Rahul Sangma wins in Jaipur

by Rishi Kaushik - 23/08/2018

The MNM – CPA “Jaipur Cup” Open FIDE Rated International Chess Tournament was jointly hosted by the Chess Parents Association and Shri Maheshwari Navyuvak Mandal in the beautiful air conditioned hall “Uthsav” from 9th to 11th August 2018. The six round Swiss format attracted more than 450 players and IM Rahul Sangma clinched the title with a perfect score of 6.0/6 points! We have an excellent instructive game annotated by the winner Rahul Sangma, which will help you understand the nuances of positional play in the English/Reti setup. AGM Rishi Kaushik send us a detailed report of the event.

The beautiful Jaipur Cup made up of the Indian Rosewood! | Photo: Rishi Kaushik

Shri Maheswari Navyuvak Mandal is a group of young generation of Maheshwari Samaj working to promote sports along with Chess Parents Association, Rajasthan (CPA). The group merged together to organize this 3-day event in a beautiful venue "Uthsav". 210 players out of the total 450 were rated and the top three seeds were IM Rahul Sangma of Railways, Surender Kumar Sharma of Delhi and local hero Arif Mohammed of Rajasthan. The prize money of the event was Rs.3 lakhs and additionally there were beautiful 47 trophies hand-made of Indian Rosewood manufactured by OJ Collections Jaipur. All 462 players and guests were also given mementos made up of Indian Rosewood. The Chief Arbiter of the event was IA Rathinam Anantharam.

Starting Rank

No.		Name	ID	FideID	FED	RtgI	sex	Typ	Gr	Club/City
1	IM	Sangma Rahul	539842015	5013615	IND	2290				Rlys
2		Surender Kumar Sharma	967792018	5000866	IND	2240		S60		DEL
3		Arif Mohammed	1012312018	5003202	IND	2176				RAJ
4		Prakash Ram	887172017	5014530	IND	2154				PUN
5		Santu Mondal	400812017	5025354	IND	2141				DEL
6		Vikas Sharma	586892014	5005990	IND	2102				PUN
7		Amit Kumar Dad	999912018	5008948	IND	2084				RAJ
8		Ahmad Junaid	1010972018	5012821	IND	2060				UP
9		Girish Chandra Gupta	548852014	5031206	IND	1952				DEL
10		Rishabh Nishad	487522013	46648534	IND	1952				UP

Going into the last round 7 players were sharing the lead together with 5.0/5 points but after the last round it was IM Rahul Sangma who emerged as the winner with better tie-break score than Sarbojit Paul of West Bengal who also scored 6.0/6 points to take the 1st runners up position and also shared the first prize money of Rs 51000/- (There was a rule that the cash prizes would be shared if more than one player was on same position in the final standings) Five players shared the prizes from 3rd to 5th places.

Here is the 4th round game of Rahul Sangma, annotated by him:

Rahul Sangma - Sanchit Anand

Black has just taken the bishop on c4. What would you do here as White?

Top three winners: Rahul Sangma (standing centre with trophy), Sarbojit Paul (standing right with trophy) and Santu Mandal (standing left with trophy) | Photo: Rishi Kaushik

Final Ranking after 6 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	1	IM	Sangma Rahul				IND	2290	Rlys	6,0	0,0	23,5	26,5	26,50	6	6	6	5,34	0,66	10	6,6
2	15		Sarbojit Paul				IND	1880	WB	6,0	0,0	22,5	26,5	27,00	6	5	5	3,56	1,44	20	28,8
3	5		Santu Mondal				IND	2141	DEL	5,5	0,0	22,0	24,5	21,75	5	5	4,5	4,55	-0,05	20	-1,0
4	3		Arif Mohammed				IND	2176	RAJ	5,5	0,0	21,5	24,5	22,25	5	5	4,5	4,60	-0,10	20	-2,0
	24		Yatin Kumar				IND	1771	DEL	5,5	0,0	21,5	24,5	22,25	5	5	4,5	3,12	1,38	20	27,6
6	31		Falgun D Purohit				IND	1695	GUJ	5,5	0,0	21,0	23,5	21,50	5	5	4,5	2,46	2,04	20	40,8
7	27		Puneet Manchanda				IND	1735	HAR	5,5	0,0	19,0	21,0	19,50	5	5	4,5	4,47	0,03	20	0,6
8	6		Vikas Sharma				IND	2102	PUN	5,0	0,0	23,0	25,5	17,50	5	5	4	3,90	0,10	20	2,0
9	43		Raghuveer Singh	S60			IND	1626	RAJ	5,0	0,0	23,0	25,0	19,50	5	5	4	2,74	1,26	20	25,2
10	4		Prakash Ram				IND	2154	PUN	5,0	0,0	22,5	24,5	19,00	5	4	3	3,59	-0,59	20	-11,8

Can you imagine the relief it gives a mother when her child amuses herself quietly for hours on end? - Klara Polgar | Photo: Rishi Kaushik

Every girl is posing for this super shot in perfect harmony but someone is busy calculating all the possibilities of white first move! | Photo: Rishi Kaushik

The beautiful hand-made trophies made of the Indian Rosewood! | Photo: Rishi Kaushik

Earlier Shri. Ashok Lahoti, Mayor of Jaipur City inaugurated the tournament in the presence of Shri. Satyanarayan Kabra, President Maheshwari Samaj Jaipur.

Mayor of Jaipur, Shri. Ashok Lahoti inaugurating the event by ringing the Ghanta! | Photo: Rishi Kaushik

Left to right: Sunil Bangad (Convener MNM Jaipur), Amit Gupta (Organising Secretary of the event) and Rishi Kaushik | Photo: Rishi Kaushik

Smt. Shipra Sharma, Director, Quantam Career Academy, Jaipur and Sh. Yogendra Durlabh Ji, Secretary Sankokba Durlabh Ji Trust were the chief guests along with Shri. Ajay Ajmera and Sri. Ashok Bhargava President and Secretary, All Rajputna Chess Association, respectively, Pushpendra Choudhary, President Chess Parents Association for the prize distribution function.

About the Author

AGM Rishi Kaushik is a chess enthusiast, a chess player with a rating of 2008 who loves to actively contribute in chess related activities. He is also a Geospatial Technology Consultant with Tata Consultancy Services.