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NEW: Erwin l’Ami: The Benko Gambit Explained

11/03/2020 -

Erwin l’Ami explains the Benko Gambit! Through model games l’Ami explains all topical lines of the Benko Gambit, occasionally asking the viewer interactive questions that help the viewer to grasp the ideas behind this opening. Pal Benko described in his autobiography that his gambit was initially regarded as a joke by his peers, but practice has shown it to be a dangerous weapon which is easy to learn. Now you can learn all about Benko Gambit from super strong Dutch GM Erwin l'Ami who is also one of Anish Giri's seconds. Photo: ChessBase

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Soham Datar wins 4th Young Masters Rapid Open 2020

11/03/2020 -

Third seeded Soham Datar scored 6.0/7 to win 4th Young Masters Rapid Open 2020. Top seed of the tournament Chinmay Kulkarni also finished with the same score 6.0/7. However, since he suffered a loss against Soham in the fourth round, Soham was declared the champion and Chinmay had to settle with the runner-up position. Winner of the third edition, Sriram Sarja was placed third with a score of 5.5/7. The tournament was organized by chess mothers of Pune city to celebrate International Women's day on 8th March 2020. Here is a pictorial report of the tournament. Photo: Ganga Pant

Lausanne GP R8: Dzagnidze gets back in the lead

11/03/2020 -

Reigning Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun scored her first win of the tournament when she defeated IM Alina Kashlinskaya after the latter made a thematic tactical error in QGD Ragozin Defence. Nana Dzagnidze got back in the lead along with Goryachkina as the Georgian defeated Marie Sebag easily. Mariya Muzychuk made sure Kosteniuk's woes continued as she lost her fifth game of the event after making a strategical mistake in the endgame. Harika suffered her second loss of the event as she reached into an inferior endgame against Stefanova. Zhansaya continued her impressive run as she made a short draw with Anna Muzychuk. Goryachkina had the longest game of the day with Pia Cramling as they played for over six hours and 129 moves before making a draw. Photo: FIDE

How to improve your online chess strength

10/03/2020 -

A lot of chess players spend quite a bit of their time every day playing online chess. The aim of playing online differs from person to person but it is clear that everyone wants to improve their rating and also their chess strength. Besides, with the Coronavirus spreading across the world, and tournaments getting cancelled, it seems wiser to spend more time playing online tournaments than offline ones! In this article GM Avetik Grigoryan from ChessMood talks to you about certain tricks that can help you boost your online chess Elo. His play nine game method, 15-minute breaks and the golden tip is sure to give you a new perspective next time you sit down to play online chess!

Fat Fritz 1.1 update and a small gift

10/03/2020 -

As promised in the announcement of the release of Fat Fritz, the first update to the neural network has been released, stronger and more mature, and with it comes the brand new smaller and faster Fat Fritz for CPU neural network which will produce quality play even on a pure CPU setup. If you leave it analyzing the start position, it will say it likes the Sicilian Najdorf, which says a lot about its natural style. Fat Fritz* is included with Fritz 17. Read on to find out more about this update, what's new and included in this.

Lausanne GP R7: Harika draws, Goryachkina and Kashlinskaya maintain lead

10/03/2020 -

Harika made a short draw with IM Zhansaya Abdumalik as she continues her impressive run at the tournament with 4.0/7. Anna Muzychuk scored the only victory of the round against Alexandra Kosteniuk. Anna capitalized on Kosteniuk's mistake in the endgame and had no difficulty converting her advantage into a full point. Kashlinskaya made a quick draw with Stefanova in just 14 moves. Marie Sebag held reigning Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun to a draw in the longest game of the round. Mariya Muzychuk made a quiet draw with Goryachkina. Pia Cramling and Nana Dzagnidze drew their game. Goryachkina and Kashlinskaya maintained their lead at 4.5/7. Photo: FIDE

Tournaments cancelled due to Coronavirus outbreak

09/03/2020 -

Generally we come up with upcoming tournaments article at the beginning of every month to make people aware of what to expect. We add tournaments all over the world in our calendar to keep everyone aware of all the choices and events they can follow, participate or spectate. However lately due to the advent of Coronavirus outbreak quite a few tournaments around the world got cancelled/delayed according to the WHO announcement and keeping public health safety concerns in mind. In this article we mention all the official announcements of major tournaments which got cancelled/delayed so far. Photo: infoworld

10 masterpieces from top women players of India

08/03/2020 -

Today 8th of March 2020 is celebrated as International Women's Day. Indian chess is blessed with some amazing women chess players who made an indelible mark in the world chess. In order to pay our tribute to all of these champion fighters, we asked some of the best women players of our country to share with us one of their favourite games ever! As the day passed by we received ten amazing games! From world no.2 Koneru Humpy to 14-year-old phenom Divya Deshmukh, we have some fantastic games brought together and annotated by IM Sagar Shah. Seeing them you begin to believe that if people can play to the best of their abilities they can create masterpieces which will be remembered for years to come. 

Lausanne GP R6: Harika loses, Kashlinskaya joins the lead

08/03/2020 -

Harika suffered her first loss of the tournament against Alexandra Kosteniuk who scored her first win of the event. Harika steered herself out of trouble in the endgame by making the correct exchange sacrifice, however she missed the correct continuation and landed herself in an unstoppable checkmate threat. Kashlinskaya scored a fine win over Sebag to join the lead with Goryachkina. The former Women's World Championship Challenger was held to a draw by Anna Muzychuk. The only other win was scored by Zhansaya Abdumalik who defeated another former Women's World Champion Antoaneta Stefanova. Goryachkina and Kashlinskaya lead with 4.0/6 heading into the only rest day of the tournament. Photo: FIDE

The lightning kid in Lindores Abbey

07/03/2020 -

Vishy Anand gave a simultaneous exhibition in the Lindores Abbey Chess Stars 2019 where he defeated eight youngsters rated between 1400 to 1800 Elo. IM Sagar Shah, who was present at the venue, recorded the whole electrifying episode on his mobile. Roland Kensdale, a regular follower of our YouTube channel decided to score all of the games painstakingly from this video we uploaded. Today in this article we revisit some of the most exciting moments from that simul - thanks of course to Roland's loving efforts - and see how Vishy was really able to outwit each of his opponents despite being both physically and mentally exhausted at the time. 

Invitation to 1st Time2Chess Rapid Rating and Tamil Nadu State Blitz Open

07/03/2020 -

Time2Chess is running their academy in nine different branches across Chennai, Tamil Nadu. However they do not want to restrict themselves only in inculcating knowledge through teaching. They want to expand their horizon by organizing the first edition of Time2Chess Rapid Rating Open on 21st and 22nd March 2020 and Tamil Nadu State Blitz Open on 22nd. Reigning National Triple Crown Champion Aravindh Chithambaram, Karthikeyan Murali among GMs, Nitin S and Shyam Nikhil P among IMs have confirmed their participation within a day after circular was published. Total Prize fund will be ₹190000 for Rapid and ₹25000 for Blitz. Photo: Tournament circular

Praggnanandhaa wins the TOISA 2019 for best chess player of the year

07/03/2020 -

On 5th of March, the Times of India Sports Award were held in New Delhi to felicitate the best achievers in Indian sports. Some of the big names who won the awards were P.V. Sindhu, Rohit Sharma, Saurav Ghoshal. Deepika Kumari, Manika Batra and several others. The chess fans had to lot to cheer about as the best chess player for the year 2019 was won by none other than 14-year-old R. Praggnanandhaa. There were two nominations for the chess award - Vishy Anand and Pragg. The jury went for the young blood, who has performed admirably in the year 2019 winning three major events - Xtracon, World Youth and London Chess and also pumping his rating past the 2600 mark. We bring you a snapshot of Pragg's performances in 2019 and also glimpses of the award night. 

Lausanne GP R5: Harika and Goryachkina are still in the lead

07/03/2020 -

Tournament leaders Harika and Goryachkina faced each other in Round 5 of Lausanne GP. They made a short draw in just 31 moves. Harika decided to go for a solid line again, but neither side made any mistake. Nana Dzagnidze scored the only win of the round against Anna Muzychuk. Mariya Muzychuk had quite a few opportunities to beat the reigning Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun, however she missed them all and the game ended up in a draw. Kashlinskaya got a small opportunity to stir up trouble for Abdumalik, the former missed it and the game ended up in a draw. Kosteniuk ended her losing streak by making a draw against Stefanova. Photo: FIDE

Vladimir Kramnik to train the Indian team for the Olympiad 2020

06/03/2020 -

Good news for Indian fans! Vishy Anand has confirmed his participation in the Indian team at the Olympiad 2020 that will be held in Moscow later this year. Humpy too has made herself available for the women's team. The other big development is former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik agreeing to train the Indian men's team at least for a couple of camps before the Olympiad. For now the Indian men's team consists of Anand, Vidit and Harikrishna with a battle for the remaining two spots between Adhiban, Sasikiran, Surya Ganguly, Sethuraman and Aravindh Chithambaram. While in the women's section Humpy and Harika will be present in the team. The forerunners for the remaining three spots are Tania Sachdev, Bhakti Kulkarni and R. Vaishali.

Why has Radjabov pulled himself out of the Candidates 2020?

06/03/2020 -

With just 10 days to go for the Candidates 2020, Teimour Radjabov has withdrawn his name from the Candidates 2020. For now he has furnished no specifics, citing the reasons are personal. It could well be due to the Coronavirus, but we cannot be sure about it. Teimour's withdrawal meant a last-minute entry for Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. The Frenchman and his manager had even written to the Russian Chess Federation in December 2019 to consider him for the wild card spot. While it seemed MVL had missed his opportunity this year as well, the fortunes have smiled upon him and he is now getting ready to take part in his first Candidates. Will there be any more twists in the plot before the tournament begins? We'll have to wait and watch!

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