Akshayakalpa Karnataka State 2023 R5-6: Viani, Sharan, Augustin and Parthasarathy score a double hat-trick

by Shahid Ahmed - 28/05/2023

IM Viani Antonio Dcunha, FM Sharan Rao, Augustin A and Parthasarathy R are the four leaders with a 6/6 score. 10-year-old Siddhanth Poonja held GM Thej Kumar M S to a solid draw in the fifth round. Dilip Kumar Pedda caused an upset against WIM Isha Sharma. First nine out of top ten games ended decisively in Round 6. Sharan scored a quick win over Niranjan J Warrier and became the first person to score a double hat-trick at this event. IM Viani Antonio Dcunha cruised his way to the sixth victory of the event against Gavi Siddayya. India's 50th and Karnataka's first GM Thej Kumar played three Blindfold Simultaneous Exhibition matches after his two Classical games and won them all. Akshayakalpa Organic Karnataka State Open Rating Chess Championship 2023 Round 7 starts today at 9:30 a.m. IST. All photos in this article are by Shahid Ahmed.

10-year-old Siddhanth Poonja draws against GM Thej Kumar

Before each round, Chief Arbiter announces players to ensure they are not wearing any wrist-watch or having an electronic item in their possession. Unfortunately a teenager forgot to take his wrist watch and as per AICF rule, he had to forfeit the game, after his opponent made the claim and arbiter validated it. The other announcement which is made and can often be overlooked by anyone is, draw agreement within 30 moves without the consent of arbiter is not allowed. Now, ask yourself, have you heard that in any state championship ever before? That certainly promotes the fighting spirit among the kids and adults both.

Sharan Rao blazed his way to 6/6

Akshayakalpa Organic is the main sponsor of Karnataka State Open Chess Championship 2023 | Photo: Akshayakalpa Organic

Round 5

10-year-old Siddhanth Poonja (1648) held India's 50th and Karnataka's first GM M S Thej Kumar to a draw. Dilip Kumar Pedda (1641) defeated Karnataka's only WIM Isha Sharma (2275).

Dhanush Ram M lost to IM Viani Antonio Dcunha after a battle of nearly four hours

At the age of ten years, Siddhanth Poonja definitely played solid to force the Grandmaster concede a half point

WIM Isha Sharma suffered her first loss of the event against Dilip Kumar Pedda

Ramachandra Bhat's old Indian style double fianchetto did not work out against FM Sharan Rao

Augustin A halted Atharva Kale's winning streak

Parthasarathy R might have arrived late for his game, but he had eagle-eye towards the full point

Shilpa Kumar, better half of Akshayakalpa Organic Co-Founder and CEO, Shashi Kumar and Vinay Kurtkoti, Vice President of KSCA made the ceremonial first move of Round 5.

Viani - Gavi, Round 6

Position after 19.Nf5+

Viani went for a thematic idea in the Sicilian Dragon 19.Nf5+ Bxf5 20.exf5 Rh8 21.fxg6 and the game followed an over a decade old game between two 2300+ players at a Serbian tournament. 21...Nxg6 22.Ne4 Nhf4 23.Rhg1 Rh4 24.Rdf1 Qb6 25.Ng5 e6 26.Nf3 and things started falling apart for Black soon.

Gavi Siddayya arrived late for his game and couldn't find his footing in it

FM Sharan Rao became the first person to reach 6/6 in no time

Parthasarathy R capitalized on his advantage when his opponent Apoorv Kamble blundered a piece

Augustin A finished off Dilip Kumar Pedda with a nice checkmate combination to move to 6/6

Bhargavi Bharath, Vice President BUDCA and Shubha Hebbar, Secretary BUDCA made the ceremonial first move of Round 6

Photo Gallery

Round 5 in progress

Hermon Dain Saldanha never walks alone as he is a Liverpool fan (Those who don't get the YNWA reference, check here)

The fastest result of Round 5 is a less than nine minutes of game comprising five moves. Pushkar Vithal was wearing a wrist-watch for which he had to forfeit his game when his opponent Nisarga Girisha Priya (1109) claimed it.

Fastest result of the fifth round

See this is the correct notation. Okay got it.

Watermelon combined with IM Sagar Shah's teachings earned Ishan Bhansali a full point

The above position looks like should end in a draw, right? It didn't. Niranjan J Warrier went on to win the game against Balkishan A

I love chess. If you are reading this, it is safe to assume you do too

Make your own path, forge your own journey

India's 76th GM Pranav Anand's father Anand and Pranav's younger brother

Two Akshayakalpa men unwind by playing a friendly game, following their Co-Founder and CEO's passion

Stalemate combination salvaged a half point

The Blindfold Simul participants - Monisha Ramchand, C B Thaman and Soukhya

GM Thej Kumar in action

GM Thej Kumar after taking off the blindfold, posed for a photo with the participating three kids

For more Round 5, Round 6 and Blindfold Simul photos, please click at the respective links.

8-year-old boy wins a game applying a trap he learned from IM Sagar Shah in a ChessBase India video | Video: ChessBase India

Manisha Mohite - One of the first Female Chess Journalist of India | Video: ChessBase India

More videos will be published soon, stay tuned.

Round 6 results

Bo.	No.		Name	Typ	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Typ	Rtg	No.
1	1	IM	Viani, Antonio Dcunha		2417	5	1 - 0	5		Gavi, Siddayya		1764	21
2	5	FM	Sharan, Rao		2248	5	1 - 0	5		Niranjan, J Warrier	U15	1398	67
3	13		Parthasarathy, R		1938	5	1 - 0	5		Apoorv, Kamble	U15	1981	10
4	28		Dilip, Kumar Pedda		1641	5	0 - 1	5		Augustin, A		1953	12
5	16		Sathvik, Adiga	U13	1906	4½	0 - 1	4½	GM	Thejkumar, M. S.		2384	2
6	3	FM	Yashas, D.		2315	4½	1 - 0	4½		Nambiar, Vivek		1870	17
7	7		Shet, Prajwal P		2096	4½	1 - 0	4½		Vivekananda, L		1687	24
8	36		Pranav, A J		1588	4½	1 - 0	4½		Sudhir, S.		2084	8
9	11		Likhit, Chilukuri		1976	4½	1 - 0	4½		Siddhanth, Poonja	U11	1648	26
10	40		Amith, A		1560	4½	½ - ½	4	WIM	Sharma, Isha		2275	4
11	58		Prasanth, Bhuvan Krishna	U11	1417	4	0 - 1	4	FM	Navalgund, Niranjan		2200	6
12	9		Sudarshan, Bhat		2020	4	1 - 0	4		Raveesh, Kote	U15	1417	59
13	64		Aditya, Saxena	U13	1404	4	0 - 1	4		Balkishan, A.		1817	19
14	22		Leelajai, Krishna N		1756	4	0 - 1	4		Prasiddhi, Bhat		1409	63
15	65		Aaditya, Ranjan Sahu	U13	1403	4	0 - 1	4		Swara, Lakshmi S Nair		1693	23
16	68		Suman, Saideep	U11	1392	4	½ - ½	4		Shree, Krishna Pranama		1654	25
17	73		Abhay, Hippargi	U13	1383	4	0 - 1	4		Nitish, Bhat		1627	29
18	30		Ajith, M.P.		1626	4	½ - ½	4		Thirunarayanan, Sampath Kumar		1387	71
19	78		Medhvansh, Madeti	U15	1367	4	0 - 1	4		Chinmay, Kowshik	U13	1604	33
20	83		Harshini, A		1352	4	0 - 1	4		Dhanush, Ram M		1601	34

Details

Standings after Round 6

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	5	FM	Sharan, Rao			2248	DK	6	21,5	22	23,00	0	6
2	1	IM	Viani, Antonio Dcunha			2417	DK	6	21	23	23,50	0	6
3	13		Parthasarathy, R			1938	Bengaluru Urban	6	20,5	22	22,50	0	6
4	12		Augustin, A			1953	Kodagu	6	20,5	22	22,00	0	6
5	3	FM	Yashas, D.			2315	Bengaluru Urban	5,5	20,5	23,5	22,25	0	5
6	2	GM	Thejkumar, M. S.			2384	Mysore	5,5	20,5	21	18,75	0	5
7	7		Shet, Prajwal P			2096	Mysore	5,5	19	22	21,25	0	5
8	36		Pranav, A J			1588	Bengaluru Urban	5,5	19	22	20,25	0	5
9	11		Likhit, Chilukuri			1976	Bengaluru Urban	5,5	18,5	21,5	20,75	0	5
10	67		Niranjan, J Warrier	U15		1398	Bengaluru Urban	5	23	25,5	19,50	0	5
11	10		Apoorv, Kamble	U15		1981	Bengaluru Urban	5	23	25	19,00	0	5
	28		Dilip, Kumar Pedda			1641	Bengaluru Urban	5	23	25	19,00	0	5
13	19		Balkishan, A.			1817	Mysore	5	22,5	26	21,00	0	5
14	49		Krupha, S Ukkali	F11	w	1481	Bengaluru Urban	5	22	25	19,00	0	5
15	23		Swara, Lakshmi S Nair		w	1693	Bengaluru Urban	5	21,5	23	18,50	0	5
16	21		Gavi, Siddayya			1764	Bengaluru Urban	5	21,5	23	17,00	0	5
17	9		Sudarshan, Bhat			2020	Bengaluru Urban	5	21	23,5	16,50	0	4
18	55		Medhansh, Rathi	U15		1435	Bengaluru Urban	5	20,5	23	19,50	0	4
19	54		Adrij, Bhattacharyya	U13		1438	DK	5	20	23	18,00	0	5
20	34		Dhanush, Ram M			1601	DK	5	20	22,5	17,50	0	5

Details

Round 7 pairings

Bo.	No.		Name	Typ	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Typ	Rtg	No.
1	12		Augustin, A		1953	6		6	IM	Viani, Antonio Dcunha		2417	1
2	13		Parthasarathy, R		1938	6		6	FM	Sharan, Rao		2248	5
3	2	GM	Thejkumar, M. S.		2384	5½		5½		Shet, Prajwal P		2096	7
4	11		Likhit, Chilukuri		1976	5½		5½	FM	Yashas, D.		2315	3
5	10		Apoorv, Kamble	U15	1981	5		5½		Pranav, A J		1588	36
6	6	FM	Navalgund, Niranjan		2200	5		5		Amith, A		1560	40
7	41		Rishabh, Kumara		1545	5		5		Sudarshan, Bhat		2020	9
8	19		Balkishan, A.		1817	5		5		Sumeetkumar, M S		1520	42
9	21		Gavi, Siddayya		1764	5		5		Aarav, Saish Amonkar	U11	1512	46
10	23		Swara, Lakshmi S Nair		1693	5		5		Krupha, S Ukkali	F11	1481	49
11	55		Medhansh, Rathi	U15	1435	5		5		Dilip, Kumar Pedda		1641	28
12	29		Nitish, Bhat		1627	5		5		Adrij, Bhattacharyya	U13	1438	54
13	33		Chinmay, Kowshik	U13	1604	5		5	AIM	Sushrutha, Reddy		1428	56
14	63		Prasiddhi, Bhat		1409	5		5		Dhanush, Ram M		1601	34
15	67		Niranjan, J Warrier	U15	1398	5		5	AFM	Sureka, Akshat	U15	1560	39
16	8		Sudhir, S.		2084	4½		5		Abhimaan, S Nair	U15	1300	103
17	4	WIM	Sharma, Isha		2275	4½		4½		Aneesh, Adiga	U15	1416	61
18	15		Abhishek, Singh		1919	4½		4½		Suman, Saideep	U11	1392	68
19	66		Adarsh, D	U13	1402	4½		4½		Sathvik, Adiga	U13	1906	16
20	17		Nambiar, Vivek		1870	4½		4½		Nithinpal,		1386	72