Our biggest and most awaited event of the week is the Chess KLUB Open Tournament which sees a larger participation every week.

This week we had a hundred and thirteen players compete against one another. The winner of the event was Sriranga Narapuram, who has a striking win rate of 70% with a total of twenty games. Our runner up, Hemanth Samayamantri, played an extremely gripping game against our winner.

The game was fairly equal till Hemanth captured a poisoned pawn with his bishop. Eventually, Hemanth had to trade this bishop for another pawn giving Sriranga an overall advantage. Our champion tactically used this advantage in the middle game and found his way to victory. Although Hemanth lost this game, he displayed an admirable performance with a win rate of 72%.

Our second runner up was Arav Singh, with a win rate of 70%.

Sundays might be a weekly holiday for people to relax, but that’s not the case with our enthusiastic students here at Chess KLUB.

The Battle Arena tournaments are an extremely awaited event here. The Beginner Battle Arena saw 44 students participate over three hours. Nikhil Abhishek was the star of the day with an excellent win rate of 100%. Nikhil played a very interesting game against Donnel Mathew, our runner up for the day. The two opponents were playing extremely well till Donnel missed a fork by Nikhil that led to Donnel losing a rook and a bishop.

Nikhil used this advantage to win the game on the 24th move. Even though Donnel lost this game he stood second at this event with an incredible win rate of 50%. In the third place, we had Vivan Sarraf with a fantastic win rate of 61%.

Following the Beginner Battle Arena, we hade the Intermediate battle arena where we had 54 students take part in this cut-throat competition.

The champion at this event was Aarav Patel with a brilliant win rate of 77%. Aarav’s most mind-blowing game was against our runner up Nikitha Kanagaraj. This game was a great example of what a come back indeed is, and Aarav’s tactical skills, displayed in this game, deserve a great deal of credit.

After blundering his queen within the first 10 moves followed by his knight, a few moves later, the game seemed like an evident loss for Aarav. Unfortunately, on the 30th move, Nikitha made a blunder that opened up her queen leading to her losing the game with a back rank checkmate by Aarav’s rook. Nikitha performed extremely well through this tournament and had a final win rate of 74%.

The second runner up was Arav Singh with an amazing win rate of 93%.

Finally, we have the Advanced Battle Arena, where we had Ishant Gandikota in the first place.

He had an impressive win rate of 68% over the 19 games he played. His most exciting match was against Saketh Chavva, our runner up for the day. Computer analysis shows that their game was equal until the middle game when they exchanged their queens.

A turn of events took place when Saketh tried to protect her King from a discovered check and landed up getting a king and rook pin, thus losing her rook. This advantage was completely exploited by Ishant, and he finally won this match. Saketh may have lost this one, but displayed an exemplary performance otherwise and had an overall win rate of 59%.

In the third place, we had  Siddharth Amaradhi with a win rate of 63%.

On Wednesdays, we have another round of our battle arena tournaments.

The beginner battle arena is the first one to take part. After two hours, we had Ayush Sarraf as the champion who had a fantastic win rate of 82%. His most exciting game was the last game that he played against our second seed for the day, Vivan Sarraf. These two budding masters displayed an immense amount of skill through the game.

Both the opponents used the discovered attack tactic extensively. Initially, this tactic benefited Vivan and allowed to him seek a great advantage until the middle game. Vivan then missed a discovered attack on his queen by Ayush, causing him to lose his queen followed by the game. Vivan may have lost this match, but the attack through his skills was not missed by his other opponents making him our runner up with a win rate of 67%.

In third place, we had Deepsy Patel.

The second event of the day was the Intermediate Battle, where forty students competed against one another.

Soham Dhavalikar was the winner here with an excellent win rate of 95% over the twenty games he played. His most interesting game was against Rushil K. In the middle game, after exchanging a rook and a pawn for a bishop and a knight, the game was fairly equal. Towards the end game, Rushil fell for a knight trap which gave him a major disadvantage.

This was followed by Soham creating a passed pawn, causing Rushil to trade his bishop for two pawns creating a further disadvantage. Soham seized this opportunity and came out as a winner.

In the second position, we had Aarav Patel with a win rate of 71%, followed by Adhvik Manoj in third place with a win rate of 63%.

The final event of the week is the Advanced Battle, where we have our experienced masters battle through the afternoon.

The champion here is Dron Acharya Das who had a spectacular win rate of 77%. His most gripping game was against Druheen Das, our second runner up for the day, who had a win rate of 58%. Druheen sacrificed his bishop for two pawns in the middle game with the intention of opening Dron Acharya’s kingside.

This was followed by Druheen winning a knight as well. Unfortunately, Druheen missed a severe attack Dron Acharya was planning, and eventually had to sacrifice his queen to protect his king. Druheen then resigned on 28th move, making Dron Acharya the winner.

In second place we had Ishant Gandikota with a win rate of 67%.

Week after week, our champions don’t fail to seize an opportunity to display the best versions of themselves. To lift yourself up, after a fall is what makes men and women strong enough to face the troubles life may bring. It may seem funny, but life can be just like a chess match. Hence, pick yourselves up and get ready for another round of adventurous battles.

Congratulations to all our winners!