JSG Heritage
International Rating Open Chess Tournament @ Jaipur
April 28th to May 3rd 2007.

The Historic Pink City & State Capital of Rajasthan – Jaipur, hosted an International Rating Chess Tourny with a difference. All Rajputana Chess Association , a newly formed State level affiliated unit of All India Chess Federation in Rajasthan State forayed in to its First International Rating Tournament with a bang. For a modest Prize Money of Rs One Lac, 152 players turned out enthusiastically from 17 states , spread all over the country. Out of these 75 players were rated & girls were 17. Participation of 14 players from Far flung Assam speaks the success of Tournament & players Confidence in Organizers.

Opening ceremony was held in open lush green lawn & same was packed before the start of Function. The main Sponsor of Tournament was JSG Heritage City, Jaipur. The Social Group of Jains.Veteran Social activist Mrs Shail Bhargav was the chief Guest of tournament. she played first move against top seed & IM Himanshu Sharma of Haryana.

This Unique Chess event was organized by Parents who turned Organizers under the compulsion of time, when established stalwart of Rajasthan failed in theirs duty. Organizers were in full commend, there was no sign of in- experience Under the temperature of 45 C, they did theirs best effort to keep plying hall air-cooled. All the Parents were allowed inside playing hall & it was also a unique that disciplined spectators were seated in aisles.

Round One: Top Seeded IM Himanshu Sharma had to struggle hard against Ravi Sinha a low rated player from Jharkhand. Teenager Ravi resisted IM up to 38th move. Otherwise it was smooth sail for almost all top seeded players.

unrated Devesh Gupta held 17th seed Manoj Barua [2120] .Unrated Neelotpal Mishra shared the point with under 8 World no 2, Prince Bajaj. 7 yr wonder boy Kushagra Sharma of Jaipur shared the point with Vikram Singh [2000] a Coach & Senior Player from Jaipur.

Among Rajasthan Players Ex National B Champion Kantilal Dave [2157], 7 time State Champion S S Dave [1962], State Champion Mukesh Mandloi [2059], Upcoming Chess wonder girl of Rajasthan Nishtha Gupta won theirs matches easily.

Among Local Jaipur Players Arpit Saxena, Sukhpal singh, local Age group Star 10 yr Sonakshi Rathore, Atishya Ajmera & Mahendra Lakhani won without much effort where as Giant Killer Rishi Kaushik had to sweat hard for full four hours to register his win.

Round 2: All 10 top seeded players – IM Himanshu Sharma, Akshat Kamparia , Rahul Sangama, Saurabh Kherdekar, Pankaj Joshi, L Imocha, Prsenjeet Dutta, Sudhir Sinha, Manish Joshi, Shreyansh Dakhalia won their games rather easily.

Sanjeev Venkata (1909) hold Delhi coach VS Negi (2165), Biswajit Bharadwaj (1883) hold Brajesh Agrawal (2137) of UP, local teenager Tarun Sharma (1870) hold Utpal Baruah (2120) to draws.

Among Rajasthan players Kantilal Dave (2157), Mukesh Mandloi (2059), Astha Gupta (1804) won their games easily but 7 times Rajasthan champion SS Dave was hold by unrated Saikatt Dutta of Assam.

Among Jaipur players Sukhpal Singh (2173), Arpit Saxena (2027), Vikram Singh (2000), Rishi Kaushik (1987) won their games without much efforts.Under-8 Kushagra Sharma once again hold another rated player of Jaipur – Juhi Ajmera (1983) to draw. Much fancied ten year Sonakshi Rathore (1985) was defeated by an un-rated Vinit Bansal of Punjab.

Round 3: On 30.4.2007 Morning Round 3: Many a top boards witnessed tame draw as seeded players preferred caution, looking to crucial rounds ahead. IM Himanshu Sharma[3] beat Santaanu Boropatra[2] of Assam. Akshat Kamparia[3] of MP beat Saurabh Burve[2] of Maha. Rahul Sangama [3]Recovered from minus position & defeated Megan Gupte[2] of Maharashtra. L imocha [3] of Assam defeated promising Pranav Shetty of Maharashtra. Prasenjit Dutta[3] defeated Rajasthan Champion Mukesh Mandloi[2]. Sudhir Sinha[3] defeated local Arpit Saxena easily. Shreyansh Dakhaliya registered commanding win over Atul Kumar of J&K .Shailendra vajpai[3] of UP beat Vineet Bansal[2] of Punjab.
Abhishek kelkar[2.5] of Maharashtra halted 4th seed state mate Saurabh Kherdekar[2.5]. 14 yr old Himal Gusain [2.5] of Chandigarh snatched half point from Pankaj Joshi a Senior player of Maharashtra.

Among Rajasthan players: Ex Rajasthan Champion Kantilal Dave [2.5] shared the points with Rishi Kaushik[2.5] of Jaipur. 7 Time Rajasthan Champion S S Dave[2.5] won against Jaipur Player Tarun[1.5]. Nishtha Gupta [2] overcame Nupur suri of Delhi easily. Unrated Inderjit Singh Bindra[1.5] holded vatern BS Asthan of MP.

Among Jaipur players Sukhpal Singh[2.5] was held to draw by low rated player Debashis Dutta of Assam. Vikram Singh[2.5] defeated another Jaipur player Tarun Mathur. Sonakshi Rathore (2) won against Aishvarya of Jharkhand easily. Juhi Ajmera[2] defeated Abhisek kapoor of Punjab. Mahendra Lakhani[2] defeated Karisma mangyani of Kota.

After 3rd round 9 Players were leading jointly with Full 3 points. Where as 5 Rajasthan Players were at 2.5 points each.

Round 4: On 30.4.2007 Afternoon Round 4: Fourth round witnessed mixed results on top boards. IM Himanshu Sharma[4] beat National A Player Sudhir Sinha [3]. Second seed Akshat Kamparia[3.5] of MP struggled hard against Prasenjit Dutta[3.5] of Delhi but at the end agreed for Draw. Shryansh Dakhalia[3] sacrificed Bishop against Rahul Sangama [4] but to no avail & ultimately lost the game. 6th seed L Imocha[3.5] of Assam was in deep trouble in Middle game against Manish Joshi of MP but managed the draw. 7th & 8th Board saw interesting battle between fellow city Players from Rajasthan. Sukhpal Singh[3] of RBI ,Top player of Jaipur, in this tournament agreed for an early draw with his city mate Vikram Singh[3]. Ex Rajastahn State Champion Kanti Lal Dave[3.5] of Jodhpur recovered from minus position & prevailed upon 7 time Rajasthan State Champion & city fellow S S Dave[2.5] in a closely fought game. Hemant Sharma of Delhi defeated U/11 Asian school Champion Vaibhav Suri of his own City.
Prince Bajaj[3] an U/8 Silver Medalist hold a higher rated player Utpal Barua[3] of Assam.

Among Jaipur players Rishi Kaushik[3] holded much higher rated Player of Maharastra[3] to draw. Mukesh Mandloi [3] defeated Karma Pandya[2] of Gujrat.Arpit saxena[3] defeated Amandeep Singh of Punjab. Sonakshi Rathore (3) won against Shaswat shivam[2] of Chandigarh. Mahendra Lakhyani [2.5] drew against Vineet Bansal[2.5].
After 4th round IM Himanshu sharma , Rahul snagama & Shailendra Kumar Bajpai were joint leader with Full 4points. Where as among Rajasthan Players Kanti Lal Dave was leading with 3.5 points.

Round 5: Fifth round witnessed two major upsets & many close fights. Brajesh Agarwal[4.5] of UP defeated 7th seed Prasenjeet Dutta [3.5] of Delhi in a hard fought game & created first major upset of the Tournament. 14 yr old Chandigarh Boy Himal Gussain [4.5] engineered second upset of the day & tourney when he defeated 9th seed Manish Joshi [3.5] of MP. On top Board IM Himanshu Sharma[5], playing with Black pieces, defeated Shailendra Bajpai[4] of UP in Close Sicilian game .Second Board was the fief for clash of the titans- 2nd seed Akshat Kamparia [4]of MP & 3rd seed Rahul Sangama. One of the most interesting game of the day was played on Nimzo-Indian Defence line but could not yield any result. Hemant Sharama[4] of Delhi held 5th seed Pankaj Joshi[4] of Maharashtra to a draw. Sudhir Sinha[4] of MP defeated Atul Kumar[3] of J&K. 14 yr Wonder kid of Chatisgarh Shreyansh Dakhalia[4] steered beautiful win over senior player of Jaipur, Vikram singh.

Among Rajasthan Player kanti Lal Dave[4] hold much higher rated player L Imocha[4] of Assam. State Champion Mukesh Mandloi[4] defeated Akshat Agarwal of Delhi. Ramkishan Chaudhary[3] of Hanumangarh defeated Rated player of Chandigarh Shaswat Shivam[2]. Ganganagar girl Nishtha[2.5] held J S Sara a Vatern player of her own city. 5 yr old Udiapur Girl Lakshya registerd her first win.

Jaipur Player Rishi Kaushik[3.5] third time held a higher rated player to a draw . this time the victim was his own city fellow Sukhpal singh. Mahendra Lakhyani[3.5] defeated I S Bindra [2.5] of Alwar. Tarun sharma[3] defeated Mahendra Singh Rathore, Sunil Bhargav[3] defeated Abdul Qadir, sulman Khan defeated Aishwarya of Jharkhand. Arpit Saxena of jaipur once again lost his game to lower rated player .

Round 6: round 6 also witnessed downfall of some top seeded players. 14 year Chandigarh boy Himal Gusain (5.5) again engineered a major upset when he took full advantage of Rook blunder committed by third seed Rahul Sangma and registered a win. Shailendra Bajpai of UP (5) created another major upset when beautifully defeated second seed Akshat Kamparia (4) of MP. Fifth seed Pankaj Joshi (4.5) of Maharashtra tried his level best to win against Utpal Baruah (4.5) of Assam with two Knights only but ultimately had to agree for a draw which is inevitable in such position. Meghan Gupte (4.5) of Mahrashtra held sixth seed L.Imocha (4.5) to draw.

Among Rajasthan players Mukesh Mandloi (5) and Kantilal Dave (5) registered impressive victories over their opponents. Rishi Kaushik (4) continued his spree to hold much higher rated players. This time his victim was Manish Joshi (4) having ELO rating 2200. Jaipur’s top rated participant Sukhpal Singh (4)was held to draw by a low rated Delhi boy Jaydeep Sharma. Among Jaipur boys Atishaya Ajmera[3.5] registered a quick win against Udaipur boy Atul Hingad & become leader of Rajasthan under 18 section.

Among girls Priyanka Kumari and Rama Kumari of Jharkhand impressive wins over their tough opponents and leading the girl section with 4 points each whereas Sonakshi Rathore (3.5) of Jaipur drew against Akshat Aggrawal.

Round 7: It was once again smooth sail for top seeded layers. IM Himanshu Sharma was at his best win he registered a comfortable win over Giant Killer Himal Gussain of Chandigarh.
& cemented his claim for championship. Biggest upset of the Day created by 13 yr Jharkhand girl Rama Kumari who took full advantage of blunder made by Manish Joshi Of Maharshtra , whose Rating was 275 points above Rama, & left no stone unturned to grab one full Point. Sister Priyana drew with higher rated Shantanu Boropatra.

After several draws with higher rated players Rishi Kaushik of Jaipur Played a magnificent knock & displayed glimpses of his Chess Brilliance, when he beautifully sacrificed his three pieces to mastermind a debacle over his opponent in 17 moves.

Nishtha Gupta an upcoming age Group Player exhibited a rare example of Patience & fighting sprit when she recovered from a minus position & Challenged Chandigarh Coach Abhinandan Vora & also 175 Elo points stronger than Nishtha, for over 120 moves & 4.30 hours. In Equal Ending Nishtha made a blunder & lost.

Round 8 Looking to his chances of certain Championship IM Himanshu Sharma preferred caution & agreed for a quick draw with Hemant Sharma,Which ensured him Title & Rs 25000/. But on 2 nd Board Sudhir Sinha of Ordinance could not calculate properly & agreed for draw with shailendra Vajpai of UP but this draw costed him of 2 place. Rama Kumari Continued her spree to kill Giants this time her victum was Sukhpal singh of Jaipur, who was 250 ELO points stronger than her.

Round 9: As championship was decided in eigth round, IM Himanshu Sharma took it lightly but Rahul Sangama had some determination in mind. In hard fought game Rahul Sangma defeated Im Himanshu Sharma & grabed 2nd position & Rs 15000/ cash.

2nd & 3rd board witnessed quick draws. Himal Gussain striked once again & this time his victum was Laisa Ram Imocha of Assam. Rajesh Kumar Nath a low rated player defeated Manish Joshi of maharashtra.

This tournament would also be remembered for groth of new generation of Chess in Rajastahn which was otherwise in doldrums for last 2 yers. This tournament has given 10 more rated players to Rajasthan.

10 yr old Sonakchi Rathore of Jaipur shown that she is the future player of Rajasthan. He won best Rajasthan female, Best Jaipur Female, Best Jaipur U/18.

Organizers did excellent job to spread the prizes to 40% of participants. 64 prizes emboldened the young & promising Chess players. Organizers given away memento to all participants under 15.

Prize Distribution & Closing Ceremony was colorful. Sports Minister of Rajasthan Government Mr Yunoos Khan Was the Chief Guest of the ceremony. AICF General Secretary D V Sunder & AICF treasurer Mr Bharat Singh were Special Guest of Honour. Patron of ARCA Mr Pranvendra Sharma was the Chairman of ceremony.

In his speech Sports Minister retreated full sport of the govt for chess & chess players. He assured that Chess Activities in State would flourish & govt would leave no stone unturned to ensure just for Chess Players.

General Secretary of All India Chess Federation openly & vehemently pledged theirs support for All Rajputana Chess Association & its Office Bearers, its affiliated unit in Rajasthan. He declared that AICF has un-aborted support for its affiliated unit. He calls all Chess fertenity in Rajasthan to come out with theirs full sport to ARCA.

The closing ceremony was followed by heavy supper.

Final Standings



S.No. Name of Player Points Prize Money[Rs.
1 Himanshu Sharma 7.5 25000/
2 Sangma Rahul 7.5 15000/
3 Shailendra Kr. Bajpai 7 8000/
4 Hemant Sharma 7 5000/
5 Sudhir Kumar Sinha 7 3100/
6 Kanti Lal Dave 7 1500/
7 Akshat Khamparia 7 1500/
8 Atul Kumar 7 1500/
9 Himal Gusain 6.5 1500/
10 Pankaj Joshi 6.5 1500/
11 Shreyansh Dakhlia Jain 6.5 1000/
12 Utpal Baruah 6.5 1000/
13 Pranav P Shetty 6.5 1000/
14 Abhishak Kelkar 6 1000/
15 Saurabh Kherdekar 6 1000/
16 Prasenjit Dutta 6 1000/
17 Brijesh Agarwal 6 1000/
18 Mukesh Mandoli 6 1000/
19 Gupta Meghan Sushil 6 1000/
20 Negi V.S. 6 1000/
21 Santanu Borpatra 6 1000/
22 Debashish Dutta 6 1000/
23 Rama Kumari 6 1000/
24 Ritwan Sauntra 6 1000/
25 Rajesh Kumar Nath 6 1000/

Special & Age Group Prizes:

Rama Kumari 6.0 Best Female
Vinit Bansal 6.0 Best Unrated
Kantilal Dave 7.0 Best Raj. (M)
Sonakshi Rathore 4.5 Best Raj. (F)
Sunil Bhargava 6.0 Best Jaipur (M)
Sonakshi Rathore 4.5 Best Jaipur (F)
Rahul Sangama 7.5 Best U-18(M)
Rama Kumari 6.0 Best U-18(F)
Atishay Ajmera 5.5 Best U-18(Raj M)
Sonakshi Rathore 4.5 Best U-18(Raj F)
Arpit Gupta 4.0 Best U-18(Jp- M)
Juhi Ajmera 4.0 Best U-18(Jp- F)
Himal Gusain 6.5 Best U-14 (M)
Priyanka Kumari 5.0 Best U-14 (F)
Harshit Sharma 4.0 Best U-14(Raj M)
Nishta Gupta 4.0 Best U-14(Raj F)
Kushagra Sharma 3.5 Best U-14(Jp M)
*Sonakshi Rathore 4.5 Best U-14(Jp F)
Vaibhav Suri 6.0 Best U-10 (M)
Vinita Mangyani 3.5 Best U-10 (F)
Mayank G Jain 3.0 Best U-10(Raj M)
Laxshya Shrivastava 2.0 Best U-10(Raj F)
Yeshasv Bhargava 3.0 Best U-10(Jp M)
Subramaniyan T.V. - Seniormost Male
Juhi Ajmera - Seniormost F.
Naman Mehta - Youngest Male
Laxshya Shrivastava - Youngest Female
Aishwarya 4.0 Best Sportsperson

Some Interesting Features

Special & Noteworthy was the fact that 88 participants were below 16 yrs of age.

AC accommodation was provided to all players having ELO 2300+

Cold mineral waters & tea were provided to all participants & parents free of cost round the tournament.

Free Bus service was provided from Place of stay to playing venue & back.

To combat temperature playing hall was carpeted from wall to wall.

As tournament was organized by parents of chess players, some efforts were made by people of wested interest to demolish the tournament. These anti chess element spreaded rumors specially in Northern Belt to sabotage the TMT. But participation of 152 players proved that for players CHESS is Supreme.

First time in the history of Rajasthan any Rating tournament was played on Fischer mode. Clock were provided on almost all tables.



Interview of Orgnizing Secretary Mr Ajay Ajmera.
& Hony Secretary Of All Rajputana Chess Association P K Gupta.

Mr Ajay Ajmera is treasurer of All Rajputana Chess Association & Organizing Secretary of JSG Heritage International Rating Open Chess Tournament held at Jaipur from April 28th to May 2007. Black & White spend some time with him. Excerpts of conversation..

AICF Magzine : Congratulations on organizing such a splendid Tournament on your debut , all the players to whom we met have given full points to you.

AA: Thanks a lot. This is all due to our team efforts & guidance of our patron Mr Pranvendra Sharma . I am also thankful to all players who have supported us.

AICF:. What prompted you to organize this tournament.

AA: Rajasthan had produced only 40 Rated players so far, out of them appx 20 are inactive & centered in one city only. First & foremost consideration of our team was that we organize the tournament where our kids can learn chess & may get rating. We plan to develop chess at the grassroot level.

AICF : There were some whispers that this tournament is not valid . Players were somewhat suspicious about actual happening of this TMT

PKG reply :[ laughs] : At no point of time any player was having any doubt in mind. Event Code was allotted by AICF. It was displayed on the Home page of website of AICF. Our Young & beloved Sports Minister and Non other than Chess Supremo AICF General Secretary & AICF Treasurer were present in the PD ceremony. What else required for validity ? some people of wasted interest wanted to derail this tournament, they spreaded some ill rumors but Chess Player is most intelligent persons. They came , they played & you can see the galore of this PD. Presence of 152 players incl 75 rated players are our ceritificate of success.

AICF : 152 players , 75 of them are rated on a Modest Prize Money of Rs 100000/. Did you expect such a thumping response from players.

PKG: In fact we were un-experienced. We were having no idea about holding any tournament of this magnitude. But we were confident on efforts of our teams. We have not left any stone unturned to convey the information to all over country by Tel, email, & letters . we opened our website www.arca.in
Even information of our tournament was listed on FIDE Calender. 4 Pakistani, 3 Bangla Deshi & 1 Lankan Players had confirmed theirs enteries over E mails but could not turn up. Pakistani Players could not get theirs Visa. We are thankful to all participants.

AICF : Now what are your plan in near future?

PKG: when we took over there were around 40 rated players in Rajasthan. No of active players were even less. After completion of Sri Ganganagar Tournament in May 2007 no of Rated players in Rajasthan
Are likely to be over 75. By the year end our goal is to increase this no to Magnificent 100. we plan at least 3 more FIDE Rating Tmt in 2007.

AICF : Thanks & wish you all the best for your efforts to Develop chess in this Rajasthan state.
 

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Published : 07  June, 2007