Vishnu Prasanna clinches Olympiad Curtain Raiser Rapid Rating Open with a perfect 9/9

by Shahid Ahmed - 23/08/2022

Before 44th Chess Olympiad took place, on Sunday 24th July a one-day Olympiad Curtain Raiser Rapid Rating Open 2022 tournament took place. It was a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for many players to play in the same hall and boards, also for the organizers to test everything before the biggest chess extravaganza was going to place. It goes without saying that the organizing team pulled off both events with huge success and shattering records in the process too. GM Vishnu Prasanna won the tournament with a perfect score 9/9. It is obvious that anything less than that would not have been enough for a championship. Subhayan Kundu scored an unbeaten 8.5/9 to finish second. IM Ravi Teja S made 8/9 to secure third place. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

A Record breaking tournament

This was the biggest tournament in terms of participation numbers for many players including GM Vishnu Prasanna, me and many others. Most importantly, getting an opportunity to play at the exact same hall where 44th Chess Olympiad was going to take place and on the very same DGT boards, is certainly priceless to many. All India Chess Federation pulled off a huge successful open tournament, just days before 44th Chess Olympiad took place. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹500000. Top three prizes were ₹35000, ₹25000 and ₹20000 each.

Champion - GM Vishnu Prasanna 9/9 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

"I don't think I am doing so well as a player" - Vishnu after winning Olympiad Curtain Raiser 9/9 | Video: ChessBase India

Vishnu - Ravi, Round 9

Position after 23.Bxg6

GM Vishnu Prasanna got the better of IM Ravi Teja S in the last round. They both were at 100% score 8/8. White found a very nice tactical shot 23.Bxg6. There is no good defense for Black. 23...Qxc3 24.Qe5 Qc6 25.Rh3 Kg8 26.h5 f6 27.Bxe8 Nxe8 28.Qxe6+ Qxe6 29.Rxe6 and Black resigned. Vishnu won the tournament and Ravi was placed third.

GM Vishnu Prasanna won all nine of his games

Runner-up - Subhayan Kundu 8.5/9 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

For those who are wondering about Subhayan Kundu's t-shirt. He was one of the volunteers of the 44th Chess Olympiad. He is also the reigning West Bengal State Rapid 2022 champion. He managed his duties and played superbly to finish second overall which is perhaps the biggest tournament he participated in his life too.

Second Runner-up - IM Ravi Teja S 8/9 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

8th - 59-year-old Anilkumar O T was the oldest player to finish in top 10 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

The revered FT FA Suresh Kumar T J scored 7/9 | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

President of All J&K Chess Association and Joint Secretary of AICF, Atul Kumar Gupta got a walk over in the first round before he had to go for 44th Chess Olympiad work | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

The Tournament Director of 44th Chess Olympiad and Hon. Secretary of AICF, Bharat Singh Chauhan played the first round and won before he had to go for Olympiad work | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

A complimentary mask was given to all participants | Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Unfortunately I forgot to take it and I hope someone made a good use of it or keep it as a memory. The loss of this memorabilia mask can only be compensated by my win in the fourth round against Kirtana. I lost 41 Elo rating points. However, this game certainly made me delighted as it was that much special of playing it inside the 44th Chess Olympiad hall.

Kirtana - Shahid, Round 4

Position after 15...Qc7

I decided to offer my f6-knight as a sacrifice, to get some initiative on the kingside. She took it 16.exf6 Bd6 17.f4 gxf3 18.Nxf3 h3 19.g3 Bxg3 20.Ne3 Bxh2+ 21.Kh1 Qg3 22.Bd1 Bg1 23.Nd5 h2 and we get the following position.

Position after 23...h2

Neither 24.Qg2 nor Nxh2 or Nxg1 work for obvious reasons. Of course, I calculated all these easy lines and some more possibilities like 24.Nc7, Ne1. Everything seemed to be winning for me and practically it is very difficult to defend as White especially when the time is low.

Position after 33...Qxf3+

Well, finishing the game with a checkmate certainly gave me a nice feeling 33...Qxf3+ 34.Qxf3 Bxf3#. The game is certainly not perfect. Both side made plenty of inaccuracies. I could have ended the game a lot earlier if I found the precise moves and my opponent could have defended at various occasion too. However, this game quite possibly had my most picturesque finish in my over 25+ long chess career. It is games like these that makes me want to play tournaments again and again.

For more photos, please click here. Game videos will be added over time.

Some tournament statistics

• Highest ever live transmission of DGT boards in an Open tournament - 703 in Round 1 (including walk overs).

• All games were played on DGT boards only. Last round had a live transmission of 570 boards (including walk overs).

• World Rapid and Blitz is the only other semi-open event where all games are played on DGT boards, which is about 100-150 only.

• A total of 3703 games are available online. For a one-day Rapid Rating tournament, this is also another incredible feat.

It was quite difficult to bring the entire main hall of the Olympiad in one frame, so here is a short clip of it.

A total of 1414 players registered, 1175 players including 2 GMs and 8 IMs took part from England, India, Nepal, Norway, Spain, Sri Lanka and United States of America. The nine-round Swiss League Rapid Rating tournament took place on 24th July. The tournament was organized by All India Chess Federation. The time control was 10 minutes + 5 seconds increment.

Download games from chess-results

Final standings in Rapid

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	Rtg	Club/City	Pts.	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	1	GM	Vishnu Prasanna. V				IND	2495	Tamil Nadu	9	54,5	59,5	59,50	0	9
2	27		Subhayan Kundu				IND	1987	West Bengal	8,5	54	58	55,00	0	8
3	8	IM	Ravi Teja S.				IND	2204	Andhra Pradesh	8	58	62	53,00	0	8
4	31		Hemanth Raam				IND	1961	Tamil Nadu	8	53	58	51,00	0	8
5	7	IM	Saravana Krishnan P.				IND	2208	Tamil Nadu	8	53	58	50,50	0	7
6	25	FM	Senthil Maran K				IND	1995	Tamil Nadu	8	53	57	49,00	0	8
7	9	IM	Raahul V S				IND	2203	Tamil Nadu	8	52,5	57	49,00	0	8
8	13		Anilkumar O.T.	S50			IND	2124	Kerala	8	52,5	56,5	48,50	0	8
9	14		Ram S. Krishnan				IND	2122	Tamil Nadu	8	51,5	57	50,50	0	8
10	72	IM	Avinash Ramesh				IND	1664	Tamil Nadu	8	51,5	55,5	46,50	0	8
11	4	IM	Nitin S.				IND	2259	Tamil Nadu	8	51,5	54,5	48,00	0	8
12	28	IM	Rajdeep Sarkar				IND	1985	West Bengal	8	51	54	45,00	0	8
13	5	GM	Laxman R.R.				IND	2247	Tamil Nadu	8	50,5	54,5	47,50	0	7
14	19		Lokesh N.				IND	2085	Tamil Nadu	8	48,5	52	45,50	0	8
15	137		Shadhursshaan R	U15			IND	1424	Tamil Nadu	8	47	51,5	44,50	0	8
16	11		Kaustuv Kundu				IND	2129	West Bengal	8	46,5	50,5	45,00	0	8
17	123		Ashwin Sairam	U15			IND	1453	Tamil Nadu	7,5	53	57	45,00	0	7
18	56		Madanasri Gundala	S18	w		IND	1781	Telangana	7,5	51,5	55,5	44,25	0	7
19	38		Manigandan S S				IND	1905	Tamil Nadu	7,5	51	55	43,50	0	7
20	71	FM	Harshad S				IND	1673	Tamil Nadu	7,5	50,5	54,5	43,25	0	7
21	59		Aswath S	U14			IND	1741	Tamil Nadu	7,5	50	52	40,00	0	7
22	82		Arun R U				IND	1626	Tamil Nadu	7,5	49,5	53,5	44,25	0	7
23	10		Natarajan C				IND	2200	Tamil Nadu	7,5	47,5	52	40,50	0	7
24	588		Richard Solomon M	U14			IND	1088	Tamil Nadu	7,5	47,5	51	41,75	0	7
25	73		Aakash G	U12			IND	1658	Tamil Nadu	7,5	46,5	50,5	42,25	0	7
26	345		Jai Sankar Subramanian	U15			IND	1206	Tamil Nadu	7,5	46,5	49	38,75	0	7
27	63		Menhajul Hoda				IND	1713	Bihar	7,5	46	51	41,75	0	7
28	242		Vignesh Kannan P	U12			IND	1294	Tamil Nadu	7,5	46	50	41,75	0	7
29	75		Singaram P.L.				IND	1653	Tamil Nadu	7,5	46	49,5	39,75	0	7
30	74		Ayyappan P Santhana Prabu				IND	1653	TN	7,5	45,5	49,5	40,25	0	7