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Breaking: FIDE announces an additional qualification path to Candidates 2020 - FIDE Grand Swiss!

11/01/2019 -

Recently in a video published on ChessBase India entitled "Fireside chat with Vishy Anand", Vishy was asked - "What would be your strategy for the coming qualification cycle?" To which Anand replied, "My route is fairly narrow in the sense that I have to play the World Cup and qualify. The second route is narrower and that is via rating. I would have to gain at least 30 points and that too pretty fast, because it is based on monthly averages!" What Anand didn't know at that point is that FIDE would come up with another way of qualifying for the Candidates 2020 and it released this on the 10th of January 2019. One spot of qualification to the Candidates 2020 will be reduced via Rating criteria and the new FIDE Grand Swiss is announced. What is this about? Get to know all about it in the article below.

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Delhi GM 2019 Round 1: 9-year-old Ilamparthi stuns the first GM of his chess career

10/01/2019 -

He was seven when we first reported about him and he was already making waves at the Indian chess scene. A few months ago, he scored ten wins in the first ten rounds of the under-9 nationals and became the under-9 national champion. This boy is still just nine years old and has a rating of 1920. On 9th of January 2019 he beat the first GM of his chess career. He is none other than Ilamparthi A.R. and his opponent was India's 56th GM Harsha Bharathakoti. In this report you will find the entire encounter analyzed and at the same time we have pictures and the entire report from the Indira Gandhi Indoor stadium of the largest Indian chess festival ever by Niklesh Jain.

National A blind 2019 Round 5-7: Subhendu Kumar Patra impresses

10/01/2019 -

Subhendu Kumar Patra from Odisha is showing phenomenal chess at the National A championship 2019. It's really amazing to see how far this youngster has come from the last year. He had finished 5th in 2018 and qualified to the Indian team at the World Team Championships 2018. Although he didn't play many games, his experience of working with the best visually challenged players in the country and his persistence is showing at the National A 2019. Subhendu is unbeaten and with 6.0/7 is leading the tournament jointly with 5-time National Champion Kishan Gangolli. With six rounds to go, and four spots for the World Championship 2019 in Italy at stake, this promises to be an exciting finish. 

Diptayan wins New Year Open 2019

08/01/2019 -

GM Diptayan Ghosh wins New Year Open 2019 at Outram Club in Kolkata by scoring 7.0/8, finishing a half point ahead of the pack of four players. 13-year old Arya Bhakta was the surprise of the tournament as he defeated IM Suvrajit Saha, GM Neelotpal Das and drew with IM Somak Palit in the penultimate round to secure 2nd position due to a better tie-break score. Another untitled player, Arindam Mukherjee secured 3rd position by scoring also 6.5/8. He scored a fine win over FM Mitrabha Guha in round 5. Former National Rapid Champion GM Neelotpal Das who was one of the Chief Guests last year, participated in this edition and secured 6th position. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Aryan Joshi on fire at the National A for the blind

08/01/2019 -

The National A for the blind is becoming interesting with four rounds having been played. Youngster from Mumbai Aryan Joshi is on fire. He has scored 4.0/4 and is leading the tournament solely with his 100% score. On the second place we have Subhendu Kumar Patra and Kishan Gangolli both of who are on 3.5/4. With Aryan, Subhendu and Kishan not having played each other, the excitement in the event will grow with every passing round. We have a report from Nagpur on round three and four by chief arbiter of the event Murthy Manjunatha.

Diptayan, Aravindh and Rathnakaran are the winners of Vishy Anand 49 Online Blitz 2018

07/01/2019 -

For the first time ever in ChessBase Online Blitz tournament history, over 200 players participated including 14 GMs and 23 IMs. The tournament ended up in a three-way tie among the champions, between the last edition Guj-Goa Online Blitz winner GM Diptayan Ghosh, newly crowned National Champion GM Aravindh Chithambaram and super strong IM Rathnakaran K. There were special prize of signed copies of Anand's My Career DVDs, vol. 1 and 2 for Best female which was won by Vasudharini Kesavan and vol.1 for Best Junior won by CM Aronyak Ghosh. In this report we bring you some of the best games from the tournament. Photo: Shahid Ahmed and Amruta Mokal

National A 2019 for the Blind kicks off in Nagpur

06/01/2019 -

The National A for Blind 2019 has begun in Nagpur from the 5th of January 2019. It is going to be an exciting event as top four players from this 14-player round robin event, qualify for the World Championship in Italy from 5th to 15th og April 2019. The favourite is definitely five-time National Champion Kishan Gangolli, but he will be receiving stiff resistance from youngsters Aryan Joshi. Marimuthu, Soundarya Pradhan and others. Regular readers of ChessBase India will remember that the 2018 edition of the National A for blind happened because of the crowdfunding done on ChessBase India. It's a pleasant feeling to see that the 2019 edition has kicked off without any issues and is being smoothly organized. Check out the round one results.

First Fide Rated Classical Tournament organized inside a prison for prisoners in Italy

06/01/2019 -

Two years ago we came across a very interesting heart warming tale about a Fide Master who accepted a very challenging job to teach the game of chess to prisoners in Italy. He shared with us in length about his experience at the maximum-security prison of Spoleto (Italy) and how it changed his perspective about life. The best part of it was the testimonial of the prisoners on how the game brought a change in their life and how it became the best friend to them. In this article Mirko Trasciatti comes back to share with us another interesting tale and a continuation to the first one.

The 'Indian Chess Queen' Padmini Rout turns 25

05/01/2019 -

Padmini Rout started playing chess at the age of 9 years. However she rapidly improved her game and became National under-13 and Asian under-12 champion within 3 years after she learnt the game. She was introduced to the game by her father when she was in fourth standard. Padmini won National Women's Premier title four times consecutively from 2014-2017, she won Gold in Commonwealth in 2015 and she is the only Indian woman to have won individual Gold medal in Chess Olympiad history. She is always concerned about the environment. Padmini has been awarded with Biju Patnaik Sports Award for the year 2007 and she has also won Eklavya Award in 2009. Photo: Nongsha Angom 

IIFLW 2018-19 Round 6: Varshney leads in juniors, Tran Tuan Minh and Visakh in GM section

05/01/2019 -

The IIFLW 2018-19 is heading towards an exciting finish. More than just the results and standings, we are fitness high quality chess with loads of decisive games. In the juniors (under-13 section) it's Aaryan Varshney who snatched the sole lead with 6.0/6 as he beat Kashish Jain in a pawn endgame. In the 2100+ GM section it was we now have two leaders - GM Tran Tuan Minh and IM Visakh N.R. with 5.5/6. The Vietnamese GM beat Sandipan Chanda from the White side of a Dutch and Visakh showed brilliant bit of opening preparation to get the better of Deepan Chakkravarthy. We have all the three games analyzed by IM Sagar Shah in this article.

Akshat Khamparia wins the December edition of First Saturday GM 2018

05/01/2019 -

Since 1992 the "First Saturday" monthly chess tournament is taking place in Budapest, Hungary without fail to give aspiring chess players opportunities to gain FIDE title norms. The best thing about this tournament is that you always know when it is going to be held - on the first Saturday of every month! The December 2018 edition was won by the only Indian in the GM category, IM Akshat Khamparia with 6.0/9 points. Akshat remained unbeaten throughout the event and finished ahead of three GMs to win the title. In this article we will look into some of the games played by Akshat and also learn more about this unique event which has been played once by almost every top elite GM.

The secrets of B. Adhiban's positive approach towards chess and life

04/01/2019 -

He will always greet you with a smile and warmth, he is always high on energy and in almost any conversation you will see him adding some of the famous quotes of great personalities! The natural question to ask is - how does Adhiban Baskaran remain so positive all the time? What is the secret of his positivity, huge ambitions and a pleasant personality? Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal visited Adhiban's home in Chennai, immediately after Adhiban had won the tournament of Peace in Croatia in November 2018. Apart from doing an interview on the tournament, we also got an insight into Adhiban's workspace, Adhiban's parents and his support system. Also how does Adhiban keep the ambience at his place in a way that it perpetually motivates him to do well? In this article you get to know all the secrets. 

The dark knight of IIFLW under-13 - Kashish Jain

04/01/2019 -

The under-13 IIFLW is the highest prize money under-13 event in the world of chess. With the first prize of Rs.2,00,000 it has attracted some of the best under-13 players of our country. Two of the favourites of the tournament were Gukesh and V. Pranav. Both of them have been the past winners of the IIFLW Juniors. However, there is one boy from Hadapsar, Pune, who beat both of them rounds four and five of the IIFLW Juniors 2018-19 and that is Kashish Jain. In this article we tell you all about this young emerging talent and analyze both of his victories against Gukesh and Pranav. There have been some amazing games in the 2100+ open section as well, with great tactics and combinations. We present them to you as well.

K Rathnakaran wins the ChessBase India Bhopal Blitz

03/01/2019 -

Thus far, you might have only heard of Online Blitz Tournaments organised by ChessBase India. But this time, at the conclusion of the Bhopal International Grandmaster Chess Tournament, on the 27th of December 2018, ChessBase India conducted an over the board Blitz Tournament with the support of the organising team of the GM event. The prizes here included software like ChessBase 15 and Fritz 16, along with books and ChessBase Premium accounts. Moreover, the participation of a whopping 191 players which made the tournament a grand success. Mr Kapil Sharma, the Tournament Director of the GM event and his team made the event truly world class while players like RR Laxman, K Rathnakaran and S Nitin brought in the required excitement.

Interview with Aarthie Ramaswamy Part II: "Our whole life is completely about chess"

03/01/2019 -

Today, Aarthie Ramaswamy is one of the most renowned chess trainers and managers in the country. Along with her husband, GM RB Ramesh, she runs the Chess Gurukul, an academy known for producing some of the best Grandmasters in the country. In the first part of the interview Aarthie told us about her chess career and how she had become one of the best not just in India but in the world. In this second part of the interview conducted with Aarthie by IM Sagar Shah at the 2018 World Junior Championship in Gebze, Turkey, Aarthie talks about her role as Ramesh's wife, his manager and a coach and administrator at Chess Gurukul. She also looks back at how the idea of Chess Gurukul was brought to life and what it has become today.

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