Kaustuv Kundu clinches Anantapur All India Rapid Rating Open

by Shahid Ahmed - 04/12/2021

Untitled Kaustuv Kundu scored 8.5/9, remained undefeated to win All India Rapid Rating Open at Anantapur, Andhra Pradesh. He beat the seemingly invincible IM Ratnakaran K in the penultimate round to take sole lead. A win in the final round would have ensured his triumph and that is exact what Kaustuv did as he beat Balkishan A in the final round to win the tournament and finish ahead of all IMs. A total of 272 players including six IMs from various states across the country, took part in this nine-round Rapid Rating tournament with a time control of 25 mins + 5 seconds each. The total prize fund was ₹200000. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Kaustuv finishes a full point ahead

Kaustuv faced three out of six IMs who took part in the event, defeated the eventual runner-up, IM Ratnakaran K and drew with the second runner-up, IM Himal Gusain. The winner received a trophy and ₹30000 cash prize. Runner-up got a trophy and ₹20000 cash. The second runner-up earned a trophy and ₹12500 cash as a prize.

Top 3 finishers (L to R) - 2nd IM Ratnakaran K, 1st Kaustuv Kundu and 3rd IM Himal Gusain

Kaustuv scored an unbeaten 8.5/9 and gained 39.4 Elo rating points in the process

Harikrishnan - Kaustuv, Round 7

Position after 40.Rff7

In the final moments of the game, White made a practical mistake, 40.Rff7 which allowed Black to get back in the game 40...Qxf7 41.Rxf7 Kxf7

Position after 46...Be4

Black capitalized on White's mistake 47.b4, by creating a nice mating net 47...Be4. There is no way for White to defend this and Black soon won the game. This win allowed Kaustuv to be in the title fray, just a half point behind 6.5/7 the seemingly unstoppable sole leader IM Ratnakaran K who was at 7.0/7.

Kaustuv - Ratnakaran, Round 8

Position after 18.Qxd5

Should Black take the exchange at a1? Correct answer is no. In general, most of the time giving up the kingside fianchetto'd bishop especially when the castling is done on the same side, should not be used to capture the undeveloped rook. In this case, it is a particularly bad idea for multiple reasons - White still has a dark square bishop, g4-knight is in a pin and h-file can be opened very soon. So, Black might have gained an exchange with 18...Qxa1 but lost a huge positional advantage. Kaustuv converted his advantage into win very nicely to go into the final round with a half point lead 7.5/8.

First ever chess tournament conducted in Police Training College and AP Police was a co-organizer

Tournament organizer - Ammineni Uday Kumar and Chief Arbiter - IA Dharmendra Kumar

This was the first-ever All India Open FIDE Rapid Rating Chess Tournament organized at Anantapur district, previously a Classical tournament was held in 2016.

Tournament Director Ammineni Uday Kumar Naidu (right) with the support of K V V Sarma. President of Andhra Chess Association

The tournament was organized by All Anantapur Chess Association, co-organized by AP Police in association with Andhra Chess Association on 13th and 14th November 2021 at Police Training College, Anantapur. A total of 272 players including six IMs took part in the nine-round Swiss league event which had a time control of 25 minutes + 5 seconds increment from move no.1.

Final Standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	7		Kaustuv Kundu			IND	2098	WB	8,5	54,0	58,0	54,25	0,0	8
2	2	IM	Ratnakaran K.			IND	2347	S RAILWAYS	7,5	55,0	60,0	45,75	0,0	7
3	1	IM	Gusain Himal			IND	2394	CH	7,5	54,5	57,0	46,00	0,0	6
4	4	IM	Rajesh V A V			IND	2277	SC RAILWAYS	7,5	53,0	57,0	45,75	0,0	7
5	8	IM	Harikrishnan.A.Ra			IND	2074	TN	7,5	50,5	55,0	43,25	0,0	7
6	6	FM	Senthil Maran K			IND	2171	TN	7,5	49,5	54,5	44,25	0,0	6
7	5	IM	Muthaiah Al			IND	2214	TN	7,5	49,5	54,0	43,50	0,0	6
8	19	CM	Kushagra Mohan			IND	1769	TG	7,5	48,0	51,5	40,25	0,0	7
9	3	IM	Ravi Teja S.			IND	2343	AP	7,0	49,5	53,0	39,00	0,0	7
10	9		Arpan Das			IND	1960	WB	7,0	49,5	52,5	38,50	0,0	6
11	10		Balkishan A.			IND	1946	KA	7,0	48,5	51,5	36,50	0,0	7
12	28		Sameer Kumar Y			IND	1623	TG	7,0	47,0	47,5	32,50	0,0	7
13	31		Velpula Sarayu		w	IND	1588	TG	7,0	46,5	50,0	36,50	0,0	7
14	25		Sri Sai Baswanth P			IND	1704	AP	7,0	45,0	48,0	35,00	0,0	7
15	42		Vankadara Praveen Kumar			IND	1395	AP	7,0	44,5	47,0	33,00	0,0	7
16	24		Sham R			IND	1725	TN	7,0	42,0	45,5	35,00	0,0	7
17	32		Joglekar Abhijit			IND	1548	MH	7,0	41,0	45,0	35,50	0,0	7
18	64		Bhuvana Koppineni	F12	w	IND	1227	AP	7,0	41,0	45,0	32,00	0,0	7
19	43		Md Bashiq Imrose	U14		IND	1383	TG	6,5	53,0	57,0	38,75	0,0	5
20	20		Raghav Srivathsav V			IND	1756	TG	6,5	53,0	55,5	37,25	0,0	6

Complete standings

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