1818 | TN | 7 | 51,5 | 56,5 | 41,50 | 0 | 7 | ||||
| 15 | 42 | Gokulakrishna, S | IND | 1570 | TN | 7 | 51 | 54,5 | 38,50 | 0 | 7 | ||||
| 16 | 10 | IM | Chakravarthi Reddy, M | IND | 2125 | TG | 7 | 48,5 | 53 | 39,75 | 0 | 6 | |||
| 17 | 120 | Bhanushali, Kunj | IND | 1335 | MH | 7 | 48,5 | 53 | 37,50 | 0 | 7 | ||||
| 18 | 36 | Gaikwad, Manas | U13 | IND | 1601 | MH | 7 | 48,5 | 52 | 37,75 | 0 | 6 | |||
| 19 | 30 | Om, Nagnath Lamkane | IND | 1680 | MH | 7 | 48 | 52,5 | 39,00 | 0 | 7 | ||||
| 20 | 26 | Jai, Sankar Subramanian | IND | 1734 | TN | 7 | 48 | 52 | 38,00 | 0 | 7 | ||||
| 21 | 39 | AFM | Mohit, S | U13 | IND | 1583 | TN | 7 | 48 | 51 | 37,75 | 0 | 6 | ||
| 22 | 65 | Vikramaditya, Abhijit Chavan | U13 | IND | 1489 | MH | 7 | 47 | 51 | 36,50 | 0 | 7 | |||
| 23 | 54 | Soham, Roy | U13 | IND | 1516 | WB | 7 | 46 | 50 | 38,00 | 0 | 7 | |||
| 24 | 16 | Sudarshan, Malga | IND | 1869 | MP | 7 | 45,5 | 50 | 37,50 | 0 | 7 | ||||
| 25 | 82 | Shreya, G Hipparagi | U13 | w | IND | 1444 | MH | 7 | 45,5 | 49,5 | 38,00 | 0 | 7 | ||
| 26 | 2 | GM | Roy Chowdhury, Saptarshi | IND | 2379 | RLY | 7 | 45,5 | 49,5 | 37,50 | 0 | 7 | |||
| 27 | 17 | AGM | Kiran, Panditrao | S55 | IND | 1848 | MH | 7 | 45 | 48,5 | 38,00 | 0 | 7 | ||
| 28 | 38 | Raihaan, Zahid | U13 | IND | 1584 | TG | 7 | 44 | 48,5 | 34,50 | 0 | 7 | |||
| 29 | 6 | IM | Kulkarni, Vikramaditya | IND | 2240 | MH | 7 | 44 | 48 | 36,00 | 0 | 7 | |||
| 30 | 90 | Druvesh, Dondapati | IND | 1409 | AP | 7 | 44 | 47,5 | 36,50 | 0 | 6 |
About the Author
Prof. Rathinam Anantharam is an A-grade international arbiter. Member of FIDE Arbiters’ Commission, Chairman of Titles Commission in All India Chess Federation, Vice President of Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, Chief Arbiter for six world championships, many Asian, International and National Championships.
The report was edited by Shahid Ahmed
