12/09/2019 - It's a semi-secret development, an AlphaZero clone, engineered over the past nine months for ChessBase. Fat Fritz was tested by some of the best players in the world, who expressed unmitigated delight over the ideas and improvements it came up with. Now the program is publicly available on the ChessBase Engine Cloud. And it is running on awesome hardware. ALBERT SILVER explains.
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/-.
11/09/2019 - Team India comprising of CM Kushagra Mohan, L Srihari, Poorna Sri M K and Meenatchi Rajam V won 10th Asia Pacific Youth Sports Games at Vladivostok, Russia with a 100% score of 10.0/10 finishing a full match point ahead of Thailand 1 who secured runner-up position with 8.0/10. Primorsky Krai scored 5.0/10 to secure second runner-up position. Both Srihari L and Meenatchi Rajam V scored 5.0/5, Kushagra scored 4.5/5 and Poorna Sri managed to score 3.0/5. Photo: Madhuri Nandhipati
11/09/2019 - 15-year-old Nihal Sarin is the second youngest participant at the World Cup 2019. This is the first time Nihal is playing at the World Cup, but the youngster showed no nerves and outplayed his higher rated opponent Jorge Cori with the white pieces. Nihal's opening play was impeccable, in the middlegame he tightened the screws and all that was left in the endgame was not to go wrong! His win was definitely the game of the day. Harikrishna and Adhiban were the other two Indians who won their games. Sethuraman, S.L.Narayanan and Ganguly have the task to win their games to stay in the tournament. Vidit, Abhijeet, Karthikeyan and Aravindh drew their game. We bring you a detailed round one report.
11/09/2019 - The ChessBase Mega Database and other game collections contain fantastic examples for all important chess manoeuvres. However, they often remain hidden. The new search mask in ChessBase 15 can help find these hidden gems. A powerful function that is simply fun to use! Sagar Shah has prepared an instructive video.
10/09/2019 - The World Cup 2019 is here and we are quite excited! That's the reason why we are launching a contest where you have to predict how the ten Indian participants will perform at the World Cup 2019. If you are able to guess correctly with regards to the exit of each of the ten Indian players then you win an autographed copy of Mega Database 2019 by 14th World Champion Vladimir Kramnik. In this report apart from the contest we bring you the first round match ups of all the ten Indian players and also the impressions from the opening ceremony held on 9th of September. The live games begin at 3.30 p.m. IST on 10th and you can follow the games on the page!
10/09/2019 - From the 10th to 14th of September in Salobrena, Hotel Salobreña Suites (Granada, Andalucia, Spain) the World Junior Rapid and Blitz championships will be held in the following categories: U-14, U-16 and U18 for both boys and girls. Russian GM Sergey Tiviakov who currently resides in Groningen, Netherlands reports about the tournament from the venue. Photo: Patricia Claros Aguilar
10/09/2019 - Mrudul Dehankar kept up her sensational run in the ongoing Western Asian Youth and Junior Championships 2019. In rounds seven and eight she registered back to back victories against Srimathi R and Samriddhaa Ghosh to maintain her full point lead over the rest of the under-18 girls field with a fabulous score of 7.5/8. Thus, Mrudul needs only a draw in the final round to become the sole winner of the event. In under-20 open, Abdimalik Abdisalimov of Uzbekistan has taken sole lead with 7.0/8 but is closely followed by Rajdeep Sarkar who has 6.5/8; while in the girls section of the same age group Vantika Agrawal has been narrowly overtaken by Sakshi Chitlange and Bakhora Abdusattorova both of whom now share 6.5/8 each.
09/09/2019 - FIDE World Cup 2019 starts today in a few hours with round 1 games starting tomorrow at 3:30 p.m. IST. Quality Chess brings you FIDE World Cup contest where you can win 20 Quality Chess books, out of which ten can be chosen by the winner and the remaining ten will be chosen by Quality Chess. That sounds absolutely fantastic, right? You must be wondering, what's the catch? It's simple, you just have to make your predictions and submit them. Winner will be contacted by Quality Chess once the World Cup is over. Photo: Quality Chess / FIDE World Cup
09/09/2019 - The Shanghai Haiwan New Star International 2019 is a fine initiative by China. They have invited four talents from India, Iran, Russia and Armenia to take on four Chinese youngsters. The eight of them fight for the title in a round robin event along with the first prize of 40,000 CYN (Rs.4,00,000). After five rounds GM Haik Martirosyan and GM Bai Jinshi are leading the event with 3.5/5. India's D. Gukesh has had a tough time at the tournament as he has slumped to three loses against Bai Jinshi, Dai Changren and Arash Tahbaz. It might seem that Gukesh isn't really playing well. But sometimes your result doesn't depict your level of play. What happened in those games and why did Gukesh lose three of his games? We analyze in this report.
09/09/2019 - After losing to Sakshi Chitlange in round four, Vantika Agrawal made a strong comeback to win two games in a row and emerge as the sole leader in the under-20 girls category of the ongoing Western Asian Youth and Junior Championship 2019. In under-20 open group playing on board one the leaders - Abdisalimov Abdimalik and Rajdeep Sarkar - agreed to a quick draw to maintain their positions on the top. Divya Deshmukh also held Vardaan Nagpal to a draw, while Pranav Anand stunned Rahul Srivatshav P in a topsy-turvy encounter. In under-18 open, Sri Lankan talent Thilakarathne GMH registered his fourth consecutive victory to wrest sole lead, while in the girls section of the same age category Mrudul Dehankar furthered her unbeaten streak to stay half a point ahead of the field.
08/09/2019 - The state of Gujarat has always supported sports in a big way. In a new development, Sanskardham Sports Academy, a state of the art sporting complex will be launched on 8th of September 2019. Chess is one of the twelve sports that will be supported by the academy. GM Vishy Anand is invited as the guest of honour and on 7th of September he indulged in a very unique match-up. He played against twenty young talents of Gujarat chess where the youngsters could consult with each other before making their move. In this article we not only bring you the impressions from the event, but also show you the game which was quite intense and Anand had to use quite a bit of technique to bring home the full point!
08/09/2019 - In round three of the ongoing Western Asian Youth and Junior Championship Srijit Paul missed multiple opportunities against compatriot Mohamed Anees M and ultimately lost from a completely winning position to be ousted from the lead. In the same category Arjun Gupta kept up his stellar form to cause yet another upset by beating Abdurakhmonov Mukhammadali of Uzbekistan. Elsewhere, 14-year-old Divya Deshmukh, who is boldly competing in the under-20 open section, got the better of Harshal Shahi. In under-20 girls Vantika Agrawal was defeated by Sakshi Chitlange, while in under-18 girls group Mrudul Dehankar took a full point lead over the rest of the field scoring a fabulous 4.0/4. In this report we bring you photos, games, analyses, and much more from the third day of the event.
07/09/2019 - A major way to make chess popular in the country is to introduce it in schools. The Chess in Schools (CIS) project has been one of AICF's priority for many years. However, there has not been an appropriate strategy taken by the national chess federation to roll out the CIS program for the entire nation. With the International Chess in Education Conference (ICEC) held in Delhi on 7th and 8th of September, AICF would like to change this situation. Apart from some of the most well known trainers of the country and state secretaries being present, two Armenian maestros Smbat Lputian and Vahan Sargsyan were also invited. Armenia is an epitome when it comes to CIS project implementation. Indian chess stakeholders learnt from their experience on day one of the conference.
07/09/2019 - Keeping your chess databases in order, e.g. by arranging databases according to topics, players, openings, etc., makes training and improving easier and more fun. Database administration in ChessBase 15 is not difficult. Here's a little tutorial to help you. Drawing: ChessBase
07/09/2019 - The classical games have begun at the Western Asian Youth and Junior Championships 2019. The first round itself saw a couple of upsets as Tanishka Kotia (2164) and Savitha Shri B (2076) suffered defeats in the hands of Vishwa Shah (1760) and Rathi Dhanashree (1631) in the under-20 girls section. While in round two of the second half it was Sankalp Gupta (2376) who fell victim to Harshal Shahi (2114) of the host city. The most emphatic performance of the day however came from the under-18 open category, where playing on board one Arjun Gupta (2024) outwitted the Sri Lankan talent Thilakarathne GMH (2397). In this report we bring you photos, analyses, and much more from the second day of the event.