The Shamkir Masters 2017 begins on the 21st of April 2017. It is a 10-player Round Robin event with a star studded field. It includes Wesley So, Vladimir Kramnik, Sergey Karjakin, Veselin Topalov and many other top players. Indian fans will be cheering for their favourite Pentala Harikrishna who is the sixth seed at the event. The live games begin at 4.30 p.m. IST and you can watch them here.
ChessBase 18 is an all-new program that helps you manage all your databases as an ambitious player. Mega Database 2025 has 11 million games with over 113,000 games annotated by masters. The cost of ChessBase 18 is Rs.4499/- and the cost of Mega Database 2025 is Rs.6499/- However, if you go for the combo the total amount comes to Rs.8999 (instead of 10,998/-) helping you save Rs. 1999/-.
The final leg of Jacob Aagaard's series of lectures in India was Chennai. While the response was great at other places, it was simply unbelievable what was witnessed in Chennai. The morning trainings had eleven grandmasters attending it including India's latest sensation B. Adhiban. In the open evening session nearly 250 people attended Jacob's lecture on "What is Calculation?" At the end of the day Aagaard understood why Chennai is called the chess capital of India!
Do you recognize the boy in the thumbnail? Well, he is none other than Akhil, son of Vishy and Aruna Anand. Vishy has been travelling to tournaments alone recently. Akhil's summer vacations have begun and the trio are now in Kenya for promoting chess! We have some very nice pictures of Anand in the Maasai Shuka - the traditional wear of the Maasai tribe in East Africa.
On 20th of April 2017, GM R.B. Ramesh turned 41 years old. He is well known as one of the best trainers in the country. IM Sagar Shah recently visited the great trainer at his home in Chennai. Spending nearly two days with him Sagar realized that there is more to his man than just being a great chess coach. In this article he shares ten of the best qualities of Ramesh and what we can learn from them. Surely, even imbibing one or two of these is sure to make you a better person!
The Zurich Chess Challenge 2017 was held in the memory of the great Viktor Korchnoi. The players indulged in semi classical (45 mins+30sec per side) and blitz chess to arrive at the final winner. Hikaru Nakamura took the pole position, while Ian Nepomniachtchi continued his string of consistent performances by finishing second. India's Vishy Anand after a dismal start managed to steady his boat and finished a respectable third. We have a detailed report with emphasis on a new opening idea found by Boris Gelfand that was quite well met by Vishy.
Asian Zonal 3.2 championship was held in Kathmandu, Nepal. The countries eligible to take part in this event are Bangladesh, Nepal, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Bhutan and Maldives. The best players from Bangladesh showed a clear domination in both open and women's category. GM Abdulla Al Rakib pipped Ziaur Rahman at the finish line to take the lone World Cup spot, while in the women's section it was the indomitable 73-year-old Rani Hamid who emerged victorious. We have a beautiful report sent to us by IA Dharmendra Kumar.
At the age of 34 years Himanshu Sharma became India's 47th grandmaster and the first one from the state of Haryana. In the fifth round of the Sardar Prakash Singh Memorial tournament that is in progress in his home state Himanshu won the game and crossed the magical 2500 Elo barrier. Himanshu has never had a coach in his chess career. Yet he managed to keep improving on his own. What exactly is his secret? If you read this article carefully, no matter if you are a beginner or a grandmaster, you are bound to be enriched with some unparalleled chess knowledge.
On 19th of April 2007, exactly ten years ago, chess training in Pune, Maharashtra and India received a huge boost. Two siblings who had conquered Indian chess by their amazing performances decided to establish a chess academy. Abhijit and Mrunalini Kunte together founded the Kunte's Chess Academy (KCA). Over the period of ten years KCA has created numerous champions and contributed to the growth of Indian chess. ChessBase India pays its respect to this great institution by organizing a blitz tournament. Be a part of this celebration!
At the third round of the Sardar Prakash Singh Memorial rating tournament that is in progress in Sonipat, Haryana, 12-year-old Aaryan Varshney was up against the top seed GM Swapnil Dhopade. The grandmaster from Maharashtra went to the game with great confidence. After all he is well known to win such Swiss tournaments in India. The crowd and Swapnil were in for a shock as Varshney displayed highest calibre of chess and managed to defeat his opponent rated 700 points above him! Check out the game to know how this happened.
ChessBase India's Nitin Pai took part at the 11th ACA rating tournament that was held at Calicut. After playing his games, enjoying the beach and relishing wonderful Kerela food, he sent us a beautiful illustrated report. Through this article you not only get to know what transpired at the event, but also get some knowledge about the future stars of Indian chess. You get know about the organizers, arbiters and support team and how each one is trying their best to popularize the game of chess in India.
Pranav Venkatesh is just 10 years old, but already has a live rating of 2233! Born in 2006, he started playing chess at the age of five and a half years. In this article Pranav's father Venkatesh tells us about their journey of knowing absolutely nothing about the world of chess to becoming a national champion. Reading this you get a feel of how many ingredients need to mix well together in order to churn out a super chess talent! And yes, don't miss out the section where we analyze the game between Pranav and Salem Saleh where the youngster beat his 2652 rated opponent!
Dutch Stonewall Defence can make White's life miserable. It's an interesting theoretical opening againt 1.d4. Davide Nastasio found his old love and started a deep investigation to learn from World Champions like Botvinnik and Carlsen. Enjoy this review and his findings about GM Erwin L'Ami's Dutch Stonewall DVD.
Indian chess is growing at a fervent pace. In order to ensure that things are moving in the right direction and they continue to do so it is important that we always keep in mind the views of some of the best chess minds in our country. One of them in India's super coach GM R.B. Ramesh. In the second part of his interview he speaks about the mindset that trainers and parents must have, how to make chess more popular, why having a super tournament in India is important and the reasons for Tamil Nadu being a super power in chess.
ChessBase India boosted the technological development of chess players in India when we introduced ChessBase products at nearly 60% discount. Now we have some more good news for you. Grandmaster Preparation series of Quality Chess written by GM Jacob Aagaard is available on Forward Chess for just Rs.399/-. In his article we give you a step by step explanation of how you can use the Forward Chess App and have all the world class books at your fingertips in a few seconds!
As in the blitz, Yannick Pelletier and Peter Svidler were put under serious pressure, on the board as well as on the clock. While Peter managed to bring about a rearguard, not without some generosity from Nepomniachtchi, Hikaru Nakamura gave his opponent no such chance. Vladimir Kramnik scored a trademark victory over Viswanathan Anand. Report with grandmaster analysis.