Duc Hoa Nguyen triumphs at 3rd Athens of the East GM Open 2023, Srihari L R second and Nitin third

by R Anantharam - 04/01/2024

GM Duc Hoa Nguyen (VIE) scored 8.5/10 to win Velammal Hospital presents 3rd Athens of the East GM Open 2023. He finished a half point ahead of the field. IM Srihari L R and IM Nitin S scored 8/10 each. They were placed second and third according to tie-breaks respectively. Srihari became the sole player to beat the eventual champion, Duc Hoa. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹4000000 + trophies + 100 bicycles and eight scooty, ₹2000000 for Category A. The top three prizes were ₹300000, ₹200000 and ₹150000 along with a trophy each. The winner's trophy Chairman MVM trophy was a lifelike human sized. Photos: IA R Anantharam

Only Srihari L R beats the champion

Vietnam Grandmaster Nguyen Duc Hoa came from behind to win the Velammal Hospital Athens of the East 3td International GM tournament organised by Ananthi Chess Academy at Velammal College Engineering & Technology, Madurai. He scored 8.5 points, including an upset win against the top seeded International Master Aronyak Ghosh of West Bengal. Duc Hoa was awarded a prize money of three lacs rupees.

Duc Hoa Nguyen, the Grandmaster from Vietnam scored 8.5 points to win the Velammal Hospital – Athens of the East 3rd international GM tournament

GM Duc Hoa Nguyen of Vietnam with the trophy taller than him

Duc Hoa positionally outplayed Aronyak in a Benoni defence in 54 moves in the eighth round. In a queen and bishops ending, he capitalised on the dormant bishop of Aronyak to get close to a checkmate position.

GM Duc Hoa Nguyen (VIE) shocked the top seed IM Aronyak Ghosh

IM Srihari L R of Chennai and IM Nitin S of Southern Railway registered wins in the tenth and final round to score eight points and tied for the second and third places. Srihari had a better tiebreak, to be declared as the runner-up. While Srihari received two lacs rupees, Nitin was presented one lac and fifty thousand rupees.

IM Srihari L R and IM Nitin S tied for the second and third places. Srihari had a better tie-break to finish second

IM Nitin S had to be content with the third place

Six players had 7.5 points each and Aronyak Ghosh had the superior Buchholz value to get the fourth place

Aronyak having a rating of 2545 could muster only the fourth place

The tournament had a grand inaugural function, with Mr. M V Muthuramalingam, Chairman of the Velammal group presiding over the function. Dr. M Manickam, President of Tamil Nadu State Chess Association was the Chief Guest and former Vice President of FIDE - Mr. D V Sundar, TNSCA General Secretary - Mr. P Stephen Balasamy and R Srinivasan, Treasurer TNSCA were the Guests of Honour.

Mr.MV Muthuramalingam, Chairman Velammal Institutions inaugurated the tournament. Dr. M Manickam. President Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, Mr. D V Sundar, Former Vice President FIDE and Mr. P Stephen Balasamy, General Secretary TNSCA were the Guests of Honour

The college girls performed a beautiful dance during the inauguration

IM Ratnakaran K could not stop IM Anuj Shrivatri of Madhya Pradesh from queening his pawn in the rook ending win for the latter in the eighth round. This helped Anuj to finish sixth.

IM Anuj's win against IM Ratnakaran helped him to get the fifth place

The Belarus grandmaster Alexei Fedorov winner of three titles in the ten IM-norm tournaments held so far, defeated SS Manigandan of Madurai in a Caro-Kann Defence played by the latter. He drew with the champion Duc Hoa in the final round to obtain the sixth place.

Alexei Fedorov drew with the champion in the final round

IM P Shyaam Nikhil of ICF Chennai sacrificed two pieces against Nitin but could not carve out a win and settled for a draw in the sixth round. Shyaam ultimately finished seventh.

Two sacrifices by IM Shyaamnikhil were not sufficient for a win against IM Nitin

The eighth place went to GM Evgeniy Podolchenko (BLR) who drew with the top seed Aronyak in the final round. In the fifth round, Devesh Anand Naik of Goa shattered the uncastled king side of Podolchenko of Belarus by sacrificing a knight to reach a winning position. But, he could not carry the momentum and a blunder towards the end and totally turned the game in favour of the foreigner.

GM Evgeniy Podolchenko - from losing to winning. Courtesy, Devesh Anand Naik. Podolchenko was eighth in the final ranking

Nithin Babu recorded a facile win over IM Muhammad Khusenkhojaev (TJK) in the seventh round and also upset GM Deepan in the ninth round. He finished ninth.

Nithin Babu recorded a facile win over IM Muhammad Khusenkhojaev of Tajikistan in the seventh round

IM Asylbek Abdyzhapar had six draws and one win in the last seven rounds. In the fifth round win against FM Maheswaran P of Sivakasi, the latter's extra knight could not stop the connected pawns of Asylbek, who got the tenth rank.

The extra knight of FM Maheswaran P could not stop Asylbek’s pawn promotion

In the much expected clash between the top two seeded International Masters - Aronyak Ghosh and L R Srihari, Aronyak defeated the second seed in a King's Indian Attack. The top seed sacrificed two pawns successively to force Srihari to lose the bishop in a rook and bishop ending. Srihari had to surrender after 55 moves.

The top seed Aronyak defeated the second seed L R Srihari in the seventh round

A few weak moves by the Madurai Grandmaster Deepan Chakkravarthy helped the Vietnam GM Duc Hoa Nguyen to get three connected passer pawns against three isolated pawns to Deepan in a rook ending. Nguyen had an effortless win in 66 moves.

GM Duc Hoa Nguyen of Vietnam defeated GM Deepan

In the queen pawn game against IM Ratnakaran K of Southern Railway, Srihari was in complete control of the game from the beginning in the sixth round. Even before losing the exchange, Ratnakaran was losing the game. The main reason was that he did not bring his queen into action for the entire game. The only move that his queen made during the game of 37 moves was from d8 to e8.

Just a single queen move from d8 to e8 in the entire game

In an error filled game, Nitin who made less errors against Nithin Babu won the English opening game. In a rook and bishop ending, Nithin Babu had to forego his bishop to stop Nitin’s pawn promotion. The game ended in favor of Nitin after 61 moves.

WIM Sachini Ranasinghe of Sri Lanka upset the International Master Sarwat Walaa of Egypt in the second round.

WIM Sachini Ranasinghe of Sri Lanka beat IM Sarwat Walaa of Egypt in the second round

Another French IM Buscara Sevan was beaten by Priansh Das in the third round.

IM Buscara Sevan of France lost to Priansh Das of Odisha

Mr. Abhinav Chandran, Chairman, Queen Meera School, Madurai inaugurated the GM tournament on the first day.

The Arbiters team

The tournament was a grand one in all aspects – let it be the prize money, beautiful and massive tournament hall, the inauguration and the prize distribution, free boarding and lodging to all players etc. Naturally, it attracted players from 21 federations, with seven GMs and 19 IMs in the fray.

Velammal Institutions has now become very popular in the chess circle, mainly because of the trio R Praggnanandhaa, R Vaishali and D Gukesh, all products of the Velammal group of schools and playing in the Candidates 2024. No other institution in the world would have produced three players qualified for the Candidates tournament in the same year. Since its inception in 1986, the group of schools is supporting sports a lot and chess in particular. In the span of 37 years, the group has now 60 educational institutions including a medical college, three engineering colleges, arts and science colleges and schools. More than 1,50,000 students are enrolled in the institutions – may be the largest offline strength in India.

Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa hail from the Velammal School... | Photo: Tata Steel Chess

...and GM Vaishali too. All the three play in the Candidates 2024. Maybe a world record for the Velammal Institutions

Mr. MV Muthuramalingam, Chairman of the Velammal Institutions directly supervised the arrangements of the tournament and has provided all the necessary infrastructure for the successful conduct of the tournament. About 1800 players and about 1200 accompanying persons were provided accommodation and food free of cost. Mr. MVM is dedicated and focussed on offering high-quality values-driven, contemporary learning environments to children and youth at a very affordable cost.

Mr. MV Muthuramalingam has influenced the development of chess in Tamil Nadu, a lot

Velammal Medical College & Hospital - a service to the society

Final standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB5
1	15	GM	Nguyen, Duc Hoa	VIE	2335	VIE	8,5	59,5	64,5	52,75	8
2	2	IM	Srihari, L R	IND	2467	TN	8	64,5	68	52,75	7
3	9	IM	Nitin, S.	IND	2385	S.RLYS	8	62,5	67,5	51,75	7
4	1	IM	Aronyak, Ghosh	IND	2545	IND	7,5	63	67,5	48,75	6
5	8	IM	Anuj, Shrivatri	IND	2400	IND	7,5	62	66	48,00	5
6	3	GM	Fedorov, Alexei	BLR	2454	BLR	7,5	59	64	46,50	6
7	4	IM	Shyaamnikhil, P	IND	2443	ICF	7,5	57,5	62,5	46,50	5
8	10	GM	Podolchenko, Evgeniy	BLR	2376	BLR	7,5	56,5	60,5	43,75	5
9	32		Nithin, Babu	IND	2102	KER	7,5	54	58,5	41,50	6
10	14	IM	Abdyzhapar, Asylbek	KGZ	2340	KGZ	7	61,5	66,5	45,25	4
11	11	IM	Khusenkhojaev, Muhammad	TJK	2366	TJK	7	58,5	63	40,75	6
12	19	IM	Ratnakaran, K.	IND	2232	S.RLYS	7	57,5	62,5	41,50	6
13	5	GM	Glek, Igor	BEL	2429	BEL	7	56	61,5	42,25	4
14	33		Manigandan, S S	IND	2016	TN-MDU	7	56	59	38,25	6
15	36		Ram, S. Krishnan	IND	1988	BSNL	7	55,5	60,5	41,25	5
16	13	GM	Manik, Mikulas	SVK	2343	SVK	7	55	59	37,50	5
17	22	IM	Elgabry, Mohsen	EGY	2215	EGY	7	55	57,5	36,50	7
18	35		Kartik, Kumar Singh	IND	2005	MAH	7	53	56,5	35,50	7
19	120		Nishant, Abhijeet Jawalkar	IND	1630	MAH	7	53	56,5	35,50	6
20	29	FM	Jaiswal, Rupesh	NEP	2131	NEP	7	51,5	56	38,75	5

Details

About the Author

Prof. Rathinam Anantharam is an A-grade international arbiter. Member of FIDE Arbiters’ Commission, Chairman of Titles Commission in All India Chess Federation, Vice President of Tamil Nadu State Chess Association, Chief Arbiter for six world championships, many Asian, International and National Championships.

The report was edited by Shahid Ahmed