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10/24/2013 – The 51st editional of India's National B tournament has finished and the top nine players have qualified for the Premier Nationals later this year. The city of Bhopal was host to an impressive tournament during the Durga Pooja festival. Niklesh Kumar Jain brings us beautiful pictures of the venue and the city and a full report in English and Hindi.

M.S. Thejkumar wins 51st National Challengers Championship

This year the All India Chess Federation changed the number of players that qualify to the National Premier from the National Challenger from 30 to 9. As a result we witnessed a good amount of healthy fighting chess during this tournament. Despite the fact that the tournament had eight grandmasters, only one made it to the top nine spots and obtained a place in the National Premier as all other places were captured by International Masters. The event was successfully organized ty the M.P. State Level Chess Association with the Sports and Youth Welfare department of M.P.

The final round started with energetic handshakes and exchange of smiles. In the top board Tej played 1.d4 and the game was drawn after only eight moves in a Dutch defense.

20th seeded Railways employee Tej Kumar won the title with 10.5/13. In Hindi Tej meas "very fast"*,

and he proved it after winning the National Challenger 2013 tournament in Bhopal, Madhya Pradesh in India. Addendum: We were told the following by an anonymous source:

"Tej in Tej Kumar does not mean fast or 'very fast.' Tez is a Farsi word which means fast. The word Tez is commonly used in Hindi as well with the same meaning. Since Hindi doesn't have the sound "z" in its alphabet, many Hindi speakers mispronounce Tez as Tej. The author of the article is probably one of them. What has this to do with my comment. Well, Hindi also has an indiginous word derived from Sanskrit (and not Farsi) which is correctly spelled as Tej. This Tej, correctly pronounced as Tej, does not mean "very fast." It means "Radiance" and is the basis of all names that have Tej (or its derivatives) in it. So, Tej Kumar does not translate to Very Fast Kumar in English. Instead, it would meant the radiant Kumar. Thanks!"

Tamilnadu IM Ashwin Jayaram outplayed IM Karthikeyan Murli in 49 moves and joined Tej at the top with 10.5/13, but due to tiebreak he finished second. He should be quite happy regardless as he won a massive +26.3 Elo.

IM Akshat Khamparia from the host association of Madhya Pradesh scored 9.5 and finished third in this prestigious event. Akshat also increased his Elo by 24.5

The top five of the tournament in this picture, along with Mr. Anthony Dise, Chief Secretary of MP STtae, Mr. Bharat Sing CEO AICF, MR. Shailendra Shrivastav Director of Sports and Welfare of MP, Mr Kapil Saxena the Organizing Secretary and chief arbiter.

Top seed GM Deepsen Gupta finished 15th with 9/13

Second seed GM Adhiban, rated 2587, finished in 10th place

Third seed GM Lalith Babu finished 11th also with 9/13

Fourth seed GM Sethuraman finished 18th with 8.5/13

Take inspiration from Darpan Inani: despite his visual challenges he is rated 2022, scored 7/13 and won almost 20 rating points!

Another visually challenged player, Soundarya Pradhan, scored 5.5/13, not bad for a 1684

The team of arbiters

City of Bhopal

According to folklore, Bhopal is said to have been founded by the king Bhoja of the Paramara dynasty (1000-1055 CE), who ruled from his capital at Dhar. This theory states that Bhopal was originally known as Bhojpal after the king and the dam ("pal") was constructed by him. No available archaeological edvidence, inscriptions or historical texts support the claim about an earlier settlemented founded by Bhoja at the same place, although a temple complex constructed by him exists at Bhojpur, which is located 28km from Bhopal. An alternate theory says that the name of the city was coined from the name of another king called Bhupala (or Bhupal). During the British Raj, the railway tickets printed in the city and the signboards on the railway station mentioned the name of the city as "Bhupal" in Hindustani and "Bhoopal" in English.

The King Boj 32-feet high statue which weighs seven tons is made up of gunmetal and bell metal

A team of arbiters and players visited the famous Boj temple of Bhopal

During the tournament the famous annual festival of Durga Pooja was celebrated. Many players visited idols (murti) in different places around the city.

Food from Bhopal is very famous. This is a purely vegetarian type of cuisine, no meat, no eggs and even no fish. Here is a full "Veg. Thali" including chapati, vegetables, papad, salad and some famous Rasgulla.

Bhopal is also known for its lakes. One of the big lakes, known as Bojtal or Badatalabit is a major source of drinking water for the residents of the city, serving around 40% of the residents with nearly 30 million gallons of water per day. Atul Dahale explored the lakes in this picture.

Photograph Credits: Niklesh Jain, Upendra Upadhyay, Sagar Sah & Atul Dahle

Final Rankings

Rk. Title Name Rtg Club/City Pts. 1 IM Thejkumar M. S. 2421 Rlwys 11 2 IM Ashwin Jayaram 2461 TN 11 3 IM Akshat Khamparia 2384 Rlwys 9.5 4 IM Debashis Das 2497 Odisha 9.5 5 IM Vishnu Prasanna. V 2496 TN 9.5 6 IM Shyam Nikil P. 2412 TN 9.5 7 IM Stany G.A. 2388 AAI 9.5 8 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. 2476 TN 9.5 9 IM Rathnakaran K. 2428 Rlwys 9.5 10 GM Adhiban B. 2587 PSPB/IOC 9 11 GM Lalith Babu M.R. 2583 PSPB/IOC 9 12 GM Deepan Chakkravarthy J. 2476 TN 8 13 IM Swayams Mishra 2434 AAI 9 14 IM Karthikeyan Murali 2444 TN 9 15 GM Sengupta Deep 2589 PSPB 9

In India almost one billion people are able to read the national language Hindi. Indias biggest Hindi newspapers have a wider readership than any in the English language. We have decided to publish a summary report in Hindi, as a special service for our Indian readers. Doing this, we are told by Niklesh, will "greatly help chess promotion in India." So here it is, even if it is a foreign language to us.

तेजकुमार ने जीती 51वी राष्ट्रीय चैलेंजर शतरंज प्रतियोगिता 2013

भारत मे तेज शब्द का अर्थ होता है रफ्तार या गति और अपने नाम को सार्थक साबित करते हुए तेज कुमार ने दो दिन पूर्व खत्म हुई 51वी राष्ट्रीय चैलेंजर शतरंज प्रतियोगिता 2013 जीत ली । तेज का यह पहला राष्ट्रीय चैलेंजर खिताब है ।

अखिल भारतीय शतरंज महासंघ ने इसी वर्ष नेशनल चैलेंजर से नेशनल प्रीमियर के लिए चयनित होने वाले खिलाड़ियो की संख्या घटाकर 30 की जगह 15 कर दी ओर परिणाम स्वरूप हम सभी को देखने मिला शानदार खेल , अंतिम चक्र तक भी खिलाड़ियो को ड्रॉ करने के बजाय मुक़ाबला करना ही बेहतर समझ आया ओर एक दो अपवादो को छोड़ दे तो अधिकतर मौको पर खिलड़ियों ने जीतने के लिए ही खेल खेला । प्रतियोगिता मे पूरे समय इंटरनेशनल मास्टरों ने ग्रांडमास्टरों पर दबदबा बनाए रखा ओर सिर्फ एक ग्रंड्मास्टर दीपन चक्रवर्ती ही शीर्ष 9 में अपनी जगह बना पाये । प्रतियोगिता का आयोजन एकादमी ऑफ चेस ऐजुकेशन भोपाल के द्वारा मध्य प्रदेश स्टेट लेवेल शतरंज संघ के तत्वाधान मे सफलता पूर्वक किया।

प्रतियोगिता का तेरहवा चक्र शुरू हुआ प्रतियोगियो के बीच हाथ मिलाकर व चेहरे पर कुछ हासिल करने के जज्बे के भाव ओर अभिवादन की मुस्कान के साथ । कुछ ऐसा ही नजारा था अंतिम चक्र मे हर ओर ।

पहले बोर्ड पर तेज कुमार ने पहली चाल 1. d4 चली ओर कुछ ही चालो मे खेल डच डिफेंस मे परिवर्तित हो गया ओर 8 चालो मे ही दीपन ओर तेज ड्रॉ पर सहमत हो गए ओर इस तरह भारत को मिला 20वी वरीयता प्राप्त रेल्वे मे कार्यरत तेजकुमार के रूप मे उसका नया राष्ट्रीय चैलेंजर शतरंज चैम्पियन ।

तमिलनाडू के इंटरनेशनल मास्टर 12वी वरीयता प्राप्त अश्विन जयराम ने शानदार खेल का प्रदर्शन करते हुये अपने ही राज्य के इंटरनेशनल मास्टर कार्तिकेयन मुरली को 49 चालो में पराजित करते हुए 10.5 अंक बनाते हुए तेज की बराबरी कर ली पर बेहतर टाइ ब्रेक के आधार पर वो दूसरे स्थान पर रहे । उन्होने अपनी रेंकिंग पर भी जोरदार बढ़ोतत्तरी दर्ज करते हुए ग्रंड्मास्टर बनने के ओर अपने कदम मजबूती से बढ़ा दिये है । उम्मीद है की जल्द ही भारत को एक नए ग्रंड्मास्टर होने का तोहफा देंगे ।

तीसरे स्थान पर रहे मध्य प्रदेश की शान ओर रेल्वे मे कार्यरत इंटरनेशनल मास्टर अक्षत खंपरिया । ऐसा लगा शायद अक्षत ने बड़े दिनो बाद कुछ हटकर ही खेल दिखाया ओर शायद इस प्रदर्शन के बाद उन्हे भी इस बात का अंदाजा हो गया होगा की उनका खेल भी किसी ग्रंड्मास्टर से कमतर नहीं है जरूरत तो सिर्फ खुद पर भरोसा करते हुये पूरा ध्यान लगाने की है ओर जल्द ही वो मध्य भारत को पहला ग्रंड्मास्टर बनने का अमूल्य उपहार दे सकते है ।

प्रतियोगिता मे मध्य प्रदेश के खेल विभाग के प्रमुख श्री शैलेंद्र श्रीवास्तव ओर आयोजन सचिव कपिल सक्सेना ने अकादमी ऑफ चेस एजुकेसन भोपाल की मदद से प्रतिभागियों के लिए हर संभव इंतजाम किए ओर पुरुस्कार वितरण मे प्रदेश के मुख्य सचिव श्री एंटीनों दिसा और अखिल भारतीय शतरंज महासंघ के सीईओ भारत सिंग चौहान के आने से चार चाँद लग गए । उम्मीद है की यह आयोजन मध्य भारत मे शतरंज विकास मे अहम पड़ाव साबित होगा ।

अगर आप अपनी राष्ट्रीय भाषा हिन्दी में आने वाले विश्व चैंपियनशिप में आनंद के खेल का आनंद उठाना चाहते है तो कृपया अपनी राय जरूर दे !

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Niklesh Kumar Jain in action