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A ten-point lead for the hosts as we head to Blitz!

31/10/2019 -

Four rounds of rapid chess each were held on 29th and 30th of October 2019 between the ChessBase India team and Indonesia. After the first two rounds, we mentioned in our day one report that Indonesia had built up a commanding lead with 24-16. However, the Indians fought back and at the end of day two, and six rounds the lead had narrowed down to just two points - ChessBase India-59 and Indonesia-61. On day three, the Indian players managed to play some good chess and the rapid portion of the match has ended with a score of 105-95. A ten point lead for the hosts. But the match isn't over yet. We now move into the blitz section that will be played today (31st of October). There are 100 points at stake. Can the Indonesian team make a comeback? 

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Karpov Trophy 2019: Nihal Sarin's emphatic victory against Sara Khadem

30/10/2019 -

Amin Bassem and Alexey Sarana both lost one game each in rounds twelve and thirteen of the ongoing Anatoly Karpov Trophy 2019 to slip down the leaderboard. Nihal Sarin, on the other hand, kept up his steady form and emerged as the sole second with 8.5/13 points. In the twelfth round Nihal registered a crushing victory against the Iranian player Sara Khadem with white pieces and drew his next encounter confidently against Alexey Sarana playing black. Overall, Etienne Bacrot is still leading the field with 9.0/13 points and it remains to be seen if the Indian phenom can catch up with him in the last remaining round before the knockout semi-finals of the event begin. In this illustrated article we show you the critical moments from Nihal's twelfth round victory and also give you the next round pairings.

NEW Simon Williams bundle: The London System with 2.Bf4 Reloaded & Tactic Toolbox

30/10/2019 -

Introducing the all-new London system series from "Ginger GM" Simon Williams (and now available for Mac!)! Why bother learning hundreds of complex variations when you can play a simple yet deadly opening — the London System with 2.Bf4. And to cement your London skills, let Simon show you all the complications in the London System one has to know as White, giving you the tactical tools for a successful practice with the new "Tactic Toolbox" series. After all, the player who knows the typical motifs has an advantage over the board.

Sandipan and Gukesh make a steady start at 23rd OIBM Tegernsee

30/10/2019 -

Witnessing the participation of over 500 players in Indian tournaments is a common happening, however Offene Internationale Bayerische Meisterschaft also known as OIBM at Tegernsee in Germany is witnessing a mammoth 504 participants in the 23rd edition of the tournament. Sandipan Chanda and Gukesh D are just a half point behind the four leaders at 3.5/4 each. The highest rated Indian at the tournament Sethuraman suffered a defeat in round 4. 12-year-old CM Prraneeth Vuppala had a dream start by holding the former World Cup winner Gata Kamsky to a draw in the first round. The Indian women IM Padmini Rout and IM Nisha Mohota both made a steady start without losing a single match. Photo: Amruta Mokal/OIBM Official site

The ingredients that helped Raunak Sadhwani become the 65th GM of India

30/10/2019 -

Raunak Sadhwani became a GM at the age of 13 years, 9 months and 28 days on 19th of October 2019. Becoming a GM at such a tender age made him the ninth youngest GM in the history of chess! How did Raunak achieve this feat? What were the ingredients that came together to create GM Raunak Sadhwani? In this article we bring you Raunak's story towards the GM title. We also have quotes by his trainers, annotated wins of his encounters with Sjugirov, Motylev and Karjakin that helped him gain his third GM norm and 2500 Elo at the Grand Swiss 2019. After reading the article you will realize that a lot of ingredients had to be mixed in appropriate proportions for Raunak to reach where he is today. And as Vishy Anand rightly pointed out, "This is just the beginning!"

Antonio Viani wins double in France

30/10/2019 -

IM Antonio Viani D'cunha scored an unbeaten 7.0/9 to become champion in 5th Liffré International Open in France. He finished a half point ahead of the runner-up IM Pierre Bailet of France. IM P Konguvel also scored 6.5/9 and he finished shared second. GM Sundararajan Kidambi and IM Satyapragyan Swayangsu scored 6.0/9 each to finish at shared seventh position. All four Indians who participated in this tournament finished in top ten. Antonio also won the Blitz event by scoring 8.0/9 and suffering only one loss. He finished a full point ahead of the runner-up Raphael Lemasle of France. A brief report of the tournament with games and photos. Photo: Anne Ruhlmann / Liffré Open 2019

Karpov Trophy 2019: Nihal Sarin catches Hou Yifan in a mating net

29/10/2019 -

Nihal Sarin has a rapid rating of just 2285 but he is already performing at an Elo of 2639 in the 17th edition of Anatoly Karpov Trophy that is taking place in the beautiful mediterranean town of Cap d'agde in Southern France. After eleven rounds Nihal has an impressive score of 7.0/11 points (4 wins, 1 loss, 6 draws) and is placed overall second along with Amin Bassem and Alexey Sarana. In the eleventh round playing the black pieces he registered a fine win against Hou Yifan of China. Hou was the only one who had defeated Nihal earlier in the event. Thus, the Indian phenom not only consolidated his position in the tournament with his last victory but also levelled his score against the Woman World no.1. The top seeded Etienne Bacrot is at the moment the sole leader of the event and is half a point ahead of the rest of the field with 7.5/11 points, while Elisabeth Paehtz and Hou Yifan have slipped down the leaderboard with 5.0/11 each.

Is the Indonesia national team too strong?

29/10/2019 -

The Indonesia team travelled for nearly 12 hours to reach from Jakarta to Chennai on 27th night. They took some rest and were on the chess board on the 28th afternoon for the ChessBase India vs Indonesia friendly match taking place in Chess Gurukul. The 10-member Indonesian national team has a rating average of 2373.6, while the 10-member ChessBase India team has a rating average of 2361.6. It promised to be quite an evenly contested battle, at least on paper. And this was seen in the 1st round as India eked out a win by the nearest of margins 5.5-4.5 But in round two, Indonesians went ahead full throttle and beat the Indians by a whopping 7.5-2.5 score. At the end of day one the score is 24-16 in favour of Indonesia. A detailed report from Chennai. 

Nikolas Stanec dominates 1st Arberia Open 2019

29/10/2019 -

GM Nikolaus Stanec of Austria scored 6.0/7, remained undefeated to win 1st Arberia Open 2019. He received a beautiful trophy and €400 for his efforts. Stanec finished a half point ahead of the remaining podium finishers. Both FM Konstantin Peyrer and Johannes Steindl scored 5.5/7 and they were placed second and third respectively according to their tie-break score. The Blitz event was won by untitled Leopold F Wagner of Germany by scoring 8.5/11. Konstantin Peyrer also scored 8.5/11, however Leopold clinched the title based on his tie-break score. Total 57 players in open and 51 players in blitz participated form thirteen different nations. Photo: Arberia Open 2019

Analysing your openings repertoire with Fat Fritz

28/10/2019 -

While the idea of Fat Fritz as a self-taught chess AI is tantalizing, many players may wonder why this impacts them if they already have a good engine and they are not grandmasters seeking nearly ineffable edges in their preparation. In the following article, we let a strong amateur study with it for some hours and compare notes with analysis he had made from other engines. With the meteoric rise of usage of AI in chess, Fat Fritz is something undeniably useful for any professional chess player. Learning how to maximize its usage and reap benefits from it is definitely worth learning now than procrastinating it.

Nihal Sarin leads Karpov Trophy 2019 with three others

27/10/2019 -

Nihal Sarin is currently playing in the Anatoly Karpov Trophy 2019 which is taking place from the 25th of October to the 1st of November in Cap d'Agde, France. The tournament consists of two parts. It begins as an eight-player rapid double round-robin but after the completion of fourteen rounds the top four go on to play two-game knockout semi-finals and a final. Nihal is incidentally the last seed of the event with a rapid rating of just 2285. Obviously this figure doesn't reflect the true strength of the youngster as he has already displayed some very steady chess to emerge as one of the four leaders at the end of six rounds with 4.0/6 points. Etienne Bacrot, Hou Yifan, and Amin Bassem - all 2600+ rated strong rapid players - are others who share the lead with the same score. In this consolidated report on rounds one to six of the tournament we give you a comprehensive overview of Nihal's performance so far.

Metro Railway wins All India Inter Railway 2019

27/10/2019 -

Indian chess witnesses two secret tournaments - Inter Petroleum and Inter Railway tournament. Why are they secret tournaments? Because both tournaments generally happen off the radar, only the players who participate in this tournament are aware of it and rest of the world are oblivious of its happenings. Since these are not rating tournaments, players can play tension-free, experiment as much as they want, but one thing they fight for is - bragging rights. Metro Railway has never fielded more than two members in their team, however for the first time ever, they had all four members and they won it. Here is a pictorial report of the tournament. Photo: Joydeep Dutta

Evgeny Shtembuliak and Polina Shuvalova are World Junior Champions 2019

26/10/2019 -

The World Junior Championships officially came to an end on 26th of October 2019 when players from over 50 countries proceeded back to their home. Two new World Champions were crowned - Evgeny Shtembuliak in the open section and Polina Shuvalova in the girls section. The silver and the bronze medal in the open section went to Armenians Shant Sargsyan and Aram Hakobyan respectively. In the girls' section it was Mobina Alinasab from Iran who won the silver and Elizaveta Solozhenkina who won the bronze. We bring you all the pictures from the closing ceremony as well as photos of the 17 norm makers. We also take you to the moments of the final rounds where the six medals were decided. A huge report from New Delhi by Sagar Shah, Amruta Mokal, Niklesh Jain and Angela Franco.

Training with ChessBase 15: Creating interactive training tasks

26/10/2019 -

ChessBase 15 offers a lot of training tools. An effective and powerful training method is to work with interactive training tasks. Part 3 of our series with ChessBase tutorials shows how to create interactive training tasks, how to save them in training databases, and how to create work sheets with training tasks. As a trainer creating interactive tasks can help a player to boost their work rate as well as improve their strength. This is not just for trainers, but players can use it to their advantage too as it will help them identify patterns of various opponents, their strengths, weaknesses and trends as per the requirement.

Priyanka wins the biggest Smart Girl All India open

26/10/2019 -

Thirteenth seeded Priyanka Bhatt of Uttar Pradesh scored 7.0/9 and won the biggest Smart Girl All India open at Ernakulam, Kerala. Three other players also finished at the same score, due to a better tie-break score, Priyanka clinched the championship. Kerala's budding talent, multiple State champion and former Commonwealth under-10 Gold medalist, Anupam M Sreekumar scored an unbeaten 7.0/9 and she secured the runner-up position. Total ₹110000 prize fund was distributed among the prize winners, making it the biggest Smart All India open organized till date. Cognizance Chess Academy organized the tournament at Ernakulam, Kerala from 19th - 23rd October 2019. Photo: FA Subha Rakesh

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