DPS North Kolkata ends 11-year reign of South Point
by Shahid Ahmed - 31/05/2018
Delhi Public School North Kolkata ended 11-year reign of South Point in 12th Chessmate - The Inter-School FIDE Rapid Rating Team Championship 2018 held at the South Point School on 27th and 28th April 2018. This was the first ever inter-school rapid rating team chess championship in India which had no entry fee. Total Prize money was ₹36000 cash and board prizes in both Open and Girls category. Total 38 teams including 31 schools participated from all across the state of West Bengal. This is the same school where Grandmaster Diptayan Ghosh was emerged and nurtured from. In this report, you will see photos, videos and interviews from the event by Shahid Ahmed who was present at the venue.
DPS North Kolkata remains undefeated
Winning team DPS North Kolkata (L to R: Subhayan Kundu, Oishik Kundu, Srijit Paul and Arpan Das) receives the champion's trophy and individual memento from GM Sandipan Chanda
Garden High School (L to R: Arunava Bhattacharjee, Aniruddh Chatterjee, Koustav Chatterjee and Aryamann Sain) defeated South Point in the last round by 2.5-1.5 and secured the 2nd position
Aditya Academy Senior Secondary School secured 3rd position
Lakshmipat Singhania Academy was the champion in the girls category
South Point Girls-A secured first runner-up position in the girls category
Saanvi Khanna received the second runner-up prize on behalf of her entire team, Modern High School for Girls in the girls category
Ayush Jha of Calcutta Boys School won the Best Board Prize in Board No.1 for scoring 5.5/6 in the open category
AIM Debarghya Samanta of Calcutta Boys School won the Best Board Prize in Board No.2 for scoring 6.0/6 in the open category
Subhayan Kundu of DPS North won the Best Board Prize in Board No.3 for scoring 6.0/6 in the open category
Arpan Das of DPS North won the Best Board Prize in Board No. 4 for scoring 5.5/6 in the open category
Juhi Parekh of Lakshmipat Singhania Academy won the Best Board Prize in Board No.1 in the girls category for scoring 4.0/6
Prena Mukherjee of Modern High School for Girls won the Best Board Prize in Board No.2 in the girls category for scoring 4.5/6
Sudipa Haldar of Shri Shikshayatan School
won the Best Board Prize in Board No.3 in the girls category for scoring 4.5/6
Shinjini Sengupta
won the Best Board Prize in Board No.4 in the girls category for scoring 4.0/6
The Tournament flex - 12th Chessmate - The Inter-School FIDE Rapid Rating Chess Championship 2018
Joydev Ghosh, Vice-Principal of South Point School delivers the inaugural speech and youngest girl rated player of the school, Aarshiya Biswas, makes the inaugural move
All Rook Pawn endgames are drawn
Probably the funniest moment of the tournament. Aditya Nandy of Indus Valley World School offered a draw after he is guaranteed to win material advantage. Can you take a guess what his opponent did?
Interesting position can arise on any board
A must know endgame: Queen vs Rook. Do you know how to win this?
Family portrait:
When you are playing a school level team chess championship, there is always a chance that your brother or sister is your teammate or your opponent in a different school. That happened in quite a few teams in this event.
The Biswas siblings: Anustoop and Shinjini. They are representing the same school yet in different teams. Anustoop was in Boys-A team whereas Shinjini in Girls-A team
On the right: Rajanya and Rachisnu Datta of Kendriya Vidyalaya, Salt Lake
Brothers in sync: Aritrya and Ayan Pal of Don Bosco Park Circus
The focused brothers: Srijak and Ruchir Sengupta of St. James School
The Majumder sisters: Kamalkoli (on far left) and Chandraboli (on far right)
The tournament hall was an air-conditioned library which is absolutely apt for playing chess
Arbiters' team with Tournament director (L to R: Srish Chatterjee, Arnab Chowdhury, Rajendra Singh, NA Tapas Chakraborty, IA Debashis Barua, IA R C Chatterjee, NA Darunath Chatterjee and NA Swapan Adhikari)
Video gallery:
Round 1 starting moments
All Rook Pawn endgames are drawn
Round 2 starting moments
Round 3 starting moments
Round 4 starting moments
Final moments: Koustav Chatterjee vs. Srijit Paul from round 4
Round 5 starting moments
Final moments: Srijit Paul blunders against Aronyak Ghosh in round 5
Critical moment: Aditya Basu picks up a poisoned pawn against Subhyan Kundu
Arpan Das gains material and converts it easily
Final round starting moments
Garden High School defeats South Point by 2.5-1.5 in the final round
GM Sandipan Chanda delivers his speech at the Closing Ceremony
Champion of the tournament DPS North Kolkata team members speak
Sandipan Chanda speaks about team championship, its virtues and necessity