FIDE Moscow GP: Moscow Semi-finals begin with two nervous, tense draws

24/05/2019 -

Nerves were on display on Thursday in the first games of the semifinals of the Moscow Grand Prix – the players in both games had winning chances when the games were stopped by mutual agreement. The first game to finish on Thursday was between Ian Nepomniachtchi of Russia and Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland. Arguably, that draw was the more curious of the two. The other game featured Hikaru Nakamura of the United States and Alexander Grischuk of Russia. The opening was a Giuoco Piano, which is Italian for “quiet game.” The opening usually features a lot of quiet maneuvering, but it can become very tactical if the center opens. Photo: World Chess

The participants of the ChessBase India Tour to the Catalan Circuit

23/05/2019 -

Have you always wanted to play in a tournament outside India but didn't feel confident about the logistics? Well, the ChessBase India Power group tour to the Catalan Circuit, is your perfect chance to plan tournaments outside India and also save money. How? A group tour manager will be looking after all your needs as you focus and give your 100% on the board. This year the circuit begins from the 24th of June 2019. In this article you will find the names of the participants who have already enrolled for the group tour. Sreeshwan Maralakshikari rated 2461 is one of them. You also have many other talented youngsters like Arhan Anand, Honi Arora, Tejes Kumar and others. There isn't much time left, so make your decision soon! 

12-year-old Sahithi Varshini gains 852 Elo points in 11 tournaments!

23/05/2019 -

Indian chess is blessed with a lot of talented youngsters. We have Nihal Sarin, Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh, Raunak Sadhwani, Prithu Gupta, Sreeshwan, Aditya Mittal and many more. But what about the girls? Well, Divya Deshmukh, born in 2005, is a big talent, who has crossed the Elo barrier of 2400. But who else? Vaishali, Akanksha, Tejaswini are all 17-18 years old. But there are two girls who are making it big and both of them are just 12 years old. Born in 2007, one of them is Savitha Shri from Chennai rated 2057 and the other is Sahithi Varshini from Visakhapatnam rated 2056. In this article we tell you more about Sahithi who has gained 852 Elo points in her last eleven tournaments.

Pranesh and Sarayu win National under-13 Open and Girls 2019

23/05/2019 -

Top seeds FM Pranesh M of Tamil Nadu and Velpula Sarayu of Telangana scored 9.0/11 each and won 33rd National Under-13 Championship in Open and Girls category respectively. Pranesh beat both Pranav V and Jubin Jimmy, who also scored 9.0/11 each. The reigning National Schools' under-13 champion Pranesh also won the National under-13 open emphatically. WCM Kriti Mayur Patel of Maharashtra also finished at 9.0/11, however Sarayu defeated her in round 7, thus she clinched the title. In the open section, top 3 seeds finished in their seeding order. Both Champions won a beautiful shining new trophy and ₹27000 cash each. The report contains photos and games from the tournament. Photo: Paul Arokia Raj

FIDE Moscow GP: Nakamura, Grischuk and Nepo join Wojtaszek in the semi-finals

23/05/2019 -

Three semifinalists were decided on Wednesday in the Moscow Grand Prix as Hikaru Nakamura of the United States and Ian Nepomniachtchi and Alexander Grischuk, both of Russia, advanced from the quarterfinals after prevailing in rapid tie-breaker games. They join Radoslaw Wojtaszek of Poland who won his quarterfinal match on Tuesday. In the semi-final Nakamura will face Grischuk and Nepomniachtchi will face Wojtaszek on Thursday. The format will be the same. First two classical games, in case of a tie then they will have to play tie-breakers in faster time control. Photo: Niki Riga/World Chess

Yu Yangyi vs Harikrishna teaches you secrets of queen vs pawn endgame

23/05/2019 -

Queen versus pawn on seventh rank endgames are pretty straight forward. You learn a few rules and you are all set to assess the result of any position. However, add one more pawn for the defending side and you will realize that the position has become extremely complicated. This is exactly what happened in the game between Yu Yangyi and Harikrishna in the fifth round of the Shenzhen Masters 2019. Harikrishna queened his pawn and Yu Yangyi pushed his pawn to the seventh rank. The endgame is extremely instructive and we analyze it in great depth for you in this article. After studying the analysis we are sure that your understanding of such endgames is bound to increase.

A ready guide to the products in the ChessBase India shop

22/05/2019 -

The ChessBase India mega mid-year sale will go on until midnight today. The ChessBase India shop has over 400 products and gives you a wide range of options for you to choose your favourite chess products. But sometimes it becomes difficult to find the exact product you need. Hence, in this article we have divided the products in the form of different openings and give you our recommendations. The sale will end at 23.59 hours on 22nd of May. There is still some time left, so have a look if you would like to get something at a subsidized cost to power your chess and become a stronger player.

FIDE Moscow GP: Wojtaszek is the first Semi-finalist

22/05/2019 -

Radoslaw Wojtaszek is the first player to advance to the semifinals of the Moscow Grand Prix after he beat Peter Svidler on Tuesday. The other semifinalists will be decided on Wednesday in playoffs as the rest of the quarterfinal matches ended in ties after all the games were drawn. All the games on the first day of the quarterfinals on Monday were drawn, so any victory Tuesday would clinch a match. Wojtaszek, who is from Poland, was the only player to break through against Peter Svidler who is from Russia. Photo: World Chess

Nihal Sarin beats Gukesh at the French League 2019

22/05/2019 -

One of the biggest chess leagues in the world is the French Top 12. And it is an excellent news for Indian fans that our youngsters are being invited to these league tournaments. At the French League Top 12 this year, we have five Indians participating. Pentala Harikrishna is playing for Asnieres - le Grand Echiquier on board two behind MVL. Nihal Sarin has signed up for the Philidor Mulhouse team. Cannes has fielded three Indians - Karthikeyan Murali, Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh. In round four an interesting match-up took place between Philidor Mulhouse and Cannes where Nihal Sarin was pitted against Gukesh. The more experienced player emerged victorious! We have the full game with annotations.

Talent test with 13-year-old Sreeshwan Maralakshikari

22/05/2019 -

Sreeshwan Maralakshikari was at the ChessBase India office on 19th of May 2019. The 13-year-old is rated 2461 and already has two IM norms. IM Sagar Shah decided to test the youngster by giving him 30 minutes to solve 13 test positions which he had handpicked from his database. Some of the positions were quite easy, some were quite tough. Also some positions revolved around tactical play while some were more positional in nature. Sreeshwan tackled most of them with ease. In some of them he did find difficulties, but that's quite natural when you the clock ticking and also the camera rolling. We now give you the 13 positions to solve in the form of diagrams so that you can test and compare your strength to Sreeshwan. After you have solved all 13 positions, you can have a look at the video in which the answers are revealed. 

Komodo 13 and the mega ChessBase India mid-year sale on 21st and 22nd of May

21/05/2019 -

This program thinks like no other chess engine in the world. Inspired by the ideas of AlphaZero and Leela, the authors set out to implement a "Monte Carlo Tree Search". The result: Komodo 13 MCTS – an engine which looks for candidate moves in an incredible new way, and finds moves no other engine can. It enhances the traditional brute force engine that has reached well over 3400 points on the Elo scale. The good news is that you can now get not just the latest Komodo 13, but all your favourite ChessBase products, as well as quality chess books and accessories at a huge discount. On 21st and 22nd of May for 36 hours, ChessBase India has launched the mid-year mega sale which offers you discount upto 25% and an additional discount coupon.

FIDE Moscow GP: Quarter-final begins with four draws

21/05/2019 -

The second round of the Moscow Grand Prix began with four draws on Monday, though there were several pitched battles. Since the Grand Prix is using a knockout format, all competitors will face each other on Tuesday in the second half of their mini-matches. If those games end in draws, then the players will proceed to faster tie-breaker games on Wednesday to decide who advances to the semifinals of the tournament. One feature of the quarterfinals of the Moscow Grand Prix is that there are four Russian players facing two American players, one from China and one from Poland. It has the same format, inadvertently, as the Russia vs. the World match in 2002 (and before that, the U.S.S.R. vs. the World matches in 1970 and 1984). Photo: World Chess

The Problemist Diary Part III - Understanding the Grimshaw

20/05/2019 -

In our previous articles we have discussed how every chess problem conceals a so-called "theme". A theme is understood to be a beautiful or artistic chess idea that is manifested in the play of the solution to the problem. Through a composition, a chess composer strives either to present an original theme or an original combination of themes already known in the most aesthetically pleasing way possible. Therefore, to be reasonably sure that he is actually inventing something new and not merely reworking prior art (or "anticipation", as we call it) a composer has to have a good grasp over problem nomenclature. A solver on the other hand can mostly do away with this formality, for him it is just the interplay between the pieces that is interesting. But nevertheless having a basic knowledge of certain motifs can really come in handy, sometimes a particular arrangement of pieces can immediately hint towards a particular theme, facilitating the discovery of the key far more quickly than otherwise.

FIDE Moscow GP Round 1 Playoff: Nakamura and So advance to the Quarter-finals

20/05/2019 -

Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So, the two Americans, beat Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan and Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland, respectively, in two-game rapid playoffs after their first-round matches had been tied in regulation. In both playoffs, Nakamura and So had White in the first games and won and then drew the second games in order to advance. They now join the other six players who had already qualified for the second round in mini-matches that will begin on Monday. The Quarter-finals match up will be four Russians will be facing the rest of the world to secure a spot for each of themselves at the Semi-finals. Photo: World Chess

Chess Coaching for Presidency Correctional Home inmates in Kolkata

19/05/2019 -

For the first time in Kolkata, West Bengal, a chess coaching program is launched for the inmates of Presidency Correctional Home. On 13th April 2019, a selection tournament had taken place between 40 inmates to determine which 20 of them will be trained by the various trainers of West Bengal. The facility has art and cultural programs among the inmates, football and kabaddi teams also. The correctional facility office had approached the governing body of chess in the state, Bengal Chess Association which they gladly accepted and Kolkata District Chess Association took the entire project. In this pictorial report, we will see what transpired things. Photo: Atin Sengupta

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