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Asian Nations Cup 2018 - A window to the Batumi Olympiad

10/08/2018 -

The Asian Nations Cup proved to be a mixed bag for team India. In the open section we finished second in the classical format winning the silver medal, while in the women's section we had to settle for the bronze. However, in the blitz that followed, the women's team were simply altogether at a different level and won the gold medal with a huge margin. The men's team could manage only a fourth place finish. The biggest find of the tournament were the Iran (Green) team which won the gold in rapid, classical and blitz section beating strong teams like India and China. Iran has the same team for the Olympiad as well. In this article we look at our performance and also analyze what it means for the Olympiad in Batumi 2018.

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Bhakti Kulkarni's strong performance at Villard De Lans in France

10/08/2018 -

Villard De Lans is a town in the south Eastern part of France that is well known for skiing. From 30th of June to 7th of July, it was home to a strong International chess tournament held in the memory of Cristina Foisor. Cristina was a strong IM, who passed away at the age of 50 last year. Her daughter WGM Sabina-Francesca Foisor, husband IM Ovidiu-Doru Foisor and son-in-law Elshan Moradiabadi played at the event. The tournament was won by GM Moradiabadi. But it was WGM Bhakti Kulkarni who proved to be the surprise of the tournament as she scored 7.0/9 and finished second. In this report, she sends us two of her annotated games and we also have an interview with the champ on her beginnings in chess and how she got better at the game. 

Abu Dhabi Masters: A shock defeat for Abhijeet Gupta

09/08/2018 -

The second round of the Abu Dhabi Masters turned out to be a good one for the top seeds. While most of them managed to pull out wins in their game, Gabriel Sargissian, Anton Korobov and Vladimir Akopian were held to draws comfortably by Harsha Bharathakoti, RR Laxman and D Gukesh, respectively. Meanwhile, GM Abhijeet Gupta, the strongest Indian in the fray, lost after a miscalculation against Gunay Mammedzada of Uzbekistan. On boards 3 and 5, Swapnil Dhopade and P Iniyan also lost badly against Wang Hao and Daniil Dobov. Round 2 report.

Abu Dhabi Masters: Rathanvel dominates Le Quang Liem!

08/08/2018 -

The 25th edition of the Abu Dhabi Masters saw some gnarly upsets on the first day. On the topmost board, IM VS Rathanvel achieved what Vidit Gujrathi could not at the Danzhou Masters some weeks ago; he defeated Le Quang Liem!! Playing white, Rathanvel gave up an exchange early in the game and dominated all the way through. This, however, was not the only upset of the round. Koustav Chatterjee, Sankalp Gupta,Rakshitta Ravi and many others also scored some stunning upsets. A detailed report.

Job opportunity - Earn Rs. 20 Lakh+ as the Head coach of SMCA in Singapore

08/08/2018 -

If you are a Grandmaster or an International Master who has a knack for training others, the South Mumbai Chess Academy has an enticing opportunity for you. They are looking for a head chess coach for their branch in Singapore and this might just turn out to be the opportunity you were looking for. With flexible working hours, great pay (Rs. 20 lakh + per annum) and excellent growth opportunities, the job offers you the best blend of teaching, learning and earning! And mind you, this opportunity is not just limited to Indian titled players. IMs and GMs from all over the world can apply for this post.

CBIJ #09: Seven-year-olds who will make India proud in the years to come!

08/08/2018 -

This week's edition of CBIJ brings to you the exciting news on the Nationals Under-7 that took place in Tumkur, Karnataka. Read about the little champs and hear what they have to say! We talk to the champions Amogh Bisht and Lakshana Subramanian. Find out who is the most important person, without who our players wouldn't be who they are today. We interview seven different coaches from different parts of India - Chennai, Delhi, Mumbai, Pune, Kolkata and so on and get to know how is it that they spot talents and work with them. Last week's trivia was about your favourite chess book! We narrowed down on a winner. This week we have a trivia related to the coaches and the winner gets a chance to get his games assessed by an IM! Don't miss the 9th edition of CBIJ by Avathanshu Bhat!

First of its kind in India - the Akshayakalpa BNCF Grand Prix

07/08/2018 -

Grand Prix (French for "grand prizes") is generally associated with Formula One. It consists of a series of races which are held worldwide. Ultimately the winners of each race qualify for a Grand finale. Since its inception in 1950, F1 Grand Prix Series are watched by millions around the globe. Bangalore North Chess Forum, popularly known as BNCF, has a reputation for its punctuality, effective planning, and great attention to detail for their monthly one-day rapid tournaments. They, in association with Akshayakalpa, have introduced Grand Prix to popularize chess in Karnataka. A series of seven events culminating into a super finals in February!

Paritosh Bhattacharyya memorial chess tournament

07/08/2018 -

Paritosh Bhattacharyya, a coach of Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy, met his untimely demise on 17th June 2018. Chess was his only way to make a living. He is survived by his wife and a college going daughter. To support his family in these tough times, DBCA is organizing a one day memorial chess tournament on 19th August 2018. People who wish to support his family can donate any amount towards the cause. Proceedings from the tournament and donation will go to his family. Photo: DBCA

A note to the Indian players - Honour your commitments

06/08/2018 -

Indian chess players travel to every corner of the world to play in chess tournaments. They are one of the biggest resources for any organizer in the world. But recently there has been a trend which needs to be changed. A lot of Indians, especially titled players, write to organizers to ask for an entry and conditions (free accommodation, food, appearance fee) and then cancel their participation even without informing them. This results in a big blow to the plans that the organizers have made and affects their relationship with Indian players in general. Something similar happened with the organizer of the 5th Porticcio Open 2018 Leo Battesti, and he wrote a mail to the All India Chess Federation which we reproduce here. 

Your chance to train with Jacob Aagaard and Boris Gelfand

06/08/2018 -

Training with world class GMs is quite difficult on two counts - 1. It is extremely expensive and 2. The GMs are busy and don't often have the time to train others. However, things are going to change on that front. The Quality Chess Academy has been launched by GM Jacob Aagaard and it invites players from all over the world to its first training camp that will take place in Lyttos Beach Resort, Crete in Greece from 4th to 10th of November 2018. This coaches at the camp are GM Jacob Aagaard and GM Boris Gelfand (Yes! you heard that right!). This camp will be open to only players above 2300 Elo. The next camp is also scheduled from 8th to 14th May and this will be open to players of all ratings! Check out the article and get to know more about the Quality Chess Academy. 

The thrill, pressure and drama of a team competition

05/08/2018 -

A team event becomes exciting when the onus of making your team win is on multiple shoulders! This is what happened to team India at the 8th IBCA World Team Championships for the blind 2018. India was up against Venezuela in round 8 and an extremely tense scenario took place. From two boards India needed 1.5 points to win the round. Sagar Shah takes you through the high pressure situation and tells you exactly what transpired. India lost the last two rounds of the event against Venezuela and Romania but we won a lot of hearts and came back with some great experience. Indian blind chess is showing great promise and the future looks extremly bright! Don't miss this exciting final article by IM Sagar Shah! 

Lakshana Subramanian and Amogh Bisht are National under-7 Champions 2018!

04/08/2018 -

This year the National under-7 Chess Championship took place at Tumkur, Karnataka from 16-07-2018 to 24-07-2018. Amogh Bisht and Lakshana Subramanian became the champions in the open and girls section respectively. A total number of 362 players (214 boys and 148 girls) and about 600 parents from different states of India took part in the event with vigour and enthusiasm. If you think about it, many of the young talents in the world of chess become IMs and GMs by the age of 12 to 15. In that sense although the top seeds were just rated around 1200, we can already feel that the future grandmasters were taking part in this event! Chief Arbiter of the tournament IA Rathinam Anantharam sends us a detailed report of the event.

Hainan Danzhou Masters: Le Quang Liem beats Vidit in a complex battle; Yu Yangyi bags the title

03/08/2018 -

The final round of the Hainan Danzhou Masters saw the Indian number three, GM Vidit Gujrathi, finish at the bottom of the leaderboard. Playing against Vietnamese GM Le Quang Liem, Vidit lost a pawn in the middle game and was unable to find his way through the ensuing complications. Meanwhile, Yu Yangyi won the race for the top spot after Bu Xiangzhi, the only other contender for the title lost to Vladimir Fedoseev. Yu was half a point ahead of the rest of the field and finished with a comfortable draw to bag the champion's trophy.

15 years ago Kunte won the British Championships

03/08/2018 -

The Hindu did a great service to chess in India by covering some of the most important and crucial events that took place in the 90s and early 2000s. One of them was GM Abhijit Kunte winning the British Championship in 2003. Today after 15 years we publish the Hindu article for you to relive those moments when one of India's best players in the early 2000s dominated a key event on the European soil. 15 years have passed since then and Abhijit Kunte still plays chess actively. He has been able to maintain his Elo above 2500 consistently, even though he is indulging in so many activities beyond the 64 squares. How does he manage to do it? How does he juggle so many hats at the same time? Well, we try to give you the answer in this article. 

Using ChessBase on your Mac computer

03/08/2018 -

ChessBase, Fritz & Co. are programs for Windows but they do also run on Mac computers if you install Windows, which is nowadays easy to do using, for instance, Boot Camp, Parallels, or VMware Fusion. We compare these three alternatives and describe how you can use them to install ChessBase on your Mac. Having a Mac computer will no longer be a hindrance for you to work with ChessBase's powerful softwares like ChessBase 14, Mega Database, Fritz, Komodo and many others. A step by step in-depth tutorial. 

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