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Which is the most popular chess video on the internet?

27/04/2019 -

Which is the most popular chess video on the internet? Must be a Magnus Carlsen, or a Fabiano Caruana or Vishy Anand video, right? Well, not really! Five months ago, the first super tournament was held on Indian soil in Kolkata - Tata Steel Chess India Rapid and Blitz 2018. The ChessBase India team was covering the event and shot many of the blitz games in high definition videos. One of them was Praggnanandhaa winning against Surya Sekhar Ganguly. It is a 19 minute 45 seconds video which has gone on to become the most popular chess video of all time on the internet. At the time of writing this article the video has 20.5 million views! That's a whopping 2 crore views and a total watch time of 81.1 million watch minutes!

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Ding Liren vs Harikrishna final round LIVE from Shenzhen

27/04/2019 -

In order to win a super tournament you have to finish well. Harikrishna has done all the hard work by scoring 6.0/9 with five wins at the Shenzhen Masters 2019. In the final round he is up against the Chinese wall Ding Liren. Although Harikrishna had beaten him in round 4, it won't be easy this time around as Ding Liren has the white pieces. Half point behind Hari is Anish Giri, the only man who can catch up with the Indian GM. Anish is playing with the white pieces against Dmitry Jakovenko. Can Hari win the first super tournament of his career? Watch the final round LIVE from 8.30 a.m. onwards IST.

It's dangerous to exchange queens against Harikrishna!

26/04/2019 -

It's simply phenomenal how Harikrishna has managed to win equalish looking positions at the Shenzhen Masters 2019. His modus operandi is simple - he exchanges the queens, masterfully shuffles his pieces to their best squares, calculates like a machine and overpowers strong opposition in the endgame. After losing his eighth round to Richard Rapport, Hari's first super tournament victory at Shenzhen was in jeopardy. Anish Giri had caught up with him. But in the 9th round Hari came up with the goods against Yu Yangyi and defeated the Chinese player from the white side of the Petroff in tremendous positional style. With this win, he once again is in the lead going into the final round. Check out Harikrishna's win over Yu Yangyi.

Laxman wins 4th Triple C All India Open 2019

26/04/2019 -

Top seed GM Laxman R R of Integral Coach Factory won 4th Triple 'C' All India Open 2019 by scoring 8.0/9 and won ₹100001.l as prize. IM Rakesh Kumar Jena also finished at 8.0/9, however due to lesser tie-break score, he had to settle for first runner-up position and got richer by ₹65000. Second runner-up position went to third seed of the tournament IM Himal Gusain of Chandigarh. He scored 7.5/9 and received ₹50000. Himal edged ahead of fourth place finisher untitled Arindam Mukherjee who also scored the same due to a better tie-break score. Total Prize fund ₹1010101 was distributed among 188 players out of 269 players. The tournament was organized by Triple 'C' Chess Club at Jawaharlal Nehru Indoor Stadium from 21st to 24th April. Photo: Triple 'C' Chess Club

From untitled to IM in six months: Journey of Neelash Saha

26/04/2019 -

Neelash Saha secured his third IM norm in Delhi Open 2019, the very same tournament where Gukesh made history which we are all aware of. He fulfilled the final criteria to become an IM as he touched 2400 in the live rating last year in Spain. His journey in chess started at the age of 5 years because his father was a fan of the game. Neelash's first triumph in chess was winning West Bengal State under-7 in 2009. He won State under-9 in 2011, under-13 in 2015. His first major breakthrough was winning National under-13 in 2015. He also won West Bengal State Open in 2017. In this article, we will get to know his journey of becoming an International Master. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Shenzhen 2019 Round 7+8: Two Chinese players stand in between Harikrishna and his first super tournament victory

26/04/2019 -

In 2001 when Harikrishna became a GM, he was the youngest one in India chess. He then went on to become the National Champion, Asian Champion, the Commonwealth Champion and the World Junior Champion. Hari has also won some of the most prestigious open tournaments across the world like the Biel Masters, Isle of Man International and many others. He also won the Tata Steel Challengers and qualified for the masters. In 2016, he reached to a career high Elo of 2770 breaking into top 10 in the world. In this illustrious career, if there is something missing, it's a super tournament victory. And currently at the Shenzhen Masters Hari is as close as he can be to his first super tournament victory. What stands in between him and the title are two of China's best players.

The Problemist Diary - Part I

26/04/2019 -

Welcome to the beautiful world of compositions and study solving. The problemist diary is an initiative by one of our regular readers Satanick Mukhuty. While we publish a lot of articles on improving your playing strength as a practical player with tactical, positional and endgame exercises, one thing we have realized is that having a keen interest in solving studies and compositions can really help you improve your imagination and creativity on the chess board. But doesn't the world of problem solving look daunting and difficult? Well, in the problemist diary series, Satanick will hold your hand and make you understand the basics of solving, the common terms and phrases used, with the final aim that you too, like him, will fall in love with the beautiful world of chess composing. 

FIDE's gesture to support seniors above the age of 65

25/04/2019 -

In chess we see a lot of investment being made towards the growth of juniors. They are the future and naturally appropriate care has to be taken of their progress. However, in any ecosystem it makes sense to look out for the seniors as well. Some of the veterans in our country have dedicated their life towards the betterment of chess. Their passion towards the sport led them to make decisions which have landed them in financial difficulties in the old age. In such a situation there cannot be a better gesture from FIDE than to allocate some of their funds for the seniors of our sport. In their presidential board FIDE has made an announcement that any individual who is 65+ years of age, financially unstable and has contributed towards the growth of chess is eligible to receive support. More information.

Gukesh sizzles at the Grenke Open 2019 with a 2700+ performance

25/04/2019 -

In 2018, a 13-year-old boy stunned the chess world by winning the Grenke Open and qualified for the Grenke Chess Classic 2019. That youngster is IM Vincent Keymer, who is currently fighting against the best players in the world at the main Grenke event. At the Grenke Open 2019, another youngster had a chance to make history and that was 12-year-old D. Gukesh. India's youngest GM and the second youngest in the world, Gukesh scored 7.5/9 and finished joint first at this extremely strong open event which had 56 GMs and 81 IMs among the 904 players who took part. Finally Gukesh had to settle for the fifth spot due to his tiebreaks. Yet another 2700 performance for Gukesh after he became a GM. How does the boy do it? We analyze this by checking all of Gukesh's games. 

Melkumyan wins O2C Doeberl Cup, Deep and Kunte finish tied third

24/04/2019 -

Top seed of the tournament, Armenia no.3 GM Hrant Melkumyan won O2C Doeberl Cup Premier 2019 in Canberra, Australia. He scored 7.5/9 to finish a half-point ahead of the runner-up FM Raymond Song of Australia. Indian GMs Deep Sengupta and Abhijit Kunte finished tied at the third place along with GM Anton Smirnov of Australia at a score of 6.5/9 . The only other Indian to participate in this tournament, reigning Asian Continental Women's Champion IM Padmini Rout scored 5.5/9 and finished at 10th position. She won the 'Best Female player' prize. The tournament was first organized in 1963. The report contains games, photos and interviews. Photo: Chesslife

Endgame Magic with Gukesh and Karsten Mueller is LIVE!

24/04/2019 -

Karsten Mueller is an endgame legend. His knowledge of endgame play is tremendous. Every few days he has the endgame magic show with one of the well-known guests who visit the ChessBase office in Hamburg. On 24th of April at 7.30 p.m. IST, Karsten's guest is India's youngest GM Gukesh. After a successful tournament at the Grenke Open 2019, Gukesh is now at the ChessBase studio in Hamburg. Check out this article where you can follow this endgame magic show LIVE!

Vishy Anand beats Vallejo, joins Carlsen in the lead

24/04/2019 -

We had four out of five games ending decisively in round four of the Grenke Chess Classic 2019. The biggest win of the day was for Vishy Anand, who beat Spanish GM Francesco Vallejo Pons with the black pieces. This was Vishy's third game with the black pieces in four rounds at the event. To have scored 3.0/4 is quite creditable. Anand essayed the Caro Kann and it seemed as if he would be under severe attack. However, Vallejo didn't play in the most resolute manner and Anand was at his best combining attacking and defensive ideas at the same time. Vincent Keymer lost to Naiditsch, while Aronian got the better of Svidler. MVL's game against Meier was heading to a draw, when MVL found some endgame magic to beat his opponent! Caruana against Carlsen was an exciting Sveshnikov battle that ended in a draw. Detailed round four report.

Bangladesh's next hope: Fahad Rahman becomes the youngest IM of his country

23/04/2019 -

Mohammad Fahad Rahman became Bangladesh's youngest IM at the age of 16 years by winning Asian Zonal 3.2 last month. Despite losing to Bangladesh's no.1 GM Ziaur Rahman in round 3, Fahad made a strong comeback and finished at 7.0/9 along with GM Reefat Bin Sattar. Due to a better tie-break score, Fahad clinched the championship and earned the IM title. He won National Sub-Junior and National Junior title four times each from 2014-2017 and 2014, 2016- 2018 respectively. He has also won Gold medal in Western Asia Youth under-14 Blitz in 2014 and Asian Schools under-9 open in both Standard and Blitz in 2012. In this article we will see his road to becoming an IM, an interview with him and of course few annotated games by Bangladesh's man of the hour. Photo: Fahad Rahman

Shenzhen 2019 Round 6: Hurricane Hari scores his 4th consecutive win at Shenzhen Masters 2019

23/04/2019 -

After grinding out a phenomenal win against Yu Yangyi in round five of the Shenzhen Masters 2019, Harikrishna went to the rest day with half a point lead. Rest days often affect the players who are in good form and most of the times their winning streak comes to an end. However, at the Shenzhen Masters 2019, nothing of that sort happened with Hari as he played another sublime endgame to beat Dmitry Jakovenko in round 6. This was Harikrishna's fourth consecutive win in the tournament and the thing to note is that all of the wins have come in the endgame! Hari now moves to 2733 on the live rating list and is world no.24! If Hari continues this form, we might well see him breaking into top world 20 by the time this tournament ends.

Vishy Anand dodges a bullet, holds Magnus Carlsen to a draw

23/04/2019 -

The rivalry between Anand and Carlsen has been legendary. Carlsen has had the upper hand in 2019 with two classical wins (Tata Steel and Shamkir) to Vishy's nil. Would Carlsen score his third win at the Grenke Chess Classic 2019? Well, he was right on track as he played an excellent opening, made Anand sweat and came extremely close to winning. But Vishy hung on. The Madras Tiger, who usually loves active defence, had to sit with a passive position, while Magnus could improve his position in whichever way he liked. But Anand didn't budge. Carlsen had quite a few winning opportunities, but he didn't manage to find them and Anand drew the game. A great psychological victory for the Indian no. 1. 

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