Rs.10 lakh! Biggest ever state championship in the history of Indian chess

03/04/2018 -

State tournaments in India are conducted usually because they are mandatory, and to select the qualifiers for the Nationals. No one ever thought of doing it in a tasteful manner. That was until Akshayakalpa, an agriculture based company in Karnataka decided that their state players deserved something better. This year the Karnataka State Championships will be held from the 14th-18th of April 2018. The prize fund is a mammoth Rs.10,00,000 - equivalent to National Premier 2017! Already 1100+ participants have enrolled for the event which is going to be the biggest ever chess bonanza that the country has ever seen.

5+ tournaments in Spain. Make ChessBase India Power your personal tour guide!

03/04/2018 -

The Catalan circuit in Barcelona, Spain, is one of the most favored international destinations for chess players all around the world. The reason? You can stay in one place and play more than five tournaments in two months! It is extremely cost effective and you get to face strong players from different countries. This year the Catalan circuit begins from the 25th of June. ChessBase India helps you plan your entire trip and we have also introduce the new feature of a group tour where ten individuals will have a personalised guide to assist them! IM Sagar Shah also narrates his experience of playing the Catalan circuit in 2014.

Grenke Chess Classic R2: Anand loses to MVL; Vitiugov keeps his lead

02/04/2018 -

Round two of the Grenke Chess Classic brought a shocking loss for India's Viswanathan Anand. Playing against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Anand tried to catch the Frenchman off guard by opting for the Taimanov variation of the Sicilian instead of his usual Najdorf. But soon the boot was on the wrong foot as MVL turned out to be well prepared in this line too. Meanwhile, yesterday's surprise leader continued to surprise as he maintained his half point lead over the field winning his second round game against Georg Meier. In the other games, Carlsen and Aronian outplayed Hou Yifan and Arkadij Naiditsch respectively while Fabiano Caruana was held to a draw by Matthias Bluebaum. Round 2 report.  

Hrithik in 'Thej' - It was an April Fool's Day Joke!

02/04/2018 -

On 1st of April we published an article about Hrithik Roshan starring in Thej - a biopic on the life of India's 50th GM M.S. Thejkumar. There was a lot of excitement in the Indian chess circles with the news floating all across social media. We have to say Thej's life story is perfect for a Bollywood movie. However, for now it was just an April Fool's Day Prank, a long standing tradition of ChessBase! In this article we tell you about the reactions from the chess community as well as Thejkumar and show you two examples where it was Thejkumar who played a trick on others! 

Grenke Chess Classic R1: Carlsen faces his challenger in the inaugural round!

01/04/2018 -

Lots for the first round brought about a very welcome matchup for the spectators at the Grenke Chess Classic as world champion Magnus Carlsen was pitted against his challenger-to-be, Fabiano Caruana. Carlsen had the black pieces and came quite close to victory but Caruana found his way to hold ground. In another exciting game of the round, Arkadij Naiditsch had MVL on tightropes in a London System. Vishy Anand also came up with a tricky exchange sacrifice against Hou Yifan but had to settle for a draw in the end. In the only decisive game of the round, Nikita Vitiugov found a brilliant combination to finish off Matthias Bluebaum in merely 25 moves. Round 1 report.

Hritik Roshan to act in 'Thej' - a Bollywood biopic on the life of India's 50th GM

01/04/2018 -

We have all wanted chess to be featured in mainstream Bollywood. Now the dream is coming to fruition. A Bollywood movie is going to be released towards the end of 2018 or early 2019 on chess. And it is not on the life of Vishy Anand, but revolves around the inspiring romantic story of India's 50th and Karnataka's first GM M.S. Thejkumar. Kannada director Sunil Kumar Desai, with his chess background, showed a keen interest, to launch a Kannada movie. Bollywood picked it up from that and now the dream team of Hrithik Roshan, Katrina Kaif and Rakesh Roshan (director) will be featuring in the movie that is befittingly named "Thej". 

David Llada's "The Thinkers" available on Amazon India

01/04/2018 -

There are a lot of people in India who love chess photography. Naturally, David Llada's book "The Thinkers" is something that they would love to possess. After all, David is one of the best photographers in the world of chess. However, the book had to be imported from Europe and with the shipping charges (not to forget the endless wait for months!) it would become quite expensive. But now the book is available on Amazon India and ships to your place within a fortnight! The cost of the book is also quite reasonable. Before you go ahead and buy the book, check out this article where Llada shares some of his best pictures from his recent trip to India. 

CBIJ #02: Top ten things you didn't know about Gukesh!

31/03/2018 -

Here's the second edition of CBIJ (ChessBase India Juniors!). CBIJ covers all the kids in India born on or after 1st January 2005. A lot of things happened in the last 15 days. The focus of this issue is India's latest International Master - 12-year-old D. Gukesh! Thanks to regular reports by ChessBase India we all know Gukesh the chess player quite well, but what about Gukesh the 12-year-old! We let you know more about him here. Also we have the interview with the Prince of the North-East Shahil Dey. And yes, try your hand at the trivia. Last month no one was able to get the answer! We hope this month you will fare better! Enjoy the second edition of CBIJ by Avathanshu Bhat.

Since the struggle is worth a lot more than records

30/03/2018 -

R Praggnanandhaa had been making headlines ever since he became the world's youngest IM in May, 2016. All eyes were on the little genius; each eager to see if he could make it to become the world's youngest GM from here. The kid, too, gave it his all. As the deadline to break the record approached closer, Praggna travelled across the globe playing every tournament that offered him the possibility of scoring a norm but, in the end, lost the race against time. In this time, however, Praggna earned heaps of admiration and love. Most importantly, his zeal to excel remained undeterred. So, all things considered, wasn't the struggle worth a lot more than the record? 

Fide Arbiters' Seminar in Manali: Creating Arbiters in every part of the Nation

29/03/2018 - Chess in India is growing at a great pace. We currently have over 50 grandmasters and 95+ International Masters. There are local tournaments organized regularly and the number is increasing day by day. We need quality arbiters in order to take care of the growing number of tournaments. For this reason The All India Chess Federation and FIDE Arbiters’ Commission with the support of Government of India's Ministry of Youth Affairs & Sports organized a FIDE Arbiter's Seminar which was held at Hotel Royal Park Resort, Manali, from 9th to 11th March 2018. Gopakumar Sudhakaran was the chief lecturer and he sends us this report with a very interesting case.

Caruana will challenge Magnus Carlsen for the World title in November 2018

27/03/2018 -

Nobody deserved it more than Fabiano Caruana. He led right from the start at the Candidates 2018. He did have his hiccup in the twelfth round, losing to Karjakin, but he showed his mental toughness by beating Aronian in round 13 and Grischuk in the final round. With this he becomes the World Championship Challenger, the first American after Bobby Fischer in 1972. The match will be held in November 2018 in London. In this report we bring you all the updates that you need from Berlin with some excellent video reporting by Daniel King and team ChessBase.

From 2015 Elo to an IM + one GM norm in ten tournaments

27/03/2018 -

The last time we reported about Vardaan Nagpal he had reached a rating of 2501 from 2015 in just two months. This time within a month, he played three closed Round Robin events in Serbia in the month of January, scored all three of his IM norms and also his maiden GM norm. He thus becomes an IM. From a rating of 2015 crossing the 2500 Elo mark, gaining three IM norms and one GM norm takes a lifetime for many. Vardaan has done it in ten tournaments. We have the report with all the details of Vardaan's last five events.

The Tigress of Madras: Aruna Anand (3/3)

26/03/2018 -

The final part of the interview with the Tigress of Madras Aruna Anand! While in the first two parts we got to know Aruna better, in the third part we turn up the heat with rapid fire questions! For each question Aruna has very less to time decide on her answer and this gives us some great insights into the mind of one of the greatest managers in the world of chess. India is lucky to have an icon like Vishy Anand and Vishy Anand is lucky to have a pillar like Aruna in his life!  

Delhi Chess Association (DCA) felicitates its youngest IM

26/03/2018 -

When compared to the major states of India, Delhi is a small territory. Yet, it is able to churn out one chess talent after another at an alarming rate. The latest one being 14-year-old Prithu Gupta who made his IM title and maiden GM norm at the Gibraltar Masters 2018. There is definitely something right that the state association is doing. We realized that the most important thing is that the officials care for the players. On 19th of March Prithu was felicitated by AICF and DCA secretary Bharat Singh Chauhan and A.K. Verma respectively. "The boy has a bright future ahead of him", says Ankit Dalal who was present at the ceremony. 

Candidates 2018 Round 12: It's a complete mess!

25/03/2018 -

What a brilliant round we have had! All the predictions went out of the window when two of the players who have been consistently leading the Candidates 2018 were beaten in the twelfth round. Karjakin beat Caruana and joined him at the top with 7.0/12. Ding Liren scored his first win of the event to join Mamedyarov on the second spot with 6.5/12. Ding and Shakh are joined by Grischuk who also has a chance to win this tournament. With two rounds to go and five players in with a chance to become a Candidate, this is going to be highly interesting. Don't miss out on the round 12 analyses.