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Prithu Gupta becomes the 64th GM of Indian chess at the age of 15 years, 4 months and 10 days

18/07/2019 -

While the story of every grandmaster of Indian chess is different and unique, you wouldn't find a more inspiring tale than that of Prithu Gupta. The youngster from Delhi became the country's 64th GM at the age of 15 years 4 months and 10 days on the 18th of July 2019. Prithu's journey to the GM title has been quite unconventional. The boy has given great importance to his academics and ensured that he maintains a CGPA close to 10. At the same time whenever he has got to play in a chess tournament he has made the most of his opportunities and achieved his GM title. 32 years after Vishy Anand became India's first GM, Prithu has completed the first chess board by becoming the country's 64th grandmaster. Get to know more about this young talent.

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Indians dominating at the halfway mark in Leiden

18/07/2019 -

The Leiden tournament in the Netherlands is one of the well known chess events that takes place in a calendar year. Located in a quiet and idyllic location the place is perfect for a chess tournament. This year we have quite a few players from India who have participated in the tournament. Instead of just having a tournament with groups A, B and C, this year the organizers have also introduced a crown group where they have six GMs and four IMs fighting it out in a 10 player round robin event. Deep Sengupta and Arghyadip Das are leading the event with 3.5/5. In the A group we have Sandipan Chanda who is playing some sharp chess and is leading with a 100% score of 5.0/5. In this article we not only bring you information of how the Kolkata players are dominating in Leiden but also take you back in the memory lane to 2016 when the author of this article Sagar Shah visited Leiden.

Samriddhaa makes a perfect comeback and wins her maiden National title

17/07/2019 -

Samriddhaa Ghosh had an unexpected start with a loss against her state mate in the opening round. However she made a perfect comeback and won the tournament despite never being in the lead. At the conclusion of round 6, she was trailing behind a full point and she had a color break. Even when things were looking bleak, she kept believing in herself to win her maiden national title after coming close to a podium finish multiple finish. Samriddhaa won State under-17 in her final attempt and 44 days later she became national champion. She won the state title in less than a week after coming close to winning state women for the second consecutive girl. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Winning three strong tournaments in 22 days - Le Quang Liem

17/07/2019 -

Former World Blitz champion and Vietnam's no.1 GM Le Quang Liem won the Asian Continental for the very first time in his career just a month ago. He became the first Vietnamese player ever to do so. He did not stop there, he continued his momentum and went on to win two more strong tournaments consecutively - Summer Classic and the World Open. He did it all in just a little over 3 weeks, 22 days to be exact. How did he do it? How does he maintain such a strong composure in such a difficult field? In this article, we bring you answers to all the question you have in your mind and more in an exclusive interview with Le Quang Liem. Photo: Sinquefield Cup 2017.

Neelash dominates 30th National under-17 2019

17/07/2019 -

IM Neelash Saha started the tournament as the second seed and he was one of the favorites to win the tournament. His closest competitor was his state mate, top seed of the tournament CM Aronyak Ghosh who was rated 34 Elo points higher than him. Neelash ran through the competition by winning his first six games consecutively, then he made three consecutive draw which made him unhappy and in the final two rounds he notched up two victories to win his maiden National under-17 title in his final attempt. 44 days before the tournament, he had won State under-17 in his hometown Kolkata. Photo: M Ephrame

Koustav Chatterjee becomes an IM without a coach

16/07/2019 -

15-year-old Koustav Chatterjee scored 3 IM-norms and crossed the rating barrier in 15 months to become one of the latest IM of the country. How was his journey, what it took for him to become an IM, who is his coach and who supported him, everything will be answered in this interview which was conducted after he played three consecutive GM tournaments in India, one of which he claimed to be difficult to score a norm. He has also stated the reason. Koustav has also shared an annotated game which he considers to be the best among the tournaments where he scored his norm. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Getting better: The ChessBase 15 Training Database

15/07/2019 -

ChessBase 15 makes chess training easier. One tool that helps your training is the "training database" that is integrated into the program and offers selected examples for "replay-training". Here's a short tutorial how to find and how to install this useful database. | Drawing: ChessBase

Five Points to You

15/07/2019 -

Says 14-year-old Avathanshu Bhat, who is the editor in chief of ChessBase India Juniors, "I never realized, that in all the years which I would call a journey, I have had it surprisingly easy as compared to a lot of other people." There are tales of struggles that are related to chess out there. Through the string of interviews in the last month, the author began to see a pattern: they were mostly woes related to either or more of five points mentioned in this article - Parents, Coaches, Essentials, Schools or Friends. Avathanshu through this article would like to share what a perfect circle of a young player looks like. What follows is a note on each of these Five and what exactly they mean to us.

NEW: Nicholas Pert: A Sicilian Stunner - The Kalashnikov

14/07/2019 -

The Kalashnikov is a favourite weapon of mine in the main line of the Sicilian Defense. It is closely related to the Sveshnikov but with much less theory to learn. This increasingly popular opening is easy to pick up as the Black pieces can usually be developed quickly and smoothly. When I was looking for a Sicilian variation to play, this one ticked all of the boxes. Many of the ideas are thematic and Black can achieve attacking positions in several of the variations. The lines have all been thoroughly checked and will hopefully provide the viewer with the confidence to play this opening. 

Belt and Road Women Open Round 4-6: Pratyusha maintains her impressive run

14/07/2019 -

Former Women's World Champion GM Antoaneta Stefanova of Bulgaria maintained her half-point lead going into the rest day with a score of 5.0/6. Among the Indians, Harika continues to struggle as she made her fifth consecutive draw to reach 3.5/6. Soumya Swaminathan is also at 3.5/6, she drew with Georgia no.1 woman GM Nana Dzagnidze in round 4 and suffered her first loss in the next round against WGM Olga Girya. WIM Pratyusha Bodda continues her stellar performance by holding Harika and WGM Ni Shiqun to a draw in round 4 and 5 respectively. WIM Rucha Pujari suffered two consecutive losses and she is now at 1.5/6. Photo: Misty Pine/China Intelligence Sports Network

Christopher Yoo - this 12-year-old chess composer will baffle you!

14/07/2019 -

There are many chess prodigies in the world today but Christopher Yoo, the 12-year-old International Master from USA, stands out among them for his unusual precocity in chess composing. Perhaps, his talent in this field is comparable to the great American puzzle maker Samuel Loyd, who too became phenomenally successful in composing at a very early age. Presently there are not many youngsters interested in chess composition. The record of becoming the youngest ever Grandmaster of chess composing is held by Reto Aschwanden of Switzerland who earned the coveted title in 2010 at the age of 36 and that's quite late by the standards of over-the-board chess. Some say that the subtle understanding of abstraction and beauty comes only with age. Be it what may, for now it can safely be said that we have found someone very exceptional in our midst in Christopher Yoo!

Invisible squares and hidden lines!

13/07/2019 -

The previous instalment of The Problemist Diary series dealt with a geometric theme distinctly graphical in nature. But geometry doesn't have to be purely visual, it might as well be conceptual, underlying relationships between squares and lines, and pieces that occupy or move along them. Today's article is also about chessboard geometry but the flavour is bent more towards the strategic and the abstract side of it. This time, the author Satanick Mukhuty, brings you a feast of tactical fantasies based on the well-known clearance theme. Five old and new assorted directmates, all by renowned specialists of the problem art, have been presented with in-depth analyses. So what are you waiting for? Put your thinking caps on and plunge in!

Harikrishna survives game one, now has a chance to knockout Wesley So

13/07/2019 -

The Grand Prix last year used to be filled with a lot of draws, but this year in 2019, since the format has changed to knock out, it has become extremely interesting. After the first one was won by Ian Nepomniachtchi in Moscow, the second leg of the Grand Prix has begun in Riga, Latvia. It is particularly interesting for Indian fans as Harikrishna is fighting it out against world no.4 Wesley So. The players fight it out in two games with classical time control and if it ends in a 1-1 draw, then we move to rapid, followed by blitz and finally an armageddon game to decide the outcome. In the first game of the mini-match, Harikrishna managed to hold his own and drew the game with black pieces. But what an amazing game it was! Let's have a look. 

Bharath Subramaniyam - IM at the age of 11 years and 8 months

13/07/2019 -

Indian chess has been blessed with a spurt of young talents coming up and becoming IMs and GMs at a very tender age. But behind every such accomplishment goes in tremendous hard work and dedication by the player, his parents, coaches and the entire team. Here's the story of Bharath Subramaniyam from Chennai who became an IM at the age of 11 years and 8 months. Bharath is a lively lad, full of laughter and mischief. However, when he sits on the chess board, he is picture of concentration and confidence. In this article we tell you about Bharath's journey, with inputs from his father and also his coach R.B. Ramesh. Pragg and Gukesh couldn't break Karjakin's record of world's youngest GM, but who knows maybe Bharath might be the chosen one! 

GM Igors Rausis, rated 2686, caught cheating with a mobile phone

12/07/2019 -

Every once in a while we hear a story of a chess player who surpasses the established norms and achieves truly something special. At that point a thought does cross almost every chess fan's mind - would he be doing it the clean way? This is the case of 58-year-old GM Igors Rausis who saw a phenomenal surge in his rating that brought him to a rating of 2686, gaining over 50 Elo points in the last year. For a player who had long passed his prime, Igors performance was closely scrutinized. And while him playing against too many lower rated players didn't go down well with the chess community, on 11th of July he was caught red handed in the Strausborg Open in France where he was cheating with his mobile phone inside a toilet. Full story.

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