Diptayan Ghosh wins ₹34000 in six ChessBase India Online Blitz events
GM Diptayan Ghosh has set a new record by winning ₹34000 in six ChessBase India Online Blitz events within a month. He finished second in three consecutive events, then he won a tournament, finished second in the next and in the final event a sixth place finish was enough for him become the Circuit Champion in the inaugural season of Saturday Online Blitz Open. Thus becoming the only player to have such a fantastic record in Online events organized by us. If you are wondering how he did it, we caught up with him and picked his brain to divulge details of his phenomenal run. If you are willing to win some more then do check out our upcoming events on 2nd and 9th May respectively. Photo: Diptayan's instagram
Diptayan fantastic at ChessBase India Online Blitz events
The youngest GM from Kolkata, West Bengal Diptayan Ghosh has performed brilliantly in six ChessBase India Online Blitz tournaments out of the eight he participated in within a span of four weeks. He scored a massive 45.0/54 in six events with a finish of three consecutive second place finish, then he won 3rd Saturday Online Open, finished second in BKT Online and then finished sixth in 5th Saturday Online Blitz Open. Thus Diptayan won a massive ₹34000 in six events which is the highest ever won by any player in ChessBase India Online Blitz events. Diptayan has a won a total of three tournaments held in Playchess and he also won the entire Circuit in the inaugural Season of Saturday Online Blitz Open.
I have watched Diptayan since his childhood growing up to be such a strong GM winning several tournaments every year. It has become a well known fact that whenever Diptayan played an event be it Classical, Rapid or Blitz event, he is an instant favorite to win the tournament. The mathematical odds have always sided with him. He has always remained the soft spoken powerhouse, speaks softly and to the point when he is spoken to, but when you face him over the board, he will show you the definition of powerhouse. I decided to do an interview with him and gather his thoughts on his performance and how he is dealing with the ongoing situation of lockdown.
Shahid Ahmed (SA): Congratulations for winning the Circuit of Saturday Online Open Blitz Season 1. How does it feel to win with such a strong performance?
Diptayan Ghosh (DG): It feels really great to win the Saturday Circuit Online Tournament Series among some of the best players of India as well as some strong foreign GMs. The strength of the tournaments got stronger, with the number of GMs and IMs increasing in every consecutive event, and so winning the circuit makes me even more happy. Actually, I wasn’t was quite sure if I will be able to participate in all the tournaments of the series as the initial lockdown was till 31st of March, and my college was supposed to open after that. The internet connection being not that great in my PG at Delhi, I really didn’t stand a chance to win the circuit.
SA: Winning the Circuit was never easy because it meant that you need to consistently perform well. How did you manage to do that?
DG: Yeah, as I said the lineup of each tournament was amazingly strong. I just played my game and it somehow worked. Well, I was quite lucky in a number of occasions. But, I think in Blitz, especially 3+0, anything can happen. It’s quite easy to ruin completely winning positions and on the other hand, win from completely losing positions.
SA: You finished 24th in the 4th event which allowed Arjun Erigaisi to have mathematical possibility to bounce back, what was your approach going into the final event?
DG: I played miserably in the 4th event, lost too many games and Arjun caught up. So, it got very exciting going into the final event. Arjun is really a very strong player and he was always a strong contender of winning the Circuit right from the very beginning. But again, I just wanted to play my normal game in the final event and see how it goes.
SA: I know that you are a very strong player in the faster time controls in over-the-board tournaments. What is your secret behind doing so well in Online Blitz events?
DG: I simply love playing blitz, especially 3+0. You can say that’s my favourite format. I have played thousands of blitz games since my childhood both online and over the board and I think those are paying off now. Haha.
SA: Which game was your best out of all six events?
DG: I loved the game against UzbekTiger95 (Vakhidov Jahongir). I think I clearly dominated throughout the game and didn’t really give any chance to my opponent. It was a clean game altogether.
SA: You have won Rs 34000 in six events in less than four weeks. That is the highest ever won by a player in ChessBase India Online events. What do you plan on doing with that?
DG: Haven’t really decided anything yet. I had planned to play some tournaments in Europe during June-July which requires quite a lot of expenses. But it seems like those events will eventually get cancelled soon.
SA: How are you spending your lockdown days? Are you following any movies, series, reading any books or studying?
DG: We are being sent class notes and assignments from the University which I need to complete within a deadline. So that takes up a lot of time. Also working on chess, solving puzzles, working on openings, playing online events, etc. Apart from that, I watched quite a few TV series recently, Money Heist being my favourite amongst them.
SA: Do you dedicate a fixed time for playing everyday?
DG: Not really. Depends on my mood. Also, there are some tournaments which begins late at night and goes on till 3:30-4 in the morning. So, there’s no fixed schedule or anything.
SA: We know that you are doing Masters in Economics at Delhi University. When did you return from there to your home in Kolkata?
DG: We had a mid-semester break from 8th-15th March. I went for a trip to Uttarakhand with my parents during that break and returned to Kolkata on 16th March as the college had initially extended the break to 31st March due to the outbreak of corona virus.
SA: What would you say as the best way to spend lockdown days to the youngsters who are playing a lot of online blitz events these days?
DG: I would say online blitz and bullet are a lot of fun. So they should enjoy playing the game. Besides, they can also solve some studies and positions.
SA: Thank you Diptayan for taking the time to answer all the questions and sending us your annotated game.
DG: Thank you so much. I would also like to thank Chessbase India for organizing such events continuously. Each event was conducted smoothly without any glitches. I hope such events continue in the future as well.
