Pune: Top seed Surya Sekhar Ganguly failed to score a win in the last round and the Cut 1 version of Bucholdz tiebreak further rubbed it in. Ganguly, former second of V Anand, was pipped to the post in the 11th round of the National chess championship in Gurugram, Haryana, on Tuesday. The 41-year-old West Bengal GM had won six successive titles from 2003 to 2008 and he was in clear lead from the sixth round.
Ganguly could only manage a draw against IM Himal Gusain of Railways (Elo 2511) in the last round. Karthik Venkatraman of Andhra Pradesh beat another Railways player GM Mitrabha Guha to win the title despite a three-way tie at the top with Ganguly and Neelash Saha (nine points each). It is Venkatraman’s second national title.
It was a pity that the title was decided on a numeric tiebreak and not by playing over the board, especially with prize money among the players with equal points NOT being shared. Bucholdz Cut1 adds tournament points of all your opponents barring the lowest scoring opponent. Ganguly was half a point behind Venkatraman on that yardstick, but his performance rating was higher (Elo 2685) than that of the eventual champion’s (Elo 2653).
Both had seven wins and four draws each. Saha had nine wins and two defeats. The top three prizes were Rs 6 lakh, Rs 5 lakh and Rs 4 lakh.
Results in the last four rounds for the three table-toppers were quite different. Ganguly drew all those games, Saha won all and Venkatraman won two and drew two. The National championship has already lost its sheen because the All India Chess Federation (AICF) have consistently failed to attract top players.
India’s top-19 rated players were absent from this meet, making Ganguly (Elo 2583) the top seed. With almost 350 players in the fray (too many to find clear champion for an 11-round Swiss League tournament), it was like any other open tournament. And without the provision of playing tiebreak, it failed to provide the fitting climax either.
The second-string Indian chess circuit remains highly competitive but without proper regulations, thus lacking in just reward system. We also published the following articles recently Bengal players dominate national chess Grandmaster Karthik Venkataraman secured his second national chess title in Gurugram by narrowly defeating Surya Sekhar Ganguly on a tie-break. Both players finished with nine points each, but Karthik's score was 78 compared to Ganguly's 77.
5. The competition included 19 grandmasters, with Ganguly failing to secure the title after leading into the final round. Raunak Sadhwani, Divya Deshmukh play seventh round draw in Abu Dhabi chess festival In the seventh round of the Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival, Raunak Sadhwani and Divya Deshmukh drew their games.
Raunak held his ground with black pieces, while Divya's efforts as white fell short. Uzbekistan's GM Vokhidov Shamsiddin emerged as the leader after defeating India's Pranav V. Raunak now shares the second position with seven others.
Failures dont last forever, and neither do successes: Sourav Ganguly Sourav Ganguly shared his experiences at an August 17 event held at the Biswa Bangla Convention Centre. He discussed the importance of making every player feel like a leader while managing India's cricket team. Ganguly emphasized confidence in managing young talent and concluded with a motivational philosophy about resilience and perseverance.
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