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Ganguly wins Belt and Road 2019 and US$50,000!

07/08/2019 -

It has been action-packed last few weeks for Indian Chess. First it was Sandipan Chanda's dominating performance in Leiden Open, then Vidit's scintillating win in Biel and Praggnanandhaa's unbeaten streak in Xtracon. The breakthroughs only get better and bigger as today Surya Sekhar Ganguly wins the super strong Belt and Road Hunan International Open, bagging home the first prize of a whopping 50,000 US Dollar! How big exactly is this amount? Well, just to put things into perspective, this is even more than what Maxime Vachier-Lagrave recently won (US $37,500) by securing first place at the Paris Grand Chess Tour 2019! Finishing ahead of six strong 2700+ Grandmasters with a score of 7.0/9, this is certainly the greatest tournament victory of Ganguly's chess career and arguably one of the greatest in Indian Chess. So how did he do it? We had covered Ganguly's rounds 1-5 in a previous article, in this we explore the champion's journey in last four. 

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Cancer Survivor Champions at 10th World Children's Winners Games

06/08/2019 -

The Tenth World Children Winners Games took place from 4th-7th July 2019 in Moscow, Russia. Each year childhood survivors from all over the world are invited to participate in various sporting competitive events like Track, Chess, Football, Table Tennis, Swimming and Shooting where they go on to search for and gain their self-worth. This year, 16 countries had participated. Since 2014 Tata hospital is invited to participate in it, all the 10 children from India participated in this event were sent through Tata Memorial Hospital. Nidhi and Devanshi won the gold medals in their respective age category, Priti and Hritik won silver medal, Atharva and Tanush got bronze medal for the same. Photo: FA Kedar Palsule

Abu Dhabi 2019 Round 5: Deep Sengupta's regret and Karthikeyan's cake walk!

06/08/2019 -

Keeping opponent's retaliations in check while enjoying a dominant position is one of many tricky things in chess that even masters falter at. In the fifth round of 26th Abu Dhabi Chess Festival India's Deep Sengupta was up against the strong Iranian talent Mohammad Amin Tabatabaei. He made a convincing case out of the opening and into the middlegame but ultimately it was his opponent's counterplay that got the better of him. Elsewhere, Karthikeyan Murali registered an effortless win as his Spanish adversary Miguel Santos Ruiz made one mistake after another, and Praggnanandhaa too had an easy time holding his higher-rated rival Mustafa Yilmaz to a draw. After five rounds of the event Jobava Baadur is still on the sole lead with an unbeaten 5.0/5, while Karthikeyan single-handedly leads the Indian contingent with a commendable 4.0/5.  

Sneha Halder victorious at Smart Girl Assam

05/08/2019 -

Commonwealth under-10 gold medalist Sneha Halder of West Bengal won Smart Girl All India open in Assam. Both Sneha and top seed of the tournament Tanisha A R Som of Assam scored 7.0/8. Sneha became champion due to a better tie-break score. Total 76 players participated from five different states across the nation. Smart Girl is an AICF project where 15 different states are given ₹50000 each to conduct a girls only FIDE Rated tournament, they just have to ensure a minimum of 50 girls participation in the tournament. Photo: Ravi Kant Tiwari

A tournament in the memory of the man who created India's first WGM

05/08/2019 -

AS Subbaraman is a man towards whom Indian chess would always be indebted. He was the man who decided to leave the well-trodden paths and motivated his daughters to become chess champions. He made them believe that sky was the limit and the result was there for all to see. Two WGMs were created from the Subbaraman family with S. Vijayalakshmi becoming India's first WGM and S. Meenakshi following thereafter. Viji was also twice Olympiad medal winner and an Arjuna awardee. AS Subbaraman's contribution towards Viji's growth and indirectly Indian women's chess growth has been mammoth. "He was my first and only coach", says Viji. AS Subbaraman passed away 12 years ago in 2007. In order to remember this brilliant mind, Queens Chess Academy will be holding a rating blitz tournament on the 15th of August 2019 at IIT-Madras. The total prize fund is Rs.1,50,000 and the first prize is Rs.35,000. In this article you get to know more about this event. 

Abu Dhabi 2019 Round 4: How Karthikeyan's pawn grab could cost him the game!

05/08/2019 -

It could have been a big blow to the Indian contingent in round four of the 26th Abu Dhabi Masters as Karthikeyan Murali made a reckless pawn grab and found himself in a lost position against Tahbaz Arash of Iran. Fortunately, the latter failed to find the most critical continuation which allowed the Indian Grandmaster to turn the tables and come out victorious in the end. After four rounds of the event Georgian Grandmaster Jobava Baadur has emerged as the sole leader with a score of 4.0/4. Six Indians led by Deep Sengupta share 3.0/4 each. In this report we bring you photos, analysis, and more.

Attacking Monday Mornings with Sohan Phadke Part III - Closing the doors

05/08/2019 -

Does this sound familiar to you? You are trying to attack your opponent's king, you have got all your pieces around him. You sacrifice material and now the mate is on cards. However, you start calculating variations and you realize that in most of your lines your opponent's king is running away. You still go ahead with it with the hope that you will find at least a perpetual check, but the king runs to the other side of the board and hides in safety! Nothing is more frustrating that letting a nice attacking opportunity go by! Well, if this is a common issue you face in your games, then "Attacking Monday Mornings with FM Sohan Phadke Part III - Closing the Doors" is just for you. Have a look at this article and improve your attacking technique.

13-year-old Suhan Deshpande wins Below 1600 FIDE Rated at Nagpur

04/08/2019 -

13-year-old Suhan Deshpande of Nagpur, Maharashtra won Below 1600 FIDE Rated by scoring an unbeaten 8.0/9. Ajinkya Nichat and Prathmesh Dharmadhikari also finished with the same score, however due to a better tie-break score Suhan clinched the championship and won ₹51000 cash along with a trophy. Suhan gained 127 Elo rating points and Ajinkya gained 119. Total 398 players participated from 3 federations - India, Ghana and Netherlands. Players from 14 different states participated in this 3-day Rating tournament. Photo: IA Swapnil Bansod

Abu Dhabi 2019 R02+03: A day of epic survivals and impossible reversals!

04/08/2019 -

Chess is a difficult game, from time to time even the strongest of players lose their way in its fathomless depths! Day two of 26th Abu Dhabi Masters had double rounds and saw quite a few encounters of dizzying ups and downs. In the second round Raunak Sadhwani escaped a sure loss by the skin of his teeth as his opponent Andrey Esipenko missed his footing in what was a decisive attack. Elsewhere, in the same round, IM Akash Pc Iyer gave the newly crowned Biel Master champion M.amin Tabatabaei a massive scare before himself blundering into a draw. But the most topsy-turvy battle of the day was in store for the next round, between the 13-year-old talent Pranav V. and Grandmaster Venkatesh M.R. In this report we bring to you all the excitements.

Swaraj Palit wins FIDE Rated Open in Pondicherry

04/08/2019 -

Top seed Swaraj Palit of Jharkhand scored 8.0/9 to win FIDE Rated Open in Pondicherry. Swaraj suffered an early setback in round 3 as he suffered a loss against Srinivas Gopal Reddy K of Andhra Pradesh. However, he played like a champion and won his next six games consecutively to finish a half point ahead of the pack of four players. Local lad and second seed of the tournament, Umashankar A scored 7.5/9 and he secured runner-up position, due to a higher tie-break score. 3rd position also went to local player from Pondicherry, Farhaan A. Photo: Organizer

Reassess your Chess is now available in India at a special discounted price!

03/08/2019 -

Have you ever reached a position after the opening where you have felt that you are unable to come up with a proper plan or a follow up? Do you feel that you are often unable to accurately assess a position? Well, if you face from issues like this, we recommend that you go for one of the most popular books on chess ever written - "How to Reassess your Chess" by IM Jeremy Silman. This book is now available in the ChessBase India shop at a highly discounted price for all the players in the Indian subcontinent. In this article IM Sagar Shah tells you about his experience of reading this book and how it helped him to become a much stronger player. Understand the contents of the book better.

12-year-old Aaditya Dhingra wins 35th Haryana State Senior 2019

03/08/2019 -

Reigning Gurugram District open, Haryana State under-13 and National Schools under-13 champion, 12-year-old Aaditya Dhingra of Gurgaon district scored 8.0/9 to win Haryana State Senior, 6 days after winning Gurugram District Open 2019. Aaditya's only blemish in the tournament was a loss in round 5 against the eventual second runner-up of the tournament Arun Rathee of Rohtak who scored 7.0/9. Parmod Kumar of Fatehabad also scored 8.0/9, but due to his loss against the eventual champion Aaditya in round 4, Parmod finished at runner-up position. Photo: Naresh Sharma

76 participants out of 151 at the Abu Dhabi Masters 2019 are from India!

03/08/2019 -

The 26th Abu Dhabi International Chess Festival has begun and the Indians participating have already created a stir as in round-1 itself Antonio Viani, Divya Deshmukh, and Raahil Mullick got the better of their opponents rated 300 points above them. The masters tournament of the event is a nine round Swiss restricted to players with FIDE rating 2100 and above. The Indian contingent of 76 players (total participants are 151!) is led by World Cup qualifier Murali Karthikeyan and National triple-crown champion Aravindh Chithambaram who have starting ranks of 14th and 15th respectively. In this report we bring you the glimpses of first round's action through the photos sent us to from the venue by Rupali Mullick, analyses, and more.   

Belt and Road Open: Will Ganguly take home US$ 50,000?

03/08/2019 -

The Belt and Road International Open is taking place from 28th July to 7th August in the Changsha city of Hunan Province, China. It is a nine rounds swiss event following a time control of 90 minutes with 30 seconds increment from move 1. Strong Grandmasters such as Wei Yi, Yu Yangyi, Le Quang Liem, Amin Bassem, Maxim Matlakov, Francisco Vallejo Pons, Arkadij Naiditsch, David Anton Guijarro, Evgeniy Najer are competing for a whopping first prize of 50,000 USD. After five rounds the tournament has found four leaders namely, Ivan Cheparinov, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Wang Hao, and Amin Bassem. In this comprehensive report we bring you the glimpses of the most important moments from rounds 1 to 5.

The Madras Tiger is still swift and agile!

02/08/2019 -

Vishy Anand was absolutely in his element on the final day of the Paris Grand Chess Tour 2019. He played sublime chess, won four games against strong opponents, won the blitz tournament and finished second in blitz + rapid combined. For the 49-year-old Vishy, this was a tremendous performance as he edged out many of his speed specialist rivals like Grischuk, Nakamura, Nepomniactchi and others. In this report we pay special attention to seven of Anand's wins in blitz and try to understand what helped Vishy perform at this very high level. Anand also gained 60 Elo points, which takes his blitz rating to 2790. He is now 11th in the world rankings. A detailed report from Paris along with some excellent pictures by Lennart Ootes.

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