P. Saravana Krishnan started the St. Joseph FIDE Rating tournament as the second seed but ended up winning the event. A word about the tournament -- the entry was free for players rated above 1800, and the players were provided free boarding and lodging. Saravana Krishnan sent us some notes of his games from the tournament. Enjoy!
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Susan Ninan met Vishy Anand at his home in Chennai to do an interview for the ESPN website. The thing which separates this interview from many of the other ones we have read in the past is the detail and candour with which Vishy anwers the questions related to age and aging, tackling younger opponents, fatherhood, staying relevant in an evolving sport - and, inevitably, to retirement. We now reproduce this interview, published on ESPN, for the readers of ChessBase India, along with some very interesting historical pictures.
In a field of 137 players, most of whom are rated above 2100, 56 competitors are Indians. The year 2016 has already seen a host of tournaments where Indians formed the bulk of the participants in the starting field. Abu Dhabi has been no different. Adhiban now leads the tourney, with Russians GM Dimitry Andreikin (2733) and Alexandr Predke (2553) in tow.
Dev Shah from Mumbai is leading the under-9 open section with 6.5/7. In the girls section Sahiti Varshini and Savitha Shri are in joint lead with 6.5/7. We have a report in Hindi by Niklesh Jain. It is also for the first time that annotations in ChessBase format have been done in Hindi! Of course, we will soon have the final report in English, but as of now enjoy this one in our national language. And for all those who cannot understand Hindi, we have the photo captions and standings in English!
The first Golden Knights Fide rating chess tournament was closely contested by many strong players from South India. Towards the end it became a close stuggle between four players: Ram S. Krishnan, R. Ashwath, M.Kunal and P.Lokesh. Ram S. Krishnan, former national blitz champion, won the event thanks to a better tiebreak. Professor Anantharaman has sent us an illustrated report and also explains us why Madurai has contributed tremendously to the Indian chess scene.
Quality Chess has established itself as one of the best publishing houses in the chess world. Founded by GM John Shaw and GM Jacob Aagaard this company has made it their motto to make the best quality analysis and teaching material available to the chess audience. And now they are offering 20 books as a prize to the winner of a quiz! Yes, you read it right 20 quality chess books, the price of which approximately come to € 600 (!). In this article you will find the questions and the procedure of taking part in this Olympiad quiz.
Although Jeffery Xiong had already sealed his title with a commanding performance in the Open, things were wide open in the girls'section. It turned out to be interesting right until the end as the top two boards were locked in fierce battles. And then the leader Dinara Saduakassova blundered! And then Dinara Dordzhieva, who was pursuing Saduakassova, also blundered! And the rest, as they say, is history. But wait, why is the Iran No. 1 Maghsoodloo dejected in the thumbnail picture? Check out our illustrated report to know what transpired, and also the winners of the ChessBase India bumper prize!
"Thanks to the time spent on studying Sasikiran vs Aronian game, the present endgame felt relatively straightforward to hold." This is what Surya Shekhar Ganguly had to say after he drew his penultimate round against Vallejo Pons at the Bangkok Open 2016. In this article we present our readers with both the endgames. Going over it meticulously will teach you stuff which even 2700+ grandmasters would not know. These analyses are taken from Chess Informant 128 and we thank Surya and our friends from Serbia for this wealth of knowledge.
Jeffery Xiong of the USA scored a comfortable victory with the black pieces to become the World Junior Chess Champion 2016 with a round to spare. The girls' section saw the Kazakh WGM Dinara Saduakassova take the sole lead in the tournament just in the nick of time. Check out our illustrated report.
The USA's GM Jeffrey Xiong (2633) faced Polish IM GM Nasuta Grzegorz (2442) in the tenth round. He did manage to convert easily and now leads the tournament with a monstrous 8.5/10, a full point ahead of second placed GM Vladislav Artemiev. Check out how it came to pass in our illustrated report.
"Without having a complicated character like Korchnoi, or without doing anything artificial he is able to maintain a very high level of play. I think he simply enjoys the process of playing chess, he still relishes the joy of the game, no matter how competitive it is. That's one of his unique features and his key to success." These are the words of Joel Lautier who was one of Anand's competitors in the 90s. In this article you can read what Lautier has to say about the Indian Champion and we also bring to you one of the gems of Vishy's career - his blistering win against Joel from Biel 1997!
In the ninth round,the top board saw a USA-Iran clash. Anybody who follows international politics will tell you that things between the two countries are not always friendly, and here were two of the strongest juniors in the horizon taking on each other. West vs. East -- once again! Check out what happened in the game, and also why Rajdeep Sarkar is not particularly impressed in our thumbnail picture and more in our illustrated report.
GM Jeffrey Xiong, the second seed, managed to beat GM Aravindh Chithambaram, the leader of the Indian challenge, in a reasonably resourceful fashion. Xiong won and took the sole lead for the first time in the tournament with 6.5/8. Four players — Nasuta Grzegorz, Xu Yinglun, Maghsoodloo, and Karthikeyan — are in close pursuit on 6.0/8. We bring you an illustrated report.
Vishy Anand played a super solid tournament with eight draws and one win to finish joint second at the Sinquefield Cup 2016. Vishy, who will turn 47 in four months from now is competing on par with guys like So, Nakamura, Caruana, Giri, MVL etc. who are half his age. Wesley So played a great tournament and won the event with a score of +2. We have analysis from rounds eight and nine and also the reason why Anish finished on the last spot in the tournament.
In a bitter turn of events for the Indian National Champion GM Murali Karthikeyan, the white pieces did not prove enough as he went down to the second seed, USA's GM Jeffrey Xiong. There were more surprises in store. The third seed Alekseenko lost to Nasuta, while Yinglun beat the top seed Artemiev. Thus, three players — Xiong, Yinglun, and Nasuta — now share the lead with 5.5/7. We bring you an illustrated report.