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World Juniors R3+4: Harsha Bharathakoti's magnificient day!

08/09/2018 -

India has a strong contingent at the World Junior 2018. We have four GMs representing our country - GM Karthikeyan Murali, Aravindh Chithambaram, Karthik Venkatraman and Abhimanyu Puranik. However, the star of the tournament so far has been IM Harsha Bharathakoti who has scored four points in four rounds and is clearly on track to achieving his GM title. Harsha already has three GM norms already and now needs just 10 Elo points to become 56th GM of India. On the third day of the World Juniors, which was a double round day, Harsha showed some high class chess to beat to strong GMs - Alan Pichot and S.L. Narayanan. In this report we have both the games lightly annotated as well as an interview with Harsha. You will also find the link to follow the live games, along with live commentary, where Harsha takes on Maghsoodloo in round five.

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Arvind Shastry & Yashas D. wins 17th BNCF-Akshayakalpa Grandprix Qualifier

07/09/2018 -

The 17th BNCF-Akshayakalpa Grandprix Final Qualifier was held on 26th Aug 2018 at BEL Officers Club, Jalahalli, Bengaluru. 2nd seeded Yashas D. edged out top seed Gahan M.G with a better tie-break score to emerge triumphant in category-A after both had finished with 6/6 points. In category-B, it was Karnataka State Chess Secretary and former state champion Arvind Shastry who won it with perfect 7/7 score. Below is a pictorial report sent to us by Hinduja Reddy.

The Petroff: dependable or dangerous?

07/09/2018 -

The placid outwardly appearance of the Petroff Defence could easily trick one into believing that he or she could use it to enjoy a quiet draw. It isn't unusual these days to see grandmaster games that drift into this line end in quick draws. But the Petroff has been around since the times of Greco and white players have found their fair share of traps, tactics and attacking opportunities in it. Even in some of the very recent games from master practice, black players have fallen prey to brilliant attacks. So, is the Petroff really as innocuous as advertised?

World Juniors 2018 Round 2: Karthikeyan, Aravindh, Harsha and Karthik on 2.0/2

07/09/2018 -

After two rounds of the World Junior Championships 2018 we have four Indian players who are on 2.0/2. They are GMs Aravindh Chithambaram, Karthikeyan Murali, Karthik Venkatraman and IM Harsha Bharathakoti. Abhimanyu Puranik, S.L. Narayanan, Nubairshah Shaikh are on 1.5/2. In the girls section we have Sakshi Chitlange, Ivana Maria Furtado and M. Mahalakshmi who are all on 1.5/2. The tournament is heating up and 7th of September will be double rounds. For now we bring you an interview with Karthikeyan Murali on how he was able to outplay his strong IM opponent from the black side of the two-knights Tango.

Live Games from the 29th National U-17 2018

06/09/2018 -

The 29th National U-17 Open & Girl's Chess Championship 2018 is being held from 3rd Sept to the 11th of Sept 2018 at Gateway Education, Sector 11 , Sonipat, Haryana. FM Mitrabha Guha 2376 of West Bengal and WFM Arpita Mukherjee 2207 of West Bengal are the top seeds of Open category and Girl's category respectively. On this page you can follow the live games of the round in progress and also replay the games of all the previous rounds. Also you get games lightly annotated by the tactical analysis feature.

World Juniors 2018 Round 1: Isha Sharma stuns WGM Hojjatova, Indians off to a good start

06/09/2018 -

The World Juniors is an extremely exciting tournament where some of the best junior players in the world of chess have gathered together in Gebze, Turkey from the 5th to the 16th of September 2018. The competition is stiff with the likes of Maghsoodloo, Van Foreest, Donchenko, Martirosyan, Esipenko, Firouzja and others participating. However, Indians are no less. Three of our GMs are extremely strong - Aravindh Chithambaram, Karthikeyan Murali and S.L. Narayanan. We also have Abhimanyu Puranik, Karthik Venkatraman, Harsha Bharathakoti and a few other strong players. In the girls section Sakshi Chitlange, Mahalakshmi lead the pack, but the surprise of day one was surely young Isha Sharma from Karnataka who won an excellent fighting game against the sixth seeded Aydan Hojjatova. Report from Turkey by IM Sagar Shah with photos by Amruta Mokal.

ACL 1st Super League 2018 review

05/09/2018 -

ACL 1st Super League 2018 concluded after 52 days of non-stop action in over 700+ games spanning across more than 350 players in over 50 different teams from various academies in India. The aim of the tournament was to make sure players get to play some high quality chess and coaches get some ready material to analyze and rectify the students' mistakes. So no prizes were announced until after the winner was decided. Each category winners received ChessBase products worth €200 (almost ₹16000) sponsored by ChessBase. Players took part from Oman, Sri Lanka, USA and India, from the comfort of their homes. We bring you some of the best games played in the entire tournament along with photos and feedback from the coordinators of the event.

Don't give up on your dreams, "Pursue your chess" scholarship is here!

05/09/2018 -

On this Teacher's Day, we come up with the third scholarship under The HelpChess initiative of the ChessBase India Foundation. A lot of people come close to their goal, they score their IM, WIM, GM, WGM norms, but are not able to make it to the title because of many problems. One of them is the lack of funds. With the "Pursue Your Chess" scholarship we would like to address this problem. This scholarship goes out for the people who have made one or more of their norms but are unable to reach their title. We want that such people should not give on their dream due to lack of finances. Rs.50,000 scholarship awaits you. 20th September is the last date to apply the form for the scholarship in this article. 

Diptayan Ghosh wins Gujarat-Goa Online Blitz 2018

05/09/2018 -

GM Diptayan Ghosh wins Gujarat-Goa ChessBase India Online Blitz Chess Tournament 2018. Diptayan scored 8.5/10 and finished half point ahead of a pack of four players who finished 8.0/10. They are GM Abhimanyu Puranik, Sankalp Gupta, GM Deepan Chakkravarthy and GM R Pragnnanandhaa. The tournament witnessed the participation of over 150 players including 10 GMs, 15 IMs and 3 WIMs. Over 700 games were played within a span of just over 90 minutes. For the first time the tournament was conducted from ChessBase's headquarters at Hamburg, Germany. Photo: Amruta Mokal

Batumi Chess Olympiad - Will India bring home its first gold?

04/09/2018 -

Although the World Chess Olympiad saw its inception in 1924 in Paris, it wasn't until its 1927 edition in London that the event got an official status. 16 teams participated in this first 'official' Olympiad and was won by Hungary. India's first appearance in the Olympiad was in 1978 in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Here, amid 31 other participating federations, India finished 15th. From 1978 till today, India's best result has been at the 2014 Chess Olympiad held in the northern Norwegian city of Tromso where the team had won the bronze medal. At the previous Olympiad in Baku, Azerbaijan, India came very close to a podium finish but had to settle for the fourth place in the end. This year, India is considered to be one of the strongest contenders for the title among the 184 participating federations. Can the team powered by Anand bring home its first gold? 

From one in 1987 to 55 in 2018!

04/09/2018 -

He travelled the path which no one else had. He became the first grandmaster of India on 3rd of September 1987 scoring his final GM norm at the Sakthi Finance tournament in Coimbatore. Vishy Anand is one of the greatest chess players that the world has ever seen, going on to become a five-time World Champion. Today, in 2018, India has 55 grandmasters and in the last two and a half years since ChessBase India began, the number of GMs has grown from 39 to 55! But back in 1987 we had none. Vishy Anand started it all and this article is a dedication to our great hero. It has the names and the photos of all fifty five GMs of India.

Soundarya Pradhan creates history by winning Silver at World Juniors 2018

02/09/2018 -

The Indian blind and visually impaired chess is on the rise. Odisha's Soundarya Kumar Pradhan won the silver medal at the World Juniors for the blind 2018 that was held at Solec Zdroj from 14th to the 23rd of August 2018. The boy from Odisha created history in Indian blind chess by finishing second. From a small village in Boden, Soundarya has come a long way to become one of the strongest visually impaired juniors in the world. Aryan Joshi had a fine event and scored 5.5/9 to finish sixth. In this article, Sagar Shah, the coach of the team, tells you the success story. Read on and be inspired.

Interview with 16-year-old IM Soham Das

02/09/2018 -

16-year old Soham Das became the latest IM of India when he secured his final IM norm at Šahovska Akademija Šampiona 2018 GM Tournament in Serbia. In this in-depth interview we talk about the rise of Soham, what challenge he faced on his path to success and how he overcame them and many more things. It also contains few of his best games annotated by him. Soham talks about how much important is to be both physically and mentally fit to do well in chess. This is the story of an underdog who was unable to perform well in tournaments due to his bad physical condition, he overcame all odds and triumphed. Photo: Soham Das

Make chess an Olympic sport say the top players of Indian chess

01/09/2018 -

To commemorate the birthday of legendary hockey player Major Dhyan Chand Singh who has brought three olympic medals for our country, National Sports Day is celebrated in India on 29th August every year. Dhyan Singh was known to practice and hone his skills for hockey under the moonlight. Hence, he was named Dhyan Chand. We chess players, aficionados and chess fans know that chess is a sport. But many argue otherwise because of the lack of physical activity involved. We asked several top players of India, as to why do they consider chess as a sport. Along with the explanation for the same Vidit, Adhiban, Sethuraman, Ganguly, Sandipan Chanda and Neelotpal Das, all grandmasters, have the same plea - make chess an Olympic sport.

Vila de Sitges 2018: Anuj Shrivatri finishes joint third!

31/08/2018 -

The Sitges International "Vila De Sitges" Chess Open is believed to be one of the most beautiful stops of the Catalan Chess Circuit. This year, the talk of the event was the performance of Anuj Shrivatri, a 14-year-old boy from Madhya Pradesh, India. Scoring 6.5/9, Anuj not only ascended his rating past the 2350 mark but also finished with a rating performance of 2481 and earned his first International Master norm! What's more, he also finished joint second in the tournament. After tiebreaks were applied, Anuj had taken the third spot on the leaderboard. Another Indian who impressed with his performance in Sitges was Abhishek Das. Abhishek also scored 6.5/9 and finished 6th in the final standings after the application of tiebreaks. The champion's trophy was lifted yet again by Azerbaijani GM Gadir Guseinov. With a score of 7.5/9, Guseinov remained a full point ahead of his nearest rival to complete his 'hat-trick' of title prizes at the Catalan circuit. Gifted with immense natural beauty, the town of Sitges made a perfect setting for the event and every participant enjoyed the tournament to the fullest.

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