Montcada 07-09: Shyam Sundar ties for first

XXIV Open Internacional Ciutat De Montcada began on 25 June 2016 at Montcada, a municipality in Catalonia, Spain. The Indians, traditionally, have made a beeline for playing the Catalonian circuit, often going in groups to play and enjoy. The year 2016, though, saw Indians invade Spain. A total of 117 players are participating in the Montcada tournament and 32 of them are Indians, that is, 27%! Indian grandmaster Shyam Sundar M. tied for the first place but took the second place on the tie-break. Snehal Bhosale scored an IM norm and IM Himanshu Sharma made a GM norm. An illustrated report.

Chengdu GP 01+02: Harika off to a perfect start

The Chengdu Grand Prix is being hosted by China from 1-15th July 2016. In a range of stars, two Indians are in the fray, and not surprisingly, both of them have always been there for the nation in the Grand Prix cycle for quite some years now. Harika has begun with two consecutive victories putting her in the lead with 2.0/2. Humpy, the top seed, won her second round game and is at the second spot with 1.5/2. A successful start for the Indians illustrated in our report.

Ganesh Tajne 9.0/9 at Maharashtra State

How many of us can boast of winning a tournament with 9.0/9 perfect score? Not many! Ganesh Tajne from Nashik, recently won the Maharashtra State 2016 by winning all his games. His trainer Vinod Bhagwat, naturally proud of his protege's achievement, has written the below article. He explains why Ganesh who started playing chess at the not-so-young age of 20 years, was still able to make rapid progress at the game. Instructive annotations from an experienced coach.

Battle of young intellectuals: National Under-11

Around 220 youngsters from across the country are participating in the National Under-11 Championship 2016 being held in Raipur, Chhattisgarh. Nine-yer-old Bharath Subramaniyam (1896) is leading the open section with 6.5/7. The girls section is being dominated by Divya Deshmukh with a perfect 7.0/7. We bring you a report with games.

Montcada: Indian invasion of Spain

XXIV Open Internacional Ciutat De Montcada began on 25 June 2016 at Montcada, a municipality in Catalonia, Spain. The Indians, traditionally, have made a beeline for playing the Catalonian circuit, often going in groups to play and enjoy. The year 2016, though, saw Indians invade Spain. A total of 117 players are participating in the Montcada tournament and 32 of them are Indians, that is, 27%! Indian grandmaster Shyam Sundar M. is in the lead with three others at 5.0/6. An illustrated report.

Powerplay 23+24: A rock of a pawn in the middle of the board!

The Queen’s Gambit Declined (QGD) is one of the most reliable openings against 1. d4. With a rock of a pawn in the middle of the board, Black refuses to be pushed over in the centre. Establishing central control gives Black good chances to launch an attack against the enemy king. In Power Play 23, grandmaster Daniel King offers you a repertoire for Black with the QGD. Complementing your QGD repertoire, King presents an antidote for the Catalan as well, in Power Play 24. You can buy each of these DVDs at Rs. 999/- only, or if you want to buy both these DVDs, you can do so, only for Rs. 1799/-! All you have to do is write to us at ChessBase India. Build a complete repertoire against 1.d4!

Edmonton: Ganguly ties for first, cedes the spot to Shankland

Surya Shekhar Ganguly had a blistering start to his tournament racing away to a Caruanasque streak—7.0/7! With two rounds to go, he was facing Shankland in the eighth round, and Shirov in the ninth. Shankland played a crazy game with Ganguly, eventually winning the point to snatch the lead and the tournament from the Indian ace. Ganguly then beat Shirov, but was second on tiebreak. Sethuraman had a mercurial tournament, while Bitan Banerjee scored an IM norm, his fourth. An illustrated report.

Andhra Pradesh State Challengers Championship 2016

Organizing an event in my hometown was always something I wanted to do, says IM CRG Krishna. It was in April, after returning from the Dubai Open 2016, he thought of organizing the State Challengers, the official event for National Challengers selection for Andhra Pradesh players. The event attracted 200 participants—1 International Master and 80 rated players—and the organizing team managed to provide free accommodation, lunch and dinner to everyone. IM CRG Krishna reports.

Erwin L’Ami: A Gambit Guide through the Open Game

You are well versed in main lines arising after 1.e4 e5 but are you also often surprised by old and forgotten gambit lines? Or are you tired of main lines and do you prefer some easy to learn, yet very dangerous gambits that will win you a bucketload of points in open tournaments? This is your DVD! In his Gambit Guide Vol. 1 & 2, Dutch Grandmaster Erwin l’Ami takes you on a journey through time and shows gambit lines in the Open Games (that is, after 1.e4 e5). You can buy each of these DVDs at Rs. 999/- only, or if you want to buy both these gems, you can do so, only for Rs. 1799/-! All you have to do is write to us at ChessBase India.

Semi-Tarrasch: A universal weapon against 1.d4!

Great players like Fischer, Korchnoi and Kramnik have included the Semi-Tarrasch in their repertoire, which strongly speaks about its safe character and Black’s possibilities for counterplay. How useful is the Semi-Tarrasch in your games? The presenter is Romanian grandmaster Mihail Marin. The author presents a complete Semi-Tarrasch repertoire for Black, explaining the main strategic ideas of the resulting structures and providing complete analysis against practically all White's important variations.

National A for Visually Challenged: Kishan scores a hat-trick!

Until the year 2008, there were only seven rated blind chess players in India. Today, there are more than 134 visually impaired rated players. The National-A for the Visually Challenged is the apex tournament of the strongest blind chess players of India. 

IIT-Kanpur makes him Dr. Viswanathan Anand!

The man who basically put India on the world chess map has a lot of awards and adulations to his credit — he is probably the only sportsperson from India to have a planet named after him! Now, add one more to the list: the Indian Institute of Technology - Kanpur is awarding Anand a Degree of Doctor of Science (Honorary Causa) on June 28, which effectively makes him Dr. Viswanathan Anand!

Norms galore for Indians in Zalakaros

Neelotpal and Prantik win National Rapid and Blitz

The National Rapid and Blitz Championship was held from 11th June to 13 June at the Swarna Bharathi Indoor Stadium in Visakhapatnam in Andhra Pradesh. The rapid tournament was won by GM Neelotpal Das who remained undefeated throughout, holding his titled colleagues at bay while pummelling the rest. Prantik Roy delivered a royal performance in the blitz event, beating a GM, four IMs, scoring 10.0/11 for clear first. Neelotpal and Prantik have some of the most notable games they played, with Neelotpal even educating us with his thoughts. Read this report celebrating a double delight for Bengal!

Edmonton 01-04: Ganguly begins with 4.0/4!

The 11th edition of the Edmonton International Chess Festival is taking place at the Edmonton Chess Club between June 17-26, 2016. The main event is a ten-player Round Robin tournament.  This year's event features the legendary GM Alexei Shirov.  Other participants include Indian GMs Surya Shekhar Ganguly and S.P. Sethuraman. We bring you an illustrated report with a video lecture by GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly.