India shines at the Western Asia Junior Championship 2018

03/12/2018 -

The Western Asia Junior Chess Championship was held from 16th November till 22nd November 2018 in the International Hotel Tashkent, Uzbekistan. There were 7 age categories for open and girls and more than 300 players from 11 western Asian countries took part in this grand event which had all the three format of the game. Our Indian players excelled in different categories and brought home 5 gold, 4 silver and 5 bronze medals from classical, rapid and blitz championship. In this report we bring you a pictorial report of the event with all the medal winners from India. It also includes annotated games by IM Nubairshah Shaikh who won a gold in the under-20 blitz.

Karthik Venkatraman on becoming India's 55th Grandmaster

02/12/2018 - Karthik Venkatraman became India's 55th grandmaster after a tumultuous run at the Spilimbergo Open held in August this year. Having played amazingly in the first seven rounds, Karthik suffered a major setback in round 8. He lost his first game of the event to Baadur  Jobava. The loss seemed to have done more damage than that of a point as Karthik's GM norm chances significantly diminished after this. In this interview, Karthik talks about his mindset during the tournament, his hectic tournament schedule and his ultimate aim as a chess player. | Thumbnail image: Gerhard Bertagnolli

Get Ready for Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival 2018!

01/12/2018 -

Sunway Sitges International Chess Festival is slated to be held in Sitges, Barcelona, Spain from the 13th to the 23rd of December 2018. The event boasts of being one of the strongest open events in the chess world, headlined this year by the Russian grandmaster, GM Dmitry Andreikin as the top seed and includes a long list of strong participants in the fray. Interesting participants include the brilliant Vassily Ivanchuk and prodigious Nihal Sarin and R. Praggnanandhaa. Read this curtain raiser by Rupali Mullick to find out more about this upcoming event.

Kishan Gangolli and Jennitha Anto - the golden warriors of Indian chess!

30/11/2018 -

Narendra Modi, as we all know, is a busy man. However, on 16th of October he took out time from his busy schedule and met 10 chess players! Why? Well, these are the heroes of Indian chess who won a medal for our country at the Asian Paragames that were held in Jakarta, Indonesia from the 7th to the 12th of October 2018. This was the first time that chess was included in the overall Asian Paragames. The medals won by our physically disabled and visually challenged players would go to increase India's overall medal tally. From 72 medals that India won at the games, nine of them came from chess. We won two golds, five silvers and two bronze. Jennitha Anto and Kishan Gangolli are the golden duo for Indian chess! Chief Arbiter of the event R. Ananthram has sent us a detailed report. 

National Juniors 2018 kicks off in Delhi

29/11/2018 -

The National Juniors is an extremely important tournament in the calendar year. Top three players from this event qualify for the World Juniors 2019 in both the open and girls section. Hence, one can imagine that this is a springboard to greater glory. In 2018 we had GM Abhimanyu Puranik who won the silver medal at the World Juniors and made the country proud. Hoping for the continuation of this tradition, this year's National Juniors are being held in Delhi from 28th of November to 6th of December. In the open section we have GM Karthik Venkatraman who is participating and is the top seed. Priyanka Nutakki is the top seed in the girls section. A short opening report by Jitendra Choudhary.

Carlsen retains his World Championship title!

28/11/2018 -

The classical portion of the match ended with a 6-6 tie. In the tiebreak Magnus Carlsen showed his superiority as he won three rapid games in a row to become the World Champion. Fabiano Caruana tried really hard and matched Magnus in the classical portion, but in the rapid, he couldn't really keep up. This is Carlsen's fourth World Championship title. The first one was against Anand in Chennai, the second one against Anand in Russia, the third one against Karjakin in USA and now against Caruana in London. Magnus will turn 28 years old in two days from now and he has already been a World Champion for five years! What a champion!

ACL Challengers League 2018: RKCA and TCW cause major upsets in round 4

27/11/2018 -

Maestro Chess Academy Attackers and Royal Knight Chess Academy are the sole leaders in ACL Challengers League 2018 at the conclusion of round 4 in unrated and rated category respectively. Round 4 witnessed some major upsets as Royal Knight Chess Academy defeated d'pawn Chess Academy and Telugu Chess Warriors defeated Intermezzo 3-1 each respectively. RKCA maintained their lead, while Intermezzo slipped to the second position. In the unrated section, MCAA maintained their dominance as the sole leader by drawing with CCCB. This report contains the best games of round 4 and photos. Photo: RKCA/TCW

National Women's Championship: Bhakti Kulkarni clinches title in dramatic finale

26/11/2018 -

The final round of the National Women's Chess Championship was a dramatic affair. Overnight leader, Mary Ann Gomes suffered a sudden collapse as she blundered a full rook in an equal position. Bhakti Kulkarni, who was half a point behind, magically saved her game where she was a full piece down. In the end, both Mary and Bhakti were tied for first and it wasn't until tiebreaks were applied that Bhakti was declared the 2018 National Women's Champion.

Will we have a new World Champion today?

26/11/2018 -

Game 11 was perhaps the most boring game of the entire match where Caruana with the black pieces went for the Petroff and Carlsen was just unable to find anything against it. The game ended in a draw without any real fight. We had analyzed the game with Praggnanandhaa and Ramesh and you will find the video in this report along with analysis by GM Boris Gelfand. The real crucial game 12 will begin in a hours from now and we have a very special guest - GM B. Adhiban who will be analyzing the battle for us live! There is a real chance that we could have a new World Champion today if Caruana wins his game. Carlsen retains the title if he beats Caruana and we go into the tiebreaks if the game ends in a draw.

16-year old Tarun holds Laxman to a draw in Playchess Simul

26/11/2018 -

16-year old Tarun V Kanth of Tamil Nadu holds GM R R Laxman to a draw in Playchess simul on saturday 24th November with 35 mins + 10 seconds time control. For the first time ever, ChessBase India organized a simultaneous event by GM R R Laxman at Playchess servers against six players across the nation. Laxman faced no difficulty defeating the five other players. The uniqueness about this event is, all players were given an opportunity to talk with Laxman over a phone call where they discussed various ideas, variations and missed chances which had arisen in their respective games. In this report, you will find all six games as well as the players who participated in this simultaneous event. Photo: Prashant Mullick/Amruta Mokal

National Women's Championship: Mary Ann Gomes inches closer to the title beating Meenakshi Subbaraman

25/11/2018 -

The penultimate round of the National Women's Championship saw Mary Ann Gomes of PSPB emerge as the clear leader. On the top board, Mary defeated Meenakshi Subbaraman to take sole lead while her co-leader, Mahalakshmi M, tripped and lost with black against Saranya J. After her previous round loss, Bhakti Kulkarni made a strong comeback beating Michelle Catherina and retained her sole second place. As the tournament reaches its final round, Bhakti is hot on Mary's heels, just half a point behind. Round 10 report.

World class chess photographer David Llada turns 40

25/11/2018 -

Chess photography has the power to take our sport to the next level. A good picture shows the emotions, the strain on the mind, the ecstasy of finding a hidden idea, and conveys to the viewer how interesting chess is. One person who has been working ceaselessly to promote the game of chess by capturing fantastic pictures is David Llada. David is considered by everyone in the chess world as one of the best photographers. He has been an official photographer in countless events and his pictures have ensured that the tournaments where he is present reaches millions of people across the world. This article is a dedication to the man who has devoted his life to popularize the game of chess. As David turned 40 a couple of days ago, we asked some of his colleagues, famous photographers in world of chess, what they thought about David's skills and their favourite pictures captured by him. 

National Women's Championship: Mary defeats Bhakti to take over the tournament lead

24/11/2018 -

Leaders changed once again in the ninth round of the Women's National Championship. At the conclusion of the antepenultimate round, Air India's Bhakti Kulkarni was toppled off her top spot by Mary Ann Gomes of PSPB in the premier matchup of the round. Mahalakshmi M was another player to join into the tournament lead as she defeated Michelle Catherina. After her loss, Bhakti has slipped down to the third spot behind Gomes and Mahalakshmi while Michelle shares the fourth place with six others. Round 9 report.

Amonatov, Martirosyan, Idani, Nihal, Pragg! What a mouth watering blitz event!

24/11/2018 -

Triple C Chess Club will organize perhaps the strongest titled online blitz tournament of 2018 on Playchess. The tournament will feature 10 titled players including 7 GMs and 3 IMs. Tajikistan no.1 Farrukh Amonatov will be the top seed, followed by former European Youth Champion GM Haik Martirosyan. Iranian no.3 Idani Pouya will be the 3rd seed. India's very own Nihal Sarin and Praggnanandhaa will also be seen in action. Debashis Das, Lucas van Foreest, Rakesh Kumar Jena and Anwesh Upadhyaya will join the rest. Padmini Rout will be the only female participant of the tournament. The players will engage in a single round robin event.

National Women's Championship: Bhakti Kulkarni takes sole lead

23/11/2018 -

The eighth round of the Women's National Chess Championship saw another sole leader emerge. Of the three overnight leaders, only Bhakti Kulkarni was able to keep her tournament lead going. Defeating WGM Swati Ghate in the eighth round, Bhakti sped past her co-leaders, Mary Ann Gomes and Mahalakshmi M, who agreed to an insipid draw against each other. At the conclusion of the round, Mary and Mahalakshmi were joined in the second place by Michelle Catherina P, who scored a fantastic win over the tournament's top seed, IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman. Bommini Mounika Akshaya also scored an upset on board 8 beating Kiran Manisha Mohanty. Round 8 report.