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Three back to back events in the Indian circuit!

23/09/2016 -

Many foreigners await their chance of visiting India. Filled with diverse landscapes, historic and cultural background, various cuisines and landmark structures - a trip to India can be a life transforming experience. If you are a chess player, here's some good news for you. You not only get to play in three back to back strong tournaments with a hefty prize fund, but you get to see the country and if you are an IM or a GM you get some excellent conditions. Read on to know what you can expect by making a trip to the Incredible India.

ChessBase 18 and Mega 2025 are 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/-.

ChessBase 18 + Mega 2025 Combo

Commonwealth: 13 gold, 7 silver and 8 bronze

21/09/2016 -

First of all, sorry for the late report -- the writer was away on world juniors duty. Did you know that WIM Nandhidhaa actually finished ahead of Tania Sachdev in the Commonwealth Chess Championship? Despite that, Tania took the Commonwealth Women's title and not Nandhidhaa! The Chess Federation of Sri Lanka organized the Commonwealth Championship 2016. IM Tania Sachdev took the women's title of the Commonwealth Champion, while GM Abhijeet Gupta was crowned the men's champion. Enjoy our report with some lip-smacking portraits by Sri Lanka's Ruwan Gunaratne.

First ChessBase India show with GM Vishnu Prasanna

20/09/2016 -

Would you like to learn from a 2512 rated grandmaster? ChessBase India begins with its first online live show! The inaugural Show will take place on the 20th of September 2016 at 1 p.m. IST. The host of the show IM Sagar Shah will be joined by the knowledgeable Grandmaster Vishnu Prasanna. All of you are most welcome to join us and ask questions to Vishnu, as he shows some of the best games of his chess career! The entire procedure of how you can view the show live "free of charge" is explained in this article.

Malaysia: Swapnil Dhopade champion; Aryan becomes GM No. 45!

19/09/2016 -

Of the 100 players competing at the 13th edition of Dato' Arthur Tan International Open 2016, 33 were Indians -- the highest among all the countries. The winner of the tournament was the fifth seed GM Swapnil Dhopade (2496) who scored a smooth 7.5/9. GM Koneru Humpy was the top seed, but she was derailed due to two losses. Srinath Narayanan finished third, while Aryan Chopra took the fifth place and also became India's 45th grandmaster!

Nisha's pain and pleasure in chess!

18/09/2016 -

Three months ago the National Women Challengers tournament was held in Chennai. It was emphatically won by S. Vijayalakshmi. The tenth spot in the same event went to IM Nisha Mohota. This was not particularly a performance that Nisha was proud of. In the 7.5 points that she scored, she went through moments of extreme pain, dejection and helplessness. But, in the end she was able to fight her ghosts and come out stronger than ever. In this article she shares with us some intimate details of pain and pleasure in the life of a professional chess player. A must-read.

"The most important thing that women do in the slums is to produce kids, and that's all"

16/09/2016 -

Imagine living in a slum in Uganda, where every day is a struggle to survive. No money to buy clothes, nor enough food to eat, and no house to live inside. Phiona Mutesi spent the better part of her early childhood sleeping on the streets. She grew up in the Ugandan slum of Katwe. When she was about three, her father died of AIDS and shortly afterward her older sister Juliet died of an unknown cause. In her own words, 'The most important thing that women do in the slums is to produce kids, and that's all. I wanted a better life.' Things didn't improve much for her as she had to drop out of school, and the future was getting darker by the day. But all that changed on the day she learnt chess.

Even Kramnik couldn't find this one!

16/09/2016 -

The World Cup in knock-out format is a gruelling event where the winner has to play nearly seven opponents and beat each one of them to qualify for the next Candidates. Kramnik did that successfully in the year 2013. He was in excellent form as he dispatched one adversary after another. However, even in that situation he was unable to find a winning combination in his game against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. We now invite you to solve the same position and see if you can fare better than the Big Vlad!

Team India's scintillating comeback!

15/09/2016 -

Team India began the women's section of Baku 2016 as the fifth seeds. Things looked bright until the serious jolt in the seventh round when we lost to Azerbaijan. Harika was on a drawing spree until then, and Tania Sachdev, who had begun with 4.0/4, suffered her third straight loss! Padmini Rout was playing erratically. Only Soumya looked consistent on the fourth board. Things looked bad until Harika started punching wins. And then, it was the Tania Sachdev Show! Check out our heavily illustrated report with tonnes of pictures and enjoy!

80-year-old Nasir Ali Syed leads in Udaipur!

13/09/2016 -

Have you ever seen an 80-year-old man lead a chess tournament? Well, now you will! Nasir Ali Syed is leading ahead of 4 established Indian international masters! Although, he is now rated 1926, he is now leading the 4th NL Pandiyar Memorial Open in Udaipur with 6.5/7 points! Check out our brief update here.

Baku 11: Sethu loses and Vidit wins; India held by Norway

13/09/2016 -

Sethu pondered over his position with intense concentration. He was eyeing his opponent's weakness on e3, and fantasies of a sacrifice on that square filled his mind. Throughout the Olympiad, Team India's fortunes had revolved around his games, and Sethu knew that. In the previous rounds, his defeat meant that the team lost or won the matches.  It is a strange kind of pressure to carry that weight in your mind. Do you think the sacrifice may have worked? Meanwhile, Hari negotiated a draw with Magnus Carlsen, while Adhiban drew with the black pieces on the second board. To make matters more complicated, Vidit, who had a big advantage, 'blundered'! Find out what transpired in our eleventh round report.

Baku 10: Harikrishna beats Karjakin!

12/09/2016 -

India faced the top-seeded Russia in an all-important penultimate round clash. Russia's top board Sergey Karjakin is slated to take on the World Champion Magnus Carlsen for the title clash in New York in a few weeks from now. And Hari was tasked with taking on Karjakin with the white pieces. Fairly straightforward, one would assume, except that Adhiban was losing against Kramnik and other boards were heading towards draws. Hari increased the pressure on Karjakin who began to go wrong and finally cracked. We bring you a quick illustrated report on the performance in the men's section.

Live games of India from the Olympiad

12/09/2016 -

At the 42nd Chess Olympiad Indian open team consisting of Harikrishna, Vidit Gujrathi, B.Adhiban, S.P. Sethuraman and Murali Karthikeyan start as the 11th seeds. In the women's section the Indian team of Harika, Padmini Rout, Soumya Swaminathan, Tania Sachdev and Pratyusha Bodda are the fifth seeds. On this page you can follow the games of these players live along with powerful features like livebook, engine analysis, PGN download, sharing games to social media etc. The games begin everyday at 4.30 p.m. IST.

Baku 09: Is the Team over dependent on Sethu?

12/09/2016 -

In the ninth round, the story repeated just as in the round before against England. The top three boards drew/were drawing their games leaving Sethu to battle it out in the middle. He gained an upper hand late into the middlegame, and it looked like Sethuraman would lead us to another memorable victory. Only that he did not. He did everything to gain a better position, but once he had it in his sights, he went wrong again. Sethuraman lost, and with him, the team lost 2.5-1.5, too. Is the team over dependent on Sethuraman? Check out our illustrated report to find out what happened.

Baku 07+08: Heartbreak, tears, and a comeback!

10/09/2016 -

Do you know how it feels to be beaten down to the ground? Do you know how to not lose hope, but stand up to fight another day, and make a comeback? The Indian team had not lost a single game, on all the boards, in the entire Olympiad until the sixth round. The hopes of the entire country reached an all-time high following India's unexpected win over the Dutchmen. And then, we faced the United States of America, who crushed us 3.5-0.5. It was merciless. To make matters worse for the team, Sethu, who was winning against Shankland on the fourth board, blundered tragically and lost. It was brutal, and dark. India took on England in the eighth round. The first three boards ended in a draw. But then Sethu did something so amazing that his previous round opponent could not help but give him a standing ovation! Team India was back in the lead! Find out what happened in our illustrated report.

Baku 06: A surprising turnaround!

08/09/2016 -

Things looked bleak for Team India deep into the middlegame. Hari was simply minus, and Sethu was battling tooth and nail for equality. Adhiban's position looked unbalanced but equal. The chips were down, and a defeat looked imminent. But then, fate showed us a surprising turnaround. Hari fought back to a draw. Sethu held as well. Adhiban, who was keeping things tricky for his opponent, found a breakthrough when his opponent blundered. India has created history already!

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