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Gahan MG wins first of its kind Akshayakalpa BNCF Grand Prix finale

25/02/2019 -

It was a fantastic organizational effort by Bangalore North Chess Forum (BNCF) backed by Akshayakalpa, who sponsored the entire Grand Prix series. Seven events were held in Bengaluru which attracted players all across Karnataka. From each tournament 5-6 players qualified for the Grand Finale, which was held on the 17th of February at the BEL Officer's Club. The field consisted of the cream of Karnataka chess - Thejkumar, Girish Koushik and Antonio Viani (Stany was missing). The tournament was won by Gahan MG who played some fantastic chess scoring 6.5/7 and finishing half a point ahead of the field. Second place went to experienced IM Ravi Hegde, while GM Thejkumar was third. Hinduja Reddy, who was present at the venue, sends us a detailed report with pictures, game analysis and videos.

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Aeroflot 2019 Round 5: Can anyone stop Sasikiran?

24/02/2019 -

Sasikiran is in a fiery mood at the Aeroflot Open 2019. He has played against five grandmasters and scored five wins, three of them being above 2600 Elo! His victims include Klementy Sychev (2545), Rasmus Svane (2599), Aravindh Chithambaram (2601), Maksim Chigaev (2613) and Anton Korobov (2687). With 5.0/5 Sasikiran has a rating performance of 3409 and is already gaining 20 Elo points which takes his rating to 2698 on the live Elo list! He may well break into 2700 once again today, a feat that he had achieved seven years ago in January 2012. His sixth round opponent is the young Iranian talent Amin Tabatabaei. In this report we analyze Sasikiran's win over Korobov from round five of the Aeroflot Open 2019.

Aeroflot 2019 R 03 + 04: Finish off your opponents like Sasikiran

23/02/2019 -

Sasikiran scored a fine win against Aravindh Chithambaram in round three of the Aeroflot Open 2019. With this win he led the tournament along with Maksim Chigaev on 3.0/3. 23rd February is a double round (thanks to the bomb scare) and Sasi kept up his pace with another win against Chigaev. This gives the Chennai GM a score of 4.0/4 and a full points lead over the field. In round five that is currently in progress, Sasikiran is up against Anton Korobov. It will be interesting to see the game between these two ambitious players. We have some in-depth analysis from the game Sasikiran versus Aravindh that will help you to improve your art of calculation.

Top Indian players make their pledge for the martyrs of Pulwama terror attack

22/02/2019 -

GM Adhiban Baskaran is the first top player to make his pledge. India no.3 GM Vidit Gujrathi is the first titled player to announce his participation for this sunday's Pulwama Martyrs ChessBase Online Blitz Tournament at 8 p.m. IST. The tournament has no entry fee. All players can make a donation of any amount they want, minimum donation amount is ₹100. Among top women players of the country, WGM Bhakti Kulkarni and WGM Soumya Swaminathan have made their pledge. The entire proceedings will go to the family of the martyrs through 'Bharat Ke Veer' corpus fund. We request the chess community to join in and play this strong online blitz event. Photo: ChessBase India archives

Aeroflot 2019 Round 2: Aravindh tricks his 2681 rated opponent in a pawn endgame

22/02/2019 -

The Aeroflot Open 2019 is in its second round and things are already heating up. In the A-group out of 101 players, we only have 6 who are on 100% score with 2.0/2, out of which four are Indians! Sasikiran, Aravindh Chithambaram, S.L. Narayanan and Nihal Sarin are leading the event with 2.0/2, along with Maksim Chigaev and Zhou Jianchao. Indians had an excellent day at the office as Aravindh managed to trick Eltaj Safarli in a pawn endgame, Nihal Sarin beat Indjic, S.L. Narayanan played a crazy game to outplay Alekseenko. Some other upsets were Debashis Das getting the better of David Paravyan and Raunak Sadhwani scoring a win against Srinath Narayanan. We will have a look at all of these games in this report.

Seven Maharashtra players honoured with the Shiv Chhatrapati award

21/02/2019 -

The state of Maharashtra continued with its excellent tradition of feting all the players who have achieved their GM/IM/WGM/WIM titles in the past year, with the Shiv Chhatrapati award. There were 19 players who received the Shiv Chhatrapati award in 2018. This year seven players were felicitated. They were: IM Rakesh Kulkarni, IM Harshit Raja, WIM Saloni Sapale, WIM Divya Deshmukh, IM Raunak Sadhwani as players, and GM Swapnil Dhopade and WIM Mrunalini Kunte as trainers. Each of the winners receive Rs.1,00,000 from the Maharashtra Government. We bring you some exclusive pictures on the felicitation ceremony which took place at the Gateway of India, Mumbai on 17th of February. 

Aeroflot 2019 Round 1: Ganguly's play too hot for Pragg

21/02/2019 -

The super strong Aeroflot has kicked off in Moscow! 25 Indian players are fighting it out in the A section against some of the best grandmasters in the world. We have the experience of Sasikiran, Sethuraman, Ganguly and the talent of Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin, Gukesh. We also have our youngsters near the age of 20 years - Karthikeyan, Aravindh, S.L. Narayanan, Vaibhav Suri who can beat any opponent on a given day. In round one we narrowed down on two exciting games that we present before you - Surya Sekhar Ganguly getting the better of Praggnanandhaa in the late middlegame and Harika beating Gordievsky with a cute little tactic. 

Let's remember the Martyrs of the Pulwama terror attack

21/02/2019 -

There have been many iterations of ChessBase Online Blitz tournament, but on 24th February 2019, there will be a special edition for the Martyrs of Pulwama Attack. The entire money received through donation will be given to the family of the martyrs through 'Bharat ke veer' corpus fund. Thus the tournament has no entry fee. Each player is requested to donate a minimum of Rs 100, however there is no maximum limit. The tournament will take place at 8 p.m. so even if you are playing some tournament or have some other work, you can still take part in it. It is our request to the players that once you make a donation, then give your 100% for the Online Blitz tournament. Play with aggression, play with passion and most of all play with the fearlessness that was shown by the jawans as they gave up their lives for the country.

Harikrishna is the only Indian in the FIDE Grand Prix series 2019

21/02/2019 -

Good news for Indian chess fans! Pentala Harikrishna has qualified for the FIDE World Grand Prix series 2019. The Grand Prix 2019 is a series of four events held in four different cities - Moscow (May 16-30), Riga (11-25 July), Hamburg (4-18 November), Tel Aviv (10-24 December). Players have to select three out of these four events and the two highest points scorers will qualify for the next Candidates tournament. The biggest change in the FIDE Grand Prix is that it is now a knock-out event with each leg having 16 participants and four knock-out rounds which will decide a winner. The points system will be announced soon when we will know how the top two players in the entire series will be decided.

The mate in 3 study which was given to Anand by Kramnik

20/02/2019 -

On 15th of February Vishy Anand visited the city of Pune and inaugurated a chess training centre at PYC Gymkhana. When a guest of honour cuts the ribbon and inaugurates a space, his work is done after a few pictures are taken. But being a true chess lover, Anand went through his phone, and found a very interesting mate in three problem to pose to the young kids out there. Soon enough, a crowd gathered around the chess board which had three grandmasters, over seven International Masters and India no.3 Vidit Gujrathi who were racking their brains to solve the position. Finally IM Prathamesh Mokal managed to crack the solution with the correct sequence. This was a problem sent to Anand by none other than Vladimir Kramnik and we now pose it before you to solve! 

CBIJ #13: Meenal Gupta - The Sunshine Girl from Jammu & Kashmir

20/02/2019 -

This edition of CBIJ brings to you the news from the north - the girl who won't back down, Meenal Gupta. She lives in Jammu and Kashmir, which is currently going through a rough patch with the Pulwama attack, a terrorist attack resulting in the loss of 40 Indian soldiers. Such attacks put risks on the lives of the people living there, praying for their lives at every minute. This is a story of a girl who let none of that get in her way. In fact, when it comes to chess, most people prefer to move out of her way! Get to know more about her and how she is able to sustain her passion overcoming all of the difficulties that come in her path. A detailed, pictorial report.

Bomb scare halts round 1 at the Aeroflot Open 2019

19/02/2019 -

While the first round of the Aeroflot Open 2019 was in progress, the players were asked to evacuate Hotel Cosmos because of a bomb scare. Some players went straight outside on to the streets in  -1°C cold, while some took the risk, went up to their rooms got their jackets and then ran outside. The Indian contingent then was taken to the nearby college where they spent nearly four hours. Things are under control and it seems like it was a hoax call. The Indian players are all safe. AICF and the officials in Moscow also contacted the Indian embassy in Moscow and measures were taken to bring everything under control. Round one will be played tomorrow once again with the same pairing and on one of the subsequent days there were be two rounds held.

17th Aeroflot Open 2019: Catch all the live action here

19/02/2019 -

The traditional international festival "Aeroflot Open 2019" is ON now. This will be held from February 19th until 1st March 2019 at the Moscow hotel "Cosmos". Popular worldwide festival will be held for the 17th time (The live game start at 17:30 IST). This year GM Wei Yi of China is the top seed followed by GM Vladimir Fedoseev of Russia and GM Wang Hao of China. A very strong Indian contingent is led by GM Sasikiran Krishnan and GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly. Also we will see GM Praggnanandhaa R, GM Nihal Sarin and GM Gukesh D together in action! Catch all the live games in this page.

Stuck on checkmate - the sad reality of chess in Bangladesh

18/02/2019 -

It was Bangladesh that produced the Asian sub-continent's first chess Grandmaster, GM Niaz Murshed, some 31 years ago. But the once-promising discipline of chess has seemingly been stuck in an unsound position since the country got its fifth and last GM in 2008. We know that Bangladesh has some promising upcoming players in M. Fahad Rahman, Tahsin Tajwar Zia and others but they still have a long way to go before they can threaten the most talented youngsters in the world. What is the reason behind this pause? Why is chess in Bangladesh not improving? Read this article by Anisur Rahman to know the answers.

12-year-old Leon Mendonca creates history by scoring three IM norms in 17 days!

17/02/2019 -

12-year-old Leon Mendonca had been close to an IM norm on numerous occasions, missing it by a whisker. The strength was always there, but the results weren't coming. The boy kept working hard and in 17 days everything changed! From 31st January to 16th February, Leon played three events in Serbia and scored three IM norms, pumping his rating to 2446 and becoming India's latest International Master at the age of 12 years, 11 months and 3 days! We tell you all about Leon's three fantastic events and how he managed to pull off this amazing achievement of scoring 18.5 points out of 27 rounds against average Elo opposition of 2320. Leon has also sent us an annotated game which we share with you. Read on and be amazed!

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