Divcibare 2018: The tournament that never existed?

02/01/2019 -

During the months of September and October this year, GM Vassilios Kotronias was invited to play two tournaments at the Divcibare resort in Serbia. Since the tournament was held in a beautiful location and the playing venue was the same as the hotel of accommodation, it took GM Kotronias little persuasion to accept the invite. He finished the with flying colours, clinching the title in the second tournament and finishing second in the first. But to his shock, when he checked a month or so later, he realised that there was no record of the event on the FIDE website. The rating and norms gained at the tournament were gone in an instant! In this report, he gives a brief account of his experience and shares some lightly annotated games and pictures.

Tran Tuan Minh wins Bhopal GM International 2018

01/01/2019 -

The Bhopal International GM Open, which concluded last week on December 28, saw Vietnamese Grandmasters dominate the field. Scoring 9.0/10, a full point ahead of his nearest rival, GM Tran Tuan Minh clinched the title prize. In the final round, he only needed a draw but he spiritedly pushed for the win and scored a commanding win over GM Manik Mikulas of Slovakia. Meanwhile, another Vietnamese GM Nguyen Van Huy took second place, after securing a quick draw against Utkal Ranjan Sahoo. The draw was mutually beneficial as Sahoo secured his final IM norm with it. IM Shyaamnikhil P of the Railways took the third place. The closing ceremony of the event was conducted under the graceful presence of  Mr Rishi Shukla, Director General, Madhya Pradesh Police; Dr SL Thoasen, Director, Department of Sports and Youth Welfare, Madhya Pradesh; Mr SN Rupla, former Madhya Pradesh State Secretary; and Mr Kapil Saxena, Tournament Director and AICF Joint Secretary.

Carlsen and Lagno clinch blitz world titles; Nihal Sarin rakes 152 Elo points finishing 11th!

31/12/2018 -

Magnus Carlsen may have missed out on clinching the title in the Rapid event, but at the Blitz championship, he brought back his flair and won the event scoring an undefeated 17/21. However, he was closely chased by Jan Krzysztof Duda of Poland and had to come up with one win after another to keep his pole position. In the Women's group, Kateryna Lagno also achieved an unbeaten finish to clinch the title with a score of 13½/17. Meanwhile, Nihal Sarin, whose starting rank was 139, stunned all spectators -- except IM Sagar Shah, as he explains in this report -- with his 11th place finish. On the final day, Nihal defeated some world-class GMs like Gawain Jones, Nikita Vitiugov and Le Quang Liem and earned a whopping 152 rating points!

Seven Indians are members of FIDE commissions from 2018-2022

31/12/2018 -

FIDE - World Chess Federation functions on the basis of its different commissions. For the rules related to arbiters, we have the arbiters commission, for the rules related to norms and titles we have the qualification commission, for the rules related to trainer titles we have the trainers commission and so on. Out of the 16 different commissions that FIDE has, we have seven Indians in them. AICF Secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan is the Chairman of the Technical Commission. We then have the members in different commissions - Ravindra Dongre (ethics), Anantharam Rathinam (arbiters), Gopakumar Sudhakaran (fairplay), Atanu Lahiri (education) and Ramesh RB (trainers). FIDE President Arkadij Dvorkovich in a surprise move appointed five-time World Champion Vishy Anand as the councilor of planning and development commission of FIDE.

The highest prize money under-13 event and 2100+ GM tournament begins in Mumbai

31/12/2018 -

The quantum of grandmaster opens in India have been increasing but the number of norms haven't been proportionately growing. That's because a lot of lower rated players participate in the GM events and reaching the average rating for the norms becomes impossible. However, at the IIFLW 2018-2019 tournament in Mumbai, the organizers made a strict restriction for players below 2100. This resulted in only 120 entries, but we are sure that there will be quite a few norms coming out from this tournament. Simultaneously with the GM open you have the highest prize money under-13 tournament in the world with the first prize of Rs. 2,00,000 and a total prize fund of Rs.10,00,000. The favourite is 12-year-old D. Gukesh, who has a live rating of 2466!

14-year-old Nihal Sarin's blitzkrieg in Saint Petersburg!

30/12/2018 -

Nihal Sarin is well known for his blitz skills, but no one really gave him a chance at the World Blitz Championship. With a rating of 2506, the 14-year-old started as the 139th seed. With 4.0/8 Nihal's start was slow, but as the rounds progressed and players started blundering from the lack of stamina, Nihal was getting stronger with every passing game. When the 21st round of blitz ended, the youngster was hungry for more! He had already scored 13.5/21, beating seven opponents above the rating of 2600 and three above 2700! His Elo performance was 2777 and he gained 151 Elo points. He finished eleventh, way ahead of all Indian players including Vishy Anand. In this article we tell you all about Nihal's performance, analyze a few of his blitz games and also share with you an anecdote that reveals the secret of Nihal's success.

Live Games of World Rapid and Blitz 2018

30/12/2018 -

The best way to follow the games of Viswanathan Anand, Pentala Harikrishna, Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli, Nihal Sarin, Vishnu Prasanna and D K Sharma from World Rapid and Blitz 2018 is to follow this page. We have live commentary by GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko and GM Peter Leko. Along with it, we also have all the live games, finished games of previous rounds, schedule and all the important links. As the rounds go by, we will keep posting important results which will help you to follow this grand event in the best possible manner. Rounds begin at 3 p.m. local time (5.30 p.m. IST). 26th, 27th, 28th December is the rapid matches and on 29th and 30th December we have the blitz. Photo: Amruta Mokal and Niklesh Jain

World Blitz Championship: Two leaders emerge in both groups

30/12/2018 -

The first day of the King Salman World Blitz Championship 2018 was a tumultuous affair. While tournament lead changed hands multiple times, at the end of the day, two players shared the lead in both groups. In the open, it was Magnus Carlsen and Vladislav Artemiev who came out on top while in the Women's Kateryna Lagno and Sarasadat Khademalsharieh shared the lead. Vishy Anand had a nice start to the event but two losses towards the end of the day pulled him down on the leaderboard. We have a report with pictures and games. 

India's first IM - Manuel Aaron turns 83 years old

30/12/2018 -

Who is the first titled player of India? Was it Mir Sultan Khan? Well, back then they did not have chess titles. Is it Vishy Anand? Anand was not even born when India got its first IM. So who was this person? It was none other than Manuel Aaron, who became an IM in the year 1961 and dominated Indian chess like no one else before. He won the national title for a record nine times and went on to represent the country at several Olympiads and also the prestigious Interzonal tournament in Stockholm in 1962. Today 30th of December 2018, is the 83rd birthday of the legend. This article is a dedication to all the work he has done for Indian chess. You will also find an hour long interview conducted with him by IM Sagar Shah in January 2018.

Daniil Dubov and Ju Wenjun are the new World Rapid Champions

29/12/2018 -

In the open group, the 2018 King Salman World Rapid Championship seemed wide open at the close of day 2. It would not have been unlikely if more than one player had remained in the lead after the final round. In fact, three players could have joined Dubov at the top had they won their final round game but since none of them managed to pull out a victory, Dubov, being clear first by score, was crowned as the world rapid champion. Vishy Anand had his chances to contend for the big prizes but drawing all of his games on the final day, he finished 20th on the leaderboard with a score of 9.5/15. In the women's group, Ju Wenjun cruised to victory, conceding draws in her last two games. Among Indians, Harika Dronavalli was the top scorer. With 8.0/12, she finished 14th in the final standings. Koneru Humpy remained half a point behind Harika and finished 20th.

Who is Srijit Paul?

29/12/2018 -

17-year-old Srijit Paul shocked the entire country with his phenomenal performance at the National Senior Open Championship at Jammu early this month, when he finished ahead of many grandmasters and became the only untitled player to be in top 15. Srijit started 2018 by winning the 26th Telegraph, then he led his school team to a monumental victory by ending 11-year championship reign of South Point at 12th Chessmate. He finished 4th in WB State Junior. Srijit scored his first IM norm at World Junior 2016 and the second one in Badalona, Spain 2017. This article contains an interview with Srijit where you get to know more about him. Photo: Swati Biswas

Coach GM Srinath Narayanan speaks about India's silver at World Youth Olympiad 2018

29/12/2018 -

GM Srinath Narayanan started the year 2018 with an Elo of 2527. In 12 months, he has managed to reach a career high Elo of 2572. While he is personally growing as a chess player, he has also involved himself with multiple roles which go beyond just playing. He helped Team India at the Olympiad as one of the seconds. He came to Tata Steel Chess India 2018 as a coach cum friend of Nihal Sarin and he capped off the year with a silver medal for Team India as the coach and captain for the World Youth Olympiad 2018. Having a coach like Srinath boosted the morale of the team. In this article Srinath talks about his role in the team, what he thinks about the players and also what he learnt from this experience.

World Rapid Championship: Anand closes in on the tournament leaders going into the final day

28/12/2018 -

After ten rounds, the open segment of the King Salman World Rapid Championship remains wide open with seven players leading the pack at 7.5/10. If that wasn't enough, ten others -- with the defending champion, Vishy Anand among them -- are breathing down their necks at 7.0/10. Anand had kicked off well but stumbled in round eight as he lost to GM Ivan Saric. Regardless, he pulled off two more wins to compensate for it and reached within striking distance of the tournament leaders. Ju Wenjun continued her dominion in the women's group and has moved a full point ahead of the field going into the final day. Meanwhile, Koneru Humpy remains India's best hope. Having scored 5.5/8, she is placed 14th on the leaderboard.

How Padmini "Routed' the competition and became the Asian Champion 2018

28/12/2018 -

At the recently concluded Asian Continental Championship, the eighth seed of the tournament, IM Padmini Rout dominated the field from start to finish. In the end, she finished with an impressive 7.0/9, easily winning the Asian title. After the event, ChessBase India caught up with her to discuss some of her games, know about her training before the event and chat about her experience overall. With this interview we would like to give you a peek into the mind of Padmini, as to what she was thinking when she had some of the most critical positions on the board. It's been years we have been calling her the Princess of Indian chess, but with her list of growing achievements - four national titles and now Asian champion she is surely on path to becoming a queen! 

World Rapid Championship: Tough day for Carlsen

27/12/2018 -

Day 1 of the King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Championship turned out to be a horrible day for Magnus Carlsen. In round 1, he lost on time against Adam Tukhaev while in the very next round, he suffered another bitter defeat due to a blunder in a clearly better position. Vishy Anand, in the meanwhile, finished undefeated with 3.5/5 as did Pentala Harikrishna. In the women's group, Ju Wenjun took sole lead in the tournament winning all of her four games of the day. India's Koneru Humpy mustered up 3.0/4, scoring two wins and two draws in her first four games. Day 1 report.