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Important AICF Central Council decisions of the meeting held on 24th of March 2019

04/04/2019 -

The All India Chess Federation (AICF) Central Council meetings are important for all the chess players of our country. The reason? The decisions made and implemented by AICF officials at this meeting will dictate the federation's policy and decision making throughout the year. 2019 is an extremely important year for Indian chess as two huge events are going to be held in the country - World Juniors (u-20) in Delhi and World Youth (u-18, u-16, u-14) in Mumbai. What are the criteria for Indian players to participate in these events? We tell you in this article. Apart from these certain decisions have been made for the National Teams and National School Championships. Finally, a request has been made to Indian Air Force to grant an honorary rank to Viswanathan Anand.

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Indian kids too fast and too furious at Asian Youth 2019 Rapid and Blitz

03/04/2019 -

India made a fantastic start at Asian Youth 2019 in Waskaduwa, Sri Lanka.  On day 1, in the Rapid event, India won ten medals including 2 Gold, 5 Silver and 3 Bronze. On day 2, in the Blitz event, India won nine medals including 1 Gold, 3 Silver and 5 Bronze. India is the second biggest contingent in this event with 75 players after the home country Sri Lanka. In the Rapid section, India won the maximum number of medals ten, among all other nations and in Blitz, India also won the highest number of medals along with Vietnam, nine each. The round 1 of the standard format of the game was pawned off today. In this pictorial report, we bring you the information about all medal winners. Photo: ChessBase India archives

A unique crowd-funded rating tournament to be held in Bangalore

03/04/2019 -

Due to the efforts of the state chess association (UKCA), coaches, academies and also the schools including chess in the curriculum, the number of chess players that Bangalore is creating is huge. Once you get better at the game, the next natural step is to get your FIDE rating. However, here's where the city faces its biggest challenge. There are no real rating tournaments taking place in Bangalore, and the young talents have to compulsorily travel outside the city in order to get their rating or improve it. That's when Innovator Chess Academy's Sushrutha Reddy decided to implement a unique crowd-funded FIDE Rating tournament. How did this idea come about? What was the background? And how was it executed? Get to know more about this initiative that has resulted in the 3rd Bangalore Open to be held from 17th to 21st of April 2019.

Shamkir 2019 Round 3: The Madras Tiger cannot be tamed, beats Mamedyarov!

03/04/2019 -

Vishy Anand had a couple of tough days at Shamkir Masters 2019. In round one he was well and truly on track to winning his game against Navara, but missed a rook sacrifice that led to a draw. In round two, against Carlsen he was extremely close to a draw, but made three back to back errors and lost the game. In round three, it is natural that Vishy was feeling a bit low. This showed in his moves as he quickly cascaded into a lost position against Mamedyarov. Just when everything seemed to be over, the Madras Tiger roared back into action, playing one strong move after another and beating Mamedyarov in an epic struggle. Magnus Carlsen continued his victorious run and with 2.5/3, is the sole leader of the event. 

Ernesto Inarkiev wins Sharjah Masters 2019, Nihal Sarin up to 2598 on the live rating list

02/04/2019 -

The Sharjah Masters was a big event for Indian chess. Out of 178 participants, 84 were Indians. However, none of the Indian players could finish in top 10. The best performing Indian player was Nihal Sarin, who was 13th and Stany GA who finished 14th. Ernesto Inarkiev won the tournament in a seven way tie at the top. The Russian GM went back home richer by US $15,000. Second place went to Wang Hao and Kryvoruchko took the third place. In this article we acquaint you with the performance of all the Indian players who did well. Apart from this we also give you an update of how the ChessBase India Power Group Tour fared. Mrudul Dehankar, who was part of the group tour, won the best woman prize of US$500. 

Shamkir 2019 Round 2: Magnus Carlsen plays a very instructive rook endgame to beat Vishy Anand

02/04/2019 -

When Magnus has an advantage, it is always a pleasure to see his games. Because the way he converts these advantageous positions into a win is definitely something to learn from. In the second round of the Shamkir super tournament Carlsen was up against Vishy Anand. The position was around even, but Anand made one small error after another and very quickly landed in a lost rook endgame. As is the case with all rook endgames, the win was not so clear for Carlsen. But the World Champion showed impressive technique and confidently took home the full point. In this article we tell you all about Carlsen's magnificent technique. Ding Liren and Sergey Karjakin were the other winners of the day beating Grischuk and Giri respectively. A detailed round 2 report by Tanmay Srinath.

13-year-old Divya Deshmukh with an Elo of 2432 becomes India no.3 behind Humpy and Harika

01/04/2019 -

The April rating list just came out today and the biggest news of the day is 13-year-old Divya Deshmukh from Nagpur becoming India no.3 with an Elo of 2432. She has left behind stalwarts of Indian women's chess like Soumya Swaminathan (2402), Tania Sachdev (2397), Eesha Karavade (2370), Padmini Rout (2364), R.Vaishali (2353), Bhakti Kulkarni (2350), Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman (2342) and others. The only two players ahead of her are Humpy and Harika. For quite some time India has been searching for a female player who can give the best in the world a run for their money. With Divya's recent performance we can be sure that we have a future World Champion in her. In this article we tell you how Divya reached a rating of 2432 and also show you a couple of games annotated by the youngster herself.

The ChessBase India Matrimony Portal

01/04/2019 -

We have often heard chess players complain - my better half doesn't really understand chess and this has made it extremely difficult for me to have a successful chess career. At the same time we have witnessed numerous couples who understand chess well coming together and achieving extraordinary things. More than achievement it is the harmony which exists between the couple, the subtle understanding of what the other person is indulged in, which is so very precious. In order to ensure that the future talents of Indian chess are able to find their ideal partner, we have launched the ChessBase India matrimony portal. In this article we tell you all about how the portal functions and how you can apply to be a part of the same.

Shamkir 2019 round 1: Navara makes a Houdini like escape against Vishy Anand

01/04/2019 -

Usually when a super tournament begins we have a look at the results and when we see that all of the games have ended in draws, we feel that it might be a boring round. Nothing can be farther from the truth at the first round of the Shamkir Chess 2019. The 10 player tournament began with five draws in round one, but we saw a lot of fighting chess. The grandest one being Vishy Anand versus David Navara. Playing with the white pieces Anand outplayed his Czech opponent in fine style and built up a winning position. Just when it seemed like Vishy would take the full point, he made a huge mistake. Navara was agile, and pounced at the opportunity with both hands setting up a beautiful perpetual check. This game and the rest analyzed in great depth by our new author Tanmay Srinath.

The greatest female player of India turns 32 years old

31/03/2019 -

Indian chess is blessed to have players who have sacrificed just about everything in their life to achieve something special on the chess board. Five-time World Champion Vishy Anand created a chess revolution with his phenomenal achievements. In women's chess it's Koneru Humpy who has achievements that are unparalleled in the world of chess. Humpy became a full-fledged GM at the age of 15 years and 1 month. She was only the second woman player in the world after Judit Polgar to have crossed 2600 Elo ranking. She is an Arjuna Awardee and also a Padma Shri recepient. If there is something missing in her trophy cabinet, then it is the title of the Women's World Champion. Today, this legendary chess player has turned 32 years old.

Remembering Vugar Gashimov

31/03/2019 -

The Shamkir Chess 2019 in the memory of GM Vugar Gashimov will begin today from the 31st of March 2019. 27-year-old Vugar Gashimov left us on 11th of January 2014. Above his grave is a picture of a position from his game against Daniel Stellwagen from the European Team Championship 2009. What exactly was so special about the game that it deserved a place in Gashimov's grave? Indulge in the drama and excitement of the day of 30th October 2009 and get to know about the most thrilling game of Vugar Gashimov's life. Gashimov's contribution to the game of chess has been mammoth. A tribute to the great player by IM Sagar Shah.

When Anand's trainer Grzegorz Gajewski trained some youngsters in India

31/03/2019 -

When you have talented students in your academy, what do you do? You should try and bring some of the best trainers in the world to work with those talents to further enhance their abilities. This is exactly what T Nagar Chess Academy in Chennai did. From 12th to 25th of February they invited the trainer/second of Vishy Anand - Grzegorz Gajewski to work with some of their best talents. After the camp ended we contacted Gajewski to know about his experience of visiting India, working with the students, and trying out Indian food. We also get to know about how Gajewski's work with Anand began, what are Anand's best qualities according to Gajewski, and what are his future plans. 

Tripura Open 2019 Day 2+3: Major upsets on top boards

29/03/2019 -

Tripura Open 2019 Day 2 and 3 saw some exciting games with a lot of ups and downs. While it started as calm as a millpond, slowly we witnessed some unexpected results on many of the top boards. Players of the 1500 rating club showed some strong nerves to create major upsets on the top boards. Top seed GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury was held by local player Kamal Kalai rated 1542, IM Neeraj Kumar Mishra went down against another local player Umashankar Dutta rated 1541 and IM Suvrajit Saha lost his game against Rahul Yadav rated 1526. This pictorial report covers the Day 2 and 3 of the Tripura Open with annotated games of the most decisive and major upsets.

Vardaan Nagpal wins DCA Open 2019

28/03/2019 -

16-year old IM Vardaan Nagpal of New Delhi won DCA Open 2019. Despite never being in the lead as he drew his third round game, Vardaan had everything in his favor in the final round and managed to win the entire tournament. There was a four-way tie at 8.0/9, the champ edged ahead due to a better tie-break score. Untitled Bharat Kumar Reddy Potluri had a fantastic as he drew with two IMs and defeated one in the last round to secure first runner-up position. FM Matta Vinay Kumar also played brilliantly as he drew with the eventual champion of the tournament in round 7 and defeated top seed IM Sayantan Das in the final round to secure second runner-up position. Photo: Rupesh Kumar

Wang Hao and Inarkiev set up the all important round 7 clash in Sharjah

28/03/2019 -

The Sharjah Masters 2019 is excitingly placed after six rounds. Ernesto Inarkiev is in excellent form and has just dropped half a point. He is on 5.5/6. Wang Hao, the top seed of the tournament is on 5.0/6 and has set up an all important round seven clash with the leader. Indian hopes are pinned on seven Indians - Abhijeet Gupta, Nihal Sarin, Deepan Chakkravarthy, Vignesh NR, Vishnu Prasanna, Raunak Sadhwani and Aditya Mittal, who are on 4.5/6. In round six, the 12-year-old Aditya Mittal played an exciting game to beat Eduardo Iturrizaga. We have the complete analysis of that game. Photos and videos from Sharjah by Niklesh Jain.

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