Four players started the eleventh round with 6.5/10. Only one of them was able to win the game and become the national champion! That was IM Padmini Rout. And she did it in style! This is her fourth consecutive national premier title. In this article we give you the express updates with a full report coming up soon. Second place went to Bhakti and third place was secured by Mary Ann Gomes.
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After his win in the first round at the Lidums Australian Young Masters 12-year-old Praggnanandhaa slowed down a bit. First he made a draw with the white pieces against the top seed Adrien Demuth, this was followed by a quick draw against GM Vasily Papin. Then came the heartbreaking encounter where in a winning position Pragg blundered and lost the game. But he quickly regained his composure and scored his second win in the fifth round. As things stand, he is now on 3.0/5 and needs 4.0/4 to make his second GM norm. Can the boy do it?
We're back with the second instalment of Adhiban's analysis of the games from the London Chess Classic. Today, Adhiban analyzes two games from round 3: Levon Aronian vs Sergey Karjakin and Ian Nepomniachtchi vs Fabiano Caruana.
Draws seem to have gone viral at the London Chess Classic 2017. The third round also witnessed all games being drawn. But amid those draws, there was also struggle and missed opportunities in some games. Sergey Karjakin missed perhaps the biggest opportunity. With the black pieces against Aronian, he had a clearly better position when the Armenian offered him a draw. But short on time, Karjakin accepted! Anand was also a pawn ahead and had a pleasant position out of the opening against Carlsen. However, he too failed to capitalize and ended up splitting the point with the world champion. Round three report.
Every time we have a sole leader at the national premier, that player falters. First it was Padmini who was leading the event around the halfway mark, then it was Nandhidhaa, followed by Meenakshi. Now going into the last round we have four leaders Meenakshi, Bhakti, Padmini and Soumya. Meenakshi is still in the pack of leaders in spite of her loss to Kiran, and the lady from Chennai has the best chance of becoming the national champion. The other girls too can steal the show. Our reporters Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal are in Surat and they bring you all the round 10 action!
Catch up with all the action of the London Chess Classic with the one and only, GM Adhiban Baskaran! Round two onwards, Adhiban will be analyzing all of the games from the London Chess Classic for our readers. So all you've got to do is tune in to our website a day after the round concludes and find Adhiban's insights right there! Here's his analysis on the games of round two!
Day 2 of the London Chess Classic saw the players really worked up a sweat to pull out a victory. Vishy Anand grilled Mickey Adams for 48 moves before finally signing peace; Hikaru Nakamura went all guns blazing at MVL with the Sicilian Dragon and triggered wild complications; Wesley So flung all his kingside pawns to attack Nepomniachtchi's kingside; Carlsen also expanded on the kingside to test Karjakin; Levon Aronian and Fabiano Caruana indulged in what GM Yasser Seirawan called trench warfare. But despite all the excitement, every game fizzled out into a draw. We have an illustrated report with game analysis.
The women's National Premier 2017 keeps getting intriguing. After we had a four way tie at the top post round seven, there is now a sole leader after nine rounds - Meenakshi Subbaraman. The WIM from Chennai has shown nerves of steel and great fighting qualities to ensure that she makes the task of her opponents as difficult as possible. With two rounds to go anything is possible at this national premier. We are heading to an exciting end. What you must absolutely not miss is Bhakti's beautiful study-like checkmate to Soumya's king!
It's the strongest online blitz that you will ever see! And it is happening on Playchess on 3rd of December 2017 at 10 a.m. IST. The top seed is B. Adhiban who is followed by Sethuraman. These two champions will face stiff competition from Gopal, Aravindh Chithambaram, Karthikeyan Murali, S.L. Narayanan, Swapnil Dhopade, Abhimanyu Puranik and many other top players. And yes, how can we forget Mr. Playchess - Lalith Babu also known as Anji on the server! He is surely one of the favourites. But in the end it was GM Debashis Das who emerged victorious with a score of 8.5/10.
It was a day of upsets at the Women's National Premier 2017. Padmini Rout who seemed to be on course for her fourth consecutive title was stopped in her tracks by Meenakshi Subbaraman. Meenakshi played a great game of chess, with almost no errors. However, we think Padmini could have improved her play and we show you this critical moment in the game with some deep analysis. Padmini's loss meant that it is now a four way tie at the top - Padmini, Meenakshi, Soumya and Nandhidhaa. The National Women's Premier is alive and kicking!
After a scintillating performance at the World Juniors 2017, Pragg is back on the board and he is playing at the Lidums Australian Young Masters closed Round Robin GM norm event. The event consists of nine games and Praggnanandhaa has to score 7.0/9 in order to score his second GM norm. Although this seems like a daunting task the little boy from Chennai started off with a win against GM Moulthun Ly. It was a game filled with great complications and we bring these analysis to you. Also we have a short interview with Pragg's coach R.B. Ramesh on his student's World Junior performance.
Vishy Anand showed some amazing resilience to defend a worse position and come out with an advantage against Hikaru Nakamura. But even though it was favourable for Anand, the position was wildly complicated and just when it seemed that the battle's heat had reached its peak, the players agreed a draw. On the top board, world champion Magnus Carlsen also failed to convert his small edge against Caruana but finished in an aesthetically pleasing manner. Even though all of the games of round one were drawn, the games by no means lacked content. An illustrated report with game analysis.
The rating average of top 14 players of National Premier 2017 was 2480. The rating average of the SMCA online blitz tournament to be held on 3rd December 2017 (at 10 a.m.) is 2531! The tournament is the strongest ever blitz online event that you can ever play. While Adhiban is the top seed, it is not absolutely clear whether he is the favourite. He will face an extremely tough fight from Sethuraman and Gopal. And we have the trio of super Indian talent - Aravindh Chithambaram, Karthikeyan Murali and S.L. Narayanan. And as if all of this was not enough, we mustn't forget the Playchess Guru - Lalith Babu! It's your chance to be a part of this fun. Don't miss it.
It is a well-known fact that women usually love shopping. But women chess players are too busy calculating the complications of a rook ending or planning a minority attack, to have the time to pamper themselves! Well, Surat is a hub for sarees and diamonds and the organizers made sure that they gave the players a good feel of both the products. At Shairu diamonds the players were shown how a diamond is made and at Laxmipati Saree store they were given the freedom to choose one saree free of cost! Naturally, the sheer number of candidate moves left all the players confused, but everyone did find a saree they loved and went back home refreshed for the second half of the event!
Although she is not one of the leaders we thought that it was important to highlight the win by the debutant Samriddhaa Ghosh. She managed to score her first win at the National Premier in a very well played game against Kiran Manisha Mohanty. As for the leaders, we have the feeling that there is absolutely no stopping Padmini Rout. The girl from Odisha beat Nandhidhaa and extended her lead to a full point over the nearest rivals. It seems highly possible that Padmini will score her fourth consecutive National victory! If she does that, it would truly be an astounding achievement!