Vikramaditya Kulkarni wins SBI rating event
The SBI All Maharashtra rating tournament was held from 18th-22nd November in Mumbai. The tournament held by Praful Zaveri and Indian Chess School was won by the strong IM from Mumbai Vikramaditya Kulkarni. We have some very nice pictures from the venue as well as some game analysis.
The first grandmaster that emerged from Mumbai was GM Pravin Thipsay in the year 1997. It's been 18 years and the city is still searching for its next GM. One of the main reasons for this is the lack of good rating tournaments available to the players of Mumbai. Rapid events are being held all the time, however, quality long time control games are a rarity. With a view to change the chess scenario in the financial capital of India, Praful Zaveri and the Indian Chess School organized an all Maharashtra rating tournament from the 18th to the 22nd of November 2015.
The time control of this ten round event was one hour thirty minutes with an addition of thirty minutes after forty moves and an increment of thirty seconds from move one. With this time control, games could last almost five hours, and having two rounds a day meant hard work for the players.
Vikramaditya from Western Railways justified his billing by winning the event with 9.0/10. For a player of his calibre this was an expected performance. In 2012 March, the Mumbai International Master had an Elo of 2465.
In his last round encounter, he defeated Vedant Panesar to remain unbeaten and win the championship comfortably in a field of 310 players. He became richer by Rs.25,000/- and was awarded the B.M. Zaveri Memorial Trophy.
The 2nd place was clinched by Chirag Satkar, who defeated Rajesh Gupta in an all-important last round encounter. Chirag also remained unbeaten throughout with a score of 8.5/10. He was awarded Rs.20,000/-
Ketan Boricha from Mumbai also scored identical points as of Chirag Satkar however, his inferior tie-break pushed to the 3rd place and was awarded Rs.15,000/-
Board one clash between Ketan Boricha (right) and Vikramaditya Kulkarni in progress as Chirag Satkar kibitzes. Ketan who has recently formed the Mumbai Parent's Chess Association is doing some important work in the city.
[Site "?"]
[Date "2015.11.22"]
[Round "9"]
[White "Kulkarni, Vikramaditya"]
[Black "Gupta, Rajesh"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "E90"]
[WhiteElo "2303"]
[BlackElo "1685"]
[Annotator "Rajesh Gupta"]
[PlyCount "185"]
[SourceDate "2015.11.30"]
{I was very confident against him as whenever we played before we played tough
games. I just prepared for 20 minutes for this game and it worked too.} 1. d4
Nf6 2. Nf3 g6 3. c4 Bg7 4. Nc3 O-O 5. e4 d6 6. h3 e5 7. d5 Na6 8. Bg5 Qe8 {
I remember long time before we playd the same variation and the main line here
is g4 but here he deviates and I expected it.} 9. Nd2 Nc5 {I give invitation
to him to directly go for b4.} 10. g4 a5 11. Rg1 Bd7 12. h4 a4 {There is no
problem on the kingside, so I have to counter from the other side.} 13. h5 Qc8
{Forcing Be2 so that the white queen will have to find some square other than
f3, which is best in this line.} 14. h6 Bh8 15. Be2 {f3 would have closed
everything and i was happy with that.} c6 {It was a tough decision for me-
either open some files or wait for some time as his king is still in centre.
From his body language it seemed as if the king will be in the centre for the
rest of the game and hence I decided to open few files for an attack.} 16. Rg3
cxd5 17. Nxd5 Nxd5 18. cxd5 f6 19. Be3 b6 $5 {Inviting Nc4 whch can be handle
but defusing dangerous Rc1 for sometime.} 20. b3 axb3 21. axb3 Rxa1 22. Qxa1
Qb7 23. Bxc5 $6 bxc5 24. Qa6 Qxa6 25. Bxa6 {This is an equal position but I
have to watch out for some tricks. My bishop on h8 is passive but I was going
to bring it soon in the game.} Kf7 $1 {Endgame should be played with the king.
Going to support d6 pawn and trying to free my bishop.} 26. Nc4 Ke7 27. Bb7 f5
$1 {He looked surprised but i had calculated this before exchanging my queen.}
28. g5 fxe4 29. Na5 Rf3 30. Bc6 Bc8 31. Nc4 {I just wanted to exchange his
knight whenever I could.} Ba6 32. Ne3 Rf8 33. Nc2 Rb8 {I thought about Bd3 but
did not play it because I wantd my bishop to control both wings c8-h3 and c8-a6
} 34. Rc3 Rf8 35. Ne3 Rb8 36. Ba4 Rb4 $5 37. Nc4 Bxc4 {Finally I got to
exchange it.} 38. Rxc4 Rxc4 39. bxc4 e3 $1 40. f3 {I knew this was a drw but
have to take care for some tricks.} e4 $1 41. f4 Bc3+ 42. Ke2 Bd4 {I can give
up both the pawns but wantd to test him also as he cannot leave this e3 pawn
alone as only 2 moves would be needed to promote the pawn. So one of pieces,
bishop or the king would remained tied up.} 43. Bc2 Kf8 44. Bxe4 Ke7 45. Bf3
Kf8 46. Bg4 Kg8 $1 47. Be6+ Kh8 $1 {Have you spotted the stalemate pattern? If
not then you are in for some surprise!} 48. Bc8 Kg8 49. Bd7 Kh8 50. Bg4 Kg8 51.
Kd3 Kh8 52. Bd7 Kg8 53. Ke2 Kh8 54. Bh3 Kg8 55. Bc8 Kh8 56. Bd7 Kg8 57. Be8 Kh8
58. Bf7 Bb2 59. Be8 Bd4 60. Ba4 Kg8 61. Kf3 Kh8 62. Bd1 Kg8 63. Ke4 Kh8 64. Be2
Kg8 65. Kd3 Kf8 66. Kc2 Ke7 67. Kb3 Kf8 68. Kc2 Kg8 69. Kd3 Kh8 70. Bf1 Kg8 71.
Bh3 Kh8 72. Bc8 Kg8 73. Ke2 Kh8 74. Bh3 Kg8 75. Be6+ Kh8 76. Bg4 Kg8 77. Bd7
Kh8 78. Be8 Kg8 79. Kf3 Kh8 80. Bf7 {Now I got what I wanted.} e2 $3 81. Kxe2
Be3 82. Bxg6 (82. Kxe3 {And it's stalemate!}) 82... Bxf4 83. Kf3 Bxg5 84. Kg4
Bxh6 {White is a pawn up but there is no use of it in this opposite coloured
bishop endgame.} 85. Kh5 Bf4 86. Bf5 Kg7 87. Be6 h6 88. Bd7 Kf6 89. Bb5 Ke5 90.
Ba6 Kd4 91. Bb5 Kc3 92. Ba6 Kb4 93. Bb5 {Draw agreed.} 1/2-1/2
Eight-year-old Raahil Mullick was one of the biggest rating gainers in the event, scoring 7.5/10 and winning 118 Elo points!
Sangita Jadhav from LIC was declared as the best women player of the tournament. A total cash prize of Rs.1.50 Lakhs and 32 medals were awarded to the winners by Mr.Santosh Chacko, Regional Manager from SBI Life. The tournament was successfully conducted by the Chief Arbiter, IA Vitthal Madhav under the aegis of Mumbai Suburban District Chess Association.
[Site "?"]
[Date "2015.11.18"]
[Round "?"]
[White "GM Tejas Bakre"]
[Black "Anand Pejawar"]
[Result "1-0"]
[ECO "B12"]
[PlyCount "21"]
[EventDate "2015.??.??"]
[SourceDate "2015.11.10"]
1. e4 c6 2. d4 f6 3. Bc4 e6 4. Nc3 Nh6 5. Bxh6 gxh6 6. Qh5+ Ke7 7. e5 fxe5 8.
dxe5 Rg8 9. Ne4 a6 10. Nd6 c5 11. Qf7# 1-0