Avirat Chauhan convincingly clinches 19th LBHM Rapid Rating Open 2026

Avirat Chauhan scored an unbeaten 8.5/9 to win 19th LBHM Rapid Rating Open 2026 – Shree Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj Trophy. Sankarsha Shelke and Shlok Sharnarthi scored 8/9 each. They secured second and third place respectively. The total prize fund was ₹411000. The top three prizes were ₹30000, ₹25000 and ₹20000 along with a trophy each.

Avirat’s fourth overall, first rating tournament victory of the year

11-year-old Avirat Chauhan played fantastic chess to gain sole lead 7.5/8, heading into the last round. Eight players – Shlok Sharnarthi, IM Kashish Manoj Jain, IM Nikhil Dixit, Sankarsha Shelke, FM Priyanshu Patil, FM Aniruddha Deshpande, Aditya Shripad Joshi and CM Prathamesh Sherla were trailing by a half point at 7/8 each. Kashish lost to Avirat and the latter became a clear champion. Sankarsha defeated Nikhil to secure second place. Shlok scored a full point versus Priyanshu to finish third.

Champion – Avirat Chauhan 8.5/9

Avitar Chauhan scored an unbeaten 8.5/9, finished a half point ahead of the field and gained 103.6 Elo rating points

Kashish – Avirat, Round 9

Position after 26…exd4

IM Kashish Manoj Jain (2249) blundered 27.Rxd4?? d5 28.exd5 Bc5 29.Rad1 Qa7 30.Qd3 e5 31.Nb5 Bxd4+ and Avirat Chauhan (2083) won the game in the next few moves.

Replay all available games

A total of 428 players including four IMs took part from various parts of the country, one from Germany and Wales each, three from Iceland and two from the USA. The one-day nine-round Rapid Rating Open tournament was organized by Nagnath Halkude at Dhruv Global School in Pune Maharashtra on 22nd February 2026. The time control of the tournament was 10 minutes + 5 seconds increment.

Final standings

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