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I play chess to gain experience and improve my game: lone Afghan player at the 2nd Goa GM 2019

01/07/2019 -

He might be one of the lesser rated players representing his country in a high profile Grandmaster Open in Taleigao in Category A, and the only Afghan among 1300 odd players across the three categories, but he is not overawed by the magnitude of the event and takes it as a learning curve. Meet an unassuming 18-year-old Sepehr Sakhawaty (Elo rating 1774) from Herat, Afghanistan who is on the concluding leg of a three-city GM Open tournament maiden visit to India that ends here today. Photo: Basil Sylvester Pinto

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The Goa Chronicles - how Carlsen and Anand helped me shoot for the stars!

01/07/2019 -

It was a tough few months on the chess circuit for Tanmay Srinath. His rating was stuck at 1300 for the last few years, and despite improvement he was unable to make a break through. All that began to change with one thing - reporting on top level events for ChessBase India! Tanmay Srinath has been reporting on top level events for ChessBase India since some months and he was able to use this knowledge, to gain 70 Elo points with a K-factor of 20 and finish in the top quarter despite starting in the lower half at the Goa GM 2019 B category! Here is Tanmay's story of how analyzing the games of the current chess elite helped him improve his playing strength, and how he learnt from his mistakes at Goa 2018 to make Goa 2019 all the more memorable! 

Upcoming tournaments in July 2019

01/07/2019 -

The month of July is relatively relaxed with less major tournaments compared to the last few months. The very first day of July pawns off with a tournament in Georgia with over EUR 15K+ prize fund. Then Catalan Circuit continues with tournaments at Benasque and Barbera del Valles from 4th July. Ivanchuk, Maghsoodloo and Nihal will be seen in action at Leon from 4th-8th July. 1st Thailand Chess Festival starts from 7th July with a variety of tournaments. World Junior for Disabled, Paracin, Czech Tour, National Sub-Junior, National Women's Senior, Asian Cities Team, Riga GP, Tal Memorial Blitz, Xtracon Open, Biel Masters, Sant Marti, Sitges, Arad International, Paris Grand Chess Tour, Belt and Hunan Road and many more tournaments are scheduled for the month of July.

Armenians rule 2nd Goa GM Open 2019

30/06/2019 -

Eight days and ten rounds of intensive chess in the standard format at the 2nd Goa International GM Chess Open at Taleigao which concluded on Tuesday saw both the Armenian Grandmasters in the fray take the first two positions. Talking of the great vibe he has with his Armenian GM compatriot, Ter-Sahakyan revealed that he spends a lot of time with Petrosyan on and off tours through chess. “We had a little (training) session together before coming to India. Here, we are always together. We help each other during the preparation. I can say we are good friends,” asserts Samvel. Photo: Basil Sylvester Pinto

Knight endings are not always like pawn endings!

29/06/2019 -

Mikhail Botvinnik once said, "Knight endgames are like pawn endgames." With this statement he meant that if you have reached a knight endgame, take out the knights from the board and if the pawn endgame is winning for one side, then the knight endgame would also be winning for the same side. Vishy Anand, however, begged to differ with Botvinnik's views in the second round of the Croatia Grand Chess Tour 2019. Anand was playing against Carlsen and was a pawn down in the knight endgame. It looked like the game was over and that Vishy should resign. But Anand found one resource after another and miraculously held the position in which he had a pawn against Carlsen's queen and a knight! Complete analysis of this fascinating endgame.

Kidambi on Rathnakaran's Immortal Queen Sacrifice

29/06/2019 -

India's 19th Grandmaster Sundararajan Kidambi writes on Rathnakaran's latest incredible Queen Sacrifice against GM Mikheil Mchedlishvili (2609) of Georgia in round 3 of 2nd Goa GM International Open 2019. This is Kidambi's second post of the month on his blog after more than a yearlong hiatus from blog posts. We all are aware of Kidambi's impeccable knowledge of the game and how meticulous he is with his analysis. In this article, he discusses the game with incredible details. He also shares past instances of sacrifices in Rathnakaran's games. Photo: ChessBase India archive/Niklesh Jain

Learn the King's Indian Attack with reversed colours from Nepo!

29/06/2019 -

Mamedyarov couldn't resist the temptation of grabbing an extra pawn on the queenside even though his king on the other side of the board was under fire. Perhaps he couldn't rightly assess the severity of problems his opponent could cause on the kingside as Nepomniachtchi registered his third consecutive victory, extending his lead to 3.0/3 and dominating the rest of the field by a full point. The remaining games of Day 3 all ended in draws - of them the longest was Karjakin versus Nakamura which went on for 77 moves. Vishy Anand played solidly to hold Levon Aronian with the white side of Giuoco Piano. In this report we bring you photos, analysis, and more.

10 things that made last day of Goa GM International 2019 special

28/06/2019 -

The second edition of the Goa International Open Grandmaster Chess Tournament 2019 came to an emphatic end for the Armenian fans. Samvel Ter Sahakyan scored a gritty victory over Davit Jojua in the last round to tie with his friend Manuel Petrosyan on 8.0/10. They were joined by Iranian Pouya Idani who scored 5 points in last five rounds. Samvel was the champion on better tie-break score. In this article we bring you all the action from not just the final round, but also from the closing ceremony. A total of 13 norms were scored in the tournament. A huge boost for Indian players and it was only possible because the organizers at Goa ensured a very high rating average (2182) of participants in the A group.  

How can Carlsen's such an anti-positional idea beat Giri in 23 moves

27/06/2019 -

The first round of the Croatia Grand Chess Tour was a bloody affair. The first decisive result came from the World Champion himself, who has been completely dominant lately. Magnus Carlsen defeated Anish Giri in twenty three moves with the black pieces. Fabiano Caruana, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Wesley So followed suit by defeating Hikaru Nakamura, Viswanathan Anand and Ding Liren respectively. There are now six players tied for first place. To kick off the event, legendary World Champion Garry Kasparov made the ceremonial first move in Giri - Carlsen and joined the commentary to talk about the games. Vishy Anand lost his game to Ian Nepomniachtchi. We have pictures, analysis and more. 

Just 14 and the strongest blitz player of the continent!

27/06/2019 -

It was not long ago that he became the youngest 2600 rated player in the world and now he is also the strongest Blitz player in the continent. Nihal Sarin is just 14 years old and has all the qualities to make it to the very top in the world of chess. His recent feat of winning the Asian Blitz title ahead of strong and seasoned grandmasters like Vidit Gujrathi and Le Quang Liem is a testimony to his enormous potential. In the present article we have a look at some of Nihal's best Blitz games in the recently concluded Asian Open 2019. Of course, encounters at such fast time controls aren't the most serious of affairs but they do reflect a player's intuitive feel for the game and intuition is indeed what separates the true champion from the rest. 

No need to travel to Europe if you have events like Goa GM 2019!

25/06/2019 -

It's always difficult to score norms in India because there are a lot of lower rated players in the A group. However, the organizers of the Goa GM International 2019, decided to restrict the number of participants to the A group and hence all the norm hopeful players were able to fight it out against higher rated opposition. Nine norms were made at the end of nine rounds, which is a great result. Six IM norms, 1 WGM norm and 2 WIM norms were scored. In this article we tell you all about the youngsters who scored their norms and we also bring to you a game that lasted over 4.5 hours in the C group with 202 moves and was played on board 291. A sheer test of patience and stamina!

Girish Koushik becomes India's 63rd GM and Karnataka's third!

25/06/2019 -

He was one of the most prolific achievers in Indian sub junior chess. Girish Koushik has the record for winning gold in Asian championships u-8,10,12,14 and 16! He was also the world under-10 champion, national under-9 and 11 champion and the list of medals is simply endless. But then all of a sudden he nearly quit playing chess! Girish became academically inclined and started to pursue Electronics and Communications Engineering in RV College of Engineering in Bangalore. It seemed like India had lost a GM. Not quite true. The moment his 8th semester got over Girish packed his bags and left for a three tournament Europe trip in May-June 2019. From being rated 2444 with one GM norm, he came back with an Elo of 2500.7 and three GM norms, effectively becoming India's 63rd Grandmaster.

Age is only a number for Subramanian

24/06/2019 -

One cannot discount to the fact that in order to maintain a healthy lifestyle, chess has a major role to play. This attribute is noticeable in 85-year-old TV Subramanian from Trichy, Tamil Nadu who is grabbing eyeballs with his noteworthy performance as the oldest player at the ongoing 2nd Goa Grandmaster International Open Chess Tournament in Taleigao. Photo: Basil Sylvester Pinto

It's Manuel, not Tigran! Petrosyan leads the Goa GM 2019 with 7.0/8

24/06/2019 -

Manuel Petrosyan played the opening like a book, middlegame like a machine and didn't let the endgame occur! He beat GM P. Iniyan in their top board clash and became the sole leader of the tournament with 7.0/8. Judging by Manuel's form it seems like he is all set to win the tournament with two rounds to go. But there are four more players trailing him by just half a point - Iturrizaga, Jojua, Paichadze and Rahman. No Indian player is in top 8 after 9 rounds. Currently the best performing one is Neelash Saha, who is on 6.0/8. In this article we look at some of the most critical games of round 8 and also tell you about the leaders in the below 1600 (C-group).

Vision 2020 by AICF

23/06/2019 -

The annual general body meeting of All India Chess Federation (AICF) was held on 23rd of June 2019. In the meeting "Vision 2020" was presented. The document was passed by the members and the points mentioned in the vision 2020 document is how the Indian chess is going to proceed in the next year and a half. So what does Vision 2020 include? FIDE trainer seminars, FIDE Arbiter seminars, Coaching camp for talented juniors, smart girl project, and much more. In this article we present to you the details of the Vision 2020 document.

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