Getting ready for the KIIT International chess festival

At the Mumbai airport! Amruta Mokal would be playing in the A category, while yours truly would be bringing you up to date reports! Not really happy with the fact that I am not playing as can be seen from my expression!

That's the easiest way to recognize that someone has come to pick up chess players at the airport!

Odisha tourism wishing you a happy Buddha Poornima at the Bhubaneshwar airport!
The Gujarati boys: Manush and Fenil Shah
The entrance of the Kalinga Institute of Industrial Technology (KIIT)
As soon as you enter the campus of KIIT you can feel a break from the polluted and noisy outsides and start enjoying the greenery within!
Yes, it's truly beautiful!
KIIT is one of the leading educational institutions in India
Accommodation provided is nothing exquisite, but has all the basic amenities
That's where the tournament will be played
The spacious and well lit tournament hall, that has been prepared for the opening ceremony
Wonderful paintings like this can be found on all the walls of the main playing hall
When you have nearly 1,000 players (in A+B+C category) it is always going to be an organizational challenge
Mohammad Fahad from Bangladesh with his father. The boy has become a regular participant of big tournaments happening all over India and that is surely grooming him into a strong player.
IM Shekhar Sahu (right) invites the legendary 84-year-old Nasir Ali Syed. From Nasir Ali's expression it is quite clear that he loves playing chess and being in a chess atmosphere.
Secretary of the Delhi Chess Association A.K. Verma chatting with Fenil Shah
Talent from Karnataka 10-year-old Pranav Anand with his grandmother
Perhaps one of the best chess sketch artist Chandreyee Hajra. I was able to convince her to make my sketch next! Here is one of her sketch:
India's super coach GM R.B. Ramesh
Home like food is made available to all the participants
Amonatov Farrukh is the top seed of the tournament. Diptayan Ghosh (right) is the second seed.

Starting rank top 50 seeds

No.     Name ID FideID FED Rtg sex Club/City
1   GM Amonatov Farrukh 0 14700077 TJK 2632   TJK
2   GM Ghosh Diptayan 0 5045207 IND 2569   WB
3   GM Tukhaev Adam 0 14109476 UKR 2557   UKR
4   GM Rahman Ziaur 0 10200037 BAN 2526   BAN
5   GM Mollah Abdullah Al Rakib 0 10200444 BAN 2503   BAN
6   GM Debashis Das 440 5024854 IND 2496   ODI
7   GM Deviatkin Andrei 0 4121260 RUS 2481   RUS
8   GM Nguyen Duc Hoa 0 12401358 VIE 2481   VIE
9   GM Grover Sahaj 0 5021103 IND 2478   DEL
10   GM Kotanjian Tigran 0 13301250 ARM 2471   ARM
11   IM Shyaamnikhil P 0 5024218 IND 2457   TN
12   GM Babujian Levon 0 13301993 ARM 2438   ARM
13   GM Neelotpal Das 0 5003512 IND 2438   WB
14   GM Reefat Bin-Sattar 0 10200207 BAN 2437   BAN
15   IM Khusenkhojaev Muhammad 0 14700247 TJK 2433   TJK
16   IM Nitin S. 0 5018277 IND 2426   TN
17   GM Murshed Niaz 0 10200010 BAN 2423   BAN
18   GM Laxman R.R. 0 5005361 IND 2417   TN
19   IM Raghunandan Kaumandur Srihari 0 25004964 IND 2410   KAR
20   IM Krishna Teja N 0 5001498 IND 2406   AP
21   IM Girish A. Koushik 0 5038448 IND 2401   KAR
22   IM Das Sayantan 0 5034426 IND 2396   WB
23     Sidhant Mohapatra 260 5028698 IND 2393   ODI
24   IM Iniyan P 0 25002767 IND 2392   TN
25   IM Krishna C R G 0 5018625 IND 2392   AP
26   IM Akash G 0 5040299 IND 2391   TN
27   IM Sardana Rishi 0 25004301 AUS 2390   AUS
28   IM Padmini Rout 625 5029295 IND 2380 w ODI
29   IM Rathnakaran K. 0 5005507 IND 2378   KER
30   IM Ravi Teja S. 0 5017220 IND 2369   AP
31   FM Rathanvel V S 0 25002112 IND 2361   TN
32   FM Andyka Pitra 0 7103255 INA 2358   INA
33     Navalgund Niranjan 0 5030854 IND 2351   TN
34     Saravana Krishnan P. 0 5018382 IND 2345   TN
35   FM Sai Krishna G V 0 5028280 IND 2339   AP
36   FM Thakur Akash 0 5008514 IND 2338   MAH
37   CM Erigaisi Arjun 0 35009192 IND 2338   TEL
38   GM Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi 0 5002974 IND 2326   WB
39     Arjun Kalyan 0 35018701 IND 2322   TN
40   FM Karthik Venkataraman 0 25006479 IND 2317   TN
41   IM Rajesh V A V 0 5029317 IND 2314   TN
42   IM Prasad Devaki V 0 5000050 IND 2312   IOCL
43     Raahul V S 0 25035525 IND 2311   TN
44     Aradhya Garg 0 25006746 IND 2304   DEL
45     Gaikwad Siddhant 0 25010239 IND 2295   MAH
46   GM Ziatdinov Raset 0 2015323 USA 2291   USA
47     Muthaiah Al 0 5092442 IND 2289   TN
48   CM Gukesh D 0 46616543 IND 2283   KAR
49     Akash Pc Iyer 0 5006775 IND 2282   TN
50     Kaustuv Kundu 0 5056900 IND 2274   WB

Full list of players can be seen here

 

First round of the A group will take place at 3 p.m. on 26th of May. The B and C category tournaments will be held simultaneously with the A group. The B event will be from 26th to 29th and the C from 30th of May to 2nd of June.

 

ChessBase India will bring you detailed coverage of this event. So stay tuned.

A very good way to prepare yourself for the event is to solve some light tactics. The tactics trainer in the ChessBase Account is a great tool to polish your tactical skills. Here is one of the positions that I solved today. White to play and win. Please leave your answers in the comments section below.