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P.V. Nandhidhaa: Engineer, India no.7 and a future GM

10/04/2021 -

Today is P.V. Nandhidhaa's 25th birthday! She is one of India's top female chess players and is currently ranked 7th in the country with an Elo of 2365. She is already a WGM and has 4 IM norms to her credit. But did you know, she is also an Electronics and Communications Engineer? With multiple national titles under her belt and a brave aggressive player Nandhidhaa is surely a player to watch out for. ChessBase India's author Saishyam Srikanth got in touch with Nandhidhaa and brings to you an in-depth portrait of this young talent. How did Nandhidhaa reach where she is right now? Who are the people who have helped and inspired her? What are her future plans? All this and much more!

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Polgar Challenge Day 2: Praggnanandhaa takes sole lead 8.5/10

10/04/2021 -

Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour Polgar Challenge continued to have a unique team score. Just like Day 1, at the end of Day 2, both Team Kramnik and Team Polgar had 50 points each after Round 10. Team Kramnik once again had same players in the top three places. However, this time Praggnanandhaa has taken a sole lead with 8.5/10 followed by Abdusattorov and Yoo at 8.0/10 each respectively. Yoo is the only undefeated player of the entire event so far. Both Gukesh and Nihal are at 7.0/10. Leon finished Day 2 with 5.0/10. Round 11 continues today from 7:30 p.m. IST.

Raceking Harsha Bharathakoti finishes first in Capablanca Chess School 5th Anniversary Online Blitz Open

09/04/2021 -

GM Harsha Bharathakoti won Capablanca Chess School 5th Anniversary Celebration Online Blitz Open with an unbeaten score of 8.0/9. He finished a half point ahead of the competition. This was Harsha's first Playchess event triumph hosted by ChessBase India. IM Mitrabha Guha, GM Jakhongir Vakhidov and IM Terry Renato scored 7.5/9. They were placed second to fourth according to their tie-breaks. A total of 138 players including 5 GMs, 18 IMs, a WGM and 3 WIMs registered for this event from 8 different countries across the world. Photo: Rupali Mullick

Polgar Challenge Day 1: Praggnanandhaa, Yoo and Abdusattorov share the lead 4.0/5

09/04/2021 -

Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour Polgar Challenge started with a unique result. At the end of Day 1, both Team Kramnik and Team Polgar had 25 points each after Round 5. Team Kramnik had the top three places in the form of Praggnanandhaa, Yoo and Abdusattorov with 4.0/5 each followed by Team Polgar members Gukesh and Keymer at 3.5/5 each respectively. GM Lei Tingjie is the highest performing woman on Day 1, also finishing with 3.5/5. GM Awonder Liang scored a beautiful checkmate against IM Gunay Mammadzada in the final round of the day. Round 6 continues today from 7:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Amruta Mokal

Vijay Kumar clinches 37th Himachal Pradesh State Open 2021

08/04/2021 -

Top seed Vijay Kumar scored 6.0/7 to win 37th Himachal Pradesh State Championship. Suryansh Verma and Vishal Kant also finished with 6.0/7, however Vijay won the title due to better tie-breaks. Only Suryansh remained undefeated among the podium finishers. The three-day seven-round tournament witnessed the participation of 75 players from various districts across Himachal Pradesh. Check out some photos from the event and a game of the unbeaten runner-up Suryansh Verma in this report. Photo: Rajesh Verma

Pranav V wins 68th Tamil Nadu State Open 2021 with a 100% score 9.0/9

07/04/2021 -

Pranav Venkatesh of Chennai district won the 68th edition of Tamil Nadu State Open for the second consecutive time since 2019 as he finished with a 100% score of 9.0/9. He scored 1.5 points more than the remaining podium finishers. Four players finished at 7.5/9 - IM Ramnathan Balasubramaniam, Ilamparthi A R and S S Manigandan. They were placed second to fourth respectively. A total of 368 players took part from various districts across Tamil Nadu in five-day nine-round Swiss league event organized by Tirunelveli District Chess Development Association. Photo: IA Ganesh Babu S

Sharan Rao emerges victorious in 15th BRDCA Karnataka State Open

06/04/2021 -

Sharan Rao scored an unbeaten 8.0/9 to win 15th BRDCA Karnataka State Open. Starting out as the seventh seed, he beat the top seed Sanjay N in Round 7 to take joint lead. In the penultimate round, he made a draw with the eventual runner-up Ojas Kulkarni. Sharan won the final round game against Balkishan A to become the champion. Apart from Ojas, Prachura and Partahasarathy also finished with 7.5/9. They were placed third and fourth respectively according to their tie-breaks. The five-day nine-round rating tournament witnessed the participation of 204 players from various districts across Karnataka.

Nihal, Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh and Leon will feature in Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour

06/04/2021 -

Meltwater Champions Chess Tour has been a successful online event so far featuring world's best of the best along with the world champion. Play Magnus group has now taken the initiative to promote emerging young talent and have more female participation in the top events. Two legends of the game - Judit Polgar and Vladimir Kramnik will mentor the 20 young stars in the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour featuring coaches - Hou Yifan, Boris Gelfand, Anna Muzychuk, Ju Wenjun, Surya Ganguly and Arthur Kogan. Four Indian talents - Nihal Sarin, R Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh D and Leon Luke Mendonca will battle in each event and enrich their knowledge. Photo: Challengers Chess Tour

IM Mitrabha Guha beats Magnus Carlsen twice within an hour

05/04/2021 -

Before the advent of internet, the only way for a non-elite player to get a chance to fight against the world champion was through a simultaneous exhibition match. Thanks to online chess, these days you can almost play against any top player of your choice and if you are lucky enough, you can play against the world champion, sometimes twice within an hour. On Saturday 3rd April, IM Mitrabha Guha faced the world champion Magnus Carlsen twice and he managed to win against him on both occasions. Photo: Shahid Ahmed and maskenissen live stream

Aaryan Varshney wins Delhi State Open 2021 convincingly

05/04/2021 -

FM Aaryan Varshney got himself closest to the Delhi State Open title in 2017 when he finished at the third position. However he changed that in 2021 and added another State title to his growing list of championships as he scored an unbeaten 6.5/7 to become Delhi State Open champion. He finished a half point ahead of the competition. He immediately took part in Delhi State Under-25 where he scored 5.0/5 but he was placed second after Harshit Pawar as he had a better tie-break score. Aaryan annotates two of his games from each event and shares his thoughts about playing over-the-board tournament after a long time. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Off The Board Tales #01 - Raghavi Vishnu Prasanna

05/04/2021 -

This Valentine’s Day, we introduced an all-new series called ‘Off the Board Tales.’ 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! We started off the series with Dr. Raghavi Vishnu Prasanna, who is a Women’s International Master, an ENT specialist, and founded the GM Vishnu's Chess Club alongside her husband GM Vishnu Prasanna. Over time, more such posts from our social media will be be published here. We hope to bring you some moving, jaw-dropping, even heartbreaking stories that chess has helped shape, in the form of this series.

Talent Test with Ilamparthi - 12 positions for the 12-year-old

04/04/2021 -

Talent test has been a way in which we, at ChessBase India, bring forth the shining youngsters who are extremely talented. The first talent test took place in 2017 when IM Sagar Shah travelled to R. Praggnanandhaa's house in Chennai and posed him with a set of questions which the youngest IM in the world had to answer. This ritual then continued with more talents like Nihal Sarin, Raunak Sadhwani, Sreeshwan Maralakshikari and others. Even experienced GMs like Adhiban and Surya Ganguly have dipped their feet in ChessBase India's talent test. This time we have 12 positions for the boy who just turned 12 years old and who we believe is sure to turn some heads in the world of chess in the years to come - Ilamparthi AR. 

Anand and Humpy win Sportsman and Sportswoman of the Decade in Sportstar Aces Awards 2021

04/04/2021 -

On 3rd April 2021, Sportstar premiered the Sportstar Aces Awards 2021 Day 3 on their youtube channel. Vishy Anand was nominated for Sportsman of the Decade Non-Olympic Sport along with Pankaj Advani of Billiards and Rajat Chauhan of Compound Archery. Koneru Humpy was nominated for Sportswoman of the Decade Non-Olympic Sport along with Harika Dronavalli and Jyothi Surekha of Compond Archery. Arjuna Awardees Dibyendu Barua and Tania Sachdev presented the award to Anand and Humpy respectively. Anand also won Moment of the Decade for winning World Rapid in 2017. Photo: Sportstar

Chandar Raju clinches 58th Kerala State Senior Open 2021

04/04/2021 -

Chandar Raju wins 58th Kerala State Senior Open championship on his 22nd birthday, ten days after becoming Ernakulam District champion. He remained undefeated in both of his triumphs. He scored 5.5/6 in the district event and 7.0/8 in state. This is his second state title since 2013 and also second district title since 2016. Sooraj M R secured second position with 6.5/7, while third seeded Sharsha Backer was placed third 6.0/8 as his tie-breaks was better than four other players who finished with the same score. We also get to know Chandar's thoughts on his triumphs and see his favorite game from the event. Photo: Kunju Moideen

Indian teams clinch Gold and Bronze at Asian Nations Cup Online Under-14

03/04/2021 -

India has a huge depth in talent and that is proved once again as India 'A' and India 'B' won Gold and Bronze medal respectively at Asian Nations Cup Online Under-14 in the Open section. India 'A' comprising of IM Bharath Subramaniyam H, CM Shahil Dey, IM Raahil Mullick, Souhardo Basak and CM Dev Shah scored 15.0/18 to win the Gold. India 'B' team scored 13.0/18 to secure the Bronze. The team consisted of CM Prraneeth Vuppala, Rohit S, Sreyas Payyappat, CM Tanmay Jain and Om Manish Kadam defeated India 'A' in the penultimate round. Photo: Various sources 

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