SYNA Open 2016: It's a team effort!

by Sagar Shah - 26/04/2016

The tournament with rupees five lakh prize fund, SYNA Open 2016, has already begun in Katni, Madhya Pradesh. After three rounds we have seventeen players with a perfect score of 3.0/3. It will be an intense fight for the top spots as strong players like Swapnil Dhopade, N.Srinath, Himal Gusain, Himanshu Sharma are giving it their all. Thoroughly inspiring is to see the entire staff of the SYNA international school completely dedicated in organizing a top notch event. A pictorial report from Katni.

The much awaited SYNA Open 2016 kicked off on the 24th of April in the SYNA International school, Katni, Madhya Pradesh. It is a nine-round Swiss tournament that has attracted 170 players from all the corners of India. The event will last for six days and the last round will be played on 29th of April. The first prize of the tournament is a hefty Rs. 1,00,000 and this has attracted one grandmaster and six International Masters to participate in the tournament. GM Swapnil Dhopade is the top seed with a rating of 2499.

That's where you would be if you were playing at the SYNA Open 2016

The huge and spacious playing hall. The players do not have to worry about brushing their elbows with the person sitting next to them while making their move!

What do you do when your opponent doesn't turn up for the first round! GM Swapnil Dhopade got a walkover in round one and then won the next two games and is currently on 3.0/3.

Srinath Narayanan (left) had planned to play in the European circuit during this period. However, due to visa issues he had to cancel the trip. He immediately confirmed his entry at the SYNA Open and is now on 3.0/3.

Himal Gusain sports an impressive rating of 2429! It is only a matter of time before this lad becomes an International Master.

If it is a good tournament, you can be sure that IM Himanshu Sharma (right) will be there fighting for the top prizes! His love and passion for playing chess is unparalleled. His room mates often tell the tale of how he was awake until 3 a.m. in the night analyzing a chess position! In the picture above you can see Himanshu fighting it out against the 80-year-old Nasir Ali Syed of Uttar Pradesh. Did you know Nasir Ali is a former National Champion! He won the National title in 1967 in Pune ahead of Manuel Aaron. He has drawn against strong players like Mark Taimanov and is surely one of the legends of Indian chess.

Here's his game against Mark Taimanov from 1982, New Delhi:

[Event "New Delhi"]
[Site "New Delhi"]
[Date "1982.??.??"]
[Round "4"]
[White "Taimanov, Mark E"]
[Black "Nasir Ali, Syed"]
[Result "1/2-1/2"]
[ECO "D55"]
[WhiteElo "2510"]
[BlackElo "2375"]
[PlyCount "104"]
[EventDate "1982.??.??"]
[EventType "tourn"]
[EventRounds "11"]
[EventCountry "IND"]
[Source "ChessBase"]
[SourceDate "1999.07.01"]

1. d4 Nf6 2. c4 e6 3. Nc3 d5 4. Bg5 Be7 5. Nf3 O-O 6. e3 b6 7. Rc1 Bb7 8. cxd5
exd5 9. Bd3 Nbd7 10. O-O h6 11. Bf4 c5 12. h3 Ne4 13. dxc5 Nxc3 14. Rxc3 bxc5
15. Bf5 Nb6 16. Ne5 Bd6 17. Qh5 Bxe5 18. Bxe5 Nc4 19. Bg3 Qf6 20. Bc2 Qc6 21.
e4 f5 22. exd5 Qxd5 23. f3 Nxb2 24. Bf2 c4 25. Rb1 Qd2 26. Be1 Qd4+ 27. Kh2 Bd5
28. Rxb2 Qe5+ 29. f4 Qxe1 30. Rg3 Qe6 31. Rb5 Rf6 32. Qd1 Bc6 33. Re5 Qd7 34.
Qe2 Qd4 35. Re7 g6 36. Qe5 Qd6 37. Rc7 Kh8 38. Qc3 Raf8 39. Rxa7 Qxf4 40. Qe3
Qxe3 41. Rxe3 Bd5 42. Re5 Bg8 43. a4 Rd6 44. Re2 Rb8 45. a5 Rb2 46. Rc7 Ra2 47.
h4 h5 48. Re8 Rxc2 49. Rcc8 Rdd2 50. Rxg8+ Kh7 51. Kg3 Rxg2+ 52. Kf4 Ra2
1/2-1/2

It is good to see IM Suvrajit Saha back in action after quite some time. He is the fifth seed and is currently on 3.0/3.

Round 4 on 2016/04/26 at 0930

Bo.	No.		Name	Rtg	Pts.	Result	Pts.		Name	Rtg	No.
1	1	GM	Swapnil S. Dhopade	2499	3		3	IM	Deshmukh Anup	2213	11
2	2	IM	Narayanan Srinath	2469	3		3		Arpan Das	2161	17
3	19		Dahale Atul	2112	3		3		Gusain Himal	2429	3
4	4	IM	Himanshu Sharma	2384	3		3		Wagh Suyog	2081	21
5	22		Dhananjay	2076	3		3	IM	Suvrajit Saha	2260	7
6	8	IM	Murali Krishnan B T	2255	3		3		Joshi Govind Ballabh	2073	23
7	24		Saurabh Anand	2065	3		3		Abhishek Das	2241	10
8	12		Kumar Gaurav	2212	2½		3		Sayan Banik	1841	47
9	26		Joshi Manish	2041	2½		2½	IM	Sharma Dinesh K.	2351	5

You can check the entire pairing list of round four over here.

We can already see some mouth watering clashes as on the top board the coach (Anup Deshmukh) takes on his student (Swapnil Dhopade).

Inspiring a school!

One of the difficulties in organizing a tournament is to find good hands to help you with the administration. There are hundreds of tasks to be completed: accommodation has to be taken care of, food has to be provided, the playing hall has to be in good condition, all the needs of the players have to be taken care of and so on. It is obvious that you need a good team of hardworking and dedicated inviduals to achieve a high level of organization. This is not at all a problem at the SYNA Open as the entire school has joined in the task of making this tournament a grand success! When teachers become the organizers!

Organizing secretary Niklesh Jain makes sure that everything is under control. His dream is to organize a tournament where players would have minimum hassles and can focus on playing chess.

The maths teacher, Vijay Tiwari, is the accommodation incharge at the event!

Art and English department teachers Sonali and Shweta chip in with their support

Experienced arbiters FA Jitendra Chaoudhary and FA Yashpal Arora are in charge and they are supported by...

...Social studies and Commerce department teachers working as arbiters!

It is so good to see that these teachers not only believe in academic excellence but also whole-heartedly support the extra curricular activities going on in the school. Thanks to this approach you can expect a lot of talents emerging from SYNA International school in the near future.

The collector of Katni inaugurates the event

The principal of the school Aditya Sharma welcomes everyone to the school

Kashish Manglani of sixth grade is enjoying herself!

MP state U-11 runner-up Omi Jain will be looking forward to becoming a rated player at the end of this event

Born in 2010 Lakshyesh Gupta has a rating of 1042, and was at one point the youngest rated player in the world!

The ChessBase India banner on the wall! ChessBase India is supporting the event by giving away 75 prizes at the event! All the prize winners will receive one month free subscription to Premium ChessBase Account!

Pictures provided by organizing team