Fortunate Shiva wins 1st online rapid chess title
| Date :05-Aug-2020 |
Principal Correspondent :
A POWER failure forced Arena Grand Master R Shiva Subramaniam to drop a point but the two-time online blitz winner braved those tense moments to clinch the first Online Rapid Chess Championship organised by Nagpur District Chess Association (NDCA).
The competition was organised through the platform of lichess.org. Eighteen-year-old Shiva won seven rounds to clinch the two-day eight round competition. According to reports, Shiva, who has won two blitz online competition out of 10 meets, suffered only one loss in the rapid event that too because of a power failure he faced at his Hingna T-Point Residence. Playing his seventh round match against Sumedh Ramteke, Shiva was in total control before a power cut forced him to switch to his cell phone from laptop.
That forced him lose some valuable time and subsequently the match. But he did not let that loss affect his game as he went on to defeat Kaustav Barat in the last round to win the championship with seven wins and a loss. Ramteke finished second who had to split point with Rahul Shamkuwar and thus end with 6.5 points. The draw helped Shiva win the title.
Had Ramteke won, he would have clinched the title with a better progressive points than Shiva. But as luck would have it, Shiva walked away with the title. Kaustav Barat finished third with six points. Thirty-seven players participated in the tournament which was played with a time control of 10 min + 5 sec increment each to finish the game for each player. IA Swapnil Bansod, IA Pravin Pantawane and FA Umesh Panbude were the arbiters.