Tata Steel 2025 R1: Gukesh wins his first game after becoming World Champion, Harikrishna outplays Arjun

19/01/2025 -

D Gukesh landed in Amsterdam at about 9 a.m. He had his first game after becoming World Champion against Anish Giri (NED), the winner of the 85th edition, in the first round at 2 p.m. The World Champion and 45th Olympiad double Gold medalist, complicated things when he realized that his opponent was blitzing out his moves. Soon Gukesh landed in a losing position. However, he persevered. In the end, it was his opponent who made the final mistake and Gukesh won the game. Arjun Erigaisi also wanted to complicate things against Pentala Harikrishna. However, Harikrishna spotted a nice tactic which brought him to an endgame where only he can push for a win. R Praggnanandhaa had a hard-fought draw against Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB). GM R Vaishali made a winning start against the youngest player of the event, IM Faustino Oro (ARG). Round 2 starts today at 2 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST for both Masters and Challengers section. Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit/Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2025

AICF awards Gukesh ₹1 Crore, Humpy receives ₹50 lacs

18/01/2025 -

On 16th January 2025, the 18th World Champion - GM D Gukesh and World Rapid Women 2024 Champion - GM Koneru Humpy were felicitated by All India Chess Federation. Gukesh received ₹1 Crore (₹10000000 / ≈ US$115512). Humpy received ₹50 Lacs (₹5000000 / ≈ US$57756). GM R Vaishali got ₹20 Lacs (₹2000000 / ≈ US$23102) for winning Bronze at World Blitz Women 2024. Vaishali was not present as she had to travel for Tata Steel Chess 2025 Challengers tournament. AICF hosted the felicitation ceremony at The Lalit in New Delhi. Check out photos and highlights of the event. Photo: AICF

Anish Giri will face D Gukesh in the first round of 87th Tata Steel Chess 2025

18/01/2025 -

The first major chess event of the year 2025 is 87th Tata Steel Chess. Seven Indians - five in Masters and two in Challengers will be seen in action. More eyes will be on the newly crowned world champion - GM D Gukesh, than ever before. This will be his first tournament since he became the 18th world champion. He will be competing against his Gold medal winning teammates - Arjun Erigaisi, R Praggnanandhaa, Pentala Harikrishna and also his second Vincent Keymer. The reigning World Junior Girls champion - IM Divya Deshmukh will be making her second consecutive appearance. Divya's Gold medal winning teammate, GM R Vaishali will also be in action in the Challengers. Speaking of Challengers, the winner of last year - Leon Luke Mendonca will be making his Masters debut. Round 1 starts today at 2 p.m. local time, 6:30 p.m. IST for both Masters and Challengers section. Photo: Jeroen Van Den Berg

3rd Goa GM R8: Semetei Tologon Tegin emerges sole leader

18/01/2025 -

IM Semetei Tologon Tegin (KGZ) defeated GM Alexei Fedorov to emerge sole leader 7/8 at Late Shri Manohar Parrikar Goa International GM Tournament 2025. IM Alexander Slizhevsky and IM Aronyak Ghosh signed a 19-move draw. IM Srihari L R and GM Diptayan Ghosh shared the point after 17 moves. GM Sethurama S P defeated GM Sayantan Das to stay in the hunt 6.5/7. IM Ayush Sharma scored a fine victory over GM Mitrabha Guha. Ayush moved to 6.5/7. He will face the leader, Semetei in the penultimate round. FM Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi held GM Boris Savchenko to a draw. IM Sammed Jaykumar Shete got the better of GM P Karthikeyan. Round 9 starts today at 10 a.m. IST. Photo: IA NI Vivek Sohani

13th National Schools Chess Championship kicks off in Peddapuram

18/01/2025 -

The 13th National Schools Chess Championship 2024 started off yesterday, 17th January at the Sri Prakash Synergy School in Peddapuram, Andhra Pradesh. The tournament kicked off with a grand opening ceremony in the auditorium, followed by 2 rounds of classical chess in 12 different age categories! 1200+ players are taking part in this tournament, which makes this one of the biggest National Chess tournaments. 7 more rounds are remaining to crown the Champion in all the different sections. Check out all that happened in Day one of the National Schools Chess 2025 below. | Photos: Aditya Sur Roy, Himank Ghosh

Gukesh receives Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award, Arjuna Award for Vantika Agrawal

17/01/2025 -

D Gukesh became the 18th World Chess Champion by defeating Ding Liren (CHN). He is also the youngest world champion determined in a match format. After, Vishy Anand, Gukesh became the second Indian to become a World Champion. Before that, he also won double Gold at 45th Chess Olympiad in Budapest, Hungary. IM Vantika Agrawal won double Gold at 45th Chess Olympiad Women. Both Gukesh and Vantika won individual and team Gold. Vantika also won a Team Silver medal at 19th Asian Games 2022 held in China in 2023. Gukesh was conferred with Major Dhyan Chand Khel Ratna Award 2024. Vantika received Arjuna Award 2024. Photo: President of India twitter

Anish Gandhi dominates Bhilwara Rating Open 2024

17/01/2025 -

CM Anish Gandhi scored an unbeaten 8.5/9 to win Bhilwara Rating Open 2024. He finished a full point ahead of the competition. Saikat Nath scored sole 7.5/9 to secure second place. Seven players scored 7/9 each. Out of them, Aman Balana secured third place. However, he won the Best Below 1799 prize. Rewansh Vaidya won the overall third prize. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹600000. The top three prizes were ₹75000, ₹50000 and ₹30000 along with a trophy each respectively. The six-day nine-round Swiss league rating tournament was organized by District Chess Association Bhilwara at Sri Mahesh Vatika in Bhilwara, Rajasthan from 24th to 29th December 2024. This is Anish's second overall and sole rating tournament triumph in 2024. Photo: Ajay Kumar Gupta / District Chess Association, Bhilwara

Vishy Anand and D Gukesh in a new Myntra FWD ad

17/01/2025 -

On 16th January 2025, fwd by Myntra released an 80 second ad featuring Vishy Anand and D Gukesh. An ad featuring two world champions from India is undoubtedly the most talked about thing on the internet among the chess universe. This is the first time ever Anand and Gukesh have appeared in a commercial motion advertisement. It is also the 18th world champion, Gukesh's commercial motion ad debut. Ever since the maestro became less active on the board, we got to see the humane side of him off the board in various aspects. CRED and Subway are the two ads which vividly come to mind. The fwd by Myntra ad is definitely fun and a must-watch for all. Have you seen it yet? Photo: fwd by Myntra

3rd Goa GM R6-7: Slizhevsky, Semetei and Fedorov in a three-way lead

17/01/2025 -

GM Alexei Fedorov joined IM Alexander Slizhevsky and IM Semetei Tologon Tegin (KGZ) in a three-way lead at Late Shri Manohar Parrikar Goa International GM Tournament 2025 after Round 7. The coleaders - Slizhevsky and Semetei drew their game against each other in Round 6. Fedorov defeated FM Quoc Hy Nguyen (VIE) in Round 7 to make it a three-way 6/7. Eight Indians are currently trailing the leaders by a half point at 5.5/7 each. Nithin Babu is the sole untitled player among them. He drew with IM Ethan Vaz and beat GM Deepan Chakkravarthy in consecutive rounds. Round 8 starts today at 10 a.m. IST. Photo: IA NI Vivek Sohani

13th National Schools Chess Championship 2025 Preview

16/01/2025 - The 13th edition of National Schools Chess Championship will take place from 17th to 21st January 2025. A total of 1214 children have registered in six different age groups - Under-7, 9, 11, 13, 15 and 17. The tournament is organized by Andhra Chess Association at Sri Prakash Synergy School, Peddapuram, Andhra Pradesh. The total prize fund is ₹504000. The top three prizes in each category is ₹10000, ₹7000 and ₹6000 each respectively. As many as 14 different champions will be crowned in the next days. Adithya A Chullikad (2166, KAR) will be the highest rated player of the event playing in the U-17 Open category. Photos: Himank Ghosh, Aditya Sur Roy, Ravindra Potawad, Tournament Circular

Fundraising tournament to support Tymek Kalata's battle with DMD

16/01/2025 -

13-year-old Tymoteusz Kalata from Poland has been fighting Duchenne muscular dystrophy (DMD) since he was six months old. Despite the struggles this condition brings, his love for chess has remained unaffected. However, due to the high costs of his medical treatment, Tymek’s family is reaching out for support from the chess community. A chess tournament will be organized in Warsaw, Poland to raise funds for his treatment. Read the article to learn more about how you can join the tournament or donate to support Tymek’s fight. Photo: Dominik Kosiorek

Back-to-back Hanoi GM-IM-FM Tournaments kick-start 2025

16/01/2025 -

FM Dang Hoang Son (VIE) scored 6/9 to win Hanoi GM 1 Round-Robin 2025, earn his final IM-norm and become Vietnam's latest International Master. After a 2/2 start, he lost the next two games. However, he managed to bounce back by scoring an unbeaten 4/5 in the second half of the tournament to fulfill his third IM-norm requirements and earn the title too. Two days after the conclusion of GM 1, he played IM 2 and won that event scoring 7/10. This was the eleventh edition of the series, organized by Vietnam Chess Federation with the Hanoi Department of Culture and Sports and IA GM Bui Vinh with his Future Grandmaster Chess Club. FM FT IA Peter Long writes about the tournaments and shares beautiful photographs captured by him too.

Atharva Madkar amazing at 3rd Goa GM Category B Below 2000 Rating Tournament 2025

16/01/2025 -

Atharva Madkar scored an unbeaten 8.5/10 to win Late Shri Manohar Parrikar 3rd Goa GM Category B Below 2000 Rating Tournament 2025. He finished a half point ahead of the rest. Seven players scored 8/10 each. Michael Ashwinth and Rudra S Pathak secured second and third place respectively according to tie-breaks. The total prize fund of the tournament was ₹1500000. The top three prizes were ₹175000, ₹135000 and ₹100000 along with a trophy each respectively. The four-day ten-round Swiss league rating tournament was organized by Goa Chess Association at Dr. Shyama Prasad Mukherjee Indoor Stadium in Panaji, Goa from 11th to 14th January 2025. This is Atharva's second consecutive rating tournament triumph in 2025. Photo: IA NI Vivek Sohani

How a 12-year-old demystified Tal

15/01/2025 -

It happened during a training session we arranged for three young talents in the ChessBase office. It was conducted by Dr. Karsten Müller, who is a leading endgame expert. Some time later, Karsten wrote an article in the (German language) Chess Calendar describing how the pre-teen Dommaraju Gukesh refuted a Tal brilliancy by the legendary Mikhail Tal. Here's an English translation of Karsten's article. Photo: ChessBase

Indian Chess Masters West Zone Qualifiers to take place on 16th and 17th January 2025

15/01/2025 -

SOG Grandmasters Series - Indian Chess Masters West Zone Qualifiers will take place on 16th and 17th January 2025. The tournament is only for people residing in West Zone of India - Maharashtra, Goa, Gujarat, Daman & Diu and Dadra and Nagar Haveli. Other zone qualifier exact dates will be announced later. The total prize fund is ₹700000. Last date of registration has been extended to 12 p.m. IST on 16th January 2025. Venue details will be shared with the shortlisted participants. Entry is FREE for all. The tournament will take place on the online chess platform - Tornelo. Check out the article to find out all details about the tournament. Photo: Indian Chess Masters