Biel Masters 2019: Brkic and Donchenko blaze out of the blocks with 4.5/5!

27/07/2019 -

The Biel Grandmaster tournament has entered its only rest day, after 5 grueling days of chess. Along with this flagship event, a 9 round Master tournament is being organised for players above 2000 elo. The top seed is newly minted 2700 Jeffery Xiong, who faces stiff competition from fellow American Gata Kamsky and Israeli Tamir Nabaty. With 34 GMs and 22 IMs there are a lot of norm chances as well! After 5 rounds, Croatian surprise package Ante Brkic and German Alexander Donchenko lead the tournament with 4.5 out of 5, followed by a host of players on 4. In this report from Biel Tanmay Srinath brings you games, critical positions and photos, with a glimpse of the excursion organised for the GM tournament participants on their rest day. 

13-year-old Sreeshwan Maralakshikari is now an International Master

26/07/2019 -

This is a story that will warm your heart. It begins with a 13-year-old youngster from Hyderabad, who has a rating of 2462 and two IM norms. Born in 2006, Sreeshwan is definitely one of India's biggest chess talents. While on the chess board things were going great for Sreeshwan, off the board, his family was unable to afford the increasing expenses of his booming chess career. His coaching was cut down and since the last six months he had only played in one tournament. That's when a samaritan from Mumbai came forward to support Sreeshwan's talent by sponsoring his trip to Spain. The youngster travelled to Spain via the ChessBase India Power Group Tour and at the Sant Marti Open 2019 made his third and final norm to become an IM!

Bhakti Kulkarni is the National Women's Champion 2019

26/07/2019 -

Bhakti has done it! She has won the 46th edition of National Women's Championship 2019 with one round to spare. This is her second National title in a row! She dominated the field with a stupendous score of 9.5/10, achieving a rating performance of 2620 and gaining 42 Elo points in the process! In the tenth round she was up against Priyanka K of Tamil Nadu with the Black pieces. The game started off with a fianchetto Ruy Lopez which Bhakti masterfully steered into an opposite coloured bishop ending but as the title of this article suggests, ending of opposite coloured bishops is by no means synonymous to draw! In other boards, Vantika Agrawal and Divya Deshmukh won their respective games against Mary Ann Gomes and Michelle Catherina; while top seed Soumya Swaminathan and legendary IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman were handed shock defeats by Bala Kannamma P and Mrudul Dehankar respectively.

Praggnanandhaa in sole lead at Xtracon chess with 6.5/7 and a rating performance of 2788!

26/07/2019 -

Praggnanandhaa has struck golden form at the strong Xtracon Open in Denmark. Starting as the 21st seed, Pragg is the sole leader of the tournament with a score of 6.5/7. He currently has a performance rating of 2788 and has gained 20 Elo points, taking his live rating to 2560. Pragg also scalped two 2600+ GMs - Anton Korobov and Daniele Vocaturo. In this article we see both the games. Apart from Pragg there are three more Indians who are doing well. Karthikeyan Murali is unbeaten and is on 5.5/7. Vaishali has beaten already two grandmasters and is well on course for an IM norm. Bharath Subramaniyam, who is a few months shy of turning 12, beat 2615 rated Rasmus Svane and is on the 6th place on the ranking list.  

Nico's missed 'Game of the Year' overshadows Shankland's rook sacrifice!

26/07/2019 -

Really? Game of the year? You heard it right! After an opening mistake from Vidit, Georgiadis turned on beast mode and made it to an endgame a pawn up. However, instead of a routine piece capture, he had a chance to end the game with a spectacular piece sacrifice! Vidit survived by the scruff of his neck, and is now joined at the top by Sam Shankland, who produced a Sicilian miniature consisting of temporary piece and exchange sacrifices to down Maghsoodloo in only 26 moves. Peter Leko and Sebastian Bogner had substantial advantages against Abdusattorov and Cori, but couldn't make them count and ended up sharing the spoils. A comprehensive report from Biel by Tanmay Srinath. 

National Women's 2019 R09: Chess is a tough game!

26/07/2019 -

Do you agree with our title? If you don't, then read on. In this article we are going to show you two games where the critical moment was so difficult to understand that strong players like Soumya Swaminathan and Vantika Agrawal went wrong. Just one wrong move and the game was over. That's why chess is such an unforgiving game. On the other hand Bhakti Kulkarni is playing chess like a person who has just about everything under control. She doesn't miss any tactics. If she gets an advantage she calmly converts it. It's almost as if she cannot put a foot wrong. With 8.5/9 she is now leading the tournament with 1.5 points and has already gained 36 Elo points. In round 10 she takes on K. Priyanka. Will she stop Bhakti Kulkarni? Follow the live games on 26th of July at 10 a.m.

Live Games from the 46th National Women's Championship 2019

25/07/2019 -

With the first prize of Rs.4,00,000, the 46th National Women's Championships 2019 is one of the most keenly contested women tournaments of Indian chess. We have the top seed of the tournament Soumya Swaminathan, followed by defending champion Bhakti Kulkarni. The third seed is the young, talented and unpredictable Divya Deshmukh. Apart from them we have Vijayalakshmi, Srija Seshadri, Mary Ann Gomes and many more top players of Indian chess. On this page you can follow the live games on a daily basis from 19th to 27th of July. The rounds begin 10 a.m. each day, but in case of double rounds we have them at 9 a.m. and 4 p.m. respectively. 20th of July and 22nd of July are double round days. Follow the games Live here!

Chettinadu Public School - A chess ambient institution in Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu

25/07/2019 -

The ongoing 46th edition of National Women's Championship 2019 is being hosted and sponsored by the Chettinad Public School of Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu. While we are bringing you round by round in depth coverage of this highly important National level event, it would be remiss if we didn't mention about the very institution which has been key in its organization. In this article we exclusively take you to the venue of National Women's 2019, the Chettinadu Public School (CPS) - a CBSE affiliated senior secondary school that has made a name these days in the Indian chess scene. All the photos in this report have been provided by IA Gopakumar Sudhakaran.

Sandipan Chanda dominates Leiden Open 2019

25/07/2019 -

Sandipan Chanda's highest career Elo was 2656. To see him at a rating of 2516 almost seems like a publishing error. The man has deep understanding of chess, he calculates well, loves to play chess and yet he has systematically shed rating points in the past few months. What was going wrong? Well, whatever it was, seems to have been halted at the Leiden Open 2019, where Sandipan scored 7.5/9 with a rating performance of 2630 and finished a full point ahead of his nearest rivals. Sandipan won his first six rounds and then drew his remaining three to comfortably win the event. The Crown Group was won by Predrag Nikolic who made a strong finish by scoring four out of the last five rounds to edge ahead of Lalith Babu and Deep Sengupta.

Vidit beats Leko in English for sole lead while Abdusattorov outsmarts Shankland

25/07/2019 -

Cometh the hour, cometh Superman! Vidit Gujarathi didn't play perfect chess, but his slow and steady buildup was too much for Peter Leko to take, and the former now takes over sole lead in the tournament. Nodirbek Abdusattorov handed Sam Shankland a defeat in the 4.d3 Anti Berlin after the former US Champion lost his objectivity and overextended his queenside. Parham Maghsoodloo's loss of form turned worrying, as an overestimation cost him a sure draw, with Jorge Cori being the lucky beneficiary. The All Swiss duel ended square, as two good friends and teammates didn't test each other, and rested for tougher battles. An exhaustive report from Biel by Tanmay Srinath.

National Women's 2019 R08: Bhakti's...Kxd7?! Wow! What sort of a move is that?

25/07/2019 -

Bhakti Kulkarni continues to steal the show at the 46th National Women's Championship 2019. In round 8, victory came once again, this time against Nandhidhaa P V and that too playing the black side of the super weird Scandinavian opening. With the current state of things one might as well say that the Bhakti effect is taking over the tournament. However, possibilities still abound as just half a point behind breathing down Bhakti's neck is Vantika Agrawal. Meenakshi Subbaraman too has climbed up the leaderboard with formidable performances in the last two rounds and has every chance at putting a stop to Bhakti's dream run. With only three rounds remaining, the contest is still excitingly open to many!

Share games with ChessBase 15

24/07/2019 -

Sharing can be fun — and sharing chess games can be fun but also helpful and instructive, e.g. if you teach chess or work with a trainer. In any case, sharing games with ChessBase 15 is easy. Here's a short tutorial covering your options. | Drawing: ChessBase

Biel 2019 R02: Bogner's redemption and Leko's metamorphosis spruce up Biel!

24/07/2019 -

Well, one doesn't lose forever. Sebastian Bogner, the current Swiss Champion taught us all how to overcome a rut by clinically destroying Parham Maghsoodloo's weak opening play to get back in contention. Sam Shankland had the chance of the round against Vidit, but the American failed to assess properly the best continuation available to him. Peter Leko continued his remarkable fable by turning a new leaf yet again - his game against Georgiadis lasted an epic 101 moves. Peter Leko, Sam Shankland and Vidit Gujrathi lead the classical section with four points. Peter Leko leads the overall standings with 14 points. Tanmay Srinath in an exhaustive report from Biel dissects today's play.

National Women's 2019 Round 7: A day of mistakes and missed chances

24/07/2019 -

The seventh round of the 46th National Women's Championship 2019 was a day of mistakes and missed chances. On board-1 it was the highly anticipated Bhakti Kulkarni versus Soumya Swaminathan matchup but the encounter simply failed to live up to the expectation as the top-seed of the event couldn't quite find her form against the defending champion. Vantika Agrawal and Nandhidhaa P V drew their respective games against Pratyusha Bodda and Michelle Catherina; while Swati Ghate, who had made an impressive recovery after losing her first round game, faltered and lost to Meenakshi Subbaraman in a winning position. However, the biggest shocker came from Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman versus Potluri Saye Srreezza, where the former made a crude mistake on move 71 to lose in a dead drawn queen-pawn ending.

Nihal reveals one of his favorite books

23/07/2019 -

Yesterday reigning Asian Continental Blitz Champion, 14-year-old GM Nihal Sarin made a post on his facebook page mentioning about one of his favorite books - Quick Chess Knockouts by Julian Hodgson. We all wonder what did the champions study in their formative years, what made them achieve greatness by becoming so strong. Nihal shares a small spec of it in his latest facebook post. Photo: Nihal Sarin's facebook page.