Dinesh Sharma wins Kandy Open 2016

by Sagar Shah - 31/10/2016

The Kandy Open in Sri Lanka is one of the most prestigious events in the country. The seventh edition was won by Indian International Master Dinesh Kumar Sharma. The event was completed two months ago. We report on it for two reasons: Sharma has sent us an annotated game and secondly we would like to let our friends in Sri Lanka know that the ChessBase India shop is now open for them and they can enjoy the subsdized prices.

The seventh edition of the Kandy Open 2016 was held from the 24th to the 31st of August 2016 at the National Institute of Co-operative Development [NICD] – Polgolla, KANDY (Sri Lanka). It was an extremely well received event and more than 640 players participated in it. The total prize fund was six lakh Sri Lankan rupees. The tournament was organized by current Sri Lankan National Champion Mr. Rajeendra Kalugampitiya.

Commercial credit was the main sponsor of the event

Indian IM Dinesh Kumar Sharma was the top seed of the event and dominated the tournament with 9.5 points in 10 rounds. He went back home with a winner's cheque of one Lakh Sri Lankan rupees (approximately 45,000 INR)

IM Dinesh Kumar Sharma with the winner's trophy

Dinesh sent us his favourite game of the tournament. It was his seventh round victory against Manoj Nilanga DeSilva. As Sharma rightly points out, "Playing against 1700 rated players is not an easy task nowadays. All are
having best chess softwares and they use many internet chess sites to prepare."

[Event "7th Kandy Open, Kandy SriLanka"]
[Site "Kandy"]
[Date "2016.08.28"]
[Round "7.1"]
[White "DeSilva D, Manoj Nilanga"]
[Black "Sharma, Dinesh Kumar"]
[Result "0-1"]
[ECO "D52"]
[WhiteElo "1736"]
[BlackElo "2298"]
[Annotator "Sharma,Dinesh Kumar"]
[PlyCount "80"]
[EventDate "2016.08.28"]
[EventType "swiss"]
[EventRounds "10"]
[EventCountry "SRI"]

{Playing against 1700 rated players is not an easy task nowadays. All are
having best chess softwares and they use many internet chess sites to prepare.
} 1. d4 d5 {Generally I play KID against d4 but some times its boring to play
the same opening daily. So i decided to play Semi-Slav.} 2. c4 e6 {if 2...c6
he can play exchange variation in slav defence} 3. Nc3 c6 4. Nf3 Nf6 5. Bg5
Nbd7 6. e3 Qa5 7. Nd2 Bb4 8. Qc2 O-O 9. Be2 c5 (9... e5 10. O-O exd4 11. Nb3
Qb6 12. exd4 dxc4 13. Bxc4 a5 14. a4 $11 {M Carlsen - G Kasparov, Reyjkavik
Rapid 2004}) 10. dxc5 (10. O-O cxd4 11. Nb3 Qd8 12. Nxd4 Bxc3 13. bxc3 dxc4 14.
Bxc4 Qc7 15. Bd3 b6 $11) 10... Qxc5 11. Bxf6 (11. a3 Bxc3 12. Qxc3 $4 d4 13.
exd4 Qxg5) 11... Nxf6 12. O-O dxc4 13. Nxc4 b5 $1 14. Nd2 Bd7 15. Rac1 Qb6 16.
Qb3 Ba5 17. Rfd1 Rfd8 18. Nde4 Nxe4 19. Nxe4 Be8 $11 20. Bf3 Rxd1+ ({if} 20...
h6 21. Nd6 {comes and I didn't want to exchange the B on e8.}) 21. Rxd1 Rd8 22.
h3 h6 23. a3 Qc7 $1 24. Rxd8 Qxd8 25. Qc2 b4 $1 26. axb4 Bxb4 $15 27. Qc4 a5 {
Now my opponent played very weak endgame so I won easily.} 28. Nc3 $2 Qd2 $1
29. Qe2 $2 Bxc3 30. bxc3 Qxc3 31. Qa6 Qc7 (31... a4 32. Qa8 Kf8 33. Qb8 a3 $19)
32. Qa8 Kf8 33. Bd1 Ke7 34. Qe4 Bd7 35. Qd4 Qd6 36. Qa1 Qb4 37. Kh2 f6 $1 38.
f3 a4 39. e4 a3 40. Qa2 Qd6+ (40... Qb2 41. Qc4 a2 42. Qc5+ Kf7 43. f4 a1=Q 44.
Bh5+ Kg8 45. Qe7 Qb8 $19) 0-1

Final Ranking after 10 Rounds

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	Rtg	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3
1	1	IM	Sharma Dinesh K.	IND	2298	9,5	0,0	65,5	59,5
2	6	CM	Thilakarathne G M H	SRI	2028	8,5	0,0	68,0	62,0
3	8	FM	Galappaththi Chinthaka Anurud	SRI	2002	8,5	0,0	65,0	60,0
4	2		Gotel Michael	PHI	2239	8,5	0,0	63,0	58,0
5	13		De Silva Osheen	SRI	1940	8,5	0,0	61,0	55,0
6	14	CM	Gunaratne Mojitha Sathsara	SRI	1927	8,5	0,0	59,0	53,5
7	9		Alahakoon Isuru	SRI	2000	8,0	0,0	67,5	61,0
8	17		Rathnayake M A A H	SRI	1889	8,0	0,0	66,0	60,5
9	7	FM	Piyumantha M Sasith Nipun	SRI	2004	8,0	0,0	62,5	58,0
10	20	WFM	Premanath Dinushki	SRI	1878	8,0	0,0	62,5	56,5

Complete standings

Did you know Dinesh Kumar Sharma's wife Mayuri Karunanayake is from Sri Lanka. For Dinesh Sri Lanka is a home away from home, and it would have been a sweet feeling to win this tournament in his wife's homeland.

The ChessBase India shop is now open for our friends in Sri Lanka. They can now enjoy the special prizes of ChessBase India shop which are nearly 60% cheaper than international Prizes.

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