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Alireza Firouzja leads Tata Steel Masters

14/01/2020 -

He is just 16 but he is already leading the ongoing Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee ahead of giants like Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. Alireza Firouzja is one of the most formidable talents of this generation, many say he even has the potential to become the next World Champion. But what is it that makes him so special? Well, his third round victory against Vladislav Artemiev, who is interestingly also another world class prodigy, might just give us an answer. In this illustrated report we discuss Alireza's encounter against Artemiev in detail and more.

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18th Delhi GM Open 2020: Aleksandrov maintains sole lead, Himal in the fray

14/01/2020 -

Belarusian GM Alexej Aleksandrov maitained his sole lead by making a draw with Ukrainian GM Adam Tukhaev. He is currently leading with a score of 6.5/7. IM Himal Gusain beat GM Visakh N R and became the only Indian who is a half point behind the leader at 5.5/7. Currently seven Indians are at 5.5/7 and they are - GM Karthik Venkataraman, GM Diptayan Ghosh, FM Pranesh M, GM Abhijeet Gupta, IM Neelash Saha and untitled Lokesh N. While the top board on the eighth round witnesses an All-Belarussian battle between Aleksej Aleksandrov and Alexei Fedorov, the second board witnesses a match between two Indians, Himal Gusain and Abhijeet Gupta. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Let's remember our first national champion of India - R B Sapre

14/01/2020 -

Chennai is known as the chess capital of India. Tamil Nadu is the Indian state that has the most number of grandmasters in the country. But did you know the first national champion of India was from Maharashtra. R.B. Sapre. Ramchandra Bhargav Sapre was a pure natural talent at the game of chess. Without any formal chess education he went on to become one of the greatest chess players of the country. His analytical ability was so great that he was invited to the Botvinnik-Smyslov match in Russia in 1954. R.B. Sapre his no more, but his chess legacy continues thanks to a few chess enthusiasts who have organized an open rapid rating event on 18th and 19th January 2020 in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. Know more about this event. 

Vishy's vexation in the Italian

13/01/2020 -

In this age of highly meticulous engine oriented chess preparation, seldom do we see an elite player going wrong in the opening phase of the game. Usually all the Grandmasters at the top these days are extremely well-prepared and have a very strong repertoire covering a wide range of openings. Therefore, it was nothing short of surprising, when yesterday Wesley So managed to outwit the five-time World Champion Vishy Anand with a novelty in the classical Italian line. Out of the four decisive games that happened in the second round of Tata Steel Masters, this was perhaps the most striking for it was also the quickest encounter to finish. We bring you a detailed analysis of this game in our second round report from Wijk Aan Zee.

Shanghai stage ends with 3-3 in FIDE Women's World Championship Match 2020

13/01/2020 -

Game 6 of FIDE Women's World Championship Match 2020 ends up in an uneventful draw. The final game in Shanghai, China witnessed Ruy Lopez Berlin Defence by the Challenger. Goryachkina tried to create something but neither side was ever in any kind of trouble. The game eventually liquidated into a drawn Bishop vs Knight endgame after white's 57th move. However the game went on for another 48 moves and a draw was agreed eventually after 105 moves were made. The score is now 3-3. The next six games will be played in Vladivostok, Russia from 16th January at 3:30 p.m. local time, 11:00 a.m. IST. Photo: Lewis Liu / FIDE

Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Program 2020 Day 5 - Aesthetics in Chess

13/01/2020 -

Decision making in chess is a very complex process. It depends on many factors. One of them is aesthetics. How can a player's sense of aesthetics determine the decisions that are made on the board? In this article on the fifth day of the Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Training camp IM Sagar Shah explains this concept with an example from Kramnik's training. We also give you a study that was posed by Boris to the students. We would like to see if you can solve it. 13th of January is a rest day for the kids. While the trainers Kramnik and Gelfand go to Mahabalipuram, the kids will indulge in the first ever no-castle chess tournament. More information in this article about this unique event! 

Aleksandrov takes sole lead, Pranesh brilliant in 18th Delhi GM Open 2020 Day 4

13/01/2020 -

Five Indians are at 5.0/6 each, a full point behind GM Aleksej Aleksandrov who is at 6.0/6. They are - GM Karthik Venkataraman, GM Diptayan Ghosh, GM Visakh N R, IM Himal Gusain and FM Pranesh M. Karthik lost his lead after losing to Aleksandrov. Himal keeps his norm hopes alive by beating GM Rodrigo Schroeder, 14-year old Pranesh had a fantastic day by beating GM Stanislav Bogdanovich and IM Nguyen Van Huy. Four players finished at unbeaten 9.0/10, local lad Himanshu Moudgil won the Category 'B' due to a better tie-break score. 11-year old Md. Imran continued his phenomenal run and finished at second place and another local player Chandan Mandal also finishing at 9.0/10 secured third position. Photo: Niklesh Jain

How a 2700+ prodigy punishes an opening mess-up

12/01/2020 -

The Tata steel Chess Tournament found a mild start with two and three games turning decisive out of the possible seven in the two playing sections on the first day of the event yesterday. Among the Masters it was the 16-year-old Alireza Firouzja and Dutchman Jorden Van Foreest who emerged victorious. In the Challengers category Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Erwin L'ami, and Pavel Eljanov clinched full points. The highly anticipated Magnus Carlsen versus Anish Giri ended in an anticlimactic draw after looking promising initially, while Vishy Anand's encounter against Vladislav Artemiev too fizzled out into a split of point. A detailed report on round one from Wijk Aan Zee.

18th Delhi GM Open 2020: Karthik and Krishna among five leaders

12/01/2020 -

GM Karthik Venkataraman and IM CRG Krishna are among the five leaders who are at full point 4.0/4 at the conclusion of fourth round at 18th Delhi International GM Open 2020. While Karthik gave a small chance to his young opponent, Krishna had won his game with ease against relatively weaker opponents respectively. Himal was unable to maintain equilibrium against Martinez, Niranjan lost his solid grip against Aleksandrov, Ziaur scored a fine victory over Hesham, Amonatov ended Muthaiah's fantastic run after the latter played way too passive in the fourth round.  Round 4 report with games, analysis and photos. Photo: Rupali Mullick

Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Program Day 04: Traits of a super talent

12/01/2020 -

At the Coastal Paradise Lateef Villas in Chennai, 14 young talents of Indian chess are learning from Kramnik and Gelfand. When you have this sample size it is quite interesting to make a deduction of their qualities that have helped them to become chess super talents. Is there a common trait that all of them possess which has helped them to become so strong? IM Sagar Shah is present at the venue with the kids along with Amruta Mokal as the managers of the camp. He tried to observe these young talents closely and in this article presents before you his findings on the qualities that make a chess super talent. We also discuss two interesting positions from the camp with video explanations by Praggnanandhaa, Vaishali and Rakshitta Ravi.

Goryachkina bounces back in FIDE Women's World Championship Match 2020

11/01/2020 -

Aleksandra Goryachkina beat Ju Wenjun in Game 5 to equalize the score 2.5-2.5 in FIDE Women's World Championship Match 2020. Ju made a questionable sacrifice of an exchange in the middle game and landed herself in troubled waters. Later in the Double Rook vs Rook and Knight endgame, Ju got a chance to make a comeback but she made an incorrect decision of retreating her knight and lost the game in another 15 moves. The final game in Shanghai, China, Game 6 will be played on 12th January at 3:30 p.m. local time, 1 p.m. IST before both players move to Vladivostok, Russia to play the remaining six classical games from 16th January. Photo: Zhang Yanhong / FIDE

Laxman wins 2nd Open Rapid Rating at Trichy

11/01/2020 -

Top seed Laxman scored an unbeaten 6.5/7 and beat P R Hirthickkesh in an Armageddon match to win 2nd Open FIDE Rated Rapid tournament at Trichy, Tamil Nadu on 5th January 2020. Both Laxman and Hirthickkesh finished with 6.5/7 and had all their five tie-break score same, thus Armageddon was played to determine the champion. Hirthickkesh had to settle for the runner-up position. Eleven players finished at 6.0/7. IM B T Muralikrishnan was placed third due to his better tie-break score. Total 269 players participated in this one-day rapid rating tournament organized by Star Chess Foundation held at Trichy, Tamil Nadu. Photo: R Anantharam

The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is all set to begin in Wijk Aan Zee

11/01/2020 -

The first round of Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2020 - Masters and Challengers - will begin at 6 p.m IST in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands. The two-week long event taking place from the 10th to the 26th of January is featuring all the elite players of the world including Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Wesley So, and Viswanathan Anand. This is the 82nd edition of the popularly hailed "Wimbledon of Chess" which in its 82-year-old tradition has witnessed the participation of all the great players of the past - from Smyslov, Spassky, and Tal to Karpov and Kasparov. In this article we present a brief curtain-raiser to the event.

18th Delhi GM Open 2020: Muthaiah Al shines on day 2

11/01/2020 -

Eleven players share the lead at the conclusion of round 3 of 18th Delhi International GM Open 2020. On day 2, Al Muthaiah stole the show by defeating Delhi Open defending champion GM Levan Pantsulaia and GM Visakh N R in consecutive rounds. GM Karthik Venkataraman scored a fantastic win over reigning Commonwealth champion GM Abhijeet Gupta. Among the leaders, GM Ziaur Rahman, GM Hesham Abdelrahman, IM Himal Gusain and FM Niranjan Navalgund scored fine victories in round 3 to finish the day with 3.0/3. Two untitled players 15-year old Ishvi Agarwal and 14-year old Rudrashish Chakraborty are among the leaders with a perfect score of 3.0/3. A detailed report of round 2 and 3. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Program Day 3: When to calculate and when not to

11/01/2020 -

The work on the openings is in full swing at the Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Training Camp. The breaks are getting shorter, the time of completing the sessions are being pushed back. Everyone is working hard - the trainers as well as the students. When you sit in the classroom and spend some time as a student, you realize that although the camp is meant for openings, it is not just openings that are being discussed. In fact so many middlegame positions are carefully being analyzed, so many endgame techniques are being shown. Yes, the major emphasis is on the opening, but when players like Kramnik and Gelfand are training you, they take the entire game as a whole and not some fragmented bits. In this article you learn when it is important to calculate and when not to, Gelfand's approach towards opening and Kramnik's art of mini-schemes! 

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