Archives of Articles After 2001

Ganguly, Swati Ghate Win National Titles

National A Visakhapatnam from Apr 3-18: Surya Shekhar Ganguly Becomes The Fourth Player To Win The National A Title For Three Times In A Row. Earliert three being Manuel Aaron, V.Anand and P.M.Thipsay Maiden National Women's Title for Swati Ghate.  official site. Games M/W In PGN or see cross table in draw order M/W.

Six-Way Tie At ONGC Cup, Hyderabad  

The ONGC Cup International Open took place at Hyderabad from Feb 25 to Mar 5. Six players shared the first place: 1-6 S.S.Ganguly, Deepan Chakkaravarthy, Arun Prasad, Pavel Kotsur (Kaz), D.P.Singh and Ziaur Rahman (Ban) 8/10. About 246 players took part. The pride of ONGC, Krishnan Sasikiran did not compete! However, old faces like GM Dibyendu Barua and GM Pravin Thipsay were in the fray. Few grandmasters and fewer visiting players made the norm seekers task a difficult one. There is record prize money. It is organised by the Chess Players Association of India. Official Site

Anand Wins Record Fifth Title At Wijk aan Zee 

Viswanathan Anand scored a brilliant round 13 victory over Boris Gelfand of Israel to win the Corus Chess Tournament in Wijk aan Zee for a record fifth time. Anand and Topalov shared the title with 9/13 and were joint champions.  coverage

India's Maiden Title

Indian men won the Asian Team Championship at Esfahan in Iran on Dec 28 for the first time though playing without Anand and Harikrishna. It was a 6-team double round robin in men and 4-team double round robin in women. India with Sasikiran, Kunte, Ganguly, Kidambi and Chanda started as top seed and won the event easily. Our women with Nisha Mohota, Mary Ann Gomes, Swati Ghate and Anupama Gokhale started as second seed and finished second behind Vietnam after suffering unexpected defeats to Iran-B. China, Philippines, Indonesia, etc did not play this time.

Mamedyarov Regains World Junior Title At Istanbul 

In the boys section, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov (Az) regained his title he won in 2003 with a 10.5/13 score. Elisabeth Paehtz (Ger) who missed the title last year won it this time with ease. Former World U-14 girls champion Dronavalli Harika tied for the third place but finished fifth.G.N.Gopal made his maiden IM norm in the boys group. A total of 92 boys and 68 girls took part. Click 

National Junior, Sivakasi

In a repeat of last years National U-17 Championship, Deep Sengupta and Soumya Swaminathan won the National Junior (Under-19) Championships that ended with fireworks on Dec 3. In the final round, Deep beat Rohit to reach 8/10 and claim the title. Deepan Chakravarthy was second. In the girls section, Soumya Swaminathan beat R.Preethi of Tamil Nadu to win the title. Mary Ann Gomes was second and P.Priya was third.  Results Boys 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10  Girls 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Games Placings B G

Harikrishna Has It Easy

Pentyala Harikrishna won the 9th Essent Grandmaster Tournament at Hoogeveen in the Netherlands on Oct 29. Harikrishna scored a victory against Stefanova with the black pieces and one over Ivan Sokolov with the white pieces. He coasted to an easy title with draws in the remaining games for his 4/6. Sokolov finished second with 3.5, Sutovsky third with 2.5 and Stefanova last with two points. The tournament started with a unique feature of inviting four players - best Dutch player, World Junior Champion, World Women's Champion and one veteran. This time Sutovsky was the veteran! View games 

Topalov Champion, Anand Second  

Bulgarian Veselin Topalov played his career best chess at Argentina to win the FIDE World Title with a round to spare. He scored 10/14. His start of 7.5/8 was impressive. He remained undefeated. Anand and Svidler finished second and third with 8.5 points. This event took place at San Luis, Argentina from Sep 25-Oct 15. There is a game viewer here . 1 2 3 4  5 6 7 8 9 0 1 2 3 4

Zhang Zhong Wins Asian Chp  

Indians Perform Poorly At Hyderabad in October 2005. Still two players had a great event: Himanshu Sharma obtained a 20-game IM norm and Valay Parikh completed his IM title requirement.. Placings  All games

Ponomariov Triumphs

Former world champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine won the Pamplona International Tournament on Dec 29 with a 5/7 score. Harikrishna finished second tying with Cheparinov of Bulgaria on 4.5.

Bastia: Milov Beats Anand 3-1 In The Finals

Vadim Milov, the Jewish player who moved from Russia to Biel in Switzerland a decade ago stopped Anand from winning another Corsica Masters title on Nov 5 at Bastia, France. Anand came back nicely in the second game after losing the first game to force the tie-break at 1-1. He lost both the tie-break games, after starting well in the first and overlooking a back rank theme in the second. Earlier, he beat Tomas Markowski (Pol) 2-0, Mikhail Gurevich (Bel) 2-0, Michael Adams (Eng) 3-1 in the earlier stages. Two other players from Chennai took part. Sasikiran lost to Zoltan Almasi 0.5-1.5 in the pre-quarter finals and Ebenezer Joseph did not qualify from the open. Here are the key games with a game viewer. 

Mainz: Anand Wins 5-3

Defending his Mainz Classic Chess Title, Vishy Anand lost game eight but beat Alexander Grischuk 5-3 overall at Mainz, Germany on August 14. Anand won games 1, 2, 4 and 7 drew 3, 5 and lost 6 and 8. The games are played with 25 minutes plus 10 seconds increment. Grischuk recovered in the end but it was too late. Anand has a long success in Mainz and had defeated Kramnik, Ponomariov, Polgar and Shirov in the preceding years.

New Office Bearers Elected
The AICF Elections for 2005-2009 went off smoothly on Sep 25 at the Wallajah Hall of Hotel Taj Connemara in Chennai. The Srinivasan-Sundar Panel supported by Manuel Aaron, Bharat Singh and R.M.Dongre swept the elections. When Justice A.K.Rajan announced the results there was no surprise. While Srinivasan, Sundar and Bharat Singh won the elections unopposed, there was voting for the Vice Presidents. Two persons, Gularia (HP), secured two votes and R.K.Sajana Singh (Mani) got zero votes and were defeated. The anger against Koya was clear as the members demanded various actions against the former Secretary of the AICF. The President N Srinivasan said he is giving administrative powers to the Secretary to get the minutes books and the other assets of the AICF back. Elected Office Bearers: President: N.Srinivasan (TN); Honorary Secretary: D.V.Sundar; Treasurer: Bharat Singh Chauhan (Del); Vice Presidents: A.Bhakthavachalam (Pon), R.M.Dongre (Mah), Pradeep Jain (Har), R.Ralte (Miz), Sameer A.Salgaocar (Goa), Sanjiv Kumar (Bih); Joint Secretaries: F.Anil (MP), Melvin Khryiem (Meg), N.K.Mishra (Jha), H.K.Tiwari (Pun), Udayan Kanti Ghosh (Ben), Dr Vipnesh Bharadwaj (Chd). Pic of the office bearers

CPAI Brings Out Scanned Images Of AICF, Calicut Bank Accounts And How The Funds Have Been Used In A Sensational Expose

National B, Delhi: Ramesh Wins

GM R.B.Ramesh of PSPB won the 43rd Parsvanath National `B' Championship that ended at New Delhi on Aug 13. D.P.Singh (Jha) was the surprise qualifier when he took second place. The new qualifiers were: V.Kamble (Mah), M.S.Thejkumar, B.S.Sivanandan (both Kar), Himanshu Sharma (Har), S.Arun Prasad (TN) and D.P.Singh. Other qualifiers: IM Sriram Jha (LIC), IM D.K.Sharma (LIC), P.D.S.Girinath (AP), Abhijeet Gupta (Raj), Deepan Chakravarthy (TN), Arghyadip Das (WB), IM Lanka Ravi (ONGC). Top 14 qualified for the next `A'.

The Charity Match: Anand Helps Raise Rs.10 lakhs For Vidya Sagar On July 16 See report

World Youth Festival Belfort: Srinath, Grover Win World Titles

N.Srinath of Chennai suffered an unexpected defeat in the final round but yet was crowned World Under-12 champion on a better tie-break count at Belfort, France on July 28. Sahaj Grover of Delhi drew his final round game and won the World U-10 title on better tie-break score with 9/11. Indians winning world titles at the age group became reality when P.Harikrishna won the U-10 title in 1996 and later Deep Sengupta won U-12 title. K.Sai Nirupama won in the Girls U-10 section to finish on 8.5/11 and tie for the second to fourth places.  G.Rohit was defeated and D.Harika drew and bowed out of medal contention. In the final round, the top three Indian players lost in the U-12 section and this development cost us a few medals. Losers include S.P.Sethuraman and V.A.V. Rajesh (both 7.5/11). Negi recovered with 8/11 but tied for the fifth place. While the two Indians were lucky with higher tie-break score to win the titles a few others like K.Sai Nirupama (G-10) did not have it when they tied for the second to fourth place and did not win a medal. Lakshmi Sahiti tied for second to sixth places and also missed the medal. Two titles each went to India, Georgia, Russia and one each to Vietnam, China, Slovenia, USA. Here is the Indian Result Table

Humpy Wins Women's Super WGM Event Report

2nd Sanjin Hotel Cup, Tiayuan, China: Harikrishna Wins By A One Point Margin
World Junior champion Pentyala Harikrishna of Gas Authority of India, Hyderabad won the 12-player round robin tournament with an impressive 8.5/11 score on July 20.  The event took place from July 8-20 in China.  

Final placings: 1. Harikrishna, P g IND 2645 8.5, 2. Motylev, Alexander g RUS 2675 7.5, 3. Wang Yue g CHN 2576 6.5, 4. Bu Xiangzhi g CHN 2632 6.5, 5. Ni Hua g CHN 2629 6.0, 6. Karjakin, Sergey g UKR 2645 5.5, 7. Petrosian, Tigran L g ARM 2581 5.5, 8. Zhang Pengxiang g CHN 2616 5.0, 9. Zhang Zhong g CHN 2608 4.5, 10. Wang Hao CHN 2512 4.5, 11. Zhao Xue wg CHN 2470 3.0, 12. McShane, Luke J g ENG 2625 3.0.

Inter-University, Vellore: Calcutta Triumphs

Calcutta won the All India Inter-University on Sep 15 at Vellore Tamil Nadu for the third time. Record 112 teams, 98 FIDE rated players. Final placings: 1 Calcutta 27.5/36, 2 Madurai Kamaraj 27, 3 Osmania 26, 4 Madras 24.5, 5-7 Ranchi, Patna, Rajasthan 23.5 each. Calcutta is winning the title for the third time. They scored 3.5-0.5 over Visveswaraya, Bangalore while Madurai Kamaraj drew 2-2 with Madras

Harikrishna Ties For Second At Minneapolis 7/9 Click

Anand Meets Chess Officials Viswanathan Anand met the President of the AICF, N.Srinivasan and President of the TNSCA,  P.R.Venketramaraja at a lunch meeting in the Park Sheraton, Chennai on June 22. D.V.Sundar, IM Manuel Aaron were also present.. Pic: Anand cemented by two officials.  AICF Press Release

Koya Plea Dismissed By High Court Division Bench

P.T.Ummer Koya's plea in two cases against him and his group were dismissed by the Division Bench of the Madras High Court on May 5. It is a big victory for the State Associations of Delhi, Maharastra and Tamil Nadu. High Court Order copy  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 

MTel Masters At Sofia From May 12-23

Veselin Topalov won the Category 10 event ahead of Vishy Anand and others in a six player double round robin event. Here is a round by round report: 1 2 3 4 5 Free Day 6 7 8 9 10

FIDE Makes D.V.Sundar General Secretary for Asia

The FIDE Presidential Board which met on May 15 at Doha in Qatar under the Presidentship of His Excellency Kirsan Ilyumzhinov made a surprise move nominating the All India Chess Federation Secretary Mr. D.V.Sundar (See Pic), 54, as the General Secretary of the Asian Chess Federation. The Presidential Board also approved the action of Mr Khalifa Mohamed Al-Hitmi, Continental President for Asia, in granting recognition to the AICF headed by Mr N.Srinivasan as President and Mr D.V.Sundar as Secretary. Hereafter all correspondence with FIDE from India will be only through Mr D.V.Sundar.  In another related move, FIDE removed the erstwhile Asian Chess Federation General Secretary Derrick Pereira of Sri Lanka for sending misleading, irresponsible pro-Koya e-mails to several Indian chess officials and players during the period following the Madras High Court order of January 31, 2005 restraining P.T.Ummer Koya. The nomination of D.V.Sundar of Chennai as Secretary of the Asian Chess Federation came as a big surprise to Mr Sundar himself as well as to Mr Bharat Singh Chauhan and Mr Ravi Dongre who had accompanied him to Doha. Mr Sundar returned to Chennai (airport pic) on May 16.

8-Member Team Departs

For the first time, "India Kits" comprising T-shirts, track suit and shoes were given to the Indian Under-16 team that left for Namangan in Uzbekistan on May 27. With the Government of India clearing the trip at full cost, it was really a joyous moment for the players. R.Ralte, the President of the Mizoram chess association is the manager of the team. The seven players, G.N.Gopal, Rahul Sangma, K.Vijay Keerthi, India number two Mary Ann Gomes, Soumya Swaminathan, Saheli Nath and I.Ramya Krishna are expected to return with medals and trophies. The players of the Indian Under-16 chess team were simply jubilant on the occasion of the prize distribution of the Delhi State Chess Championships that finished a day prior to the departure of the 8-member team. The players were traditionally welcomed during the prize distribution ceremony while R.Ralte and Rashmi Singh, the moving spirit behind Delhi Chess Association gave away the prizes to the winners.  Apart from regular cash prizes and trophies to the winners, National Under-9 champion Sahaj Grover was given a special cash award of Rs.5,000 by Bharat Singh Chauhan, Joint secretary AICF, for winning the National title last year. A photo of the Indian team: C.S.Sharma (Secretary General, Botvinnik Chess Academy), Bharat Singh Chauhan (Joint Secy. AICF), Rashmi Singh, Vishal Sareen (International Master) along with team India players.

National U-9: 

Favourites Rule Day One Boys Girls
Abhilash Reddy Loses Boys Girls
Six Girls, Nine Boys Lead Boys Girls
Khosla Downs Srinath Rao Boys Girls
Khosla, Priya In Sole Lead Boys Girls
Kausik, Girish, Sai Krishna In Lead B G 
A.R.Priya From Eluru On 7/7 Boys Girls
Sai Krishna In Sole Lead Boys Girls
Srinidhi, Sahajasri Lead 7/9  Boys Girls
Sai Krishna Loses & Leads! Boys Girls
Sahajasri Wins Top 10  Boys Girls

Three players fail medical test:  A.R. Priya, Chanda Priya Reddy, Kumar Sanu will be removed from the event.

Anand Regains Leon Title

The 35-year old NIIT Brand Ambassador and World Rapid Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand beat Magnus Carlsen of Norway 3-1 in the second semifinals on June 11 and FIDE world champion Rustam Kasimdzhanov of Uzbekistan by 2.5-1.5  in the finals on June 12. 

In the finals Anand came from behind in a well fought match. The final was marked by sharp play, good defence by Anand in game three. Anand sacrificed his knight in game two and four which he won. It was a rapid series with each player starting with 20 minutes and having an increment of ten seconds per move. Anand will play Alexander Grishchuk at Mainz from Aug 9-14. 

180 Players In Tata Steel All India Open Rapid

The Tata Steel All India Open Rapid Chess Tournament, organised by the Chess Players' Association of India (CPAI) was inaugurated by the Sheriff of Kolkata and veteran tootballer Mr Chuni Goswami (see pic) at The Regency Convention Center, Kolkata. A total of 180 players including four GMs, one WGM and many IMs are participating in this maiden venture of CPAI. The event, offering the highest prize money for a Rapid Chess tournament in India, is sponsored by Tata Steel and co-sponsored by Kolkata Police and Tata Indicom. As an added attraction before the inauguration of the event, GM and World Junior Chess Champion Pentyala Harikrishna gave a simultaneous play with 30 young budding stars of Kolkata. Harikrishna won all the games. Grand Master and World rapid Chess Champion Viswanathan Anand in an e-mail message, congratulated the CPAI for organising the event and wishing the tournament all success. Most of the star players won their first round games with ease. The nine round swiss tournament will conclude on 5th June. Earlier in the day CPAI held its Annual General Body Meeting at the venue. -CPAI June 3 Press Release

National U-9: 

Favourites Rule Day One Boys Girls
Abhilash Reddy Loses Boys Girls
Six Girls, Nine Boys Lead Boys Girls
Khosla Downs Srinath Rao Boys Girls
Khosla, Priya In Sole Lead Boys Girls
Kausik, Girish, Sai Krishna In Lead B G 
A.R.Priya From Eluru On 7/7 Boys Girls
Sai Krishna In Sole Lead Boys Girls
Srinidhi, Sahajasri Lead 7/9  Boys Girls
Sai Krishna Loses & Leads! Boys Girls
Sahajasri Wins Top 10  Boys Girls

Three players fail medical test:  A.R. Priya, Chanda Priya Reddy, Kumar Sanu will be removed from the event.

FIDE Makes D.V.Sundar General Secretary for Asia

The FIDE Presidential Board which met on May 15 at Doha in Qatar under the Presidentship of His Excellency Kirsan Ilyumzhinov made a surprise move nominating the All India Chess Federation Secretary Mr. D.V.Sundar (See Pic), 54, as the General Secretary of the Asian Chess Federation. The Presidential Board also approved the action of Mr Khalifa Mohamed Al-Hitmi, Continental President for Asia, in granting recognition to the AICF headed by Mr N.Srinivasan as President and Mr D.V.Sundar as Secretary. Hereafter all correspondence with FIDE from India will be only through Mr D.V.Sundar. In another related move, FIDE removed the erstwhile Asian Chess Federation General Secretary Derrick Pereira of Sri Lanka for sending misleading, irresponsible pro-Koya e-mails to several Indian chess officials and players during the period following the Madras High Court order of January 31, 2005 restraining P.T.Ummer Koya. The nomination of D.V.Sundar of Chennai as Secretary of the Asian Chess Federation came as a big surprise to Mr Sundar himself as well as to Mr Bharat Singh Chauhan and Mr Ravi Dongre who had accompanied him to Doha. Mr Sundar returned to Chennai (airport pic) on May 16.

Sasikiran Draws Timman, Wins Title Jointly
Second seed Krishnan Sasikiran finished his brilliant showing in the 13th Sigeman & Co. Tournament at Malmo and Copenhagen with a tied title triumph on April 23. Jan Timman, tied for first place. Both players remained undefeated winning four and drawing five games. The fighting spirit which was seen in the tournament otherwise was missing in their last game. Nakamura, the enterprising player who fought every game to the wire beat Palo Davor for third place. Davor needed a win for the grandmaster title! Final standings after 9: 1-2 Sasikiran (Ind), Timman (Ned) 6.5/9 each, 3 Nakamura (USA) 6 each, 4 C.Hansen (Den) 5.5, 5 Hector (Swe) 5, 6-7 Iordachescu (Mda), P.Davor (Den) 4 each, 8 S.B.Hansen (Den) 3.5, 9 Hermansson (Swe) 2.5, 10 Hillarp Persson (Swe) 1.5. Official site

Koya Plea Dismissed By High Court Division Bench

P.T.Ummer Koya's plea in two cases against him and his group were dismissed by the Division Bench of the Madras High Court on May 5. It is a big victory for the State Associations of Delhi, Maharastra and Tamil Nadu. High Court Order copy  1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 

8-Member Team Departs

For the first time, "India Kits" comprising T-shirts, track suit and shoes were given to the Indian Under-16 team that left for Namangan in Uzbekistan on May 27. With the Government of India clearing the trip at full cost, it was really a joyous moment for the players. R.Ralte, the President of the Mizoram chess association is the manager of the team. The seven players, G.N.Gopal, Rahul Sangma, K.Vijay Keerthi, India number two Mary Ann Gomes, Soumya Swaminathan, Saheli Nath and I.Ramya Krishna are expected to return with medals and trophies. The players of the Indian Under-16 chess team were simply jubilant on the occasion of the prize distribution of the Delhi State Chess Championships that finished a day prior to the departure of the 8-member team. The players were traditionally welcomed during the prize distribution ceremony while R.Ralte and Rashmi Singh, the moving spirit behind Delhi Chess Association gave away the prizes to the winners.  Apart from regular cash prizes and trophies to the winners, National Under-9 champion Sahaj Grover was given a special cash award of Rs.5,000 by Bharat Singh Chauhan, Joint secretary AICF, for winning the National title last year. A photo of the Indian team: C.S.Sharma (Secretary General, Botvinnik Chess Academy), Bharat Singh Chauhan (Joint Secy. AICF), Rashmi Singh, Vishal Sareen (International Master) along with team India players.

Konguvel Weds!  

IM Ponnuswamy Konguvel's Wedding Reception took place at Chennai on May 7 at Hotel New Woodlands. Players from Salem, Chennai and around the country attended. It included five GMs, three WGMs. Here is a picture from the reception with most of the players in one frame.  Reception Pic

National Women's A Championship

WGM Nisha Mohota with the National Women's Championship trophy at Bangalore. She is the eleventh player to win this title.  Points Reports 1 2 3 4  5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 (trophy pic)

National U-9 At Chennai

The 19th Indian Bank-Vel's National U-9 Boys and Girls Championship will take place from June 4 at Chennai. Medical test to define age will be conducted for the first time if necessary says the announcement. Advertisement says, "Welcome To The Birth Place Of Viswanathan Anand". Details 

Kramnik Not To Play In FIDE Championship

"I will not play in the FIDE Championship at Argentina this fall," said Kramnik in a statement. Full Text

AICF Back On Rails says IM Manuel Aaron in Chess Mate magazine, April 2005 issue. Full article.

CPAI'S Letter To Rathi

Chess Players Association have responded to Mr V.K.Rathi's letter with an open letter sent and posted on their website www.cpai.in 

Sivanandan Wins Pune Open, Cashes Rs.30,000

B.S.Sivanandan of Karnataka is getting stronger by the day. He is GM material and Karnataka's strongest player ever. Full report.

Vishy Anand Wins Chess Oscar 2004 For Fourth Time!

World rapid champion Vishy Anand was voted to receive the Chess Oscar for 2004. Anand is receiving this award for the fourth time. He had earlier won it in 1997, 1998, 2003 and 2004. Anand won most of the top events in 2004 and this vote was a natural choice. The next best votes were polled by Leko and Kasparov. Congratulate him today!

"I Would Not Take A Single Paise As Honorarium From The AICF," Says Sundar

I would not take a single paise as honorarium from the AICF, said D.V.Sundar, Secretary of the AICF speaking at a press conference in New Delhi on April 4. The Secretary of the AICF said they have obtained FIDE recognition and are seeking recognition at New Delhi. Details Link.  

Barua's Letter To Sunil Dutt

In a letter, addressed to Sunil Dutt, Union Sports Minister, GM Dibyendu Barua in his capacity as Government Observer-Chess has expressed concern at the cancellation and postponement of chess events. "A cause of concern exists with prolonging court cases and reports on attempts by supporters of Mr.P.T.Ummer Koya to form a parallel body," says GM Barua. Full text.

Proposing Draws Are Forbidden In This New Event At Sofia The cast includes: Anand, Kramnik, Topalov, Judit Polgar, Michael Adams and Ruslan Ponomariov. The Hindu

Gupta, Balaji Impress With 5/9 In Dubai

Clocking a rating performance of 2723, Wang Hao of China won the Dubai Cup on April 12 with a final round win with the black pieces over G.Kacheishvili of Georgia. Hao scored 7/9 with five wins. Three of his four draws were against Chinese players. Our best performers were our four GMs who scored 5.5/9. Placings: 31 Chanda, 33 Humpy, 34 Kunte and 43 Ramesh. Eesha Karavade made her final WGM norm and became India's eighth WGM.  Click round and select results: 1 2 3 4  5 6 7 8 9

Pentyala Harikrishna Finishes With 50%

GM Pentyala Harikrishna (4.5/9) drew his final round against L.Dominguez (Cub) in 31 moves with white to finish sixth with 4.5 points. Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan won the Dos Hermanas tournament with a 5.5/9 score. Rustemov, Dreev, Felgaer and Azmaiparashvili tied for second place with 5 each. Harikrishna played -6 below his 2646 rating, winning against Illescas, losing to Felgaer and drawing seven games.

Amber Tournament: Anand Races To Title

Vishy Anand, winner of the 1994, 1997 and 2003 editions of the Amber Chess Tournament added the 2005 edition to his collection by winning a one horse race on March 31. Reports by round 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11   Live Coverage

Ganguly Wins United Insurance Title With 9/11

Top seed GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly won the 7th United Insurance Leasing Grandmaster Tournament scoring 9/11. He won by a one point margin after staying in front right through. In the final round, Ganguly drew Prathamesh Mokal with the black pieces to finish one point ahead of the 46-player tournament. Bangladesh had a bonanza when IM Reefat Bin Sattar beat GM Safin in the final round. The 31-year old Bangladesh player completed his final GM norm to become the third GM for his country. Murshed became a GM in 1987 and Ziaur Rahman became a GM in 2002. Syed Anwar Shazuli completed an IM norm for India. The event took place from April 3-14 at the NSC Conference Room in Dhaka.  Top placings: 1 Ganguly (Ind) 9/11, 2-5 Reefat Bin Sattar (Ban), A.Fominyh (Rus), E.Hossain (Ban), S.Iuldachev (Uzb) 8 each, 6-7 P.S.Mokal (Ind), Akshyaraj Kore (Ind) 7 each, 8-13 Ziaur Rahman (Ban), Sriram Jha (Ind), Vijayalakshmi (Ind), Roktim Bandyopadyay (Ind), Mehdi Hasan (Ban), Abdul Maleq (Ban) 6.5 each. Full placings

Mr. Ummer Koya's application dismissed - 17-3-2005
Mr. P.T. Ummer Koya filled an application No.755 of 2005 in CS No.52 of 2005 praying the Hon'able Court Chennai to revoke the leave to sue granted in application No.279/05 on 24.01.2005. The Hon'ble Mr. Justice K.Ravirajapandian of the High Court of Judicature at Madras passed the following order. "The application for revocation of leave cannot be allowed and the same is dismissed". Court Order: Page 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 Courtesy: www.indianchessfed.org

New 1 Lakh Event At Pune

FIDE Rating event will run from April 10-16.

Injunction Against Harsh, Bhaskaran, Bobba

The Madras High Court on Mar 7 ruled that Mr S.L. Harsh, Mr P.K.Bhaskaran, Mr V.R.Bobba cant claim themselves President, Secretary and Treasurer of the AICF. Copy pages 1 2 3 4

Players Thank AICF

The Chess Players Association of India on Sunday thanked the AICF for deciding to refund the amount collected from June to Dec 2004. Text

Special GB Reverses 10%

The Special General Body meeting of the AICF held at Hotel Taj Connemara, Chennai on Feb 19 decided to scrap the 10% share on prize money imposed by the previous regime and refund what was collected from June - Dec 2004.  The GB also ratified the nomination of D.V.Sundar and N.K.Mishra as Secretary and Treasurer.

AICF Office Bearers

The AICF President N Srinivasan on Feb 3 nominated D.V.Sundar as Secretary and IM Neeraj Kumar Mishra as Treasurer. D.V.Sundar is also Vice President of AICF from Chennai and Mishra is the Secretary of the Jharkhand State Chess Association. D V Sundar, Secretary, All India Chess Federation, 82, Jawaharlal Nehru Stadium, Chennai 600 003. Tel +91-44-2536 8698. Mobile: +91-94440 18698. Email:  indianchessfed@hotmail.com

Madras High Court Restrains Koya, Majumdar

A Madras High Court  on Feb 1 2005 has restrained P.T.Ummer Koya and Soumen Mazumdar from acting as Secretary and Treasurer of the AICF.  The State Associations of Tamil Nadu, Delhi and Maharashtra had sought relief against the illegal acts of these two office bearers.  R.M.Dongre, Bharat Singh and IM Manuel Aaron addressed the press in Chennai on Feb 1. Spot report  Press Release pages 1 2 3 4 5  

Players Association Sends Letter

The newly formed CPAI, Association of Chess Players have sent a letter to the President of the AICF raising questions about the AICF's finances. Copy

Harikrishna, Korbut Crowned World Junior Champions 

Pentyala Harikrishna won his second World Title when he won the World Junior Championship at Kochi on Nov 30, 2004. He becomes the second Indian after Vishy Anand (1987) to win this event. "It was my career best result," said Harikrishna with a satisfied feeling.   Click

Harikrishna Wins 7-3

World Junior champion Pentyala Harikrishna scored 7-3 in a ten game online simultaneous display on Jan 22. It was to help the Tsunami victims and organised by the Internet Chess Club. Harikrishna played under his normal ICC handle Tom Cruise and played from his Banjara Hills home in Hyderabad.See report/pic

Hariharan Wins 

Veteran V.Hariharan won the Inter-Bank Chess Championship for south zone after he won the coin toss to push his Indian Bank team-mate and favourite IM N.Sudhakar Babu to second place at Chennai on March 17. The team championship was won by Indian Bank with 17.5 points and followed by Canara Bank 15, RBI 14, Syndicate Bank 13.5, CBI 12.5, 6 Indus Ind Bank 5.5, SB Sourashtra 3.5, UTI Bank 2.5. Placings: 1-2 V.Hariharan, Sudhakar Babu 5/6, 3 H.K. Sahoo (RBI) 4.5, 4-9 K.V. Shan- tharam (IB), R.R. Vasu devan (CB), S.M. Bhagwath (SyB), R. Sundararajan (CB), D.Krishna doss (CB), K.Rajan (RBI) 4 each, 10-13 K.Rajaraman (SBS), K.Gopalakrishnan (IB), D.K.S. Raju (CB), Jnaneshwar Naik (SyB) 3.5 each...29 players....8 banks.

Topalov Beats Kasparov; Kasparov Retires

The final round had plenty of surprises in store at Linares. When have you seen Kasparov and Anand lose on a single day?  Despite the 30-move defeat in a pawn ending to Topalov in round 14,  Kasparov won the tourney for the ninth time on tie-break with 8/12. Kasparov also announced his retirement.  Topalov, debutant in 1994 at Linares achieved his best result to date. Anand lost a vital pawn against Adams and the game in 52 moves to settle for the third place. Leko who drew all his 12 games finished fourth. Adams took fifth while the last two places went to the FIDE champion Kasimdzhanov and host entrant Vallejo. Anand finished slightly below his expected score after failing at the tape. Results (14): Kasimdzhanov (4/12) bye, Leko (6/12) drew Vallejo (4/12), Topalov (8/12) bt Kasparov (8/12), Anand (6.5/12) lost to Adams (5.5/12). Official site

Ganguly Retains National `A' Title

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly of Indian Oil, Kolkata won the 42nd National `A' Championship at the Waltair Club in Visakhapatnam on Dec 18. He scored 12/18 and had the better tie-break score than Sandipan Chanda (ONGC). The placings were the same 1-2 story from the previous year. Chennai IMs Sundararajan Kidambi and M R Venkatesh made it to the Indian team for the first time. It was a 19-player round robin event running from Dec 3-18. Click here to download the games (last round missing).  The total prize fund was Rs.2.40 lakhs. The top eight will be seeded for the next edition. Three players - Chanda, Kunte and Bakre - remained undefeated. Three players did not compete - Harikrishna, Saptarshi Roy (who chose to play the National Junior at Tirupathi) and Vishal Sareen. Cross Table.

Ukraine & China Claim Titles

Ukraine won the Chess Olympiad for the first time by remaining undefeated. A shaky Russia and Armenia tied for the second place. India had a push performance starting as fifth seed and finishing sixth with 34 points. They won ten matches and lost four. Anand was the best player at 8/11. Trainer Ubilava relied heavily on the top boards and it saw a tiring Sasikiran (7.5/13). Harikrishna (5.5/11) was fielded although his form had turned otherwise in the second half. The lower boards were less favoured: Ganguly (6/9), Kunte (4/7), Chanda (3/5).  Chinese (31) women were nervous at the end but they had stocked up enough for that rainy day to win the Olympiad for the fourth time with a round to spare. United States (28) won the silver and Georgia tied with Russia for the bronze on 27.5. Indian women started as sixth seed and finished ninth with three defeats in the last four rounds on 24.5/42. Sherbakov did the same mistake as Ubilava by not resting Humpy (8.5/14) and Vijayalakshmi (8/13) enough. Harika (4.5/9) made nine draws and some with white pieces quickly. Mohota watched from the sideline for her 3.5/6.  Anand Beats Morozevich but bench strength matters, says Arvind Aaron Pic 1 Men Pic 2 Women

India Restart Winning Ways, beat Spain 2.5-1.5

It Is Ukraine's Day, They beat India 2.5-1.5 says Arvind Aaron from Calvia Follow The Results: Indians At The Olympiad.

Led by stars Vishy Anand and Koneru Humpy, Indian men and women teams arrived in Calvia, Spain for the 36th Chess Olympiad to be played from Oct 14-31.  The baby of the team from 1984 to 1992, Anand returns to the Olympic Team after 12 years to find that he is the oldest member of the team writes Arvind Aaron in an interesting preview.  The team is packed with talent and experience. The men start as the fifth seed and are looking forward to a best finishing ever. The women team has three debutant grandmasters and Vijayalakshmi.

Sasikiran Claims Title

Abhijit Kunte and Krishnan Sasikiran scored 9/11 but the latter won the Parsvnath International Open Tournament held at Delhi from Jan 2-10. Both received Rs.1.25 lakhs each. Top placings: 1-2 Sasikiran, Kunte 9/11 each, 3-7 E.Hossain (Ban), Satyapragyan, A.Filippov (Uzb), D.Kayumov (Uzb), K.Ratnakaran 8.5 each, 8-15 Deep Sengupta, R.R.Laxman, Himanshu Sharma, R.B.Ramesh, A.Fominyh (Rus), Saptarshi Roy, S.Arun Prasad, Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury 8 each.

Leko Wins Corus Tournament

Peter Leko drew Hungarian team mate Judit Polgar with the white pieces in 22 moves to win the Corus Chess Tournament with 8.5/13 on Jan 30. Leko, the 1979 born star has now won all the three big events - Dortmund, Linares and Wijk aan Zee but in different years. Anand drew the final round with black against Sokolov in 48 moves after trying hard. Anand finished second with a respectable 8/13 after a poor start which included a defeat to Leko. Anand is a four time winner of this event. His next major event is Linares 2005.  Official Site

Harikrishna Wins 7-3

World Junior champion P.Harikrishna scored 7-3 in a 10-game online simultaneous display on Jan 22 See report/pic.

At the 3rd Awards Ceremony, Rs.5.60 Lakhs cash was paid out. Read report

Vladimir Kramnik retained his world title on Oct 18 by coming from behind to win game 14 and level the scores at 7-7. He keeps the title he first won by unseating Kasparov in 2000. Kramnik won the first and last games while Leko who was impressive won games 5 and 8. This best of 14 series took place at  at Brissago, Switzerland. For more,  see www.worldchesschampionship.com

Fresh from victories at Dortmund and Mainz, Vishy Anand won `The Challenge' Rapid Chess Tournament at Sao Paulo on August 24 scoring 7.5/9 to dwarf a category 16 field by a huge margin. Anand won the event with a round to spare.  The standings after round nine (penultimate round): 1 Viswanathan Anand (Ind) 7.5/9, 2 Ivan Morovic (Chi) 5, 3 Rafael Leitao (Bra) 4, 4-6 Giovanni Vescovi (Bra), Anatoly Karpov (Rus), Gilberto Milos (Bra) 3.5 each. For all 30 games with brief comments as published in the September 2004 issue of Chess Mate can be found here.

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