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India No. 2 Pentala Harikrishna joined the SG Solingen club as their second board for the 2015-16 season of the Bundesliga. He played the December leg of the current season for his team and scored 2.5/3, before heading to Qatar to play the 2015 Qatar Masters Open. His performance at the German League has earned him 13 points that take his live rating to 2756, and rank 14 in the live rating list!
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The Khordha District Chess Association, under the leadership of Subhasis Patnaik, organized the 5th Bhubaneswar All India FIDE Rating Open Championship for Girls Only between 10-15 December 2015 at the Infocity Campus in Bhubaneshwar. The event, despite being organized in the best possible manner, did not quite receive the kind of reception a tournament of such ilk richly deserves. The local star WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty won the tournament ahead of WGM Bhakti Kulkarni, WGM Mary Ann Gomes and IM Nisha Mohota, who sent us a beautifully illustrated report.
One of the main reasons why countries like China are a step ahead of us is their national league system where teams consisting of an optimum mixture of players rated above 2700, talented players in the 2500-2700 range and women players compete together. Indian GM Dronavalli Harika played seven games across two legs of the 2015 Chinese League that began in April and ended this month. A report comparing the Indian chess scene with the Chinese league system and Harika's contribution in Team Beijing's victory!
Vishy Anand had a pretty disappointing seventh edition of the London Chess Classic. He scored 3.5/9 finishing ninth amongst ten players. In this report we analyze his eighth and ninth round games against Fabiano Caruana and Anish Giri respectively. But Anand fans don't you despair - there's some good news: Vishy has qualified to be a part of the Grand Chess Tour 2016!
The city of Bishkek in the Kyrgyz Republic hosted the 2015 Asian Juniors & Girls Under-20 Championship. Although the tournament has not been too famous among the Asian countries – most players just give it a miss – it has always been attractive to some due the customary GM norm awarded to the winner of the tournament. Although India dominated this competition in 2014, this year we could only see a silver performance.
The Thiruvarur District Chess Association conducted the Thiruvarur Chess Festival alongside the 2015 National Premier to commemorate the celebration of chess in this small Tamil Nadu town. Our dear friend Shyam Sundar T sent us some photographs of the festival which we have reproduced here for you to enjoy in this pictorial report.
The Penang Heritage City International Open was held from 7-12 December 2015 at Penang, Malaysia. A handful of Indian players made the trip to the beautiful city as it is a part of a series of tournaments in Malaysia. An illustrated report with some choice tactics for our dear readers.
GM Vishnu Prasanna scored a victory in the final round to aggregate 6.5/9 and had the best score among the Indians. IM Swayams Mishra and IM Sagar Shah lost their games with the black pieces to be stuck at 5.5/9. IM Crg Krishna needed a win in the final round game to register a GM norm, however, he lost as well. The star of the tournament for India was the untitled V. Ap Karthik, who stayed undefeated and scored a seven-game IM norm. An illustrated report.
India finished with five Gold, three Silver and three Bronze medals, and was the best performing team of the world for the fourth year in a row. The buoyed All India Chess Federation, in a positive gesture and appreciation of the players' performance, felicitated all the medal winners with cash prizes today at Delhi. In a central council meeting held earlier in the day, some notable amendments were made to the regulations. A report by the AICF.
The eighth round saw GM Vishnu Prasanna and IM Crg Krishna take a hit as they lost their games to players rated higher than them. V. Ap Karthik and IM Tania Sachdev continue to remain undefeated in the tournament. While the Indians are performing on par with their ratings, there is nothing remarkable to talk about. In the Classic, Vishy blundered and lost his second game of the tournament, this time to Grischuk.
Anand has been playing chess for four decades now, out of which, he has stayed at the absolute top of the world for more than two decades. Vishy learnt the rules of our game at the age of six, and today he turns forty-six. For Anand, it has been a journey from being labeled with adjectives to himself becoming one. Countless articles, interviews and shows have documented his story. ChessBase India brings you a selection of pictures from Anand’s early career and his recent resurgence, with games and more. A heartfelt tribute to the man who put India on the world chess map.
The sixth round witnessed an Indian derby when IM Swayams Mishra took on IM Tania Sachdev, and it turned out to be a rather strange game. Tania won a pawn early and gained a tangible advantage, only to mess up in the rook ending and land on a draw. Crg Krishna had a fairly uneventful draw with US’s GM Alex Lenderman. IM Sagar Shah and V. Ap Karthik also drew their games. GM Vishnu Prasanna played a delightful attacking game against IM Alexandre Vuilleumier. Indian maestro Vishy Anand won a beauty.
Indians had a bad day at the office as International Masters Swayams Mishra and Sagar Shah both lost their games to higher rated grandmasters. The greatest damage came in the Classic when Anand lost to Nakamura with the black pieces. Nevertheless, the star of the day for Indians was undoubtedly IM Crg Krishna, who defeated GM Jahongir Vakhidov with the black pieces to move into the joint lead. An illustrated report with video interviews with Crg Krishna, Vishnu Prasanna and Tania Sachdev!
The Berlin Defense, which has made an appearance in so many of the previous Anand-Carlsen clashes, was summoned once again by the champion players. Anand gained a small edge, then he misplayed it to land in a worse position, but then Magnus returned the favour and both players went home fuming, with only a draw. Among the Indians competing in the FIDE Open being held simultaneously, GM Vishnu Prasanna (2514) was the sole winner in the fourth round as he removed IM Sopiko Guramishvili (2368) out of his way. An illustrated report.
Chennai witnessed a natural-manmade disaster of an unprecedented scale when the wrath of nature descended upon the unsuspecting city. You and I know that Chennai, since its Madras days, has been the capital of the Indian chess scene and home to the best of Indian talents right from kids taking their baby steps to the former world champion himself. Our dear reader Muthu Alagappan, a Chennai resident, sent us his first-hand account of what he witnessed in his city. In addition, we have comments from some of India's best players who reside in Chennai and ended up missing their tournaments.
