When chess and Amitabh Bachchan met at KBC

29/09/2017 -

Kaun Banega Crorepati (KBC) is the show with the highest Television Rating Points (TRP) in India. Millions of people watch the show which is hosted by the legendary Indian actor Amitabh Bachchan. The 18th of September episode was very unique for chess players as Shweta Rathore, an internationally rated FIDE chess player qualified to the show and discussed chess at length with Amitabh. In fact the entire Rathore family is in love with the game of chess and this was shown in ample measure on the show! And how much prize money did Shweta win? Check it out in the report below. 

Isle of Man Rd 04: Vidit joins Carlsen and company in the lead

28/09/2017 -

After conceding a draw in round 1, Vidit Gujrathi has come back with a bang. With three back to back victories, he is now one of the co-leaders along with Magnus Carlsen and five other players. Just half a point behind is a 28-player pack which includes Vishy Anand, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura etc. But the real surprise in the pack is IM Harsha Bharathakoti. This 2394 rated has stunningly outperformed his rating. His current score is an undefeated 3.0/4 with a performance rating of 2843!! Here's a report with pictures, games and analysis.

India's huge open 3rd RWF International is here!

28/09/2017 - 3rd Rail Wheel Factory International FIDE Rated Open Chess Tournament 2017 will take place from 29th September to 3rd October 2017. Total Prize Money is ₹5   Lacs, consisting of 108 Cash Prizes and 152 Trophies. In 2016 we had 800 participants at the event. P. Shyaamnikhil won the tournament. This year also we have huge number of participants with some new innovations like Parents' tournament, demolisher prize and much more. ChessBase India supports this tournament by offering attractive prizes. A curtain raiser.

Isle of Man Rd 03: Kramnik suffers a shocking loss

27/09/2017 -

The third round at the Isle of Man Chess witnessed a major upset: Vladimir Kramnik lost on board 28 to the 65-year-old American GM James Tarjan! This is serious not only because of the rating difference between the two players but also because this might just ruin Kramnik's chances of qualifying for the Candidates by rating. On the top board, Magnus Carlsen demolished Jeffery Xiong, while the Indian star, Viswanathan Anand, won in fine style against the German IM Nikolas Lubbe in a Sicilian Najdorf. Five Indians are now trailing half a point behind the leaders who've scored a perfect 3.0/3. We have a report with games, pictures and analysis.

Isle of Man Chess Rd 02: Top seeds feel the heat

27/09/2017 -

Day two in Douglas was full of shockers. The creme de la creme of the chess world, who've stepped down from their pedestal and are playing at the Isle of Man Open with regular GMs and other norm hungry aspirants, are having a tough time playing up to their reputation.While Magnus Carlsen managed to pull out a win despite being outplayed in the opening, Caruana wasn't as fortunate and ended up conceding a draw. Vishy Anand went for the super solid Caro-Kann with the black pieces but that turned out to be a bit too solid to squeeze a win out. A report with games, pictures and analysis.

Sasikiran wins Bronze at 5th Asian Indoor Games

27/09/2017 -

Sasikiran Krishnan adds another feather to his cap by winning Bronze medal for India in 5th Asian Indoor Games 2017 in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan in the Standard format of the game. The gold medal went to Le Quang Liem, silver to Lu Shanglei and bronze to Sasi. In the women's section Indians didn't win a medal. It was two Chinese girls Tan Zhongyi and Lei Tingjie at the top followed by Dinara Saduakassova with the bronze medal. We have the final day games, pictures and standings in this report.

Isle of Man Chess: Random pairings adorn round one with interesting matchups

27/09/2017 -

While the final round of the Chess World Cup is in progress, another event featuring most of the bigwigs of the chess world took off yesterday in the Isle of Man. With a total prize fund of a whopping £133,000, the tournament has managed to attract 67 GMs including five of the world's current top ten players. What's more? The organisers of this event came up with an ingenious plan to spice up the first round. Instead of going by computer's pairings which goes as per players' tournament seeding, they went for random pairings using a tombola machine! Here's a report with games, pictures and analysis.

Asian Indoor Day two and three: Pouya shocks Ganguly

27/09/2017 -

The Asian Indoor games went underway on 20th September 2017 at Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. 12 Indian players are representing our country in different formats. To begin with we have the Standard individual format where four of our players are in action. Sasikiran and Ganguly in men and Vijayalakshmi and Sachdev in women. We have the day two and three report with pictures, games and all the information you need about the event. Thumbnail source: Ashgabat 2017 facebook page 

 

Why Vishy Anand should not retire!

27/09/2017 -

Experienced IM Lanka Ravi spoke to Times of India a few days ago that five-time World Champion Vishy Anand should retire. We, at ChessBase India, do not share the same opinion as the Andhra Pradesh IM. We asked our Facebook users to write why Vishy Anand should not retire, with the added incentive that the best ten comments would be featured in a news article and will be sent to Anand before his tournament in Isle of Man begins. As you can see from the thumbnail image for us Anand is an evergreen champion. We received a massive 153 comments. Here are the best ten we have selected.

100,000 views: ChessBase India Youtube Channel hits a new high!

24/09/2017 -

We all know how powerful Youtube is as a medium of not only information and entertainment, but also as a means of learning. The ChessBase India Youtube Channel started out small, but has grown massively in the last few days. The video of Bu Xiangzhi beating Magnus Carlsen has received 1,00,000 views and in the last 20 days the watch time on the channel has been more than 2 million minutes. Check out this article which gives you an idea about the type of content hosted by ChessBase India Youtube Channel. If you like it, we would be honoured to have you as a subscriber.

There's no stopping Anji (Lalith Babu!)

24/09/2017 -

After the third ChessBase India online prize money tournament held in collaboration with DBCA ended, we received the following message: "My son (9 yrs) participated (scored 2.5) had the experience to play with few opponents with FIDE rating >2300....that's great! For us who stay in small cities like Durgapur, (WB) where we rarely have big tournaments such initiatives in a regular basis will help to motivate young budding players." It's such feedback that keeps us going! The event was won by none other than Mr. Playchess - Lalith Babu (Anji) and he goes back home with Rs.12,500. Full report, with games and final standings.

India to host quadruple GM Tournaments at the turn of 2017!

24/09/2017 -

Chess is becoming an increasingly popular sport in India. Not only are Indian players doing amazingly well at international events, our organisers have also upped the ante and a significant rise in Grandmaster tournaments has been seen in the country. A hallmark of this is the fact that for the end of the year, four back to back Grandmaster tournaments have been lined up in the country! You heard it right, the months from December 2017 to January 2018 will be witnessing four International Grandmaster events in Bhopal, Mumbai, Delhi and Chennai. In this report, we have all details about the forthcoming Indian winter circuit tournaments along with a few tips on what one can expect from each of the tournament destinations as a tourist.  

Asian Indoor Day one: Tan Zhongyi beats Vijayalakshmi

24/09/2017 -

The Asian Indoor games will be held from 20th-27th September 2017 in Ashgabat, Turkmenistan. 12 Indian players are representing our country in different formats. To begin with we have the Standard individual format where four of our players are in action. Sasikiran and Ganguly in men and Vijayalakshmi and Sachdev in women. We have the round one report with pictures, games and all the information you need about the event. Thumbnail source: Ashgabat 2017 facebook page 

Nielsen on ten years of Mexico 2007: Gelfand joins Anand at the top

21/09/2017 -

Being steady at a tournament like World Championship in Mexico 2007 is extremely important. After winning a game with white, it is important not to let your momentum go and play solidly with black. Anand did just that. After a fine win against Svidler in round five from the white side of the Marshall, he drew Leko in the Mueller Ruy Lopez with black. After six rounds Anand had a score of +2. Meanwhile Gelfand beat Morozevich and joined Anand at the top. We have the photo of our legendary Vijay Kumar who has done a great service to Indian chess, by covering all the top class tournaments where Anand would take part.

Nielsen on 10 years of Mexico 2007: Svidler Marshalled by Anand (R05)

21/09/2017 -

Marshall Gambit was an opening that was in great popularity back in 2007. Almost all the top players played it and there were serious theoretical discussions on it. The opening has stood the test of time and it is not possible to refute it. However, Anand and Peter Heine Nielsen came up with this interesting plan of 13.g3! It put Svidler in a spot of bother. With some very creative manoeuvring like fianchettoing the knight and undeveloping the bishop, Anand was able to beat Svidler. With this he took sole lead in the Mexico World Championship 2007 with a score of 3.5/5.