13-year-old Nihal Sarin crosses 2500 Elo!

27/11/2017 -

In the seventh round of the Runavik Open 2017 Nihal Sarin demolished a 2372 rated IM in just 13 moves! With that victory he crossed the rating barrier of 2500 on the live rating list. For a boy who is just 13 years and four months old this is a phenomenal achievement. But we at ChessBase India are not surprised. This is because we had identified this talent exactly three years ago at the World Juniors 2014. What was so special about the 10-year-old boy? IM Sagar Shah tells us all about it in this article, with some never-seen-before videos and photos of Nihal Sarin. 

Women's Premier 2017 Round 2: Meenakshi wins the Air India tussle!

27/11/2017 -

The 44th Iwasa Women's National Premier 2017 is turning into a bloodbath as five out of the six games ended decisively in the second round. Meenakshi scored the biggest upset of the day as she downed Challengers champion Bhakti Kulkarni. In the other news of the day Padmini Rout beat her experienced opponent Swati Ghate, while Soumya managed to overcome Kiran Manish Mohanty's resistance. Mary Ann Gomes won against Samriddhaa Ghosh and Sakshi Chitlange was unlucky to lose to Nandhidhaa after the Maharashtra girl lost her change to win a piece. 

Mallorca GP 7-9: Jakovenko wins the title prize; Hari ends up joint second

26/11/2017 -

Surprises abound the final round of the Mallorca Grand Prix. Levon Aronian, who seemed to have been leading the tournament since an eternity, ended up losing on tie-break as Jakovenko who caught up with him finished with a better tie-break score! Also, none of the two contenders who had a chance to qualify for the Candidates were able to win their game. Therefore Mamedyarov and Grishchuk are the ones who made it into the Candidates through the Grand Prix series. As for the only Indian in the fray, Pentala Harikrishna drew his game against Svidler after both players missed their opponent's response in the final moments of the game. An illustrated report.

World Juniors 10+11: Aravindh Chithambaram tangoes to the top

26/11/2017 -

After eleven rounds of nerve-wracking chess, the World Junior Championship finally came to a close. Even though India's little star, R Praggnanandhaa was unable to win the event and clinch the GM title, he played amazingly well and proved yet again what a world class player he is. Not to mention, he finished fourth on the leaderboard. Aravindh Chithambaram, who had fallen prey to an upset in the very first round of the event, made a startling comeback. Winning both of his last two games, he finished joint first and clinched the bronze medal. Here's an illustrated report on the performance of the Indian battalion. 

Women Premier 2017: Odisha girls off to a winning start

26/11/2017 -

The Iwasa National Women's Premier 2017 kicked off on Saturday with twelve women players to decide the National Champion of the country. It was a keenly fought round with three decisive results. Padmini Rout, the defending champion, managed to outwit Bala Kannamma, debutant Sakshi Chitlange began with a win over Samriddhaa Ghosh and Kiran Manisha Mohanty was able to defeat Srishti Pandey. We have pictures from the venue and Kiran Manisha Mohanty explaining her win in a video. Report from Surat by Ankit Dalal.

Asian Amateur 2017 gets underway in Thailand

25/11/2017 -

The Asian Amateur 2017 is currently being held in Chiang Mai, Thailand from the 23rd to the 29th of November 2017. The tournament is for players below the rating of 2100. Being held in a touristic destination the tournament has received a great response. More than hundred players in open and women section from 23 different countries are seen in action. Three rounds have been completed and in the open section you have five players with 3.0/3, while in the women's section we have four players with 100% score including Indian player G. Sandhya.

An income tax officer's true love for chess!

25/11/2017 -

There are few men in the chess world as passionate about the game as Ranjan Mohanty is. The Income Tax officer from Bhubaneshwar has a deep desire to excel at the game of chess. His hectic work schedule doesn't allow him to take part in chess tournaments. However, that doesn't mean that Mohanty stays away from chess. He found a unique way to merge his profession with his passion at the Bali Jatra in Odisha. Top players like Padmini Rout, Swayams Mishra and Rakesh Kumar Jena visited Ranjan's stall. What was this unique idea? Read on to find out! 

Live Games: Can Pragg become the World Junior Champion?

25/11/2017 -

25th of November - the final day of the exciting World Junior Championship 2017. The tournament has reached its pinnacle of excitement as just about anyone can become the World Junior Champion. Little Praggu's hope of become the youngest grandmaster in the world are not over yet as he has good chances to become the Champion if he beats his opponent Rasmus Svane today. On the other hand Aryan Tari will have a tough task against Jorden van Foreest. Aravindh Chithambaram and Kirill Alekseenko are still in with a chance as they face Xu Xiangyu and Manuel Petrosyan respectively. Live commentary by IM Sagar Shah every hour from 14.30 hours IST.

National Women's Premier kicks off in Surat today!

25/11/2017 -

The Women's National Premier 2017 will begin from today in Surat, Gujarat. Many of the top Indian players (Tania, Viji, Eesha) have given this event a miss. However, the tournament is still extremely interesting because of the participation of three time consecutive national champion Padmini Rout, top seed Mary Ann Gomes, former World Junior Champion Soumya Swaminathan, Challengers winner Bhakti Kulkarni and Commonwealth Champion Swati Ghate. There are also some new faces like Sakshi Chitlange, Samriddha Ghosh and Srishti Pandey. We also have an SMCA online blitz contest for you to guess the winner of the event and win Rs.5,000 worth of ChessBase products!

Adhiban and Sethuraman to faceoff in the biggest blitz event of 2017

25/11/2017 -

One of the best ways to enjoy chess and improve at the game is by playing blitz. Gone are the days when people used to think that blitz is detrimental to your game. The new attitude is that you have to be fluent in all the formats of chess - be it classical, rapid or blitz. ChessBase India began with its prize money online blitz tournaments in March 2017 and now has the fourth one - SMCA online blitz that will be held on 4th of December. We have gone from strength to strength and for the current event, we have a prize fund of Rs. 62,500 and first prize of Rs.12,500. Adhiban and Sethuraman have confirmed their entries! 

Atanu Lahiri's critical report on the organization of World Juniors 2017

24/11/2017 -

The World Juniors 2017 is in the news for all the right reasons: Norwegian Aryan Tari is in the lead and little  Pragg is right on his heels trying to win the title and become the youngest GM in the world. However, there are certain logistic issues at the venue and the town of Tarvisio. IM Atanu Lahiri is the head coach of the Indian delegate of 23 people and he sends us a report as to how the organization of the event is clearly below the standards of what is expected at the World Championship level.

Amardeep Bartakke wins SBI Life Chess Festival in Mumbai

24/11/2017 -

SBI Life Chess Festival in Mumbai was a unique tournament organized by Praful Zaveri with one round every day in the evening. Children didn't have to miss their school and could still enjoy the tournament. Grown ups could enjoy chess after a hard day at work. FM Sajandas Joshi made a comeback to chess after many years and was leading the tournament, but in the fateful final round he lost to Atul Dahale, while Amardeep Bartakke managed beat Gopal Rathod. Thus Atul and Amardeep were tied at the top with 7.5/9, but the latter was adjudged as the champion due to a better tiebreak.

Mallorca GP 06: Another draw for Hari

23/11/2017 -

After a day of rest, play resumed in Mallorca on Wednesday. Levon Aronian, after his draw against Peter Svidler, retained his half-point lead over the rest of the field while Rapport and Tomashevsky joined the pack of players tied for second. The Indian star, Pentala Harikrishna, got a good position out of the opening against MVL but eventually settled for a draw. A report with games and pictures.

World Junior 09: Two blunders and a missed opportunity

23/11/2017 - Round nine saw two Indians play on the top two boards of the World Junior Championship. R Praggnanandhaa played on board one against tournament leader, Aryan Tari and GM Murali Karthikeyan was playing Kirill Alekseenko on board two. While Praggnanandhaa was only able to draw after getting a better position out of the opening, Karthikeyan blundered in an equal position and had to resign soon after. Arvind Chithambaram, on the other hand, benefitted from his opponent's blunder and won the game immediately. Round 9 report. 

Aryan Tari vs Pragg live updates and full coverage

22/11/2017 -

Round 9 of the World Juniors 2017 was an extremely important one for Indian fans. Pragg was facing the leader Norwegian Aryan Tari. The game was extremely hard fought and in the end the players settled for a draw. ChessBase India had live updates for the game every half an hour with IM Sagar Shah providing Facebook live videos in English and Niklesh Jain providing audio commentary in Hindi. We have all the video and audio files here for you to enjoy.