TCGL FIDE Rating Chess Tournament

Indian Tournaments 2002

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TCGL FIDE Rating Chess Tournament, Baroda

Praful Mehta edges Prasanna Iyer for the title

Former National 'A' player & top-seeded Praful Mehta (ELO 2208) of Gujarat State Electricity Board edged Mumbai University Chess team player and 4th seeded Prasanna Iyer (ELO 2046) on a better tie-break to win the Tourism Corporation of Gujarat Limited FIDE Rating Chess Tournament, which was organized by the Baroda Chess Academy from 25th - 31st October 2002 at the beautiful resort of TCGL at Pavagadh, which is also the abode of Ma Kali. Praful Mehta & Prasanna Iyer both finished with 7/9 in this 10-player Round Robin Tournament, which included four FIDE Rated players and 6 unrated players. Both of them shared the Cash Prize of Rs. 4250/- each

Initially, unrated Praful Zaveri of LIC, Mumbai took the sole lead with 4/4 by beating top-seeded Praful Mehta in the 4th round. He took full advantage of an unsound Bishop sacrifice by Mehta in a roughly equal game from the Bishop's opening to score an upset win. However, he later on took 5-short draws to finish clear 3rd with 6.5 points. He was the only player who was unbeaten in the tournament and is expected to enter the next rating list along with Janak Bathiya and 7-year old Fenil Shah.

2nd Seeded Yogesh Dongre (ELO 2150) of Baroda Chess Academy and 3rd Seeded Mayur Patel (ELO 2078) of Ahmedabad played consistent Chess to finish 4th and 5th respectively with 6-points apiece. 7-year old Fenil Shah of Ahmedabad played enterprising Chess throughout, was the one to impress one and all. Before coming to Baroda, he had already completed his rating performance in the closed rating tournament at Ahmedabad and repeated the performance once again. He is all set to enter the record books as the youngest Indian player to achieve the FIDE rating.

The players were provided excellent lodging and boarding facility at the posh resort of TCGL The tournament was conducted smoothly under the supervision of Chief Arbiter S.B. Darjee without any single protest.

Final Placings

Rank	Player	Points
1-2	Praful Mehta (2208)	7.0
1-2	Prasanna Iyer (2046)	7.0
3	Praful Zaveri	6.5
4-5	Yogesh Dongre (2150)	6.0
4-5	Mayur Patel (2078)	6.0
6	Janak Bathiya	4.0
7	Fenil Shah	3.5
8	Dhayani Dave	2.5
9	Jignesh Patel	2.0
10	Prateek Mohan	0.5

Courtesy: Baroda Chess Academy