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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. 

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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.

When Sagar Shah was on the other side of the interview

29/10/2017 -

We have seen Sagar Shah doing interviews of hundreds of players all around the world. He is at tournaments with his camera and microphone, he travels to different cities for the ChessBase India show, so it comes to us as a surprise that this time he is on the other side of the conversation. At the Perpetual Chess Podcast by Ben Johnson, Sagar is the guest and he speaks about a lot of things that give you insight into the world of chess journalism, the current chess scene in India and what is the crazy idea that he and his wife are coming up with. Ben Johnson tells us why he interviewed Sagar and you can listen to the 74 minutes of the audio podcast. 

National Premier 2017 Round 1: Deepan carries his Challengers' form to the Premier!

29/10/2017 -

The Lemon Tree Hotel in Patna, Bihar is witnessing the strongest tournament on Indian soil at this moment - the National Premier 2017. The 14-player round robin  event has a rating average of 2480! In the first round we already witnessed some exciting chess as Deepan Chakkravarthy won against Himanshu Sharma and Lalith Babu managed to outfox S. Nitin. Rest of the games ended in draws, but they were not without excitement. We bring you the full report with photographs from Patna and detailed game analysis by IM Sagar Shah.

Live games from the National Premier 2017

29/10/2017 -

The 14 player round robin Indian National Premier 2017 is taking place in Patna, Bihar from the 28th of October to 10th of November. The average rating of this event is 2480 and the winner will not only win Rs. 1,75,000 but will also go back home as the National Champion. On this page you can follow the games live, as well as look at the games of the previous rounds that have been completed. You also get basic information about the schedule of the event and links to all the reports of the previous rounds. Live games begin each day at 10 a.m. IST. 3rd of November is a rest day.

ChessBase India Power urges you to finish 2017 on a high!

28/10/2017 -

Many people ask us the reason why we started ChessBase India Power. And we always reply - because chess players must play chess! The idea is that once you have zeroed in on the tournament that you would like to play, you should not spend time in booking flight tickets or hotel accommodation or doing your visa. What you should rather be doing is studying more chess, so that you could gain rating, make norms and in general become a stronger player. ChessBase India Power gives you a special Diwali discount coupon and urges you to travel the world to follow your chess passion!

India's strongest tournament National Premier 2017 is here!

28/10/2017 -

What makes the National Premier 2017 truly a special event is the average age of top three seeds - 18 years! Two time National Champion Karthikeyan Murali is back to defend the title. He will be given a tough fight by Aravindh Chithambaram and S.L. Narayanan. We also have experience in the field in the from of Swapnil Dhopade, Himanshu Sharma, Abhijit Kunte, Lalith Babu and many others. The National Premier is being held in Patna, Bihar from the 28th of October to 10th of November 2017. We bring you players' views and a preview of the event. 

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