Ethan Vaz receiving his consolation medal at the hands of Atul Gupta, Joint Secretary of All India Chess Federation.
Photo Credits: The Goan
MARGAO
Carrying the mantle for Goa as the lone player to represent the State at the MPL 50th National Junior (Under-20) Open Chess Championship 2022, at Gurgaon, Haryana, chess prodigy AIM Ethan Vaz put up an extraordinary show that made heads turn.
In a strong tournament with 19 titled players including 2 GMs, 6 IMs, 6 FMs and 5 CMs, Goa's Ethan, with a starting rank of 107 amongst 201 players who were representing their respective States, finished 39th with 5.5 points, on par with a 7th seed IM and a 15th seed FM and one whole point ahead of two CMs, while missing out on a chance to make it to the Top 20 prize list by just half a point.
Travelling overnight after an award-winning performance at the National Sub-Junior (Under-16) Chess Championships at New Delhi, Ethan (Elo 1384) gave a tough fight to IM Harshavardhan G B (Elo 2402) of Tamil Nadu in the very first round the next morning, despite being over 1000 points lower, where he lost to the International Master owing to a small pawn disadvantage after 4 hours of grueling chess.
However, after a quick win in the second round against Madhav Poddar (Elo 1025) of Delhi, followed by a good night's rest, 10-year old Ethan bounced back to top form the next day, scoring back-to-back wins and causing stunning upsets of two 18 year olds, Esshan Wadhawan (Elo 1983) of Delhi and Kumaresh A (Elo 1754) of Tamil Nadu.
Losing only to one more player, Anup Shankar R (Elo 1842) of Tamil Nadu, in the 5th round, Ethan scored another 2.5 points in the last 4 rounds, with a win against Shaik Sumer Arsh (Elo 1852) of Telangana, and well-fought draws against Parekh Vishrut (Elo 1747) of Gujarat, Aditya Varun Gampa (Elo 1947) of Andhra Pradesh and CM Mrithyunjay Mahadevan (Elo 1993) of Tamil Nadu.
Pitted against 8 higher rated players in the 9-round tournament, the young lad from Raia needed a win in the last round against the Candidate Master to have a shot at making it to the Top 20 prize list, but the game ended in a draw.
Nevertheless, Ethan's spectacular performance added a whopping 157 Elo points to his FIDE Rating, the second highest rating increase in what is arguably the toughest tournament in the junior category. Riding on top of the 208 points gained the week before in Delhi, Ethan's live rating is now estimated to have catapulted from Elo 1384 to Elo 1749, a breath-taking increase of 365 Elo points across two tournaments.
"It was an honour to have been selected to represent Goa at the Sub-Junior Nationals as well as the Junior Nationals, and I am glad to have made it count," expressed Ethan.
The tournament was organised by District Chess Association Gurgaon on behalf of The Haryana Chess Association, from 9th to 13th March, 2022, under the aegis of All India Chess Federation.
