Vishy Anand makes the first pledge towards Nihal Sarin's live show for Kerala flood victims

21/08/2018 -

On 22nd of August Nihal Sarin will conduct a live show on the ChessBase India Youtube Channel, where he will talk about his games, and the techniques he has used to become a grandmaster at the age of just 14 years. All the money collected during the Live Show will be donated to the Chief Minister's Distress Relief Fund for the Kerala floods. The situation in Kerala is grim and we expect the chess community to come forward and contribute in whatever little way they can. Setting an example as he always has, India's first GM and five-time World Champion Vishy Anand came forward as the first donor. Vishy has pledged Rs.15,000 so that the live show would be conducted in the best possible manner and has also happily agreed to sign the posters, DVDs and merchandise that will be given as special prizes during the live show.

DCA wins ACL 1st Super League 2018 in Unrated category

21/08/2018 -

Dynamic Chess Academy won ACL 1st Super League 2018 in Unrated category by winning the crucial tie-breaker against Kunte's Chess Academy. DCA won the first match in the final with a score of 2.5-1.5, however KCA bounced and DCA lost the second match by 1-3. Meet Parmar of DCA was nominated to play the tie-breaker. He continued his terrific form in the finals and outplayed Nikhil Chitale in the tie-breaker blitz match to secure the championship for DCA. Find out photos, games, positions from the final round of ACL 1st Super League 2018 in this report. Photo: DCA/Manish Parmar

Sinquefield Cup 2018 Round 2: The Magic of Magnus Carlsen

20/08/2018 -

Call it a coincidence but exactly a year back in the Sinquefield Cup 2017, Carlsen was white against Karjakin in round 2 and Carlsen won the game and led the event along with Caruana and MVL. Feels like the same thing has repeated as Carlsen won his game against Karjakin in what turned out to be the longest game of the round 2 and now leading the tourney along with Mamedyarov and Aronian! What promised to be an exciting round on a Sunday ended as a damp squib, as three of the games ended in 3 hours of play, while the last two games were not showing promise to become interesting at any point of time. And that’s what yours truly thought. IM V. Saravanan takes you through the intricacies of all the battles in this round 2 report.

Can Soundarya and Aryan bring home medals at the World Juniors for the Blind?

20/08/2018 -

The World Women's Championship and the World Juniors for the blind is taking place from the 14th to the 23rd of August 2018 in Solec Zdroj, Poland. Two Indians Soundarya Kumar Pradhan and Aryan Joshi are representing the country at the World Juniors. After five rounds they both are on 3.5/5 in the 4th and 5th positions. Both of them have good chances to win a medal for our country. In this report you will find not only information about the Indian participants, but get an insight into the world of blind chess and also about the women's world championship. This report comes from Poland from Sagar Shah with photos by Amruta Mokal. Both of them are present at the venue as the coaches of the Indian team. 

Nihal Sarin's live show to raise funds for Kerala flood victims

19/08/2018 -

The state of Kerala is in disarray right now. The flooding has reached such a level that over 350 people have died and more than 2,00,000 are displaced after having lost their house. In such a situation, the third GM of Kerala, 14-year-old Nihal Sarin has decided to do his bit to support the people affected by the floods. The young boy will feature on the ChessBase India live show on the 22nd of August 2018 at 8 p.m. with IM Sagar Shah where Nihal will analyze some of his best games of chess and give you an insight as to how he is so good at the game of chess. The main aim of the Live Show is to raise funds for the flood victims. In the article you will find the different ways in which you can contribute towards this noble cause. A call to the chess community to help our brethren in distress. 

Sinqufield 2018 Round 1: Aronian's 1.e4 and Mamedyarov's exciting preparation

19/08/2018 -

Two points of interest, when one observes the initial round of the Sinquefield Cup at Saint Louis: How tired is everyone? And what has changed at Saint Louis, now that the world champion, Magnus Carlsen has entered the final leg of the Grand Chess Tour? Well after the smoke of the first round was settled it was Mamedyarov and Aronian who came out at the top to lead the event by beating So and Karjakin respectively with the white pieces. World Championship contender Caruana pushed hard against Grischuk for more than 6 hours and felt that the position should have been winning for him but the game ended up in draw. V. Saravanan sends you a detailed report of what took place in the exciting first round of the Sinquefield Cup 2018!

MCC wins ACL 1st Super League 2018 in Rating 1400-1800 category

19/08/2018 -

Matrix Chess Club won ACL 1st Super League 2018 in Rating 1400-1800 category by defeating Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy in the finals. MCC drew the first match of the finals with DBCA 2-2 and then won the second match of the finals with a score of 3-1. MCC had a squad of 10 members and they made correct use of substitution and made sure that almost the entire squad gets to play a match. The remained undefeated throughout the tournament and the only draw came in the finals. Matrix Chess Academy secured 3rd position by defeating Innovators Chess Academy in the 3rd-4th place match. Innovators Chess Academy finished at 4th position. Photo: MCC/Prasenjit Dutta

Suvrajit Saha wins 9th Kandy Open 2018

18/08/2018 -

IM Suvrajit Saha of Indian Railways won the 9th edition of Kandy Open International Chess Tournament 2018. Suvrajit scored a mammoth 10.0/11 to become champion. He also won the Blitz event with a 100% score of 7.0/7. Top seed of the event IM Somak Palit scored 9.5/11 and secured joint runner-up position. Other players who also scored 9.5/11 are Samaranayake K P R N and FM Galappaththi Chinthaka Anuruddha of Sri Lanka. This year witnessed over 775 players in the Classical and about 500 players in the Blitz section. We bring annotated game and photos by the champion. Photo: Suvrajit Saha

Nihal Sarin bags clear second at 1st Al Sayyah Blitz

18/08/2018 - Having earned his Grandmaster title recently, Nihal Sarin is making it clear that this is only one of the early milestones of his illustrious career. After his wonderful run in Abu Dhabi, the 14-year-old from Thrissur was seen matching his wits at blitz chess with some very strong grandmasters at the 1st Al Sayyah International Blitz in Dubai. Scoring 7.5/9, Nihal finished clear second, ahead of strong GMs like Salem Saleh, Gabriel Sargissian and Ahmed Adly. 

For the 53rd GM of India Nihal Sarin the journey is more important than the destination

18/08/2018 -

People are predicting a very bright future for Indian chess. One of the main reasons for the same is Nihal Sarin (the other one is Praggnanandhaa). Nihal became a GM at the age of 14 years, 1 month and 1 day when he achieved his final GM norm at the Abu Dhabi Masters 2018 with one round to spare. This makes the young boy, the 12th youngest GM in the history of the game. In this article we tell you all about the people who have helped Nihal to become the chess player that he is. At the same time we analyze two of his most recent games (from 2018) and show you why he is a technical and positional monster. Nihal's restlessness earned him the title of "the boy who never sits"! Well, we have now officially changed it to "the boy who never stops"!

Trash talk, mate in one, and entertainment galore at Ultimate Moves 2018

17/08/2018 -

Having witnessed an unhealthy number of 145 games over 5 days, and before the exciting Sinquefield Cup starts on Saturday the 18th August, the Saint Louis Chess Club had a breather of fresh air and laughter in the form of a fun event, ‘Ultimate Moves’ at the club on Thursday. It also marked the day when World Champion Magnus Carlsen arrived at the venue, energetic and smiling, with his characteristic sense of humour and confidence in tow, to the large bunch of Grand Chess Tour players who probably were already bored of each other after the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz. ChessBase India correspondent V. Saravanan who is present present at the venue in USA to cover the Sinquefield Cup 2018 sends you a detailed picture of what took place in the special edition of Ultimate Moves 2018!

Scholarship of one year of free training to the deserving candidate

17/08/2018 -

There is a lot of talent in Indian chess. Young kids often show skills in the game which impress experienced players and coaches. At such moments it is important that the right training and guidance is given to these young kids. But when a chess parent from a humble financial background is thrown into the competitive chess world, they realize that pursuing their child's chess dream is a tremendously stressful affair. For such kids, who have the talent, but are unable to afford chess training, Chess Guru Academy, a chess institute in Mumbai has launched a one-year scholarship of free training at their academy. They would like to focus on the selection of the student and mould him/her to be the next under-7 or under-9 national champion of India.

Abu Dhabi Masters: Two GMs and a ton of norms!

16/08/2018 -

The Indian contingent finished off with a bang at the Abu Dhabi Masters, this year. Even though none of the players made it into the top 10 on the leaderboard, India grew richer by two Grandmasters in Nihal Sarin and Arjun Erigaisi. Furthermore, Harsha Bharathakoti and P Iniyan also scored their Grandmaster norms and are heading strongly towards the title. Among IM norm scorers, Muthaiah AL and Sankalp Gupta scored their norms with a round to spare, while VS Rathanvel scored a quick draw in the finale to make the feat. Amid all this, Daniil Dubov and Salem Saleh caught up with Anton Korobov in the top spot in a nail-biting final round. After the tiebreaks were applied Dubov was declared the winner.

A huge report on how Nakamura won the St. Louis Rapid And Blitz 2018!

16/08/2018 -

After a lot of dramatic and exciting chess it was Hikaru Nakamura who came out at the top by winning his first Grand Chess Tour event on home soil. On the last day of the event Nakamura started steadily and scored 5.5/9 winning the 2018 St. Louis Rapid and Blitz. He was under pressure by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who has been in great form recently and the MVL, who is famed for his rapid and blitz chess. But in the end Hikaru was just too strong as he strolled to the finish line with some power packed chess. V. Saravanan, who is present at the venue in Saint Louis sends you a detailed picture of what took place in the 3rd,4th and 5th Day. T his one of our longest reports!

ACL 1st Super League 2018: DBCA and PKCCE are the finalists in Rating 1800-2200 category

16/08/2018 -

Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy of Kolkata, West Bengal and Punjab Kesari Centre of Chess Excellence of Punjab are the finalists in ACL 1st Super League 2018 in Rating 1800-2200 category. Sumit Kumar and Ram Prakash each won their both semi-final matches in emphatic manner to propel them into the finals. DBCA defeated d'pawn Chess Academy in both matches with a score of 3-1 and 4-0 respectively. PKCCE drew their first match with Orange City Rockers 2-2, however they bounced back in the second one and scored 3.5-0.5 to advance to the finals. DBCA and PKCCE will face each other in the finals on 22nd August 2018. Photo: DBCA/Sayan Bose