1st SCS International Open GM Chess Tournament, Bhubaneswar 2009

The 1^st SCS International Open GM chess tournament orgasnised by Orissa Chess Association at Swosti Plaza, a four star hotel in Bhubneswar is perhaps the strongest ever open tournament, with the participation of about 20 GMs, 32 IMs, 3 WGMs, 4 WIMs, 20 FMs and 4 WFMs. Of the 20 GMs, sixteen hail from foreign countries. Reigning European champion Sergie Tiviakov of Netherlands, with a rating of 2697 was top seeded, followed by Igor Kursonov of Russia. The tournament took place in the spacious air conditioned hall of the hotel, which accommodated all the players under one roof comfortably.

World under 10champion Sayantan Das of West Bengal started sensationally, holding Tiviakov to a draw in the second round. Other youngsters, under 14 world girls champion Padmini Rout of the host association and Grover Sahaj of Delhi had creditable draws against third and fourth seeded Kuzubov Yuriy and Drosdovazkij Yuri of Ukraine. In the fourth round, Tiviakov bounced back to share the lead jointly by defeating IM Srinath, a giant killer of GM in the third round. K. Rathnakaran of Railways was the only victor among the ten leaders in the sixth round, enabling him to remain alone at the top.

Kurnosov demolished Rathnakran in the seventh round, world junior champion Abhijeet Gupta defeated Asian Junior runner up M.R. Lalith Babu of A.P. and Kuzubov got the better of Rychagov Andrey of Russia to share the lead with 5.5 points from 7 games each. In the ensuing battle between Kurnosov and Kuzubov, the former defeated the latter to emerge sole leader. Kurnosov maintained his half point lead until the end of the ninth round. The sensational game in the ninth round was the one between the world under 16 champion B. Adhiban of Tamil Nadu and to seed Tiviakov. Adhiban made a series of sacrifices to humble Tiviakov in a beautiful game to keep himself in the second position, together with Abhijeet Gupta and Thej Kumar of Karnataka along with seven other foreigners with 7 points each.

Things turned topsy turvy in the final round, when Adiban lost to Kuzubov and Kurnosov drew with Timeshenko Georgy of Russia. Drozdovskij Yuri of Ukraine, who was never in the forefront, until the last round defeated his team mate Zinchenko Yaroslav to tie for the first place with 8 points. Other players who scored 8 points were M.S. Thej Kumar of Karnataka, who defeated Abhijeet Gupta, Kuzubov, Kurnosov, Timoshenko Georgy and Rychagov Andrey of Russia. When tiebreak was applied, Drozdovskij was the surprise winner, ahead of Kurnosov and TImeshenko who finished second and third respectively. From Indian point of view, Thejkumar secured the fifth position, S.P. Sethuraman of Tamil Nadu eighth, P. Konguvel of PSPB ninth and Rahul Snagma of Delhi tenth.

Four players P. Shyam Nikil of Tamil Nadu, Rahul Sangma, Santu Mondal and Bitan Banerjee, both from West Bengal achieved IM norms.

The tournament was well organised and the organisers Orissa Chess Association, especially Mr. Vivek Tiberwal and IM Sekar Sahu deserve full appreciation. The sponsor Mr.T.K. Mohanty has assured to continue the tournament and definitely, it will be a bonanza to Indian players.

Rank	SNo.		Name	Rtg	FED	Club	Pts	BH.
1	4	GM	Drozdovskij Yuri	2603	UKR		8	65
2	2	GM	Kurnosov Igor	2658	RUS		8	64½
3	12	GM	Rychagov Andrey	2530	RUS		8	63½
4	3	GM	Kuzubov Yuriy	2632	UKR		8	63
5	36		Thejkumar M S	2420	IND	KAR	8	58½
6	10	GM	Hossain Enamul	2531	BAN		7½	66
7	8	GM	Timoshenko Georgy	2550	UKR		7½	66
8	28	IM	Sethuraman S P	2451	IND	TN	7½	64
9	31	IM	Konguvel Ponnuswamy	2428	IND	PSPB	7½	62
10	69		Sangma Rahul	2312	IND	DEL	7½	61½
11	17	IM	Khusnutdinov Rustam	2507	KAZ		7½	61
12	13	GM	Ismagambetov Anuar	2525	KAZ		7½	60½
13	27	GM	Bakre Tejas	2452	IND	GUJ	7½	58½
14	7	GM	Zubarev Alexander	2566	UKR		7	67
15	33	IM	Rathnakaran K	2427	IND	Rlys	7	66½
16	9	GM	Ovetchkin Roman	2549	RUS		7	66
17	14	GM	Vokarev Sergey	2521	RUS		7	66
18	11	GM	Zinchenko Yaroslav	2531	UKR		7	65
19	1	GM	Tiviakov Sergei	2697	NED		7	64½
20	47	IM	Narayanan Srinath	2381	IND	TN	7	63½
21	5	GM	Vorobiov Evgeny E	2596	RUS		7	63½
22	24	IM	Sengupta Deep	2466	IND	JHA	7	63½
23	128		Santu Mondal	2140	IND	WB	7	62½
24	6	GM	Gupta Abhijeet	2570	IND	PSPB	7	62½
25	20	IM	Adhiban B	2483	IND	TN	7	62½
26	16	GM	Neelotpal Das	2514	IND	PSPB	7	61½
27	40	IM	Himanshu Sharma	2403	IND	HAR	7	61
	43	IM	Saravanan V	2391	IND	BPCL	7	61
29	25	GM	Temirbayev Serikbay	2458	KAZ		7	60
30	37	FM	Priyadharshan K	2411	IND	TN	7	60
31	77	IM	Deshmukh Anup	2299	IND	LIC	7	59½
32	26	IM	Sriram Jha	2453	IND	DEL	7	59½
33	46	FM	Minhazuddin Ahmed	2382	BAN		7	59½
34	51		Shivananda B S	2378	IND	KAR	7	58½
35	74	WGM	Meenakshi Subbaraman	2303	IND	AI	7	58
36	49	IM	Suvrajit Saha	2380	IND	Rlys	7	58
37	48	IM	Sareen Vishal	2380	IND	DEL	7	55
38	100	WIM	Padmini Rout	2238	IND	ORI	7	52½
39	53		Premnath R	2353	IND	TN	7	51
40	21	GM	Deepan Chakkravarthy J	2482	IND	PSPB	7	50½