Silchar Open 2018: Barua held and Sayantan stunned in round 4

by Nongsha Angom - 29/09/2018

With every passing round, the Silchar Open 2018 is becoming more and more intense. Round 4 witnessed some major upsets of the event so far. Top seed GM Dibyendu Barua was held by Shankar Majumdar, IM Suvrajit Saha was also held by current Assam Champion Rahul Singh, local boy Rajdip Das won his game against WIM Saheli Dhar-Barua. The biggest upset came in board 2 where 2nd seeded IM Sayantan Das was outplayed by RK Bhogen Singh of Manipur. In this report we bring you games and photos from day 3 of the event.

Top players stunned in Day 3

After a heavy rain the previous day the 4th round saw a couple of upset on the top boards. The biggest upset came on board 2 where IM Sayantan Das went down against RK Bhogen Singh of Manipur.

Shankar Majumdar (Right) kept cool nerves to remain in control and held GM Dibyendu Barua (Left) to a draw.

GM Dibyendu Barua vs Shankar Majumdar

Current Assam Champion Soram Rahul Singh was also able to hold IM Suvrajit Saha on the 6th board.

Soram Rahul Singh vs Suvrajit Dhar

Rajdip Das of Silchar won his game against WIM Saheli Dhar-Barua.

Rajdip Das vs WIM Saheli Dhar-Barua

The biggest upset of day 3 was 2nd seeded IM Sayantan Das of West Bengal losing against RK Bhogen Singh of Manipur in a sharp Sicilian Taimanov. The way the game finished especially beautiful.

The final position of the game, White just played 62.Be5 to seal the game.

A still from the scene: RK Bhogen Singh (Front Left) and IM Sayantan Das (Front Left).

RK Bhogen Singh vs IM Sayantan Das

After the completion of round 5 there are 3 players who are leading the tournament IM Neeraj K. Mishra, IM Rishi Sardana and CM Aronyak Ghosh are all leading with perfect 5.0/5 points.

Rank after Round 5

Rk.	SNo		Name	Typ	sex	Gr	FED	Rtg	TB1	TB2	TB3	TB4	TB5
1	5	IM	Mishra Neeraj-Kumar				IND	2272	5,0	0,0	18,0	16,0	16,00
2	4	CM	Aronyak Ghosh	U15			IND	2331	5,0	0,0	17,0	15,0	17,00
3	3	IM	Sardana Rishi				AUS	2407	5,0	0,0	15,5	13,5	15,50
4	1	GM	Barua Dibyendu				IND	2443	4,5	0,0	17,5	14,5	15,75
5	8		Arpan Das				IND	2164	4,5	0,0	16,5	14,0	14,75
6	14		Majumdar Shankar				IND	2023	4,5	0,0	16,0	15,0	13,75
7	6	IM	Suvrajit Saha				IND	2224	4,5	0,0	16,0	13,5	14,25
8	10		Apollosana Mangang Rajkumar				IND	2082	4,5	0,0	15,0	13,0	13,25
9	2	IM	Das Sayantan				IND	2425	4,0	0,0	17,5	15,0	13,50
10	7		Singh S. Vikramjit				IND	2192	4,0	0,0	17,0	16,0	11,00

Silchar is slowly becoming the chess powerhouse of Assam and we tried to dig a little to know how it all started here. We got to know that it was in the year 1993 that a passionate chess player from the area vowed to make a change in the place and travelled to the hub Guwahati to share his grievances before the members of the state body. He was successful in his mission. He convinced everyone in the meeting and formed the Cachar District Chess Association right after returning. The first thing he did was he started organizing chess events to bring up good players from the rural parts of Cachar and give them a platform. From purchasing chess clocks to teaching players how to write chess notations he didn't leave any stone unturned.