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World Juniors Rd.01: Dvorkovich visit and a tough start for the top seeds

16/10/2019 -

The World Junior Championships 2019 began with great excitement on the 15th of October 2019 in New Delhi, India. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich visited the event and boosted the spirit of the participants. This is the second big event happening in India in the month of October after the successful completion of the World Youth Championships 2019. It is perhaps for the first time in the history that the number of male participants in the open section is exactly equal to the number of female participants in the girls section - 94 each! In the first round both the top seeds - Amin Tabatabaei (2642) and Zhu Jiner (2507) were held to a draw. We bring you detailed coverage from the venue in New Delhi.

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Grand Swiss R06: Vishy Anand's instructive lesson in Spanish

16/10/2019 -

When it comes to the mastery of traditional systems, Vishy Anand is truly second to none. In the sixth round of FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss 2019 the Indian legend proved this once again by outplaying his young talented opponent Nodirbek Abdusattorov in the classical Ruy Lopez. The other major victory of the day was pulled off by Surya Sekhar Ganguly who made an emphatic comeback after previous round's defeat to beat the Georgian genius Baadur Jobava. Sethuraman S.P. and Gukesh D also registered important wins, while Harikrishna Pentala suffered an unfortunate loss in the hands of Vladislav Kovalev. Two players, Fabiano Caruana and Wang Hao, lead the event with 5.0/6 points each but there are seven players, including Magnus Carlsen, who are closely following them just half a point behind. We bring a detailed, illustrated report from Douglas, Isle of Man.

Series of tournaments in Serbia

16/10/2019 -

Lately Serbia has been frequented by Indians for various round robin tournaments to increase rating and gain norms. Saptarshi Roy became India's 51st GM and Leon Mendonca Luke scored three IM-norms in 17 days early this year at Serbia. This has inspired players from all over the world to flock to Serbia. One of the the many reasons why these tournaments are successful is because it is organized by a chess player GM Sinisa Drazic himself. Drazic sends us a pictorial report of three amateur tournaments held in Serbia where two of them were Scheveningen tournaments and a mini open tournament where you can catch a glimpse of the playing hall and the players. Photo: GM Sinisa Drazic

Grand Swiss R05: The resurgence of the World Champion

15/10/2019 -

Magnus Carlsen registered a convincing win against India's Surya Sekhar Ganguly in round five of FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss 2019. It has been a shaky first few rounds for Magnus here in Isle of Man. But thanks to the eleven-round swiss format, there still is ample scope for the World Champion to recover from his initial hiccups in the event. The Norwegian surely understands that and with this fifth round victory it seems he is on his way to make his presence felt. Overall, day five of the tournament went fairly well for the Indian contingent. Apart from Ganguly only Gukesh D and Soumya Swaminathan had to suffer defeats. Vishy Anand won a dominating game with the black pieces against Axel Bachmann and Adhiban Baskaran made a refreshing come back beating David Howell. Elsewhere, Abhimanyu Puranik, Nihal Sarin, and Prithu Gupta too registered impressive wins.   

Al Muthaiah wins 5th Hatsun & Idhayam Open through Armageddon

15/10/2019 -

IM Al Muthaiah of Tamil Nadu and IM M Chakravarthi Reddy of Telangana both scored 7.0/8 and had all their tie-break scores same. So how to decide the winner? Armageddon was the answer. Al Muthaiah won the Armageddon match, thus he was declared the winner of the tournament. Four other players also finished at 7.0/8. Among them, AGM Sa Kannan had the better tie-break score to secure the third position. Total 308 players participated in this four-day eight round tournament, organized by Virudhunagar Chess Club at VSVN Polytechnic College from 5th-8th October 2019. Chief Arbiter of the tournament IA Prof. R Anantharam sends us a detailed report of the tournament.

Viswanathan Anand can still beat anyone, says Magnus Carlsen

15/10/2019 -

Viswanathan Anand is currently playing at FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss Isle of Man, which is his final path to the Candidates 2020. While his path to the Candidates seem difficult, the reigning World Champion Magnus Carlsen believes that the Madras Tiger, Vishy Anand can still beat anyone. In this interview by Times of India's Prasad Ramasubramanian, Carlsen talks about his year so far, his most difficult among the current lot, if he sees Anand becoming a Challenger for the World title again, his acquisition of Chessable, his support towards his favorite team in Real Madrid and more. Photo: Amruta Mokal

Grand Swiss R04: Magnus Carlsen survives a massive scare

14/10/2019 -

Magnus Carlsen made an unbelievable escape from a completely lost position in the fourth round of FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss in Isle of Man here. The World Champion was up against Vladislav Kovalev with the black pieces and just twenty-seven moves into the game found himself in severe trouble. But fortunately it was his opponent's poor management of time that finally spared him of what would only have been a crushing defeat. The first board encounter between the World No 2, Fabiano Caruana, and China’s Wang Hao ended in a draw. The two have now been joined at the top by the World Junior Champion Parham Maghsoodloo and England’s Luke McShane who got the better of Vidit Gujrathi and Adhiban Baskaran respectively. Apart from the electrifying Kovalev-Carlsen clash, the performance of the Indian contingent in the fourth round was rather sombre. We bring an illustrated report. 

Sooraj shines at Adith Paulson Memorial 4th Don Bosco Open

14/10/2019 -

Fourth seeded Sooraj M R of Thrissur won his maiden open rating tournament by scoring an unbeaten 8.0/9 and finishing a half point of the runner-up. Sooraj is the current Thrissur District Senior, Rapid and under-25 champion. 67-year-old Abdul Majeed N scored an impressive unbeaten 7.5/9 to secure the first runner-up position. Top seed of the tournament Gunasekaran N scored 7.0/9 and due to a better tie-break score he was placed third. Total 205 players participated in the tournament from all across the country from 4th - 8th October 2019. Total Prize fund ₹301000 was distributed among 92 prize winners. A pictorial report of the tournament with photographs from Chief Arbiter of the tournament FA Peter Joseph M

City of Vicenza International turns 23

14/10/2019 -

CM Nicola Zanchetta scored 4.0/5 to win 23rd International tournament "City of Vicenza" edging ahead of FM Fabrizio Molina who also scored 4.0/5, due to a better tie-break score. Top seed FM Alberto Barp scored 3.5/5 to finish at third place. Three other players also finished at 3.5/5, but Albertro secured the third position due to a better tie-break score. Total 106 players took part in the 23rd edition of the tournament which took place from 27th to 29th September 2019 in the prestigious hall of Tiepolo hotel. Nicola received the first prize of €400 and a beautiful trophy. The fourth edition of the tournament is slated to take place from 25th to 27th September 2020. Photo: Enrico Danieli

Six new World Champions crowned at the World Youth 2019

13/10/2019 -

Six new World Youth Champions were crowned on 12th of October 2019 - Aydin Suleymanli and Meruert Kamalidenova won the under-14 open and girls section respectively, under-16 was won by Rudik Makarian and Leya Garifullina and under-18 titles went to Praggnanandhaa and Polina Shuvalova. How tense was the last round? In four sections things went as per plan, however in the under-14 girls and under-16 girls everything changed completely in the final round. Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal, who were present at the venue in Mumbai, bring you a detailed report of how things panned out on the final day of the World Youth Championships 2019. 

Grand Swiss R03: Adhiban and Vidit lead the Indian contingent

13/10/2019 -

Adhiban Baskaran made an enterprising use of the white pieces and employed the aggressive advanced variation against Radosław Wojtaszek's Caro-Kann. However, the number one Polish player remained unfazed by the Indian Grandmaster's ambitiousness and put up a steady defense to force the split of point. Meanwhile, Fabiano Caruana and Wang Hao defeated Alexei Shirov and Bu Xiangzhi respectively to register their third consecutive victory and emerged as the leaders of the event. Vidit Santosh Gujrathi refuted Maksim Chigaev's unusual King's Indian sideline, while Harikrishna Pentala positionally outplayed Erwin L'ami in the Catalan. It was the third round of FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss 2019 and in this comprehensive report we bring you the highlights of all the important Indian performances.

Balasubramaniam wins 19th Adyar Times Open for a record fourth time

13/10/2019 -

IM Ramnathan Balasubramaniam wins his third tournament of the year by scoring 7.0/8 and winning 19th Adyar Times Open 2019. Six players finished at the top with a score of 7.0/8, however due to a better tie-break score, Balasubramaniam was declared the winner. CM Rajarishi Karthi and Vignesh B were placed second and third respectively. Total 431 players participated from four different federations Botswana, France, USA and India including various districts across the state of Tamil Nadu along with various states across the country, in this four-day open rating tournament. This is the fourth time Balasubramaniam has won Adyar Times Open and his third tournament victory of the year. Chief Arbiter IA S Paul Arokia Raj sends us the report. Photo: S Paul Arokia Raj

Seven medals for India at the World Youth 2019

12/10/2019 -

The World Youth 2019 turned out to be a good event for India as the contingent won seven out of the 18 medals at stake. Praggnanandhaa provided the biggest cheer with the gold in under-18 open. The silver medals were won by Vantika Agrawal in under-18 girls, Srihari LR in under-14 open and Divya Deshmukh in under-14 girls. Bronze medals went to Sreeshwan Maralakshikari in under-14 open, Rakshitta Ravi in under-14 girls and Aronyak Ghosh in under-16 open. Although in terms of number of medals, India had the highest, Russia was the best performing nation with three gold medals! In this article we give you the summary of all the champions in different age categories.

Grand Swiss R02: Adhiban on a roll, Vishy bounces back

12/10/2019 -

Playing the black pieces, in round two, Adhiban Baskaran displayed some really superior handling of the Open Spanish to outplay his talented 18-year-old opponent Jeffrey Xiong and pull off his second consecutive win. Vishy Anand also made an emphatic comeback by registering a crushing victory over Israel's Tal Baron, while Raunak Sadhwani kept up his sensational performance by holding the former world champion challenger Sergey Karjakin to a draw. The FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss 2019 has already taken a sharp turn. By the end of second round itself, in the field of total 154 top-class Grandmasters, it is just five players now who lead with perfect scores of 2.0/2 points each. Adhiban is the only Indian in this group which is led by Fabiano Caruana and also includes Wang Hao, Bu Xiangzhi, and Alexei Shirov.

World Youth 2019 Rd.10: How many medals can India win?

12/10/2019 -

The penultimate round of the World Youth Championships 2019 was filled with action. Praggnanandhaa continued his sprint towards the title in under-18 open section by winning his game against Paulius Pultinevicius. Shant Sargsyan was saved by the skin of his teeth against Mitrabha Guha and is still right on the heels of Praggnanandhaa. Polina Shuvalova keeps her lead intact in girls under-18. Nazerke Nurgali has finally managed to edge out Leya Garifullina in girls under-16 and Rudik Makarian has taken the sole lead in under-16 open. Aydin Suleymanli from Azerbaijan leads in the open under-14 while Bat-Erdene Mungunzuul has come strongly to the top as the sole leader in girls under-14. Last round to be played on 12th of October when the 18 medal winners will be decided. 

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