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3rd India China Summit: India leads after three rounds

19/10/2018 -

From November 17 to 24, India is be taking on China in an 8 round match under the Scheveningen system at the International Chess Hall of the KIIT University in Bhubaneshwar India. The event features young grandmasters from both countries. After the first three rounds, the Indian team has come out on top with a win in the second round while rounds one and three ended as spiritedly fought draws. There were plenty of interesting games and we bring you a report on all the action from the 3rd India China Chess Summit.

Goa GM 2018 Round 8: An Iranian, an Ukrainian and an Armenian

19/10/2018 -

Going into the last two rounds of the 1st Goa GM International 2018 we have three leaders with 7.0/8 points. Idani Pouya of Iran beat Ankit Gajwa, Valeriy Neverov played an absolute gem to beat his country mate Vitaly Bernadskiy and Levon Babujian managed to beat Ivan Popov. Following these three GMs are six players on 6.5/8. They include Deepan Chakkravarthy, Raahul VS, Karthik Venkatraman, Sayantan Das, Vitaly Sivuk and Sergey Kasparov. Although an Indian is not in the lead, four of them are half point shy of the leader and have excellent chances of overtaking them if they do well in the last round. An illustrated round 8 report from Goa.

Opening report of the 1st FIDE World Chess Championship for the Disabled 2018

18/10/2018 -

The 1st FIDE World Team Chess Championship for Disabled 2018 started on 15 October in Wyndham Garden Hotel Dresden, Germany. The tournament witnesses the participation of 9 teams. Germany has 4 teams and Russia has 3 teams and the remaining teams are Hungary and Poland. Top seed is IPCA Russia. The event comprises of about 40 players including 2 IMs, 1 WIM and 2 WFMs. The 7-round event will conclude on 21st October 2018. Top 3 teams will receive medals and cash prize. Photo: Tournament Regulations

Goa GM 2018 Round 6+7: Madhya Pradesh domination!

18/10/2018 -

After a double round day in the mid way stage of a tournament, things suddenly start getting clear as to who would be the favourite to win the tournament. But at the Goa GM International 2018, seven out of ten rounds have been played and absolutely nothing is clear. We have five GMs and one FM in the lead with a score of 6.0/7. The big news of the day is definitely FM Ankit Gajwa, who is playing the tournament of his life. Ankit beats GM Himanshu Sharma, GM Martyn Kravtsiv and GM Ziaur Rahman in three consecutive rounds. Madhya Pradesh's good run in the tournament continued as apart from Ankit, Anuj Shrivatri was able to beat the strong Belgian GM Vadim Malakhatko. An illustrated report form the Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Stadium in Goa.

Rajdeep and Arpita win 46th West Bengal State Junior 2018

17/10/2018 -

Rajdeep Sarkar and Arpita Mukherjee win 46th West Bengal State Junior (under-19) 2018. Rajdeep scored 7.0/8, remained undefeated to clinch his second State title while Arpita scored an emphatic 7.5/8 to win the State Junior title for the 3rd time since 2014 after missing last year's edition. Last year's state champion Neelash Saha also scored 7.0/8 and finished at 2nd position due to a lower tie-break score. Koustav Chatterjee missed his 3rd State title in four months as he scored 6.5/8 and had to settle with 3rd position. Diya Chowdhury scored 6.5/8 and finished at 2nd position and Mehendi Sil scored 6.0/8 and finished 3rd. Photo: Swati Biswas

Goa GM 2018 Round 5: Who said GMs and IMs do not blunder?

16/10/2018 -

After five rounds at the Goa GM International 2018 we have just three leaders on 100% score and they are all from outside India - Pouya Idani, Samvel Ter Sahakayan and Vitaly Sivuk. It is quite amazing that a tournament organized in the smallest state of India - Goa, has three leaders from Iran, Armenia and Ukraine. We have a pack of six players on 4.5/5 which include two Indians Deepan Chakkravarthy and R.R. Laxman. The B-group came to an end on the 16th of October 2018. The winner was Omkar Kadav from Maharashtra who took back home the prize of Rs.1,40,000 after he scored 9.0/10. Illustrated report from Goa with pictures by Amruta Mokal and Supriya Bhat. 

Goa GM 2018: What is Troitsky's line?

16/10/2018 -

A lot of theoretical endgames in chess are difficult to learn. One of them is the king + two knights versus king + pawn. It is a complex ending where a lot of people go wrong. In this article we explain to you this endgame with the help of a key game in the Group B of the Goa International Open Chess tournament. Also you can learn the art of calculation and imagination from Goa's first GM Anurag Mhamal. After four rounds we have eight leaders with the score of 4.0/4. They include Idani Pouya, Samvel Ter-Sahakyan, Deepan Chakkravarthy, Ziaur Rahman, Anurag Mhamal, Stany GA, Vitaly Sivuk and Sergey Kasparov. An illustrated report. 

Goa GM 2018 Round 2+3: 6-year-old prodigy and a 12-year-old veteran!

15/10/2018 -

Age is quite a relative concept! When a 12-year-old beats a GM you have be in awe of the achievement. But when on the same day you meet a 6-year-old who shows his skills on the board, the 12-year-old suddenly starts looking like a veteran. On the second day of the Goa GM International 2018, we met two young personalities who made it a day to remember! 6-year-old Nivaan Kandhadia and 12-year-old Pranav Venkatesh. In this article we speak about the achievements as well as the playing level of these two youngsters and at the same time we also treat you to some excellent pictures by Amruta Mokal and Niklesh Jain!

Pairings for FIDE Women's World Championship 2018 revealed

14/10/2018 -

FIDE Women's World Championship 2018 is going to be held from 1st to 25th of November in the town of Khanty-Mansiysk in Russia. It will overlap with the World Championships match between Fabiano Caruana and Magnus Carlsen. The winner of this tournament will be declared as the new Women's World Champion. Four Indians have qualified for this event. They are Koneru Humpy, Dronavalli Harika, Padmini Rout and Bhakti Kulkarni. Harika qualified based on her last year's performance, Humpy got the FIDE wild card, Bhakti was the Asian Champion in 2016 and Padmini has been the reigning national champion. Round 1 pairings were revealed a day ago. Photo: Amruta Mokal and Niklesh Jain

Goa GM 2018 Round 1: No less than Batumi!

14/10/2018 -

It is for the first time that the smallest state of India - Goa is organizing a grandmaster event. The Goa Chess Association has left no stone unturned in giving the best facilities to the players. The author of this article just returned from the Batumi Olympiad 2018, and finds the playing hall better than what was used in Georgia! The first round was played in the A group, while three rounds were played in the B-group. No grandmaster lost his game but there were a couple of draws. At the same time Deepan Chakkravarthy played some exciting chess to light up the event! Here's an illustrated report from the event with photos, videos, analysis and much more. 

Gujarat GM Open R10: Kravtsiv topples Vignesh for the title

13/10/2018 -

NR Vignesh was the sole leader of the tournament going into the final round of the 1st Gujarat Grandmaster Open. He had played phenomenally throughout and his tiebreak was good enough for him to afford a draw in the last round to take the title prize. But the young IM from Tamil Nadu was unable to keep strong nerves in the finale. Against Martyn Kravtsiv, the tournament's top seed, Vignesh lost his only game of the event and had to content himself with the second place as Kravtsiv overtook him in the final standings. IM Stany GA, after losing his previous two games, came back strongly with a win over GM Vadim Malakhatko and took the third place.

Live Games from Goa GM International 2018

13/10/2018 -

This is the first time that Goa is organizing an International Grandmaster event. The 1st Goa International GM tournament is being held from the 13th to the 20th of October 2018 in Shyamal Prasad Mukherjee Stadium at the Goa University. Some of the top GMs taking part in this event are Martyn Kravtsiv, Farrukh Amonatov, Ivan Popov, Alexander Predke. A total of 288 players are taking part in this tournament from 18 countries. There are 22 grandmasters and 26 International Masters at this event. On this page you can find the live games from the tournament and also the relevant links and videos.

How a bunch of Indians went to Spain and gained 4359 Elo points!

13/10/2018 -

Chess gives you an ability to travel across the globe. There are tournaments held all over the world and one of the perks of being a chess player is that you can visit them and also play your favourite sport. But everything is not so rosy! Planning an international trip is never easy. There are always financial constraints, but even if you were to overcome them there are logistical issues, right from visas, to tickets to accommodations to paying the entry fee. It's exactly to do away with all such problems we introduced the concept of the ChessBase India Power tour! Apart from ensuring the logistical support, Ankit Dalal, who heads ChessBase India Power, accompanied the players from India to Barcelona and stayed with them for 50 days - the entire duration of the trip! What was his experience as a tour manager and how did he manage to ensure that Indian players came back with a rich haul of 4359 Elo points? Let's find out! 

New Delhi calls you for a strong Rapid and Blitz event

12/10/2018 -

The importance of rapid and blitz in chess is growing. People are taking the shorter formats of the game more seriously. It is spectator friendly and for the viewers it is much more exciting to see IMs and GMs enterprising moves and making more mistakes than classical chess. Keeping all of this in mind, a very strong Rapid and Blitz event is taking place in New Delhi on the 27th and 28th of October 2018. The first prize of the tournament is Rs.41,000 and the total prize fund is Rs.4,00,000. The tournament is being organized by 22-year-old Abir Sinha in the memory of his father Late Shri Ambeesh Sinha. Abir has brought a lot of innovations in the organization of the event, some of which we mention in this article.  

Gujarat GM Open R9: Vignesh NR takes sole lead

11/10/2018 -

After catching up in the tournament lead in the previous round, Vignesh NR scored another big win in round 9 of the 1st Gujarat International Grandmaster Open. In the penultimate round, Vignesh defeated Vitaly Sivuk of Ukraine. And since Stany lost on the top board against Alexandr Predke, he is the sole leader of the tournament. Tomorrow Vignesh will take on the tournament's top seed, GM Martyn Kravtsiv. Meanwhile, Michelle Catherina scored a win over Rahul Srivasthav to keep her chance of a WGM norm alive. She will have to win in the final round to earn her norm, however. Also, 18-year-old Jeet Jain managed to bring down veteran GM Pravin Thipsay after the latter made a tactical error in the middle game. We have an illustrated report on all the happenings.