Neelash Saha wins a double for the second consecutive year at LBHM Chess Festival 2024

by Shahid Ahmed - 05/06/2024

IM Neelash Saha, GM Diptayan Ghosh, IM Aronyak Ghosh and IM Ratnakaran K scored 8/9 each at 10th LBHM Rating Open 2024 part of Late Bharatbai Halkude Memorial LBHM Chess Festival 2024. Neelash won the tournament due to better tie-break score. The remaining three were placed second to fourth respectively. Neelash drew against both runners-up, Diptayan an Aronyak in ninth and seventh round respectively. The total prize fund of the entire festival was ₹3024234, for Classical Rating tournament it was ₹1299111. The top three prizes were ₹150000, ₹100111 and ₹50000 along with a trophy each respectively. Neelash also won the 13th LBHM Blitz Rating Open 2024. Both him and Aronyak scored an unbeaten 8.5/9 each. They secured top two places. IM Ratnakaran K scored 8/9 to secure third place. These are Neelash's fifth and sixth tournament triumph of the year, five of them were rated.

Classical and Blitz Rating Open triumph

IM Neelash Saha and GM Diptayan Ghosh were the coleaders 7.5/8 heading into the last round. They made a quick draw to secure the first two places. IM Aronyak Ghosh defeated FM Md. Imran to finish third 8/9 in 10th LBHM Rating Open 2024. In 13th LBHM Blitz Rating Open, Neelash and Aronyak were the only two players at a perfect 8/8. They were a full point ahead of the others. They drew their final round game to finish first and second. IM Ratnakaran K defeated Daksh Goyal to finish third 8/9. The total prize fund in the Blitz event was ₹100111. The top three prizes were ₹15000, ₹10111 and ₹5000 along with a trophy each. Aronyak won the Rapid Rating event. We will mention it and the Below 1800 Rating tournaments in detail in separate articles soon.

Champion - IM Neelash Saha 8/9 in Classical and 8.5/9 in Blitz

Last year, Neelash won 7th LBHM Rating Open and 9th LBHM Rapid Rating Open 2023. This time he won 10th LBHM Rating Open and 13th LBHM Blitz Rating Open. The score in both Classical events were 8/9, whereas in the faster format it was 8.5/9 in both Rapid Rating in 2023 and Blitz Rating in 2024.

"No matter where I'm playing, I always try to give my best" - IM Neelash wins a double at LBHM Chess Festival 2024 for the second consecutive year | Video: ChessBase India

Runner-up in Classical - GM Diptayan Ghosh 8/9 | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

Second Runner-up in Classical and Runner-up in Blitz - 8/9 and 8.5/9

Second Runner-up in Blitz - IM Ratnakaran K 8/9

Neelash - Nitin, Round 8

Position after 16...Ng4??

IM Nitin S (2339) lost a pawn early in the King's Indian Defence opening when he played 8...Nd4 but could not follow through correctly. In the above position, 16...Ng4?? does not work on account of 17.Bxg7! Nxf2 18.Qh6 White is not bothered about his light-squared bishop on d3 as he has checkmate ideas on g7. IM Neelash Saha (2469) won the game in another dozen moves.

Classical: IM Neelash Saha scored an unbeaten 8/9 to win the tournament and gained 11.5 Elo rating points

IM Neelash Saha scored 8.5/9, became champion and increased his Elo rating by 20.4 points

A total of 698 players including 3 GMs and 4 IMs took part from various parts of the country, one from Canada and two from the USA. The five-day nine round Rating Open tournament was organized by Aryan Enterprises at Dhruv Global School in Pune, Maharashtra from 18th to 22nd May 2024. The time control of the event was 90 minutes + 30 seconds increment from move no.1.

Replay all available 10th LBHM Classical event games

Replay all available Blitz Rating Open games

Final standings in Classical

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	3	IM	Neelash Saha				IND	2469	RSPB	8	54,5	59,5	51,5	0	7	9	8	7,12	0,88	10	8,8
2	1	GM	Ghosh Diptayan				IND	2560	RSPB	8	53,5	57,5	49,8	0	7	9	8	8,18	-0,18	10	-1,8
3	2	IM	Aronyak Ghosh				IND	2528	RSPB	8	51,5	56	48,8	0	7	9	8	8,31	-0,31	10	-3,1
4	6	IM	Ratnakaran K.				IND	2258	SRLYS	8	50,5	55	47	0	8	9	8	7,46	0,54	10	5,4
5	4	IM	Nitin S.				IND	2339	TN	7,5	54,5	59	47	0	7	9	7,5	7,13	0,37	10	3,7
6	19		Bhoir Paras Dilip	U15		LBHM	IND	1965	MH	7,5	53	57,5	46	0	7	9	7,5	6,17	1,33	40	53,2
7	8		Dere Pushkar				IND	2206	MH	7,5	52,5	57,5	46	0	7	9	7,5	7,04	0,46	20	9,2
8	14		Bhosale Shriraj			LBHM	IND	2032	MH	7,5	48,5	53	42,8	0	7	9	7,5	6,93	0,57	20	11,4
9	100		Avirat Chauhan	U11			IND	1761	MH-Pune	7,5	47	50,5	39,5	0	7	9	7,5	4,28	3,22	40	128,8
10	23		Gawai Siddhant				IND	1935	MH	7	52,5	57,5	42,3	0	6	9	7	6,16	0,84	40	33,6
11	40		Agnivo Chakraborty				IND	1874	WB	7	51,5	55,5	41,8	0	6	9	7	4,87	2,13	40	85,2
12	9	FM	Md Imran	U15			IND	2171	AP	7	50,5	54,5	39,8	0	6	9	7	6,92	0,08	20	1,6
13	11		Sharnarthi Viresh	U15		LBHM	IND	2078	MH-Pune	7	50	54,5	41	0	7	9	7	7,07	-0,07	40	-2,8
14	12	FM	Dutta Joydeep				IND	2061	WB	7	49,5	53	40,5	0	5	9	7	7,48	-0,48	20	-9,6
15	46		Sherla Prathamesh	U13		LBHM	IND	1858	MH-Pune	7	49	53,5	40	0	5	9	7	5,28	1,72	40	68,8
16	10		Koustuv Dash				IND	2135	OR	7	49	53,5	39,5	0	6	9	7	7,88	-0,88	40	-35,2
17	43		Gyana Sai Santhosh M				IND	1870	AP	7	49	53	39	0	6	9	7	5,51	1,49	40	59,6
18	25		Bhuvan Krishna Prasanth	U13			IND	1930	KA	7	48,5	53,5	40	0	6	9	7	6,21	0,79	40	31,6
19	20		Jihan Tejas Shah	U15			IND	1953	GJ	7	48,5	53	41,3	0	6	9	7	6,92	0,08	40	3,2
20	13		Badrinath S.				IND	2033	PY	7	48,5	52,5	40,5	0	7	9	7	7,72	-0,72	20	-14,4
21	22		Harshit Ranjan Sahu				IND	1947	OR	7	48	53	39	0	7	9	7	6,36	0,64	40	25,6
22	7	GM	Roy Chowdhury Saptarshi			LBHM	IND	2237	RSPB	7	48	52,5	40	0	6	9	7	8,57	-1,57	10	-15,7
23	33		Khairmode Dhanashree		w	LBHM	IND	1892	MH-Pune	7	48	52	38,8	0	6	9	7	6,09	0,91	40	36,4
24	48	CM	Nimay Agrawal	U13		LBHM	IND	1854	HR	7	46,5	50,5	38,5	0	5	9	7	5,94	1,06	40	42,4
25	55		Arnav Mahesh Koli	U15			IND	1842	MH	7	45	48,5	36	0	7	9	7	6,37	0,63	40	25,2

Details

A total of 706 players including 4 GMs and 6 IMs took part from various parts of the country, one from Canada and three from the USA. The one-day nine round Blitz Rating Open tournament was organized by Aryan Enterprises at Dhruv Global School in Pune, Maharashtra on 22nd May 2024. The time control of the event was 3 minutes + 2 seconds increment from move no.1.

Final standings in Blitz

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	FED	RtgI	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5	n	w	we	w-we	K	rtg+/-
1	4	IM	Neelash Saha			IND	2351	RSPB	8,5	55,5	60,5	56,3	0	8	9	8,5	7,79	0,71	20	14,2
2	2	IM	Aronyak Ghosh			IND	2420	RSPB	8,5	54,5	59	54,8	0	8	9	8,5	7,59	0,91	10	9,1
3	5	IM	Ratnakaran K.			IND	2339	SRLYS	8	55,5	60	51,5	0	8	9	8	7,68	0,32	10	3,2
4	14	FM	Jain Kashish Manoj			IND	2200	MH	8	52	55	47	0	8	9	8	7,07	0,93	20	18,6
5	1	GM	Ghosh Diptayan			IND	2553	RSPB	8	50	54,5	48,5	0	7	9	8	8,72	-0,72	10	-7,2
6	28		Nagare Akhilesh			IND	1968	MH	8	49	53,5	48	0	7	8	7	6,27	0,73	20	14,6
7	16		Lad Mandar Pradip			IND	2140	GA	8	45	48,5	43,5	0	8	9	8	8,34	-0,34	40	-13,6
8	15	IM	Abhishek Kelkar			IND	2144	MH	7,5	53	57,5	45,3	0	7	9	7,5	7,35	0,15	20	3
9	7	FM	Wagh Suyog			IND	2330	MH	7,5	52	57	44,5	0	7	9	7,5	7,35	0,15	20	3
10	10	IM	Ritviz Parab			IND	2277	GA	7,5	51,5	55,5	45,3	0	7	9	7,5	8,75	-1,25	20	-25
11	29		Dere Pushkar			IND	1965	MH	7,5	51	55	43,5	0	7	9	7,5	6,43	1,07	20	21,4
12	30		Phatak Aanjaneya			IND	1963	MH	7,5	48,5	52,5	43,8	0	7	9	7,5	7,66	-0,16	20	-3,2
13	40	FM	Bagwe Gaurang			IND	1908	MH	7,5	47,5	51,5	41,5	0	7	9	7,5	7,29	0,21	40	8,4
14	37		Gawai Siddhant			IND	1917	MH	7,5	46,5	50	41	0	6	9	7,5	5,31	2,19	40	87,6
15	12	FM	Md Imran	U15		IND	2273	AP	7,5	44,5	48	41,3	0	7	9	7,5	8,81	-1,31	40	-52,4
16	3	GM	Laxman R.R.			IND	2362	ICF	7	52	57	42	0	7	9	7	8,55	-1,55	10	-15,5
17	13	GM	Karthikeyan P.			IND	2241	TN	7	52	57	41,5	0	7	9	7	8,05	-1,05	10	-10,5
18	45		Sharnarthi Shlok	U15		IND	1894	MH	7	52	55,5	39,5	0	7	9	7	4,46	2,54	40	101,6
19	72		Sherla Prathamesh	U13		IND	1821	MH	7	51,5	55,5	40	0	7	9	7	4,26	2,74	40	109,6
20	20		Daksh Goyal			IND	2054	DL	7	50,5	55	40,3	0	6	9	7	7,34	-0,34	40	-13,6
21	59		Lakshmi Charan Naidu G	U15		IND	1850	AP	7	50	54	41	0	6	9	7	5,84	1,16	40	46,4
22	85		Aditya Savalkar			IND	1795	MH	7	49,5	54	38,5	0	7	9	7	5,68	1,32	20	26,4
23	124		Pandey Arpit			IND	1724	MH	7	49,5	53,5	38,5	0	7	9	7	3,52	3,48	20	69,6
24	162		Neelabhro Bandyopadhyay	U15		IND	1680	WB	7	49,5	53	38,3	0	6	8	6	3,35	2,65	40	106
25	36		Srijon Saha	U15		IND	1920	WB	7	49	54	39,3	0	6	9	7	6,32	0,68	40	27,2