TIFR Blitz Chess 2016
This is the 2016 edition of the Blitz chess Tournament in TIFR. There were 8 participants in all. Each player played everyone else, so there were a total of 7 rounds. The time control was 5 min + 5 sec increment for each move.
Here is my perspective of some of the interesting games I played in the tournament.
Following is a game between Sarath and me in round 2. Sarath was on 1/1. After 17 moves he had over 4 minutes on the clock and I had less that 2 minutes. On move 18, I took a lot of time when I had less than 1 minute on the clock, still couldn't find the best move in the position, which was very counter-intuitive to me after checking with the engines. Instead I was hoping for some tricks to work on the a1-h8 diagonal and the open a- file.
The following game is between Kshitij and me in round 3 where Kshitij was on 1/2. I was hoping to take revenge after my last encounter with him in TIFR Founder's day chess tournament 2015. After move 29, much to my dismay, we reached an equal position which should have logically ended in a draw, but nonetheless it was blitz!
This is a game I played against Pravin Mane in round 4. Pravin was on 2/3.
The next game was between Amith and me in round 5, where at first I overestimated my chances and reached the following position. You can try to find the best move for black in the following position. Try it for yourself, if you don't get it the the answer is given below!
Now Black has to find a move to defend his queen and also the checkmate threat Qe8. There is only one move. You guessed it right! Qc5. Apparently, I was down to a couple of seconds on my clock when I played the move Qc5 and Amith had over 2 minutes on his clock. After that, the position is technically winning for black. Eventually I managed to grab the c pawn with check when white tried to push them carelessly. We exchanged queens when we reached the following position:
Later I managed to promote one of my kingside pawns and eventually won the game. Definitely the most intense games I played in the tournament.
The following is a game between me and Ritvik in round 6, which was supposed to decide the leader of the tournament as we both were on 5/5 before this round.
Here is the final cross table.
| Player | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | Score |
| Ritvik | X | 1 | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 6 |
| Kshitij | 0 | X | 0 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 1 | 4 |
| Rakesh | 1 | 1 | X | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 7 |
| Sarath | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 1 | 1 | 1 | 1 | 4 |
| Amith | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 1 | 0 | 1 | 2 |
| Arya | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | X | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Pravin | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 1 | X | 1 | 4 |
| Ganesh | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 1 | 0 | X | 1 |
