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When Ivanchuk roars!

19/12/2019 -

If there was someone in the world of chess that the great Garry Kasparov feared, it was Vassily Ivanchuk. The Ukrainian genius never feared Kasparov and was so talented that he could play at an extremely high level on any given day. Recently Ivanchuk's motivation to play strong chess has dipped a bit and you can see its effect on his rating. He is now down to 2690. But as they say form is temporary, class is permanent. Ivanchuk is showing some of his old magic at the Sunway Sitges Chess Festival 2019 as he beat two of India's biggest talents Raunak Sadhwani and R. Praggnanandhaa in back to back rounds and is now on 5.0/6. How did Ivanchuk manage to do it? In this article we bring you both the games along with video analysis by GM Daniel King.

ChessBase 18 and Mega 2025 are here

ChessBase 18 is an all-new program that helps you manage all your databases as an ambitious player. Mega Database 2025 has 11 million games with over 113,000 games annotated by masters. The cost of ChessBase 18 is Rs.4499/- and the cost of Mega Database 2025 is Rs.6499/- However, if you go for the combo the total amount comes to Rs.8999 (instead of 10,998/-) helping you save Rs. 1999/-.

ChessBase 18 + Mega 2025 Combo

Aronyak Ghosh wins 28th The Telegraph Schools' Chess 2019

19/12/2019 -

IM Aronyak Ghosh scored 8.0/9, remained undefeated and won 28th The Telegraph Schools' Chess 2019. He finished a half point ahead of the competition. Nine players were in the lead with 7.0/8 before the final round. Aronyak was the only player to manage to win his last round game and finish first. Bangladesh's budding talent nine-year-old CM Manon Reja Neer scored 7.5/9 and he was placed second according to tie-break score. Former Telegraph champion IM Srijit Paul finished at 7.5/9 and he was placed third. Total 462 players participated from over 200 schools across India, Bangladesh and Nepal. South Point High School won the Best School prize for the second year in a row. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

What happens when a super GM thinks for 35 minutes?

19/12/2019 -

"While solving positions in your practice sessions, don't think for more than 20 minutes!" Have you got this advice before? The logic? Usually in an actual game we do not spend more than 20 minutes for any move or decision, so we shouldn't be spending a lot of time for our decisions in practice sessions as well. But then every now and then comes a moment when in a game between two super GMs, one of them digs down deep and thinks for over 30 minutes! In the case of the game between Wei Yi and Sergey Karjakin at the Jerusalem Grand Prix 2019, we saw a position in which the young Chinese GM thought for 35 minutes! What was Wei Yi thinking at this point? What was going through his head? In this article, IM Sagar Shah tries to decode the thinking of a super GM step by step! 

The National Senior Championship climaxes in an epic slugfest

18/12/2019 -

The ongoing National Senior Championship has been witness to some really enterprising chess in the past few days with the top place changing hands thrice in the last three rounds of the event. Aravindh Chithambaram is the one in sole lead at the moment, beating Sandipan Chanda in the penultimate round he has pulled ahead of the rest by half a point. But Akash G, who created a rampage earlier by defeating one Grandmaster after another, isn't far behind either. Aravindh has a score of 8.5/10, while Akash is breathing down his neck with 8.0/10. And behind them is a pack of seven players chasing with 7.5/10 each. Read this illustrated report to get a glimpse of all the action from the last two rounds of this exciting event.

S.L. Narayanan's perfect 5.0/5 start at the Sunway Sitges 2019

18/12/2019 -

After winning the Ellobregat Open, S.L. Narayanan is continuing his excellent run at the Sunway Sitges 2019. He beat GM S.P. Sethuraman in the fifth round with an excellent game. His opening preparation was top notch and his calculation and understanding of the position ensured that Sethuraman had absolutely no chances. Narayanan, is on 5.0/5 and leads the tournament with Anton Korobov, who beat Praggnanandhaa in the fifth round. Abhimanyu Puranik is on 4.5/5 and plenty of other Indian players including Arjun Erigaisi, D. Gukesh, Sasikiran etc. are on 4.0/5. In this article we bring you all the action from round five along with video interviews with Nihal Sarin and Karthikeyan Murali.

Vishy's December #11 - The co-author

18/12/2019 -

It's been around a week since the book authored by Vishy Anand - Mind Master has been released. It has been so popular that it has made it to Amazon's bestseller list. Instead of being a traditional autobiography where the author writes about the events in his life in a chronological order, Vishy Anand decided to focus on the most interesting and compelling stories of his career and the lessons drawn from them. In order to write the book with him he chose Susan Ninan. Susan is a journalist for ESPN and has been a fan of Vishy Anand since many years. She has interviewed Anand on several occasions and the quality of her work convinced Vishy to have Susan as the co-author. In this article we speak to Susan about the book, Anand and more.

Antonio Viani dominates 2nd Kudremukh All India Rapid Rating 2019

17/12/2019 -

Starting out as the top seed of the tournament and after winning double in France, Antonio Viani was absolutely in top form. He scored 9.0/9 and won the championship a full point of the competition. He received ₹30000 cash and a huge beautiful trophy for his efforts. Both Sharan Rao and Sooraj M R scored 8.0/9 each and they were placed second and third respectively. Total 330 players participated from five states across the country in this two-day rapid rating tournament. Total cash prize ₹200000 and 165 trophies were distributed among the prize winners. The tournament was organized by KIOCL Ltd. on 7th and 8th December 2019. Photo: KIOCL Ltd.

Vaibhav halts the Akash juggernaut

17/12/2019 -

The 23-year-old Akash G, who has been in brilliant form lately at the ongoing National Senior Championship, was finally given his first taste of defeat by Delhi's Grandmaster Vaibhav Suri. Vaibhav registered a powerful win against Akash in the eighth round of the event and emerged as the sole leader with an impressive score of 7.0/8. While the latter has slipped down the leaderboard following his loss to share the second place along with Aravindh Chithambaram and Sandipan Chanda. In this illustrated report on round eight we bring you the detailed analysis of Vaibhav's encounter against Akash and also photos from the venue.

Black Magic by Praggnanandhaa to beat Nino Batsiashvili

17/12/2019 -

Sunway Sitges International 2019 is witnessing Indian domination. After four rounds, three out of the five leaders are Indians. Praggnanandhaa, Sethuraman and S.L. Narayanan. All three of them are on 4.0/4. Narayanan and Praggnanandhaa both registered emphatic victories in the fourth round with the former sacrificing a piece leading to a powerful attack, and the latter showing some dark squared wizardry. Pragg's play was very impressive and all the King's Indian players should definitely make a note of his strategy. The youngster has now reached a Live Elo of 2612. Sethuraman was slightly fortunate as his opponent misplayed a superior position to give the Indian a full point. A detailed report with key game analysis and pictures by Lennart Ootes.

Vishy's December #10: I walked with a giant

16/12/2019 -

Meeting Vishy Anand is a dream of any chess lover. Speaking a few words would make it special, having an autograph would mean flaunting rights for a lifetime and taking a picture with Anand is a dream come true. Here's a story of a man who always dreamed to meet Vishy Anand, shake hands with him, have a photograph with him. Call it good karma, but as Praful Zaveri started serving the chess community, his meetings with Vishy Anand started becoming more and more intimate. In this article he shares his experience of meeting the legend on several occasions from 2000 to 2019. This December, ChessBase India is celebrating the month as Vishy's December in honour of the Indian chess legend Vishy Anand turning 50 years old. If you have a story, experience or an anecdote related to Anand which you would like to share with the chess world, you can send it to us at chessbaseindia@gmail.com.

G. Akash's brilliant play lights up the National Championships 2019

16/12/2019 -

In the seventh round of the National Championships 2019 which are currently in progress in Sikkim, we witnessed an absolute gem from G. Akash. He was facing GM Sandipan Chanda with the white pieces and began the game with 1.e4. In reply to the Sicilian, he played the English Attack and quickly castled on the queenside. Very soon things began to heat up and Akash sacrificed a knight for a pawn. He had some excellent compensation and then he sacrificed his queen! At one point White had only one piece and a few pawns as compensation for the missing queen. But throughout the game, Akash was in control of things. We bring you a detailed analysis of this brilliant attacking gem by G. Akash.

IM Harikrishnan wins Ramco 2nd FIDE Rated Open 2019

16/12/2019 -

Second seeded IM Ra Harikrishnan scored 7.0/8 and won Ramco 2nd FIDE Rated Open 2019. Six other players also finished with the same score along with top seed Laxman R R. Harikrishnan edged ahead of him in the fourth tie-break score by 0.25 to clinch the championship. He received ₹70000 cash and a beautiful trophy for his efforts. Laxman was declared the first runner-up and Senthil Maran K secured the second runner-up position. Total 379 players from eight states across the country participated in this four-day eight round event where total prize fund was ₹500000 and 98 cash prizes were distributed. A detail tournament report by the Chief Arbiter of the tournament IA R Anantharam including games and photos. Photo: IA R Anantharam

Sunway Sitges 2019 - An event hosting 106 Indian players in Spain

16/12/2019 -

From 33 Indians in A group in 2018, the number has spiralled to 85 at the sixth edition of the Sunway Sitges International 2019. Right from Sasikiran, Sethuraman, Karthikeyan Murali to Nihal Sarin, Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh, Raunak Sadhwani, Arjun Erigaisi, we have so many Indian talents fighting it out in Barcelona. 21 more players are playing the B-group which makes it a total of 106 Indians at the event. It is quite amazing to see such a turnout in spite of the event clashing with the Indian national championships 2019 in Sikkim. We bring you rounds one to three report along with annotated games of the four Indian players leading - Sethuraman, Srinath Narayanan, S.L. Narayanan and Praggnanandhaa.

Studying openings with the ChessBase Magazine, II: Creating a repertoire database

15/12/2019 -

The second part of the opening tutorial shows how to create a repertoire database and how to import games from the ChessBase Magazine and other sources to your repertoire database to save a lot of time and effort. These days having an opening repertoire is not just a luxury, it's a necessity. For all serious players, having a repertoire and keeping themselves updated is a must. ChessBase Magazine comes with all latest games and annotations from top players of the world and much more. But have you ever wondered, how to add it to your repertoire? As that not only will save your time, but also help you build a strong repertoire database. You will find out about all in this tutorial. Drawing: ChessBase

Kosteniuk wins Monaco GP, Humpy leads Grand Prix

15/12/2019 -

Alexandra Kosteniuk had a fairytale ending as she defeated Elisabeth Paehtz in the final round to finish at 7.0/11. For her to win the tournament, the most anticipated match between Humpy and Goryachkina needed Humpy to win and fortuitously that's what happened, resulting in Humpy finishing runner-up and Goryachkina claiming the second runner-up position. Kosteniuk won her third consecutive tournament in a row. Humpy still leads the GP points table with a 40 point lead and one event to go, since each player is eligible to participate in three out of four events. Kateryna Lagno finished at third position in the second consecutive GP event. Harika finished at shared sixth with a score of 5.5/11 | Photo: Karol Bartnik / FIDE

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