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National Premier 2017 Round 7: Unrest after the rest day!

04/11/2017 -

Rest days are supposed to spent taking rest. However, some of the players travelled nearly 250 kilometres to enjoy the sight of Bodh Gaya. While this excursion worked well for some of the players, for others it turned out to be an exhausting experience as they blundered on the board. The most affected was Himanshu Sharma as he lost his game and now is in the last spot with 2.0/7. Aravindh Chithambaram was starting down at defeat, but defending brilliantly to draw against Deepan and maintain his half point lead. He is followed by three players on 4.5/7 - Lalith, Karthikeyan and Narayanan. A comprehensive report from Patna. 

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Mikhalchishin on pattern recognition and planning: A review

04/11/2017 -

Pattern recognition and planning are some of the most important concepts to learn if you're on your road to chess mastery. In every position, the biggest hint to finding the right plan lies in the pawn structure. In this DVD, GM Adrian Mikhalchishin teaches how to recognise patterns and find the right plans accordingly. Besides, he also sheds light on some key concepts in plan execution including exploiting weak squares, piece manoeuvring etc. using ample examples from grandmaster games. Impressed by this selection of games, David Nastasio, the author of this review, felt one can find all the wisdom of the Soviet chess school in it.

Under 9 Nationals: Vidit Jain scores a major upset

04/11/2017 -

Lately, chess talents are not only cropping up from the southern part of India but also from the north. This also includes states like Bihar, Madhya Pradesh, Uttar Pradesh, Punjab, Assam etc. where the chess culture isn't that great. Thanks to the advent of the internet and other technological advancements, knowledge is no longer inaccessible to those who do not come from places where chess is a big thing. And of course, the efforts of the All India Chess Federation could also not be discounted. A very recent example of this is the Punjabi boy, Vidit Jain, who got the better of the top seed, A R Ilamparthy from Tamil Nadu in the second round of the National U-9 Chess Tournament and caused a major upset. A short report.

Live games from First Friday November

04/11/2017 -

The first Friday tournament is into its second edition. The November IM norm round robin tournament has a grandmaster playing in the form of GM Niaz Murshed. Two Indian players have also made their way to the event - recently crowned under-17 National Champion Rithvik Raja and YVK Chakravarthy. We would like to remind you that in the first ever edition of First Friday in October youngster D.Gukesh made his maiden IM norm. Here you can watch the live games of the event. Rounds begin at 6.30 a.m. and 1.30 p.m. IST every day.

Are you ready for the biggest blitz bonanza of 2017!

03/11/2017 -

We have organized three online prize money tournaments in 2017 - Fischer online, KCA online and DBCA online. Now we would like to end the year with a bang. The biggest prize money blitz tournament of the year is here. The total prize fund is Rs.62,500 and the first prize is Rs.15,000. It will be 10 rounds of 3'+1" blitz and this time we have special female and age category prizes! This event celebrates 21st anniversary of South Mumbai Chess Academy (SMCA). The last date of early bird registration is 12th of November. More details:

Opening junkie Kevin's First Friday explorations

03/11/2017 -

Kevin Goh Wei Ming is an International Master with two grandmaster norms from Singapore. He has been six-time national champion of his country and works as the Chief Financial Officer at Lucence Diagnostics. Even with his hectic work schedule he makes sure to stay abreast with all the latest happenings in the world of chess. After all becoming a GM is quite a high priority in his life. He calls himself an opening junkie, for his great love for the first phase of the game and in this article he has analyzed four games from the October edition of First Friday. Mind you, this is high quality stuff from a very competent International Master. 

National Premier 2017 Round 6: Aravindh Chithambaram is the sole leader

02/11/2017 -

We are nearing the halfway stage of the Khadi India National Premier 2017 and we finally have a sole leader - Aravindh Chithambaram. Just like round five he played a fine rook endgame, this time to down the debutant Sammed Shete. But the game which took the limelight today was definitely Karthikeyan Murali's win over Lalith Babu. The two time national champion showed tremendous mastery over the dynamics of the position as he sacrificed a piece and then finished off the game with surgeon like precision. A detailed report from Patna with video impressions, analysis and high quality pictures. 

National Premier Round 05: Shete scores a stunning win

01/11/2017 -

Keeping up with the sensational fourth round that featured as many as five decisive games out of seven, the fifth round of the National Premier in Patna ended with some stunning results. While debutant Sammed Jaykumar Shete crashed through the defences of the experienced Maharashtrian GM Abhijit Kunte, Aravindh Chithambaram joined the leaders at 3.5/5 after a neat rook sacrifice in the endgame that made Swapnil Dhopade throw in the towel. A detailed report of the happenings in Patna.

How 13-year-old Balasubramaniam won the 17th Adyar Times Open

01/11/2017 -

13-year-old Balasubramaniam was facing a mini-crisis in his play. He had played in the Malaysian Open and had reduced 90 Elo points. With a positive Facebook post he was trying to show the world that all was fine, but deep within he knew that there were problems in his game that needed to be fixed. He made a list of his weaknesses and then worked on them to get better. With the help of his coach R.B. Ramesh and his brother Bharath (former under-8 World Champion), he managed to improve his play. The results logically followed as the young boy went on to win the 17th Adyar Times ahead of many experienced IMs.  

National Premier 2017 Round 4: King is an active piece!

31/10/2017 -

Convential wisdom dictates that king should be carefully protected in a game of chess. After all if the king is checkmated the game is over! However, if you did visit the Lemon Tree Hotel in Patna where the fourth round of National Premier 2017 was in progress, you would see a completely different scene. Two players confidently marched their kings all the way to the middle of the board right in the middlegame and emerged victorious. They were Lalith Babu and R.R. Laxman. Three more players won their games today, taking the tally to five decisive results. Lalith Babu and S.L. Narayanan lead the tournament.

The colours of Black and White

31/10/2017 -

A week ago when Diwali was being celebrated all over India, we asked some of the top male and female players how the game of black and white has added colour and brightness to their life. Reading about the thoughts of these top players, our young author Avathanshu Bhat went into nostalgia mode and recollected those memorable incidents in his chess career till date. And he has had a full repertoire of experiences to share from the purple of embarrassment to the pink of friendship! After reading this article one tends to ask, is the author really just 12 years old?! 

National Premier 2017 Round 3: Capablanca's theorem helps Aravindh!

31/10/2017 -

A brief glance at the crosstable after round 3 convinces you how difficult the National Premier 2017 is. Four players are leading the tournament, but with a score of just 2.0/3. Each and every player is well matched and the event is providing some good fighting chess. In round three, two decisive games were also the most interesting ones as Aravindh managed to outfox Laxman in what Capablanca called was a theoretical edge for a side with the knight, Arghyadip Das scored a fine win against Deepan Chakkravarthy. A detailed report on round three.

Abdusattorov becomes second youngest GM in the history of chess beating Negi's record

30/10/2017 -

Nodirbek Abdusattorov has GM norms from last year's Chigorin Memorial and from Abu Dhabi 2017. And now he's added a third in the Chigorin Memorial in St. Petersburg this weekend. Combined with a rating over 2500 he has met the qualifications for the GM title several months ahead of the previous record held by Parimarjan Negi. The boy is a huge talent and a lot can be expected of him from future. As for now Karjakin's record of 12 years 7 months remains intact and Praggnanandhaa has five months to break it! | Photo: Amruta Mokal

Breaking: Vladimir Kramnik gets the wild card for Candidates 2018

30/10/2017 -

Indian chess fans had hope that Vishy Anand would qualify for the Candidates 2018 to be held in Berlin from 10-28 March 2018. However, it was not to be. Vladimir Kramnik receives the organizer's wild card for the event. Only two spots remain to be filled and they will be done via the FIDE Grand Prix. As of now it is Karjakin as the previous World Championship runner-up, Levon Aronian and Ding Liren via World Cup 2017 and Wesley So and Fabiano Caruana thanks to the ratings. Official release by Agon. | Thumbnail image: Amruta Mokal

National Premier 2017 Round 2: How to beat the Ruy Lopez Exchange!

29/10/2017 -

Just like in the first round, the second round also witnessed two decisive games. And they were in complete contrasting styles. While S.L. Narayanan kept complete control over the position to beat Himanshu Sharma, S. Nitin played without a care in the world to get the better of Swapnil Dhopade! These two were surely the best games of the day, but there were also many missed opportunities like Shyaam Nikhil agreeing to a draw against Lalith Babu in a clearly better position, Deepan Chakkravarthy botching up a completely winning position and Sammed Jayakumar Shete not making the most of his chances.

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