Nagpur chess to the fore at National Sub Juniors 2017!
National Sub Junior 2017 was dominated by Nagpur kids: Sankalp Gupta and Divya Deshmukh won it in the Open and Girls category respectively. Commonwealth Silver medalist Sankalp and Gold medalist in World under 12 girls Divya, both of them continued to show their terrific form as they overcame all odds in their quest for National title and a spot at the World Youth Olympiad. We will take a detailed look in the following report, full of pictures and annotated games by the champions and video interviews.
Sankalp Gupta and Divya Deshmukh shine at National Sub Junior 2017
After a draw in the second round and another draw in the fifth round against two lower rated players, no one could have ever predicted that Sankalp Gupta will win the 43rd edition of National Sub Junior Chess Championship in the open category. He was never in the lead until the penultimate round. He won the important last three rounds, scored 9.0/11 and became the champion.
Interview with Sankalp Gupta:
Here is a game annotated by Sankalp Gupta against the runner up of the tournament Koustav Chatterjee from round 10:
Final Ranking after 11 Rounds
Rk. | SNo | Name | Typ | FED | Rtg | Club/City | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
1 | 5 | Sankalp Gupta | U15 | IND | 2244 | MAH | 9,0 | 1,0 | 74,0 | 79,5 | |
2 | 7 | Koustav Chatterjee | U15 | IND | 2222 | WES | 9,0 | 0,0 | 76,5 | 82,0 | |
3 | 2 | FM | Erigaisi Arjun | U15 | IND | 2354 | TEL | 8,5 | 0,0 | 78,5 | 84,0 |
4 | 1 | IM | Iniyan P | U15 | IND | 2461 | TN | 8,5 | 0,0 | 76,5 | 82,5 |
5 | 10 | CM | Aronyak Ghosh | U15 | IND | 2185 | WES | 8,5 | 0,0 | 75,0 | 80,5 |
6 | 12 | Raahul V S | U15 | IND | 2153 | TN | 8,0 | 0,0 | 72,0 | 77,0 | |
7 | 14 | Vatsal Singhania | U15 | IND | 2071 | JHA | 8,0 | 0,0 | 71,5 | 76,5 | |
8 | 11 | Dileep Kumar R | U15 | IND | 2182 | TN | 8,0 | 0,0 | 71,0 | 76,0 | |
9 | 3 | Saurabh Anand | U15 | IND | 2288 | BIH | 8,0 | 0,0 | 71,0 | 75,5 | |
10 | 13 | Rahul S | U15 | IND | 2079 | TN | 8,0 | 0,0 | 70,0 | 74,5 |
In the girls section, Divya Deshmukh continued her dream run, after winning Asian Youth Blitz, Commonwealth, World Cadets in under 12 girls category, by winning 34th National Sub Junior in the girls category. She was the youngest among the top 4 in her group. Her only loss was against the runner up of her group, Sanskriti Goyal. She bounced back and got into joint lead heading into the penultimate round with 7.5 points. She went to final round with a half point lead and maintained her lead by winning the last round.
Interview with Divya Deshmukh:
Here is a game annotated by WFM Divya Deshmukh against Salonika Saina of round 9. Just have a look at the depth of the annotations of this young girl. She is way ahead for her age and she puts her thoughts beautifully in the annotations:
Final rankings after round 11
Rk. | SNo | Name | FED | Rtg | Club/City | Pts. | TB1 | TB2 | TB3 | |
1 | 2 | WFM | Divya Deshmukh | IND | 2051 | MAH | 9,5 | 0,0 | 76,0 | 81,5 |
2 | 10 | Sanskriti Goyal | IND | 1819 | UP | 9,0 | 0,0 | 74,0 | 78,5 | |
3 | 3 | WFM | Salonika Saina | IND | 2041 | ORI | 8,5 | 0,0 | 73,5 | 78,0 |
4 | 1 | Makhija Aashna | IND | 2137 | MAH | 8,5 | 0,0 | 66,5 | 71,5 | |
5 | 5 | Ghosh Samriddhaa | IND | 1984 | WES | 8,0 | 0,0 | 75,0 | 80,0 | |
6 | 11 | WFM | Bommini Mounika Akshaya | IND | 1810 | AP | 8,0 | 0,0 | 69,0 | 73,5 |
7 | 8 | Jain Nityata | IND | 1842 | MP | 7,5 | 0,0 | 74,5 | 79,5 | |
8 | 17 | Rajashree Rajeev | IND | 1676 | KER | 7,5 | 0,0 | 70,5 | 75,5 | |
9 | 20 | WCM | Dhyana Patel | IND | 1640 | GUJ | 7,5 | 0,0 | 70,0 | 74,0 |
10 | 7 | WFM | Lakshmi C | IND | 1907 | TN | 7,5 | 0,0 | 66,5 | 71,5 |
The event was organized at Rajpath Club, S G Highway in Ahmedabad from 1st to 9th October 2017, organized Gujrat State Chess Association.