Raceking Harsha Bharathakoti finishes first in Capablanca Chess School 5th Anniversary Online Blitz Open

by Shahid Ahmed - 09/04/2021

GM Harsha Bharathakoti won Capablanca Chess School 5th Anniversary Celebration Online Blitz Open with an unbeaten score of 8.0/9. He finished a half point ahead of the competition. This was Harsha's first Playchess event triumph hosted by ChessBase India. IM Mitrabha Guha, GM Jakhongir Vakhidov and IM Terry Renato scored 7.5/9. They were placed second to fourth according to their tie-breaks. A total of 138 players including 5 GMs, 18 IMs, a WGM and 3 WIMs registered for this event from 8 different countries across the world. Photo: Rupali Mullick

Harsha wins his maiden Playchess event

GM Harsha Bharathakoti scored an unbeaten 8.0/9 to finish a half point ahead of the competition. He won ₹10000 cash prize for his efforts. Despite making a draw against Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi in Round 2, Harsha managed to score 6.5 points in the last seven rounds. Three players finished at 7.5/9 - IM Mitrabha Guha, GM Jakhongir Vakhidov and IM Terry Renato. They were placed second to fourth according to their tie-breaks.

Champion Harsha Bharathakoti scored an outstanding 8.0/9 | Photo: Rupali Mullick

Total 138 players including 5 GMs, 18 IMs, a WGM and 3 WIMs registered for this event from 8 different countries across the world including England, Indonesia, India, Ireland, Peru, Sri Lanka, USA and Uzbekistan.

Positional Harsha

GM Harsha Bharathakoti's best win of the event was against GM Venkatesh M R in Round 6.

Venkatesh - Harsha, Round 6

Position after 13.Ne3

Things started going downhill for white after 13.Ne3 as the d3-knight became monster and dictated the outcome of the game in black's favor.

Harsha remained undefeated and made only two draws

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Endgame grind

IM Mitrabha Guha scored a fine victory against IM Pranav Anand in the penultimate round. Mitrabha converted his advantage slowly into a full point without making any big mistake.

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Runner-up IM Mitrabha Guha 7.5/9 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Winning finish

GM Jakhongir Vakhidov bounced back strong after suffering a loss against the eventual champion GM Harsha Bharathakoti. He won the final round game against GM Venkatesh M R.

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3rd GM Jakhongir Vakhidov of Uzbekistan 7.5/9 | Photo: gamesmaven.io

4th IM Terry Renato of Peru 7.5/9

5th IM Aronyak Ghosh 7.0/9 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

6th GM Diptayan Ghosh 7.0/9 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

7th IM Arghyadip Das 7.0/9 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

8th FM Aradhya Garg 7.0/9

9th IM Pranesh M 7.0/9

10th IM Nitin S 7.0/9 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Best Woman 1st - WIM Arpita Mukherjee 6.0/9 | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Best Woman 2nd - WFM Bhagyashree Patil 6.0/9

Best Woman 3rd WGM Nandhidhaa P V 6.0/9 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Best Woman 4th WFM Savitha Shri B 5.5/9

Best Woman 5th IM Bhakti Kulkarni 5.0/9 | Photo: Queen's Chess Academy

Final Standings

Rk.	SNo		Name	sex	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	3	GM	Harsha Bharathakoti		IND	2509	Raceking	8,0	53,0	57,0	50,25	0,0	7
2	7	IM	Mitrabha Guha		IND	2445	Babysnake	7,5	52,5	56,5	45,25	0,0	5
3	2	GM	Vakhidov Jakhongir		UZB	2533	Uzbektiger95	7,5	50,5	55,0	44,00	0,0	7
4	4	IM	Terry Renato		PER	2504	Terryr	7,5	50,5	54,5	43,50	0,0	7
5	13	IM	Aronyak Ghosh		IND	2436	Strange	7,0	46,5	50,5	36,50	0,0	6
6	1	GM	Ghosh Diptayan		IND	2541	Diptayan	7,0	46,0	50,5	38,50	0,0	6
7	6	IM	Das Arghyadip		IND	2453	Arghyadip	7,0	46,0	50,0	38,00	0,0	7
8	36	FM	Aradhya Garg		IND	2198	Aradhya	7,0	45,5	49,5	37,00	0,0	7
9	12	IM	Pranesh M		IND	2437	pranimastermuni	7,0	44,5	48,0	35,00	0,0	7
10	22	IM	Nitin S.		IND	2381	Snitin	7,0	44,5	46,5	32,00	0,0	7
11	10	IM	Aditya Mittal		IND	2438	Vinniethepooh	6,5	48,0	51,5	33,25	0,0	6
12	34		Shome Shiv		IND	2237	kingofall	6,5	46,0	49,0	31,00	0,0	6
13	18	FM	Srihari L R		IND	2414	lsr	6,5	44,0	48,0	31,25	0,0	6
14	43		Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi		IND	2110	Aakash-Dalvi	6,5	42,5	44,5	28,75	0,0	6
15	15	IM	Koustav Chatterjee		IND	2431	Koustavchatterjee1	6,0	50,0	54,0	32,00	0,0	6
16	17	FM	Pranav Anand		IND	2417	Lightsaber	6,0	48,0	52,0	30,50	0,0	6
17	8	IM	Rathanvel V S		IND	2445	Vsr64	6,0	47,5	51,5	31,00	0,0	6
18	5	GM	Venkatesh M.R.		IND	2493	Sivaji	6,0	47,0	51,0	30,00	0,0	6
19	28	IM	Rathnakaran K.		IND	2314	Rathnakaran	6,0	45,0	48,5	29,00	0,0	6
20	20	IM	Raja Rithvik R		IND	2408	Masteredui	6,0	44,0	47,0	29,00	0,0	6
21	26	IM	Anuj Shrivatri		IND	2350	Anuj Shrivatri	6,0	43,5	46,0	27,50	0,0	6
22	16	CM	Shahil Dey		IND	2431	Shahildey	6,0	43,0	47,5	30,50	0,0	6
23	32		Panesar Vedant		IND	2266	Brainboy123	6,0	43,0	45,5	26,50	0,0	6
24	31	FM	Dushyant Sharma		IND	2270	Dushu2930	6,0	41,0	44,5	26,00	0,0	6
25	29	FM	Samant Aditya S		IND	2297	Adityass	6,0	40,5	44,5	27,00	0,0	6

Complete standings

Main Prize winners (Top 25)

Rank	Name	Points	Prize
1	GM Harsha Bharathakoti	8	10000
2	IM Mitrabha Guha	7.5	6000
3	GM Jakhongir Vakhidov	7.5	4000
4	IM Terry Renato	7.5	2500
5	IM Aronyak Ghosh	7	1500
6	GM Diptayan Ghosh	7	1000
7	IM Arghyadip Das	7	500
8	FM Aradhya Garg	7	500
9	IM Pranesh M	7	500
10	IM Nitin S	7	500
11	IM Aditya Mittal	6.5	400
12	Shiv Shome	6.5	400
13	FM Srihari L R	6.5	400
14	Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi	6.5	400
15	IM Koustav Chatterjee	6	400
16	FM Pranav Anand	6	400
17	IM Rathanvel V S	6	400
18	GM Venkatesh M R	6	400
19	IM Rathnakaran K	6	400
20	IM Raja Rithvik R	6	400
21	IM Anuj Shrivatri	6	400
22	CM Shahil Dey	6	400
23	Vedant Panesar	6	400
24	FM Dushyant Sharma	6	400
25	FM Aditya S Samant	6	400

Best Women

1	WIM Arpita Mukherjee	6	3000
2	WFM Bhagyashree Patil	6	2000
3	WGM Nandhidhaa P V	6	1000
4	WFM Savitha Shri B	5.5	600
5	IM Bhakti Kulkarni	5	400

All prize winners must claim the prizes two weeks within the publication of this article. Failure to do so will result in forfeiture of the prize.

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Feedback of the Participants

IM Aditya Mittal

Thank you for a very good tournament. It went much smoother than previous tournaments.

FM Aradhya Garg

The event was conducted smoothly by Chessbase India and the participation of a lot of strong IMs and GMs made it a tough fight throughout the whole event. The tournament was conducted smoothly without much problems and there was not much spamming either on Zoom or on PlayChess. The arbiters dealt very well with the players and this created a conducive environment to play the tournament for each and every participant. The arbiters also kept us reminded of how much time the next round will start in and published the pairings on Chess-results.com consistently. Thanks for Chessbase India for conducting this wonderful event.