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Shamkir 2019 round 1: Navara makes a Houdini like escape against Vishy Anand

01/04/2019 -

Usually when a super tournament begins we have a look at the results and when we see that all of the games have ended in draws, we feel that it might be a boring round. Nothing can be farther from the truth at the first round of the Shamkir Chess 2019. The 10 player tournament began with five draws in round one, but we saw a lot of fighting chess. The grandest one being Vishy Anand versus David Navara. Playing with the white pieces Anand outplayed his Czech opponent in fine style and built up a winning position. Just when it seemed like Vishy would take the full point, he made a huge mistake. Navara was agile, and pounced at the opportunity with both hands setting up a beautiful perpetual check. This game and the rest analyzed in great depth by our new author Tanmay Srinath.

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The greatest female player of India turns 32 years old

31/03/2019 -

Indian chess is blessed to have players who have sacrificed just about everything in their life to achieve something special on the chess board. Five-time World Champion Vishy Anand created a chess revolution with his phenomenal achievements. In women's chess it's Koneru Humpy who has achievements that are unparalleled in the world of chess. Humpy became a full-fledged GM at the age of 15 years and 1 month. She was only the second woman player in the world after Judit Polgar to have crossed 2600 Elo ranking. She is an Arjuna Awardee and also a Padma Shri recepient. If there is something missing in her trophy cabinet, then it is the title of the Women's World Champion. Today, this legendary chess player has turned 32 years old.

Remembering Vugar Gashimov

31/03/2019 -

The Shamkir Chess 2019 in the memory of GM Vugar Gashimov will begin today from the 31st of March 2019. 27-year-old Vugar Gashimov left us on 11th of January 2014. Above his grave is a picture of a position from his game against Daniel Stellwagen from the European Team Championship 2009. What exactly was so special about the game that it deserved a place in Gashimov's grave? Indulge in the drama and excitement of the day of 30th October 2009 and get to know about the most thrilling game of Vugar Gashimov's life. Gashimov's contribution to the game of chess has been mammoth. A tribute to the great player by IM Sagar Shah.

When Anand's trainer Grzegorz Gajewski trained some youngsters in India

31/03/2019 -

When you have talented students in your academy, what do you do? You should try and bring some of the best trainers in the world to work with those talents to further enhance their abilities. This is exactly what T Nagar Chess Academy in Chennai did. From 12th to 25th of February they invited the trainer/second of Vishy Anand - Grzegorz Gajewski to work with some of their best talents. After the camp ended we contacted Gajewski to know about his experience of visiting India, working with the students, and trying out Indian food. We also get to know about how Gajewski's work with Anand began, what are Anand's best qualities according to Gajewski, and what are his future plans. 

Tripura Open 2019 Day 2+3: Major upsets on top boards

29/03/2019 -

Tripura Open 2019 Day 2 and 3 saw some exciting games with a lot of ups and downs. While it started as calm as a millpond, slowly we witnessed some unexpected results on many of the top boards. Players of the 1500 rating club showed some strong nerves to create major upsets on the top boards. Top seed GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury was held by local player Kamal Kalai rated 1542, IM Neeraj Kumar Mishra went down against another local player Umashankar Dutta rated 1541 and IM Suvrajit Saha lost his game against Rahul Yadav rated 1526. This pictorial report covers the Day 2 and 3 of the Tripura Open with annotated games of the most decisive and major upsets.

Vardaan Nagpal wins DCA Open 2019

28/03/2019 -

16-year old IM Vardaan Nagpal of New Delhi won DCA Open 2019. Despite never being in the lead as he drew his third round game, Vardaan had everything in his favor in the final round and managed to win the entire tournament. There was a four-way tie at 8.0/9, the champ edged ahead due to a better tie-break score. Untitled Bharat Kumar Reddy Potluri had a fantastic as he drew with two IMs and defeated one in the last round to secure first runner-up position. FM Matta Vinay Kumar also played brilliantly as he drew with the eventual champion of the tournament in round 7 and defeated top seed IM Sayantan Das in the final round to secure second runner-up position. Photo: Rupesh Kumar

Wang Hao and Inarkiev set up the all important round 7 clash in Sharjah

28/03/2019 -

The Sharjah Masters 2019 is excitingly placed after six rounds. Ernesto Inarkiev is in excellent form and has just dropped half a point. He is on 5.5/6. Wang Hao, the top seed of the tournament is on 5.0/6 and has set up an all important round seven clash with the leader. Indian hopes are pinned on seven Indians - Abhijeet Gupta, Nihal Sarin, Deepan Chakkravarthy, Vignesh NR, Vishnu Prasanna, Raunak Sadhwani and Aditya Mittal, who are on 4.5/6. In round six, the 12-year-old Aditya Mittal played an exciting game to beat Eduardo Iturrizaga. We have the complete analysis of that game. Photos and videos from Sharjah by Niklesh Jain.

"Going to college gave me a new perspective" - GM Vaibhav Suri

28/03/2019 -

GM Vaibhav Suri has his own ways of doing things. He doesn't follow the trodden path that has worked for others. He puts his mind to work and tries to find his unique solutions. That's the reason why you can see him playing only 5-6 tournaments a year. And things are working out for the Delhi boy. He became a GM at the age of 15 years and 2 months, he now has a rating of 2589 and he recently won the extremely strong Biel Masters. Talking to such a lad who has his own opinions about different things is always very interesting. At the Tripura Open 2019 where Vaibhav was one of the guests, ChessBase India editor Nongsha Angom got in touch with him and asked him views on chess and education!

Tripura Open 2019 begins

28/03/2019 -

Tripura Open 2019 got underway today in the beautiful Shahid Bhagat Singh Youth Hostel, Khejurbagan, Agartala. The event is organized by Matrix Chess Academy. A total number of 209 players are taking part with five titled players in this 5-day event running from 26th March 2019 until 30th March 2019. 5 titled players are competing in the event. GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury is the top seed followed by IM Neeraj Kumar Mishra and IM Suvrajit Saha. There was no major upset in the first round of the event but a couple of players were able to create good results in the special simul exhibition by GM Vaibhav Suri and IM NK Mishra. You will find in this pictorial report, everything that happened on day one in Tripura.

After years of working as a second, Ganguly is back to his first love!

27/03/2019 -

GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly is a renowned chess player and previously a second to Vishy Anand. The call from Anand in 2007 was the ticket for Ganguly, when invited too help Anand prepare. Ganguly has impacted Anand's career in a great way, leading him to win not one, not two, but three World Champion titles. As of Ganguly's own career, he peaked in 2010, with an Elo in 2672. Then came a long stagnation. But Ganguly never gave up and kept working on his game. This led to the best performance of his chess career a couple of weeks ago at the World Team Championships 2019 where he achieved an individual gold on board three with a TPR of 2850. Read the story, which was written by Susan Ninan, who works for ESPN, about Ganguly's life and his experiences in chess as a player and as a second.

NEW: Yannick Pelletier: Anti-London System

26/03/2019 -

The London System, which for a long time had been the reputation of a rather harmless sideline, has developed into a very popular opening, and World Champion Magnus Carlsen is only one of many top players who plays it regularly. The London System indeed suits the modern approach to openings very well: White does not necessarily strive for an opening advantage but is content to develop his pieces and hopes to outplay his opponent in the middlegame. However, the London System is more dangerous than it seems and if Black is not careful he can easily wind up in a bad position. Theory develops fast today, even in less concrete systems.

Even GMs miss mate in one!

26/03/2019 -

Round 4 of the Sharjah Masters 2019 saw something unique. In a position that still had quite some play left, a grandmaster blundered into a mate in one! That GM was Stany from India and he was up against Parham Maghsoodloo from Iran. Missing a mate in one is quite an uncommon phenomenon at GM level, but it does happen all the time. In this article we show you two examples from the games of an Indian player who hardly loses but missed mate in one twice in his chess career till date!It's not that these players are under heavy time pressure always, it's just a blind spot. Photos by Niklesh Jain from Sharjah. 

The boy who attacked Celebral Palsy - Samarth Rao wins the Dennis Kow Scholarship for Rs.51,000

26/03/2019 -

Samarth didn't choose this way of life. He was born as a premature baby and was attacked by neonatal jaundice and pneumonia because of which all the milestones of child growth were delayed. He couldn't sit, he couldn't walk, he couldn't even talk. He suffered from celebral palsy. Going to school was a problem, doing the smallest of chores was an issue. Life looked dim and colourless for Samarth. That's when he was introduced to the game of chess! Samarth fell in love with the 64 squares and moved from strength to strength to become one of the strongest disabled chess players of our country. Today, we wish to recognize Samarth's achievements with this article and also by awarding to him the Dennis Kow Scholarship of Rs.51,000. 

India's first WGM Vijayalakshmi turns 40

25/03/2019 -

S. Vijayalakshmi is the one of the greatest woman chess players of India. Her list of achievements is just endless. Her father Mr. Subbaraman taught her the game of chess and since then there has been no looking back. While India has had many WIMs, it was only Viji who opened the doors for female players to dream big - to think about WGM and IM title. Viji was the first Indian player to beome a WGM and  IM in 2001. In this article we tell you about Viji's playing style, preferences and much more. We also take you to the Hail Rapid Rating tournament that was held by Saudi Arabia from 15-18 March where Viji led right from start until the end, but a last round loss pushed her back to the second spot. We bring you an article dedicated to one of the greatest female players ever seen in Indian chess history. 

Rishi Sardana takes sole lead at DCA Open 2019 after round 6

25/03/2019 -

IM Rishi Sardana took sole lead at the conclusion of round 6 by defeating IM Anup Deshmukh in DCA Open 2019. Five other leaders IM Somak Palit, CM Aronyak Ghosh, N Lokesh, Arindam Mukherjee and Bharat Kumar Reddy Potluri who were at 5.0/5, drew their respective games. Top seed IM Sayantan Das was shocked by Maulik Raval as Sayantan suffered the first loss of the tournament. Over 610 players from five different country Australia, Germany, Nepal, Turkey and India are participating including 10 IMs in this five-day 9-round Swiss League tournament with a total prize of ₹1818000 in 136 different prizes including separate rating category championship prizes. We bring you a pictorial report from round 6. Photo: Gopakumar Sudhakaran

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