By IA Vikas Sahu India
The 7th edition of N L Pandiyar Memorial FIDE Rating Chess Tournament was held from 8th to 12th October 2022 at Orbit Resort, Udaipur Rajasthan. The event was organized by Chess In Lakecity, Udaipur. The tournament attracted a total 405 players which includes 317 international FIDE rated players. Among the participants were 3 FM, 1 WFM and 1 WCM from 21 states.
The tournament was inaugurated at the hands of. Shri. Vijay Godha, BJP, Other dignitaries present were; Shri. Rajeev Bharadwaj, President, Chess in Lakecity, Shri. Rajendra Teli, Vice president, RCA, Shri. Vikas Sahu, Secretary Chess In lakecity and IA Swapnil Bansod, Chief Arbiter. The inaugural function was held at 9.30 A.M. and was followed by a technical meeting and first round at 10:00 AM. The necessary technical matters were decided in the meeting and also the appeal committee was formed in the same meeting.
After 5 tough days of 7th N L Pandiyar tournament 2022, which concluded at Orbit Resort, emergence of some new talents. Lower rated players showed their skills and upset the higher rated.
FM Akash Thakur of RLYS the top seed of the tournament, was surprised by Maharashtra’s Kiran Panditrao during round 5 in an Italian game. At the end of 6th round Kartavya Anadkar and FM Jeet Jain were leading the event with perfect score. At round 7 Kartavya beat Jeet to take the solo lead. He was followed by FM Saurabh Kherdekar of Rlys, Ajay Santhosh Parvathareddy UP and Sahil Bheron of HAR with 6.5 pts.
During the 8th round Kartavya was paired against Ajay Santhosh and FM Saurabh was paired against Sahil. All 4 players settled for draws and split the points. Kartavya was still leading the event with 7.5 points, a half point lead over his nearest rivels.
The last round game was also a draw for him against FM Saurabh Kherdekar of Rlys while on 2nd board Sahil Bheron and Ajay Santhosh split the point. Bishal Basak of WB beat Ashpreet Singh and Sham R of TN beat FM Akash Thakur to tie for 2nd Place. Kartavya Anadkar won the event with 8 points, 6 wins and 2 draws. FM Saurabh Kherdekar, Bishal Basak, Kishor Kumar Jaganathan, runnerup at recently concluded Bikaner below 2000, Ajay Santhosh Parvathareddy, Sahil Bheron, and Sham R stood 2nd to 7th respectively. Kartavya bagged the cash prize of Rs. 1,11,000/- and a glittering trophy.
The prizes were distributed at the hand of Smt. Preeti Singh Shakhtawat MLA. The other dignitaries present were Shri. Hardeep Bakshi, Director Sidling public School, Shri. Sanjeev Bharadwaj, secretary, Bharat vikas parishad, Shri. Tushar Mehta, Shri. Rajeev Bharadwaj, President Chess In Lakecity, Shri. Rajendra Teli, Vice president Rajasthan Chess Association & tournament director and IA Swapnil Bansod, Chief Arbiter. The tournament, organized by Chess in Lakecity on behalf of Rajasthan Chess Association and All India Chess Federation, concluded smoothly.
Chief Arbiter IA Swapnil Bansod headed the team of Arbiters consisting of IA Deepak Chavan, Dy. Chief Arbiter, IA Sunil Soni, Dy. Chief Arbiter, FA Varun Kumar, IA Vikas Sahu, FA Neelesh Kumawat, FA Manish Chandalia, SNA Lakashaya Arora, SNA Lalit Kapoor, SNA Sudhanshu Gaidhane, SNA Nakul Chaudhary, SNA Gayatri Kataria, SNA Dipaka Sahu, SNA Monika Sahu, SNA Daksh Jain, SNA Manish Kumar, SNA Anish Ansari and IA Sandesh Nagarnaik, live games incharge who ably assisted him.