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Talking Chess with S.P Sethuraman

06/03/2021 -

During the Covid Lockdown, one Indian Grandmaster was quite busy preparing a lot of material for the general chess audience. He is none other than SP Sethuraman, one of the best players India has produced in the last decade. Sethu, known for his opening preparation, has investigated two of the most critical Sicilian systems in his book for Thinkers Publishing, while also authoring a course on 1.e4 e5 for Chessable. With a top player like Sethu doing such great work, it was no surprise that a deep tete-a-tete was long overdue. In the following interview Sethuraman talks about various topics, ranging from why online chess should not be taken too seriously to secrets of opening preparation and why yoga is beneficial for chess players.

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Vidit Chess Tour QF: Arjun Erigaisi eliminates Praggnanandhaa

06/03/2021 -

IM Aronyak Ghosh continued his impressive run in Vidit Chess Tour as once again he caused another big upset by beating GM Harsha Bharathakoti 1.5-0.5 to advance to the Semi-Finals. Speaking of upsets, GM Arjun Erigaisi eliminated GM Praggnanandhaa after the latter missed a simple draw in the endgame in their first encounter of the Quarter-Finals. GM Narayanan managed to beat GM Visakh in Armageddon and GM Gukesh beat IM Mitrabha to advance to the next stage. Semi-Finals will take place today on chess24 from 7 p.m. IST. Photo: IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran

Grandmaster Chess Ep 16: Learning the King's Indian from the King himself

06/03/2021 -

It is indeed more than just the metaphoric king - the "Raja" or "Radja" - in Teimour Radjabov's name that makes him the king of the King's Indian defence. The world no.10 is truly a leading expert in the said opening, someone whose exploits have redefined the way it is handled in the uppermost echelons of contemporary chess. In the 16th episode of ChessBase India's "Grandmaster Chess" series Teimour joins our ever-genial host Sagar Shah and the chess-crazed comedians to present the viewers one of his many brilliancies with Black using the famed hypermodern line. In this write-up we give you a summary of this epic stream which lasted an astounding 2 hours and 19 minutes. The critical positions, like always, are posed to you as questions. Work through them all, and see how many you manage to get right.  

How chess helped to overcome mental stress

06/03/2021 -

Whenever you land up in a new situation and you are unable to cope with the change, it creates stress! When the pandemic struck in 2020, it was a moment of change for everyone across the world. No wonder it created a lot of stress, tension and pressure all around. In this article, a young student living in Hyderabad and studying marketing decided to narrate his story of 2020. The year began with a lot of stress because of having to stay at home due to the Covid-19 situation. It seemed like the boy was drowning. Just when things looked very bleak, is when chess came to the rescue! 

Vidit Chess Tour Pre QF: Aronyak and Mitrabha cause big upsets

05/03/2021 -

The Pre Quarter-Finals of Vidit Chess Tour witnessed two big upsets and they were caused by two young talents from Kolkata, West Bengal - IM Aronyak Ghosh and IM Mitrabha Guha. While Aronyak scored a convincing 1.5-0.5 victory over GM Abhijeet Gupta, Mitrabha bounced back strong after suffering a loss to beat GM Abhimanyu Puranik 2-1 with a victory in the Armageddon. IM Pranesh M was impressive against GM Praggnanandhaa but he just faltered early in the Armageddon. Quarter-Finals will take place today on chess24 from 7 p.m. IST. Photo: Shahid Ahmed 

The next big talent of Karnataka - IM Pranav Anand

04/03/2021 -

Karnataka's list of titled players keep growing as 14-year-old Pranav Anand becomes the latest International Master of the country. The boy showed early signs of his wisdom as he chose chess between the sport of 64 squares and the board game majorly based on luck than skill - ludo. He was already sitting comfortably with three IM-norms in his bag after Aeroflot Open 2020 but the Covid-19 pandemic delayed the inevitable. He braved the odds and became the first Indian player to have become an IM in this year on 12th February. Photo: Rupali Mullick

The Queen's Gambit wins two Golden Globes awards

03/03/2021 -

Netflix mini-series 'The Queen's Gambit' broke a lot of records in a very short time. Initially it was difficult to predict this much of a success for the mini-series, but we kept doing episodic reviews because we thought it was something to be dwelled upon. Turns out 78th Golden Globes cemented the show creators - Scott Frank and Allan Scott efforts. The involvement of Garry Kasparov and Bruce Pandolfini made sure the chess universe can enjoy the intricate chess aspects of the show. Photo: Golden Globes

Chess as a tool to fight Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder

03/03/2021 -

We have often heard about using chess as a tool to help and benefit the society in various sphere of daily life. We have also heard of people saying video games doing more harm than good which studies have proved it to be not true. Research showed few months ago that it is good for mental health. Last year we shared an experience by a young man with ASD and the role of chess in his life. In this article, we tell you about a clinical trial which was conducted among teenagers to test the effectiveness of a chess based video game on patients diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). Photo: The Secret Trail of the Moon

A sports journalist par excellence - Rakesh Rao

02/03/2021 -

We recently unveiled an all-new series called ‘Off the Board Tales’ on our Instagram page. The premise revolves around the stories of chess that people have a personal connection with; it could be anyone from a die-hard professional, to someone who’s emotionally involved with chess! Today is the birthday of one of India's most prolific journalists of Indian sports - Rakesh Rao. He has witnessed countless sports legends during their rise, and chess makes a good portion of it too. His contribution to journalism is invaluable and to Indian chess in its rising era. Through over 3 decades of his work as a journalist, Rakesh has given special importance to chess. This is our small tribute to this hardworking and charismatic gentleman.

38th BRDCA Rapid Open attracts 260 players all over India

02/03/2021 -

Bangalore Rural District Chess Association organised a one-day rapid tournament on Sunday 28th February in Bangalore. It attracted 260 players from five states across India including Karnataka. Both Sa Kannan and 13-year-old Tejes Suresh Kumar finished at an unbeaten 6.5/7. Kannan won the event due to a better tie-break score. The prize winners received beautiful trophies. Bengaluru resident and ardent chess lover Sushruta Reddy who has not missed a single chess tournament in Bengaluru since November 1992, recounts on playing an otb event after over a year. Photo: Sa Kannan

New: ChessBase Magazine #200

01/03/2021 -

ChessBase Magazine is the most comprehensive and most sophisticated chess magazine there is. World class players analyze their brilliancies and explain the ideas behind the moves to you, opening specialists present the latest trends in opening theory and offer exciting ideas for your repertoire. Master trainers in the fields of tactics, strategy, and the endgame show you the tricks and techniques a successful tournament player needs! Digital DVD with several hours of video to learn and train. Top GMs like Giri, So, Van Foreest, Grandelius, Harikrishna, Duda, Wojtaszek, Fedoseev, Daniel King, Simon Williams, Mihail Marin and many more. Photo: ChessBase

Chess Challenge 2 and Simul with Japan Chess Champion

28/02/2021 -

With due precautions against the corona virus, the National Chess Society of Japan held two more over-the-board events a month after the New Year Festival. Both tournaments took place on Saturday 20th February 2021. They were Chess Challenge 2 and Simul with Japan Champion 2020 - Tran Thanh Tu. The Chess Challenge 2 was aimed at giving an opportunity to low rated players and beginners to get a feel of over-the-board tournaments Mayur Gondhalekar brings you details from Tokyo. Photo: Mayur Gondhalekar

Levon Aronian relocates to Saint Louis and will represent the USA

27/02/2021 -

In a breaking announcement, world no. 5 Levon Aronian announced that he would be switching his federation from Armenia to the USA. He was invited by American entrepreneur and philanthropist Rex Sinquefield and Aronian has accepted this offer. This means that America will now have five players in world top 20 and an extremely formidable chess team. Why did Aronian, who is a great patriot and lover of his country Armenia, make this decision? In a detailed statement he speaks about the lack of support received from the Government as being the main reason for his decision.

Soundarya Pradhan's website for blind chess players

26/02/2021 -

The main problem that blind players face when preparing for the chess games, is the lack of tools and resources that are available. They struggle with technology because of their inability to access some of the content which sighted people can easily do so. For big organizations who produce chess tools, tweaking the features for visually impaired players becomes financially unviable. This is the reason why Soundarya Pradhan, who is 100% visually impaired, decided to take things in his own hands. He has built up his own website, which solves a very specific problem for blind chess players. What is it? Know more about it in the article. Soundarya also received Rs.33,000 from ChessBase India and its viewers for his efforts and to develop his website further. 

EDU Commission launches a new capacitation program

26/02/2021 -

FIDE Commission for Chess in Education has launched a new program which is divided into two stages. In the first stage, the EDU Commission will prepare and certify lecturers and then these lecturers will run seminars to prepare teachers. Those who fulfill the required criteria can receive a diploma of Certified FIDE Chess in Education Lecturer (CEL) and School Instructor (SI). The entire program considers the current circumstances, thus the majority of the seminars are to take place online. Photo: FIDE

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