This week saw some breathtaking tricks and tactics, making the games worth everyone’s attention. The series of these exceptional games began with the Chess KLUB Open Tournament held on Saturday, 10th October, where we had delightful participation of 109 students.

The champion of this major tournament was Advit Gupta, with a record-breaking win rate of 100%. Advit played an interesting game with Donnel Mathew. Advit managed to open Donnel’s king early into the game. However, Donnel tried to move his king into a safer spot and further brought his rook to an open file. This open file allowed him to be an exchange up in the middle game. However, once Donnel’s rook left the guarding of his king, Advit further invaded Donnel’s unprotected king and checkmated him on the twenty-fifth move.

The runner up here was Saket Reddy with a wonderful win rate of 79%, followed by Vivaan Bhatt with a win rate of 59%. 

The Beginner Battle Arena was the second tournament of the week where we had 45 rising champions compete against each other.

Nela Bhotla took home the winning title with a fantastic win rate of 78%. His most engaging game was against Johan Chavara, our runner up for the day, who had a win rate of 64%, where Nela opened the game with the French Defense. The game took an interesting turn when Nela lost his queen while trying to execute an attack onto Johan’s king. Johan used this major advantage that he gained and converted it into a victory on the twenty-fifth move.

In third place, we had  Abheek Sanagapalli with a win rate of 71%.  

The Chess KLUB Intermediate Battle Arena saw some eventful games with major twists and turns. The winner of this event was Adhvik Manoj with an impressive win rate of 84%.

Adhvik played an extremely engaging game against Shiven Patel that saw an unexpected result. The opening played was the Ruy Lopez opening, and the game further panned out very different from the normal variations of this opening. The game started with both opponents blundering their minor pieces at some point in the opening and middle game. This further went ahead with Adhvik blundering his rook and a few pawns giving Shiven a massive advantage. When Shiven tried to make a queen using the passed pawn he created, he, unfortunately, missed a checkmate threat Adhvik was posing and lost the game.

Even though Shiven lost this game, he placed third at this tournament with a win rate of 67%. Rishab Ghosh stood second with a win rate of 68%. 

The final battle arena tournament of the week was the Advanced Battle Arena Tournament where Rudra Mishra won the championship title with an excellent win rate of 75%.

Rudra Mishra played a tactical game against Saket Reddy, the second runner up who had a win rate of 43%. This game took an interesting turn when Rudra exchanged his two minor pieces for Saket’s rook and pawn. This was followed by Saket blundering his bishop and a pawn giving Rudra an advantage.

This advantage increased when Rudra won another bishop through a pin that Rudra executed in the end game, making Rudra a rook up. This caused Saket to resign on the 39th move. 

Our second round of tournaments takes place on Wednesdays where we start this eventful day with the Beginner Battle Arena tournament. Deepsy Patel took home the title as the champion of this event with an admirable win rate of 79%.

One of the most interesting games of the afternoon was between Deepsy and our runner up, Veer Malik, who ended this tournament with a great win rate of 73%. Deepsy started the game with the queen pawn opening and ended up blundering a few pawns in this opening. This was followed by a rook blunder, made by Deepsy, which gave Veer a significant advantage. Veer used this advantage to threat a checkmate that could only be stopped by Deepsy sacrificing her queen. A few moves after winning Deepsy’s queen, Veer checkmated her with his queen and rook.

The second runner up at this tournament was Johan Chavara with a win rate of 48%. 

The second event of this afternoon is the Intermediate Battel Arena Tournament where 40 students participated in this cut-throat competition. The champion here was Vivaan Bhatt with a marvellous win rate of 83%.

An edgy game was played between Vivaan and Sartaj Ib that was 55 moves long. The first ten moves saw some beautiful moves till Sartaj blundered his rook on the eleventh move. This was followed by both opponents capturing each other’s pawns while moving towards the end game, followed by Sartaj sacrificing his bishop to gain Vivaan’s pawn. This made Vivaan a rook up in the end game, giving him a huge advantage. Vivaan finally checkmated Sartaj on the fifty-fifth move.

In second place we had Leon Mathew with a remarkable win rate of 90% followed by Rishab Ghosh in third place, with a win rate of 61%. 

The Advanced Battle Arena Tournament is the final event of the week where Dron Das prevailed as the winner with an impeccable win rate of 43%.

Dron played an extremely aggressive game against our runner up Devansh Pamecha, who had a win rate of 63%. The game was equal for the first 25 moves but took an interesting turn when Dron posed a discovered attack on Devansh’s rook while simultaneously giving Devansh’s king a check, causing him to become an exchange down. This was followed by Dron capturing a lot of Devansh’s pawns and his bishop, allowing him to eventually come out victorious.

Ishant Gandikota was our second runner up with a win rate of 60%.  

This week saw some exciting games and saw our students display some great skill and tactical ability. We look forward to a similar display of  performances in the following week as well.

Congratulations to all the winners.