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Biel 2019 R01: Sicilian Counterattacks and Queen's Pawn Boa Constrictors spawn a bloodbath!

23/07/2019 -

With the prestigious title of Biel Champion on the line, the players produced one of the most energetic rounds of classical chess in recent times, and produced a decisive result on all 4 boards in round one of the Biel GM 2019! Peter Leko and Vidit Gujarathi channeled their inner Karpovs and slowly squeezed the life out of Bogner and Cori respectively, while Shankland and Maghsoodloo beat back their opponents Georgiadis and Abdusattorov in contrasting Sicilian victories to maintain their spot in the standings. Tanmay Srinath in an extensive report from Biel analyses all the games and discerns shrewd improvements for both winner and loser.

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National Women's 2019 R05+06: Lady luck smiles on Vantika, Bhakti beats Divya

23/07/2019 -

It was a double rounds day at the 46th National Women's Championship 2019. In the fifth round the top board saw a surprising escape when Bhakti Kulkarni blundered in a winning position and Vantika Agrawal salvaged a draw through perpetual. Divya Deshmukh won a nice tactical game in the same round playing the black pieces of a Sicilian against Varshini. The final round of the day saw more fire works as both Bhakti and Vantika crashed through winning against Divya and IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman respectively. After six rounds of the event Bhakti and Vantika share the lead with 5.5/6 points; while Soumya Swaminathan, Nandhidhaa P V, Michelle Catherina P, Pratyusha Bodda and Swati Ghate follow close behind with 5.0/6. Watch out for Swati, after the first round loss, she has scored 5.0/5!

Biel 2019 Rapid: Leko's exemplary endgame play takes Biel by Storm!

22/07/2019 -

The 2019 edition of the Biel Chess Festival began with the rapid tournament. With all three formats being used to determine the overall winner, the players are egged on to show their versatile bests. Peter Leko turned back the clock with a commanding performance to take the tournament by storm - sole first with 10.0/14! His subtle endgame play granted him 3 wins, which was enough to finish ahead of the top seed Sam Shankland and his nearest competitors Vidit Gujrathi and Parham Maghsoodloo. Jorge Cori sparkled and drowned in equal measure with the prodigious Abdusattorov to finish on 50% while home favourites Georgiadis and Bogner failed to impress. A detailed report from Biel by Tanmay Srinath.

National Women's 2019 Round 4: A bedazzling Bhakti performance!

22/07/2019 -

The round 4 of the 46th National Women's Championship 2019 was steeped in action. To begin with, upsets were caused by WCM Mrudul Dehankar and Srishti Pandey who beat WIM Mahalakshmi M and WGM Mary Ann Gomes respectively. Take note, Srishti Pandey from Maharashtra is more than 400 points lower rated than Mary! Next, on the top boards WIM Vantika Agrawal won her fourth consecutive game by beating WIM Nandhidhaa P V; IM Soumya Swaminathan also registered an impressive victory over WFM Nityata Jain, but it was Bhakti's performance against WIM Bhagyashree Thipsay on board 1 that stole the show. In this report we bring you photos, analyses, and much more.

Attacking Monday Mornings with Sohan Phadke Part I - The Window Slide

21/07/2019 -

Fide Master Sohan Phadke is well-known in the Indian Chess circle for his aggressive style of play. Over the course of more than two decades, he has invented unique attacking principles and techniques of his own. In the series "Attacking Monday Mornings with Sohan Phadke" he brings to you some of these "secret" recipes. This is a weekly series of five videos that will be published on every Monday at 8 a.m. from 15th July onwards. Sohan would like you to appreciate the art of attack better and become a stronger player through these videos. Here are the positions for you to solve.

India's biggest open in Delhi sets the trend, begins the fight against sandbaggers

21/07/2019 -

The below category events in Indian chess have seen a rising issue - Sandbagging. Strong players whose level is much higher than the rating threshold of 1600 deliberately keep their rating below this rating limit so that they can play in the below 1600 tournaments and win good prize money. While this is within the rules, it is quite detrimental to the integrity of the game because players often deliberately lose games to lower their rating. It is with this in mind that India's biggest chess tournament, the Delhi GM Chess Open 2020 has introduced a new rule in the below C category tournament to avoid sandbagging. What is the rule, and why has it been implemented? Get to know more about it in this article. 

National Women's 2019 R02+03: A juxtaposition of gala and tussle

21/07/2019 -

The second day of the 46th National Women Chess Championship 2019 saw celebration amidst struggle. It was a hectic double rounds day with the second round starting at 9 a.m and the third at 4 p.m but the players and organizers still managed to find time for International Chess Day celebration. Speaking of the games, round-2 gave quite a few surprising results, the most notable among them being  WCM Jyothsna L's victory with black pieces over WIM Srija Seshadri. In the same round Nandhini Saripalli also pulled off an upset by beating WIM Pratyusha Bodda. Going into the third round, top-seed IM Soumya Swaminathan was held to a draw by WIM Harshita Guddanti, while the defending Champion Bhakti Kulkarni registered yet another victory by defeating WFM Saranya J. In this report we bring you photos, analyses, and more.

This International Chess Day, ChessBase India launches 12 new T-Shirt designs!

20/07/2019 -

On the International Chess Day, we have some big news to share with you. We have launched the new designs of ChessBase India T-shirts and they are now available on the ChessBase India online shop. In this article we bring you all the new designs with the pictures. As we are launching on such an auspicious day, we have kept a special discount until the 22nd of July. You can now get 6 ChessBase India T-Shirts at the cost of 5 and 10 T-shirts at the cost of 8. All you have to do is use the special discount code. All of the T-Shirts that we have launched are made with great care, using the highest quality material keeping your comfort in mind. We hope that you will enjoy our new releases. 

Top seeds IM Raja Rithvik and WIM Divya Deshmukh win National under-15 2019

20/07/2019 -

Top seed in the open category, IM Raja Rithvik R of Telangana scored 9.5/11 and won the tournament comfortably finishing half point ahead of his state mate, runner-up CM Kushagra Mohan. Rithvik took a sole lead heading into the 9th round and in the final round he defeated the defending champion Ajay Karthikeyan to become the champion in his final attempt. Among the girls, top seed WIM Divya Deshmukh won the tournament for the third consecutive year and created history. Divya took a half point lead going into the final round, a win the last round allowed her to etch her name in the record books and finish half point ahead of her state mate WCM Mrudul Dehankar. Photo: Organizer

MPL Chess Mahayudh - India's largest Digital Chess Tournament

20/07/2019 -

Leading esports and digital sports gaming platform Mobile Premier League (MPL) has announced its plan to host the biggest mobile speed chess tournament in India, MPL Chess Mahayudh, on 21st July 2019. The tournament was flagged off by Chess Grandmaster, Viswanathan Anand earlier this week. The 12-hour tournament has already garnered over 250,000 registrations, making it the biggest ever Chess tournament organised online and offline. MPL is offering an attractive total prize pool of ₹11 lacs to 50,000 winners, with a cash reward of ₹5 Lacs for the tournament winner. Registrations for the tournament commenced at 9 p.m. on 7th July 2019. Photo: MPL

Harika wins $15,000 at Belt and Road Women Open 2019 in China

20/07/2019 -

Harika made a strong comeback in Belt and Road Women Open 2019 and won the Bronze. She did not have the perfect start. In fact after six rounds she was only on 3.5 points. Then she turned things around and won her seventh and eighth round games. Her best came against former Women's World champion GM Alexandra Kosteniuk in the penultimate round. In the last round, she made a quick draw against the eventual champion who is also a former Women's World champion GM Antoaneta Stefanova. Among the other Indians, IM Soumya Swaminathan scored 5.0/9 and finished 11th, WIM Pratyusha Bodda finished at 19th by scoring 4.5/9 and WIM Rucha Pujari netted 3.5/9 securing 28th place. Photo: Harika's fb

Who will win the National Women's Championships 2019?

19/07/2019 -

The 46th National Women Chess Championship 2019 kick started today in the Chettinad Public School of Karaikudi, Tamil Nadu and will continue until the 27th of July. Organized by Castle Chess Academy, it is an eleven rounds swiss event following a time control of 90 Minutes for the first 40 moves plus 30 Minutes for rest of the game with 30 seconds increment from move one. An impressive prize fund of Rs. 15,00,000/- has attracted a total of 106 participants from all over the country, including 2 International Masters, 7 Women Grandmasters, 13 Women International Masters, and 8 Women Fide Masters. In this report we bring you glimpses of the vibrant opening ceremony and first round's action. We also have a little contest for you, who do you think will win the national championships? The correct answer will get a special prize. 

The 64 grandmasters of Indian chess

19/07/2019 -

On 18th of July Indian chess got its 64th GM. A very symbolic day as the chess board is made up of 64 squares. In 1980s, a genius named Vishy Anand arrived on the chess scene and changed the landscape of Indian chess forever. Anand became a GM in 1987 and 32 years later Prithu Gupta from Delhi became the 64th GM on 18th of July 2019. Who are these grandmasters of Indian chess? In this article we acquaint you with all the GMs of Indian chess along with their photographs and the year in which they became GMs. Also we have collected some important statistics related to the grandmasters in Indian chess, which show us what needs to be done to make Indian chess even better.

Prithu Gupta becomes the 64th GM of Indian chess at the age of 15 years, 4 months and 10 days

18/07/2019 -

While the story of every grandmaster of Indian chess is different and unique, you wouldn't find a more inspiring tale than that of Prithu Gupta. The youngster from Delhi became the country's 64th GM at the age of 15 years 4 months and 10 days on the 18th of July 2019. Prithu's journey to the GM title has been quite unconventional. The boy has given great importance to his academics and ensured that he maintains a CGPA close to 10. At the same time whenever he has got to play in a chess tournament he has made the most of his opportunities and achieved his GM title. 32 years after Vishy Anand became India's first GM, Prithu has completed the first chess board by becoming the country's 64th grandmaster. Get to know more about this young talent.

Indians dominating at the halfway mark in Leiden

18/07/2019 -

The Leiden tournament in the Netherlands is one of the well known chess events that takes place in a calendar year. Located in a quiet and idyllic location the place is perfect for a chess tournament. This year we have quite a few players from India who have participated in the tournament. Instead of just having a tournament with groups A, B and C, this year the organizers have also introduced a crown group where they have six GMs and four IMs fighting it out in a 10 player round robin event. Deep Sengupta and Arghyadip Das are leading the event with 3.5/5. In the A group we have Sandipan Chanda who is playing some sharp chess and is leading with a 100% score of 5.0/5. In this article we not only bring you information of how the Kolkata players are dominating in Leiden but also take you back in the memory lane to 2016 when the author of this article Sagar Shah visited Leiden.

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