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Is the Modern Scotch an under-rated opening?

27/09/2016 -

Evgeny Tomashevsky was playing the Modern Scotch from the black side in the first round of the 2012 Tal Memorial. He lost the game to Teimour Radjabov. Fast forward to 2016 -- Tomashevsky was playing the Modern Scotch from the black side once again, this time against Nepomniachtchi. he lost once again! The Scotch is an opening that evolved from the swashbuckling games of the 19th century. It has long been associated with exciting play, but people often doubt its positional base. In recent times, however, it has evolved into an aggressive alternative to the Spanish. We investigate both the games that we talked about in this article with analysis by Teimour Radjabov and Alejandro Ramirez!

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Tal Memorial 01: Anand holds the man who comes in peace with accurate play

27/09/2016 -

Anand began with an interesting move order, but then, he was in trouble due to a missed intermezzo. But he managed to make a bunch of accurate moves and held Anish Giri to a draw. The first round of the Tal Memorial belonged to Nepomniachtchi. After only 23 moves and less than two hours of play, Black was forced to resign in a hopeless position. Svidler almost toppled Kramnik, but was unable to put the finishing touch. All other games were solid draws to kick off the event. Nonetheless, here is our illustrated report focusing on Anand's game with a video-analysis by the former world champion and also, master analysis for you to study. Enjoy!

Mark Dvoretsky - the greatest chess trainer is no more

26/09/2016 -

The legendary trainer Mark Dvoretsky is no more. He died on 26th of September 2016 at the age of 68 years. Mark had been suffering from ill health from quite some time. However, he had been working on chess right until the very end of his life. He was a true chess lover who spent almost his time helping other players to reach their highest potential in chess. The chess world has lost a visionary and a great human being. Mark is no more but his books and teachings will continue to inspire generations of chess players.

Tal Memorial Blitz: Two losses and no wins, the Tiger is yet to wake up!

26/09/2016 -

The Tal Memorial 2016 tournament began with the traditional blitz tournament and Anand had a miserable outing. He drew seven games and lost two to finish with 3.5/9. Azeri GM Shakriyar Mamedyarov won the event with 7.5/9. The main tournament begins today, in a while, but before that, enjoy our brief overview of Anand's performance.

Drive for the game: Travelling 50,000 km. for teaching chess!

25/09/2016 -

India has the most number of registered chess players in the world, and a high percentage of this number is made up of rated players. Yet, in a country where chess is this popular, while the national team was setting the Olympiad on fire, most media houses just chose to ignore the historic event. Have you felt sad that your favourite game does not make it to the first page of the newspapers, or not make it to the main slots on television? Well, here is your chance to change it! Fund Yogesh Gautam's unique campaign to teach chess in every corner of this country, while he attempts to register a world record of the longest journey ever made by road in any country! His plan is simple -- the mainstream media will take notice, as it has begun already, and consequently, the Indian chess players, especially the main stars, will gain major publicity thanks to Yogesh's efforts.

Chess and cycling in the city of Leiden!

25/09/2016 -

Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal played the Leiden Open in Netherlands from 15th-25th of July 2016. It is one of the tournaments they had planned on their 89 day Euro trip. This turned out to be one of the most memorable events because of many reasons - the picturesque city, travelling on bicycle, getting paired against each other in the final round! In this article Sagar gives you a personal view of how foreign tournaments should be enjoyed and how you can make them cost-effective. You cannot emerge victorious in every event that you play, but you can surely make each one memorable!

World Youth 01-03: Bhavik Bharambe leads the Indian charge

24/09/2016 -

2015 World Youth Championship was a medal feast for Team India. It was raining Golds, Silvers, and Bronze, and the domination was such that India had won more Golds than most teams had even won medals! A year has passed since then, and there was a marked change in the organisation of the 2016 edition -- the under 14, under 16 and under 18 sections are being held separately from the other sections that will be held in Georgia next month. Enjoy our heavily illustrated report!

Welcome to Sunway Chess Festival 2016

23/09/2016 -

You would like to play in Europe in December, but the cold weather is not your cup of tea. Do not worry! Sitges, Spain is the perfect place to be! The third Sunway Sitges Chess Festival 2016 will be held from the 16th to 23rd December 2016. It offers you a beautiful tournament venue, a total amount of 19,700 Euros in prizes and a pleasant atmosphere to play against strong opposition thereby scoring your IM and GM norms. An Invitation.

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.

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!

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