GM Sriram Jha wins it big in Jaipur

by Sagar Shah - 12/02/2018

A big tournament was held in Jaipur in the memory of Ankit and Sakshi Bhargava from the 29th of January to 2nd of February 2018. Four grandmasters - Himanshu Sharma, Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury, Pravin Thipsay and Sriram Jha, and three IMs Sayantan Das, Suvrajit Saha and Dinesh Kumar Sharma took part. The event was closely contested and three players finished with the same score of 8.0/9. It is GM Sriram Jha who won the event with a superior tiebreak and took home the top prize of Rs.80,000/-. We have a report with pictures, game analysis and information of all the prize winners sent to us by Rishi Kaushik.

The 1st Ankit Sakshi Memorial Open FIDE Rated Chess Tournament was held at Maharishi Bhrigu Sadan, Jaipur from 29 Jan to 02 Feb 2018. A total number of 420 players which includes four grandmasters, three International Masters and 262 International rated players from different parts of the country participated in the event which was spread over five days with a time control of 90 minutes and 30 seconds increment from move 1.

The total prize fund of the event was Rs. 5,00,000. The tournament was played under Swiss System with nine rounds and had Grandmaster Himanshu Sharma of Railways as the top seed. The event progressed on expected lines as seeded players registered comfortable victories in the earlier part of the event. Hard fought battles ensured a thrilling end as three players tied for the pole position with eight points. With better tie-break score, grandmaster Sriram Jha of LIC emerged as the champion to pocket a cash prize of Rs. 81,000/- along with the winner’s trophy while Grandmaster Saptarshi Roy Chowdhary of Railways finished as the first runner-up. International Master Sayantan Das of West Bengal third.

Main Prizes
Rank	Title	Name	Rating	Club	Pts	Prize Money
1	GM	Sriram Jha	2393	LIC	8	81000 + Trophy
2	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi	2318	WB	8	51000 + Trophy
3	IM	Das Sayantan	2432	WB	8	25000 + Trophy
4	GM	Thipsay Praveen M	2417	MAH	7½	15,000
5	IM	Suvrajit Saha	2228	WB	7½	10,000
6	IM	Sharma Dinesh K.	2238	LIC	7½	9,000
7		Sher Singh	1906	RAJ	7½	7,000
8		Rathore Sonakshi	1782	RAJJAI	7½	7,000
9		Prakash Ram	2238	PUN	7	6,000
10		Vinay Raj Bhatt	2031	UTT	7	6,000
11		Sinha Santosh Kumar	1962	GUJ	7	5,000
12		Punit Indora	1905	HAR	7	5,000
13		Kant Rupesh	2037	MP	7	5,000
14		Dubey Sanchay	1875	UP	7	5,000
15	GM	Himanshu Sharma	2470	HAR	7	5,000
16		Rathore S.K.	2145	MP	7	4,000
17	AFM	Choubey Saurabh	1774	MP	7	4,000
18		Puneet Manchanda	1708	HAR	7	4,000
19		Sharma Rajjan	2095	MP	6½	4,000
20		Shubham	1915	DEL	6½	4,000
21		Sumit Grover	1922	J&K	6½	3,000
22		Deepak Katiyar	2162	UP	6½	3,000
23		Joshi Manish	2030	MP	6½	3,000
24		Saumil Nair	1805	GUJ	6½	3,000
25		Rawat R.S.	1779	UTT	6½	3,000
26		Gajendra Singh	1951	UP	6½	3,000
27		Sharma Suyash	1681	MP	6½	3,000
28		Bhupendra Kumar	1721	BIH	6½	3,000
29		Trivedi Karan R	1880	GUJ	6½	3,000
30		Alok Mishra	1964	UP	6½	3,000

Chess-results link

GM Sriram Jha receiving the winner's trophy and a cheque of Rs.80.000/-

GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury finished second and took home Rs.51,000/-

IM Sayantan Das finished third and was awarded Rs.25,000/-

Here is a nice victory by GM Sriram Jha against IM Suvrajit Saha. Just have a look at how a small edge in the opening was milked by Sriram and brought to its logical conclusion through powerful moves.

In the last round Sriram Jha had to work hard for the full point but he did so with some excellent technique in the opposite coloured bishop endgame. We are not sure if the position is a 100% win for Black and there is also a variation we analyzed which gives White ideas on how to defend, but this is something that we recommend the reader to dig deeper into.

In the rating category of Below 1600, Rituraj Singh of Uttar Pradesh secured first prize while in Below 1200 category, Avinash Srivastava of LIC finished first. Siddhali Shetye of Maharashtra was adjudged as best female player while Gautam Jangid of Rajasthan became the best among unrated players. Harshit Arya of Haryana, Shah Moxit J of Gujarat, Harshit Pawar of Delhi, Aditya Maderana of Rajasthan finished best among Under-15, Under-13, Under- 11 and Under-9 age categories respectively. Kapil Dadhich and Raghav Bagri finished as the best Rajasthan player and Best Jaipur player respectively. The veteran prize bagged by season campaigner Kantilal Dave of Rajasthan and Rudradaman Mertia was the youngest player of the event. In a colourful closing ceremony, Shri. Rajendra Singh Rathore, Hon’ble Minister of Rajasthan gave away the cash prizes and trophies to the winners along with Shri. Ajay Ajmera, President ARCA and Shri. Ashok Bhargava, Secretary ARCA.

Rating Under 1600
Rank	Title	Name	Rating	Club	Pts	Prize Money
1		Rituraj Singh	1286	UP	7	15000 + Trophy
2		Suthar Pradip	1453	MAH	6½	10000 + Trophy
3		Arnav Kushwaha	1379	CHAN	6½	8000 + Trophy
4		Bhoopnath	1534	BIH	6½	6,000
5		Yadav Narayan	1562	UP	6½	5,000
6		Patil Ketan Anil	1594	MAH	6	4,000
7		Sankit Swami	1521	HAR	6	3,000
8		Bhatt Pradip P.	1592	GUJ	6	3,000
9		Vraj N Shah	1548	GUJ	6	2,500
10		Raj Prakhar	1599	HAR	6	2,500

Rating Under 1200
Rank	Title	Name	Rating	Club	Pts	Prize Money
1		Avinash Ch. Srivastava	0	LIC	6	13000 + Trophy
2		Sandeep	0	DEL	6	9000 + Trophy
3		Sunil Vyas	1014	RAJJAI	5	7000 + Trophy
4		Shubham Saini	1129	CHAN	5	5,000
5		Yashika Singh	1164	RAJJAI	5	4,000
6		Shrawan Jaiswal	1189	RAJJAI	5	3,000
7		Akshat Rawat	1104	RAJ	5	2,500
8		Garg Shivam	1179	RAJJAI	5	2,500
9		Hemant Raikwar	1177	MP	5	2,500
10		Mahi Shrivastava	1070	DEL	5	2,500

Unrated Players
Rank	Title	Name	Rating	Club	Pts	Prize Money
1		Gautam Jagid	0	RAJJAI	5	9000 + Trophy
2		Kunj Bihari Sharma	0	RAJJAI	5	7000 + Trophy
3		Sharma Kuldeep	0	RAJ	5	5000 + Trophy
4		Abhisheak Dutt Chandra	0	MP	5	3,000
5		Mohit Joshi	0	RAJ	5	2,500

Best Rating Increment
Rank	Title	Name	Rating	Club	Pts	Prize Money
1		Chetan Sharma	1550	UTT	6	4000 + Trophy
2		Manoj Kumar Singh	1231	DEL	5½	2500 + Trophy

Best Veteran (60+)
Rank	Title	Name	Rating	Club	Pts	Prize Money
1		Dave Kantilal	1861	RAJ	6½	4000 + Trophy
2		Gupta R K	1594	RAJ	5½	2500 + Trophy

Best Lady Participant
Rank	Title	Name	Rating	Club	Pts	Prize Money
1		Shetye Siddhali	1927	MAH	7	4000 + Trophy
2		Shreetu Bhavikbhai Nandi	1454	GUJ	5½	2500 + Trophy

Best Under 15 (Ist and 2nd Boys, 3rd Girl)
Rank	Title	Name	Rating	Club	Pts	Prize Money
1		Harshit Arya	1692	HAR	6½	4000 + Trophy
2		Joy Pankaj Shah	1905	GUJ	6½	3000 + Trophy
3		Kritika Pal	1553	DEL	5½	2000 + Trophy

Best Under 13 (Ist and 2nd Boys, 3rd Girl)
Rank	Title	Name	Rating	Club	Pts	Prize Money
1		Shah Moxit J	1450	GUJ	6	4000 + Trophy
2		Chauhan Narayan	1507	UP	6	3000 + Trophy
3		Yashasvi Gupta	1256	RAJJAI	5	2000 + Trophy

Best Under 11 (Ist and 2nd Boys, 3rd Girl)
Rank	Title	Name	Rating	Club	Pts	Prize Money
1	AFM	Pawar Harshit	1612	DEL	6	4000 + Trophy
2		Arora Honi	1530	RAJJAI	5½	3000 + Trophy
3		Riddhika Kotia	1142	HAR	5	2000 + Trophy

Best Under 9 (Ist and 2nd Boys, 3rd Girl)
Rank	Title	Name	Rating	Club	Pts	Prize Money
1		Aditya Maderana	1039	RAJ	4½	4000 + Trophy
2		Divyansh Pandey	1136	UP	4	3000 + Trophy
3		Shivika Saraogi	0	RAJJAI	4½	2000 + Trophy

Best Rajastan Player
Rank	Title	Name	Rating	Club	Pts	Prize Money
1		Kapil Dadhich	1646	RAJJAI	6½	4000 + Trophy
2	AGM	Chandrajeet Singh Rajawat	1821	RAJ	6½	2500 + Trophy

Best Jaipur Player
Rank	Title	Name	Rating	Club	Pts	Prize Money
1		Raghav Bagri	1672	RAJJAI	6½	4000 + Trophy
2		Saxena Arpit	1705	RAJJAI	6	2500 + Trophy

Best Youngest Player
Rank	Title	Name	Rating	Club	Pts	Prize Money
1		Rudradaman Mertia		RAJ		2000 + Trophy
2		Shourya Veer Saxena		RAJ		1500 + Trophy

The most important people involved in the organization of the event: Sunil Bhargava, Ashok Bhargava (Tournament Director), Rishi Kaushik, Chief Arbiter IA Gopa Kumar, Dr K L Batra

Interactive session by GM Pravin Thipsay:

After the tournament came to an end there was an interactive training session with GM Pravin Thipsay where he spoke to children about different topics.

It is always a wonderful experience for the youngsters of the game to gain knowledge from a legend like Pravin Thipsay

Students of various ages had gathered together

A group picture after the camp ended

Below is the lecture of Pravin Thipsay given in Bihar towards the end of 2017 which gives you an idea about what genuine and knowledgeable teacher he really is.

About Ankit and Sakshi Bhargava Smriti Sansthan:

Ankit and Sakshi Bhargava in whose memory the tournament was held

The Ankit Sakshi Bhargava Smriti Sansthan was established by Shri Sunil Bhargava and Smt Asha Bhargava in April 2012 in memory of his daughter and son, Sakshi Bhargava, who passed away on 7 Jan 2008 and Ankit Bhargava on 24 Oct 2011. Ankit was BTech (Computer Engineering) and Sakshi was pursuing BTech 4th Semester in Computer Engineering. They both died in an accident and their parents being chess enthusiasts organising a chess tournament every year since Oct 2008 in their memory. This was the first time the tournament conducted as a rating event.

About the author:

Rishi Kaushik is a passionate chess player (FIDE rating 2008), organizer and lover of the game. He dabbles in every facet of the game which helps to promote chess in the country. He works a Geospatial consultant at Tata Consultancy services!

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