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Girish Koushik becomes India's 63rd GM and Karnataka's third!

25/06/2019 -

He was one of the most prolific achievers in Indian sub junior chess. Girish Koushik has the record for winning gold in Asian championships u-8,10,12,14 and 16! He was also the world under-10 champion, national under-9 and 11 champion and the list of medals is simply endless. But then all of a sudden he nearly quit playing chess! Girish became academically inclined and started to pursue Electronics and Communications Engineering in RV College of Engineering in Bangalore. It seemed like India had lost a GM. Not quite true. The moment his 8th semester got over Girish packed his bags and left for a three tournament Europe trip in May-June 2019. From being rated 2444 with one GM norm, he came back with an Elo of 2500.7 and three GM norms, effectively becoming India's 63rd Grandmaster.

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Age is only a number for Subramanian

24/06/2019 -

One cannot discount to the fact that in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle, chess has a major role to play. This attribute is noticeable in 85-year-old TV Subramanian from Trichy, Tamil Nadu who is grabbing eyeballs with his noteworthy performance as the oldest player at the ongoing 2nd Goa Grandmaster International Open Chess Tournament in Taleigao. Photo: Basil Sylvester Pinto

It's Manuel, not Tigran! Petrosyan leads the Goa GM 2019 with 7.0/8

24/06/2019 -

Manuel Petrosyan played the opening like a book, middlegame like a machine and didn't let the endgame occur! He beat GM P. Iniyan in their top board clash and became the sole leader of the tournament with 7.0/8. Judging by Manuel's form it seems like he is all set to win the tournament with two rounds to go. But there are four more players trailing him by just half a point - Iturrizaga, Jojua, Paichadze and Rahman. No Indian player is in top 8 after 9 rounds. Currently the best performing one is Neelash Saha, who is on 6.0/8. In this article we look at some of the most critical games of round 8 and also tell you about the leaders in the below 1600 (C-group).

Vision 2020 by AICF

23/06/2019 -

The annual general body meeting of All India Chess Federation (AICF) was held on 23rd of June 2019. In the meeting "Vision 2020" was presented. The document was passed by the members and the points mentioned in the vision 2020 document is how the Indian chess is going to proceed in the next year and a half. So what does Vision 2020 include? FIDE trainer seminars, FIDE Arbiter seminars, Coaching camp for talented juniors, smart girl project, and much more. In this article we present to you the details of the Vision 2020 document.

5 chess tales from Goa!

23/06/2019 -

A chess tournament is a place where you finds plenty of interesting tales! There are so many diverse individuals, with so many different backgrounds and cultures, that you are bound to get some interesting stories. Add to it the over the board action and you can see why we (ChessBase India) enjoying being present at tournaments. We can bring our readers some of the exciting stories so that people can not only enjoy them, but also learn from them. At the 2nd Goa GM International 2019, seven rounds have been completed and we have three leaders with 6.0/7 - Manuel Petrosyan, Samvel Ter-Sahakyan and P. Iniyan. In this article we bring to you five tales from the event that will teach, enlighten and entertain you!

Karthik Gopal wins Goa B 2019, Petrosyan sole leader in A

22/06/2019 -

In A-category the fifth round was played. We now have a sole leader in the form of Manuel Petrosyan who has 5.0/5. Samvel Ter Sahakyan and Petr Kostenko follow with 4.5/5. While the fifth round in A group had a lot of draws, there was a lot of action in the B-group as the final round was being played. Karthik Gopal. G and J. Karthikeyan faced off against each other on the top board. It was Karthik Gopal who came out on top with and won the tournament as well as Rs 2,00,000. Second place went to Saranya Yuvraj while Karthikeyan J. had to be content with the third place. We have a detailed report on group B, as well as some interesting annotated encounters from group A like Neverov-Petrosyan, Gukesh-Sankalp, Idani-Srivatshav and more.

Goa GM 2019 Round 4: Train with the grandmasters

21/06/2019 -

We all have books on tactics. We solve them to stay alert and improve our tactical vision. But do you know, these tactical positions are nothing but ones which are found by analyzing top class grandmaster games that are played at important event. The Goa GM International 2019 is filled with high class chess and a lot of tactical ideas are being executed on the top boards. In this article we bring you five positions. You would do well to spend 25 minutes of your time (5 mins x positions) to solve these positions and then match your answer with what the GMs did! All of these positions are taken from round 4 of the event. In this report you will also find a lot of photos, videos, analysis and an update about the B category tournament which is coming to an end.

Can spin of roulette decide the outcome of hard fought drawn chess match?

20/06/2019 -

It is something little hard to imagine but yes, in the history of chess there was one occasion when FIDE had no certain type of play such as Armageddon to decide the winner in case of draw. For those who are unaware of the format, Armageddon is the ultimate form of tie-breaker in chess, where time-odds are there and Black just needs to draw the game to win the match and White must win the game to advance or be declared as the winner of the match.

Ratnakaran's unthinkable queen sacrifice lights up Goa!

20/06/2019 -

On 11th of June we witnessed a brilliant queen sacrifice by Karthikeyan Murali at the Asian Championships 2019 in Xingtai, China. Chess fasn across the world found the queen sacrifice so good that they compared it to Nezhmetdinov's positional queen sacrifice against Chernikov that took place 57 years ago. Well, just 9 days after Karthikeyan's sacrifice, we have one more brilliant queen sacrifice, this time by Ratnakaran Kantholi in round 3 of the Goa GM International 2019! According to the author of this article IM Sagar Shah, Ratnakaran's queen sacrifice was much more difficult to envisage and evaluate than Nezhmetdinov's and Karthikeyan's. We bring you this brilliant game as well as other highlights from rounds 2 and 3 of Goa GM International 2019.

Review of ChessBase 15

19/06/2019 -

"I usually review mainly books but I want to say a few words about CB 15", writes CARL PORTMAN, author of the book Chess Behind Bars, as he begins his collection of thoughts on our flagship database program. Importantly, he tackles the perennial question: Should I upgrade it and why? Portman thinks "you’ll be intellectually naked without it"!

Goa GM 2019 Round 1: Grandeur with a personal touch!

19/06/2019 -

Chess organization just like anything else is all about identifying your weaknesses and mistakes, working on them and becoming better. That's what the team at Goa International Open Grandmaster Chess tournament 2019 are doing. They are simply competing with themselves. Speak to team and the unanimous answer that you would get is - "We would like to give the players a better experience than what they had in 2018." No wonder they have record number of GM participation with 35 GMs fighting it out in the A-group. 29 IMs are also in the fray, with players from 23 countries taking part and a rating average of 2182. Those are some brilliant numbers. We bring you the round one report along with some exciting pictures and video interviews!

Voronezh Masters 2019: A tournament where it is not so easy to gain rating or make norms!

18/06/2019 -

People often say that it is quite easy for Indians to go outside the country and gain rating or score their norms. All those who people say this must surely not have visited the Voronezh Masters taking place in Russia. It is one of the strongest tournaments taking place on Russian soil and a host of strong GMs, IMs and and under-rated Russian players compete at the event making it a test of fire for any upcoming chess player. This year six Indians have taken part at the 21st edition of Voronezh Masters. The tournament began from the 10th of June and we have the halfway report from the venue by Rupali Mullick, who is present with her son Raahil. A report filled with pictures, annotated games and an interview with tournament director GM Alexander Raetsky. 

Mariya becomes the only player to beat Goryachkina at Women's Candidates

18/06/2019 -

Mariya Muzychuk's only redemption of the tournament is that she defeated the Women's Candidates Champion and the new challenger for Women's World title, Aleksandra Goryachkina. After suffering two consecutive losses, Mariya was determined to finish the tournament on a high note and that is exactly what she did. Both Anna and Kosteniuk played safe and made a draw. Nana and Lagno had an uneventful draw. Tan Zhongyi handed Gunina her seventh defeat in another marathon game. Photo: Official site

How Magnus Carlsen’s exploits changed chess from a minor sport in Norway to prime time television!

17/06/2019 -

Chess in Norway was a minor sport in the early 2000s. Then came a youngster who caught the attention of first the chess audience and later the non chess audience as well. He went on to become the World Champion in 2013 and has since then ruled the chess world with an iron fist. Welcome to the world of Magnus Carlsen. How did such a talent develop in the land of Norway which had no real chess culture? In this article Tanmay Srinath tries to look into the chess in Scandinavia before Carlsen, how it shaped his chess and how Magnus changed chess from being a minor sport to a prime time television!

Women's Candidates: Anna shows true grit

17/06/2019 -

Goryachkina made a quick draw as according to her, she reached her goal so lacks motivation to play more. Anna won a long battle which went for almost 5.5 hours. She played the endgame beautifully to stop Gunina's winning streak. Kosteniuk ended her losing streak by defeating Mariya when she made a few bold decisions which was rewarded with a full point. Kateryna Lagno drew with Tan Zhongyi in Ruy Lopez Berlin Defence when Zhongyi kept looking for chances but Lagno managed to handle the situation well and stay out of trouble in the penultimate round. Photo: Official site 

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