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Seven-way lead after round 7 of 12th Chennai GM Open 2020

23/01/2020 -

Seven players are in the lead with 6.0/7 at the conclusion of round 7 of 12th Chennai GM Open 2020. Top seed Pavel Ponkratov, second seed Jose Eduardo Martinez, Visakh N R, Sergei Yudin, Aleksey Goganov, Stanislav Bogdanovich and Vishnu Prasanna are in a seven-way lead. Only three rounds left and with seven players in the lead, there is no clear favorite to win the tournament, it is still open for anyone to win. PDS Girinath used element of surprise to beat Karthik Venkataraman, Jubin Jimmy kept his norm hopes alive by beating Sayantan Das. Round 7 report with games, photos and analysis. Photo: R Anantharam  

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Tata Steel R10: A pretty easy day for Magnus

22/01/2020 -

Magnus Carlsen started off the Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee with seven draws in a row. But now the World Champion has magically entered plus three and is breathing down the leader's neck just half a point behind. First he beat Nikita Vitiugov in round eight, then he crushed Alireza Firouzja yesterday in his hallmark Boa constrictor style, and today he stunned once again by simply outplaying Vladislav Kovalev in a Queen's Gambit Declined. Magnus falters now and then which only shows he is a human. But everytime he falls, he always seems to return twice as stronger. He does this better than anyone else in the world and perhaps that is why he is the Numero uno!

Ju Wenjun - A draw away from retaining her World Championship

22/01/2020 -

Game 11 of FIDE Women's World Championship Match 2020 witnessed the quickest game of the event. The game lasted less than two hours. Perhaps it was Goryachkina's strategy? To draw with black pieces, save energy for the final game with White? Well we will only know for sure after the conclusion of Game 12. Berlin Defence of Ruy Lopez was witnessed for the third time in this event after Game 2 and 6, the result was not different either. While Ju Wenjun needs just a draw in the final game, Goryachkina is in a must-win situation to force tie-breaks. It will be interesting to see what the Challenger brings to the table in the final game. Photo: Eteri Kublashvili / FIDE

The Gibraltar gala is on

22/01/2020 -

The Gibraltar Chess Masters opened with a cracker of a first round. A lot of Indians found themselves paired against world-class opposition and among them quite a few came out with flying colours. Praggnanandhaa R was shocked by Nandhidhaa PV in a tactically sharp game, while the Turkish Grandmaster Can Emre lost his encounter against Pranav Anand from what seemed like a completely winning position. Youngsters like Raahil Mullick and Sankalp Gupta too amassed wealth of experience playing against the titans Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Veselin Topalov respectively, while the veterans Adhiban Baskaran and Krishnan Sasikiran found modest starts. 

Ponkratov, Martinez, Visakh and Yudin lead with 5.5/6 at 12th Chennai GM Open 2020

22/01/2020 -

GM Visakh N R maintained his lead by defeating one of the leaders IM M Khusenkhojaev and then holding GM Jose Eduardo Martinez to a draw. Both Visakh and Martinez are at 5.5/6. They are joined with GM Sergei Yudin and top seed GM Pavel Ponkratov. Harshavardhan scored a 13-move miniature like victory against GM Stanislav Bogdanovich, Priyanka K missed a decisive advantage against GM Vishnu Prasanna and Pranav V defeated GM Valeriy Neverov in round 5. Untitled Aditya Samant defeated GM Hesham Abdelrahman in a marathon Queen ending in round 6. The tournament has only four rounds left and no more double rounds in a day. Photo: R Anantharam 

Magnus Carlsen shows superior understanding of the Ruy Lopez to beat Alireza Firouzja

21/01/2020 -

Alireza Firouzja versus Magnus Carlsen - It was touted as one of the most exciting games of the Tata Steel Masters 2020. However, what happened was nothing short of carnage. Magnus Carlsen with the black pieces showed excellent understanding of the Ruy Lopez structure and took advantage of every small error committed by his opponent. By move no. 14 Carlsen had already equalized, by move 25 he was calling the shots. Before the time control on move 40, the game was already over. With this win Magnus Carlsen is now half a point behind the leader Fabiano Caruana. This victory of Carlsen shows how strong the World Champion is and how comparisons drawn between Firouzja and Carlsen are still quite premature. Complete analysis of this high voltage encounter.

Six players lead with 4.0/4 at 12th Chennai GM Open 2020

21/01/2020 -

Untitled Harshavardhan G B played brilliantly against GM Mchedlishvili to register his fourth victory of the tournament and be among the leaders with a score of 4.0/4. Top seed GM Pavel Ponkratov was held to a draw by former Commonwealth Champion GM Karthikeyan P. IM P Saravana Krishnan suffered a heartbreaking loss against GM Stanislav Bogdanovich after missing quite a few winning opportunities. Jose Eduardo Martinez, Visakh N R, Sayantan Das and M Khusenkhojaev are the other players who are also in the lead with a score of 4.0/4. The tournament heads for the final double round of the tournament on 21st January. Photo: IA Jitendra Choudhary

Ju Wenjun takes the lead after Game 10 of FIDE Women's World Championship Match 2020

21/01/2020 -

The defending champion got into lead for the first time since Game 4 of FIDE Women's World Championship Match 2020. This was the first win of the event where a win was scored with black pieces and also third consecutive game to have a decisive result. Playing with black pieces, Ju found an improvement in QGD Exchange and she deviated from her Game 8 loss. The game reached to a structurally similar position as Ganguly and L'Ami had on the previous day. However Ju got the much needed win after Goryachkina made some inexplicable errors in a seemingly equal Rook and many pawns endgame. Ju seems to have quite an advantage before heading to the last two games. Photo: Eteri Kublashvili / FIDE

Sethuraman wins silver at the 2nd Binhai Open in China

20/01/2020 -

S.P. Sethuraman, the 24th Grandmaster of India, kick-started the new year with an emphatic unbeaten performance at the second Binhai Chess Open in China. The week-long swiss tournament took place from the 13th to the 18th of January in the beautiful coastal metropolis of Tianjin in Northeastern China. Sethuraman was the only Indian in the event which attracted a total of ninety-eight participants, including four GMs and eight IMs, from around the world. Nine rounds were played following classical time control of 90 minutes plus 30 seconds increment for every move from move one.  

Tata Steel R08: Fabi joins Alireza in the lead

20/01/2020 -

World no.2 Fabiano Caruana bounced back from a position which was atrociously close to losing and defeated Vishy Anand to catch up with Alireza Firouzja on the leaderboard. Magnus Carlsen registered his very first victory in the tournament by beating Nikita Vitiugov after an extraordinary spell of seven draws. In the Challengers category as many as five out of seven games ended decisively. Pavel Eljanov maintained his lead by holding Nodirbek Abdusattorov to a draw, while Nihal Sarin was ousted from the chasing group by David Anton Guijarro. The eighth round of Tata Steel Chess 2020 was full of action, we bring you the highlights in this illustrated report.

Sanket, Saravana Krishnan and Pranav score major upsets on day 2 of 12th Chennai GM Open 2020

20/01/2020 -

22 players are in the lead with full points at the conclusion of round 3 of 12th Chennai GM Open 2020. Day 2 had double rounds. There were several upsets. Among them the notable ones are, 16-year old Sanket Chakravarty defeated the defending champion GM Levan Pantsulaia in round 2. Pranav V defeated GM Alexei Fedorov and IM P Saravana Krishnan defeated the in-form Delhi Open 2020 runner-up GM Aleksej Aleksandrov. Top seed of the tournament, GM Pavel Ponkratov scored a fantastic win and halted Pranesh's fantastic momentum which he started in Delhi. Second seeded Martinez also picked up two fine victories to stay in the lead. Photo: R Anantharam

Ju bounces back in Game 9 of FIDE Women's World Championship Match 2020

19/01/2020 -

The defending World Champion Ju Wenjun bounced back from her Game 8 loss, just like the Challenger Goryachkina did after suffering a loss in Game 4. Ju employed Reti opening for the first time in this event and it is safe to say that it worked. She might have not gotten an advantage out of the opening but bringing her opponent to uncharted territory definitely helped her gain some early advantage in the middlegame. After Ju was unable to maintain her advantage, she sacrificed an exchange which Goryachkina returned, eventually liquidating into a favorable Queen and minor piece ending for the Champion. Game 10 takes place on 20th January 2020 at 3:30 p.m. local time, 1 p.m. IST. Photo: Michael Friedman / FIDE

Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Program 2020 Day 9: The most unique chess camp ever comes to an end

19/01/2020 -

"This is the most unique chess camp ever," says GM Boris Gelfand, who was one of the trainers at the Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Training Program 2020. It is for the first time in the history of chess that a World Champion and a World Championship Challenger spent over 50 hours each with the young super-talents of a particular nation. Kramnik and Gelfand gave it their all to the 14 youngsters throughout the duration of the training program. It was possible that on the last day, they could take things a little easy. But it was quite the contrary. Kramnik and Gelfand came with the resolve to complete the entire syllabus they had prepared and they worked harder than all of the previous days. In this article you get to know about what transpired on the final day, photos from the last day of the camp and interviews with both Kramnik and Gelfand on their experience. 

Tata Steel R07: The grind of a future World Champion

19/01/2020 -

The 16-year-old Alireza Firouzja continued his sensational run in the seventh round of Tata Steel Chess 2020, registering a powerful win against America's Jeffery Xiong and stunning the star-studded field by emerging as the new sole leader. The clash between Magnus Carlsen and Vishy Anand, the two World Champions, ended in a hard-fought draw, while elsewhere Fabiano Caruana and Jorden Van Foreest kept up their good forms by beating Daniil Dubov and Nikita Vitiugov respectively. In the Challengers group, Nihal Sarin bounced back with a sublime positional victory over Dinara Saduakassova. We bring you an illustrated report from Wijk Aan Zee.  

Arul and Anupam shine at 12th Chennai Open 2020 Round 1

19/01/2020 -

11-year old Arul Prakash (IND, 1648) shocked everyone when he defeated GM Saptarshi Roy (2460) in the opening round of 12th Chennai Open 2020. Reigning National under-11 girls champion Anupam Sreekumar held GM Venkatesh M R to a draw, after the latter missed multiple chances of win. The 12th edition of the tournament witnesses a total participation of 244 players from 21 countries comprising of 29 GMs, 23 IMs and 3 WGMs. Total prize fund ₹1500000 will be distributed among the prize winners, with the champion walking away with ₹300000 cash prize and a trophy. Top seeds had a smooth start, defending champion GM Levan Pantsulaia scored a comfortable win. Photo: Jitendra Choudhary / R Anantharam

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