Rook and Roll - A Simul with GM Iniyan Pa

Their opponent? GM Panneerselvam Iniyan, the 61st Grandmaster of India and recently crowned National Rapid 2025 champion. Currently rated 2578 in classical, GM Iniyan has many laurels to his name. He became a Grandmaster at the age of 16, and notably won the Commonwealth Under-18 Open in 2019 with a perfect 7/7 score.

The simul and the side games

The preceding blitz tournament was a huge success as well. It was a 5-round swiss tournament with participants ranging from casual fans to really strong players. It was won by Krishna, a regular at BCC events with a perfect 5/5 score. Two others finished at 4.5, and ten others with 4 points.

Then started the simul. GM Iniyan started each board with a different opening, with e4, d4, c4 and Nf3 all on the board. There was no clock for the majority of the simul, but the moves were supposed to be made when GM Iniyan arrived at a board. If a player wasn't ready, they could ask him to pass and come back in the next round. For 15 players, that was plenty of time with the simul lasting nearly two hours.

On the other side was another challenge: to set up the chess board in as little time as possible. Players employed different interesting strategies, one of which was setting up a random position from Chess960 or Freestyle Chess to gain time! That wasn't counted.

For the rest of the fans, who preferred to view the games or for the general public in the mall, the gaps in between the commentary on games were filled by an interesting chess trivia quiz. People circled around on the first floor railing, answering the questions asked. BCC did a fantastic job in managing the spectators and making sure they don't lose interest too soon, along with walking everyone through the games.

We had the players and GM Iniyan giving their thoughts on the games as they progressed. While some of them were confident in giving a fight, others treated it as a learning experience. The top three boards also opted for sheets to write their moves; you could tell they were serious!

Some spectators predicted at least one draw, but GM Iniyan swept the field with +15=0-0 (15 wins, no draws or losses). Players went from trying to gain an advantage to trying to hold a draw, eventually losing their games one by one.

There were some drawing chances for some boards, but with such precise calculation needed in chess, it wasn't practically possible.

Towards the end, with only the top three boards still in contention, a clock was introduced to make things spicy. But GM Iniyan seemed confident throughout and didn't break a sweat as he clinically finished the games one by one.

After the games were done, he took the time to talk to the players about their games, providing valuable insights to those looking to improve their game further.

When asked about the chess culture in Bangalore, he recalled a time when there were hardly any GM tournaments happening here and accredited BCC events for organically growing interest in the game.

His point is highlighted even more with the recent conclusion of the 2nd Namma Bengaluru International GM 2025, a prestigious and very large-scale open tournament.

Earlier events and About BCC

Being at the center of the mall, the event attracted quite a bit of attention with people registering for it on the spot.

But the number of participants isn't something new to BCC. They regularly host such tournaments and other fun events every weekend and have cultivated a really fun and inclusive community of chess enthusiasts in Bangalore.

Earlier editions of Rook and Roll had GM Thej Kumar - Karnataka’s first GM, and IM Rakesh Kulkarni - the Director of Chess.com India join them. With the 3rd edition now wrapped up with GM P. Iniyan, it's incredible to note the impact of BCC on all the chess fans across Bangalore. Having such a large community of players, with events every week was something I personally only dreamed of. They are a passionate group of people who continually come up with new events and various initiatives to promote chess further (like Check-in Chess)

Sponsors and Garuda Mall

This event was made possible with the help of Merwans, a well-known bakery and confectionery with shops across Mumbai, Pune and Bangalore.

A big thanks to Garuda Mall as well for partnering with BCC once again for Rook and Roll. With the playing hall at the heart of the mall, we attracted a lot of interest from onlookers and other chess enthusiasts. Many of those joined us in the fun games that were planned at the side.

Links

Bangalore Chess Club - Official site, instagram, facebook, twitter, lichess and Telegram

About the Author

Sharanya has been passionate about the game of chess ever since he was a kid. Nowadays, it also serves him as an escape from all the dullness of his tech day job. Unlike his other hobbies, he tries to keep a left-brained approach to chess because getting too creative with it costs him rating points.

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