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Nihal beats Carlsen for the very first time in a Blitz game

29/05/2020 -

Due to Covid-19 pandemic all over-the-board tournaments have either been cancelled or postponed. However Chess is such a sport that can still be played online without huge modifications, in fact slim to none would be the right thing to say. Thanks to various online platforms, players from all over the world can play against their favorites at the champion's convenience. You just have to pick your poison, know who is going to play when and where, if you show enough grit, who knows you might get to play against your favorites from the comfort of your home. On May 27th, Nihal Sarin sent a challenge to the World no.1 during his banter blitz session and guess what? Nihal beat Carlsen for the very first time in an online blitz match. Photo: Amruta Mokal

The secret chess database

What is a very powerful way to do your opening preparation? Enter the world of Correspondence Database 2020. This is a database of 1.6 million games played in correspondence chess which can give you some amazing ideas which your over the board opponents would not be aware of! Check more details.

Get the Correspondence Database 2020

Mitrabha Guha wins Buddhibal Kreeda Trust Fischer Random Online Blitz Open

28/05/2020 -

Babysnake (IM Mitrabha Guha) scored an unbeaten 8.0/9 to win Buddhibal Kreeda Trust Fischer Random Online Blitz Open. He fought against all odds and won ₹11000 cash for his efforts. Peruvian IM Terry Renato, GM Raunak Sadhwani and IM Aronyak Ghosh, three players finished at 7.5/9, they were placed second, third and fourth respectively according to their tie-break scores. The tournament witnessed the participation of 30 GMs, 23 IMs, 3 WGMs and 5 WIMs from all across countries across the world including India. This was the third ever Fischer Random event hosted by ChessBase India on Playchess and it was the champion's first ever Chess960 in his career. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Maharashtra Chess Association organizes Letsup presents Blitz GP 2020

28/05/2020 -

Maharashtra Chess Association organizes LetsUp presents Blitz Grand Prix 2020 starting from 3rd June 2020. Every Wednesday from 3rd June to 1st July 2020 Blitz GP Open will take place at 8 p.m. IST on Playchess. The entire event will have a total prize fund of ₹155000. Each event in the GP will have a total prize fund of ₹25000 and additional top five finishers of the GP will receive a total of ₹30000. The tournament is Open to everyone all across the world. Entry is FREE for GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs. Entry fee for each tournament is ₹250, if you register for all five events then entry fee is ₹1000. Registration is now Open. Photo: Maharashtra Chess Association

Singapore vs Kazakhstan Age Group Battle

27/05/2020 -

GM Kevin Goh from Singapore wanted to help in the fight against the invisible warrior - the Coronavirus. Kevin recently ended Singapore's drought of being GM-less for 21 years. As a GM and the leading player of the country he took it upon himself to raise funds during this difficult period. This is what inspired the continuous series of online chess events, titled #ChessAgainstCovid, with different 'modes'. Players were invited to Bughouse chess, Fischer Random (Chess 960), GM Simul and more! And the result? The events are still going on and #ChessagainstCovid has managed to raise a massive S$82,324 SGD (44 lakh rupees) of the total 100,000 SGD. In this article we tell you about the Singapore vs Kazakhstan friendly youth match

Champions Combat Corona - Samriddhaa Ghosh

27/05/2020 -

To find out how the champions are dealing with the global pandemic Covid-19, we decided to start a new series titled Champions Combat Corona where the current National Champions talk about how they are coping with the unprecedented adversity. In this article, the current WB State and National Under-17 Girls champion Samriddhaa Ghosh of Kolkata, talks about how she is spending her lockdown days. How she is making the most out of this pandemic, she had plans to play tournaments throughout the year but now she has to confine herself in online events only. She is also a bibliophile and she also found a new love towards Rabindra Sangeet. We also take a look at one of her online Blitz game win against IM Ravi Teja. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

A theory on Theories

27/05/2020 -

India's 33rd GM Vishnu Prasanna is a prolific trainer. He has trained World's second youngest GM in history GM Gukesh D and also worked with GM Adhiban B, he is also training with GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly. He launched his new official website on 1st May 2020. The website has all the information about Vishnu and it is rich with features. One of the feature of the site is blog where Vishnu himself discusses various themes about chess. In his third blog post, he talks about theories. We all know that we must learn theories in chess to improve the understanding of the game. However he also mentions the fact that there is no single theory for every position in chess. Photo: Unknown

Komodo 14 is here! Pre-Order now

26/05/2020 -

ChessBase brings you Komodo Chess 14 inspired by AlphaZero, the double world champion is now available for pre-order. Get 10% discount if you pre-order it by 23:59:59 on 26th May 2020. The product releases tomorrow 27th May. Komodo 14 is 40 Elo points stronger than its predecessor and it is the 2019 World Chess Computer Champion and also 2019 World Chess Software Champion. That's not all, Komodo 14 comes with six months ChessBase Premium Account which can be used on any platform. Komodo has already set benchmarks with its innovative approach with MCTS (Monte Carlo Tree Search). So hurry up, pre-order now.

Rs.34,000 Online Blitz event with no entry fee by Kings' Chess Academy

25/05/2020 -

Kings' Chess Academy - Hyderabad presents 6th Seshamma Memorial Online Blitz Open on 30th May at 8 p.m. IST. The Total Prize fund is ₹34000 including the first prize of ₹10000. The best thing about this tournament is entry is FREE. That's right, irrespective of your title, rating or location, you don't have to pay anything to take part in this tournament. So what's the catch? The catch is simple all interested players must register by filling up the form. That's it. Entry will not be accepted by any other means. When is the last date? Anytime which means as soon as we reach 500 registrations, entry will close. So hurry up, register first and think later. Photo: Kings' Chess Academy

Last chance to be a part of the FIDE Online Trainers Seminar taking place from 29th to 31st May

25/05/2020 -

The FIDE online trainers seminar in cooperation with ChessBase India will be held from the 29th to the 31st of May 2020. It is your chance to not just become a certified FIDE trainer as you will be granted a title, but you will also receive training by some of the best trainers in the world like Yusupov, Sokolov, Yu Shaoteng, Motylev, Dejan Bojkov and Thomas Luther. The last date for registration is 26th of May 2020. In this article we not only provide you will all the details to register but also provide you some of the answers to Frequently asked questions by the participants. 

Fischer Random Chess scene 23 years ago

25/05/2020 -

Chess has multitude of variants. While most of them are fun - Bughouse being one of the most popular among them, among the serious variants - Fischer Random and Basque chess are the only two variants which gained a lot of traction. Fischer Random or Chess 960 is undoubtedly the most popular and widely accepted chess variants which is played at the top level too. Last year FIDE crowned the first ever Fischer Random World Champion in the form of Wesley So. Couple of days ago we hosted Buddhibal Kreeda Trust Online Blitz Open which was won by IM Mitrabha Guha, but what was the Fischer Random scene over two decades ago? Let's take a look at an article which was published in The Telegraph - an English daily newspaper 23 years ago. Photo: Icelandic Chess Federation

How the Indian stand-up comedians are popularizing the game of chess

24/05/2020 -

Chess has become the most popular sport in this lockdown. The main reason is that the game doesn't lose its essence when you play it online. Apart from the ease of playing, there is also one more reason why chess has started to get followers who hitherto thought that the game was not so interesting. And that reason is stand-up comedians of India led by Samay Raina. Samay is a stand-up comedian and also a chess lover. He began streaming about chess on his YouTube channel around two months ago and now has inspired thousands of people across the globe to take up the sport. How did he do that? We interview Samay and his friends and get to know how it all began!

The "Tender Therapy Scholarship" of Rs.1,08,000

22/05/2020 -

The ChessBase India Foundation has worked tirelessly since it's launch in June 2018 for the benefit of the Indian chess community. One of the forms in which we have been able to help is through the scholarships, aimed at talents that need the monetary boost to reach soaring heights. Tender Theraphy founder Rekha Nahar, a global play-therapist and qualified counselor, contributed a sum of Rs.1,08,000. The scholarship is eligible for all chess players out there with the determination to improve and love for the game. Linked below is the Google Form and other tips you can follow to have the best chances. Know more about the scholarship, the lady behind this noble deed, and the creativity that went into it!

Rs.35,000 Fischer Random event by Buddhibal Kreeda Trust on 23rd of May 2020

21/05/2020 -

Buddhibal Kreeda Trust (BKT) under the mentorship of Prakash Kunte (father of GM Abhijit Kunte and WIM Mrunalini Kunte) has organized over 150 tournaments. After having a successful online event last month, they are be back with a prize fund of ₹35000, only this time it will be a Fischer Random (Chess960) tournament having the first prize of ₹11000. With special rating category prizes and prizes for women, it's a tournament you cannot afford to miss. It will take place on Saturday 23rd of May at 8 p.m. IST in Chess960 Tournaments under Thematic Chess room on Playchess. Entry is FREE for GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs. For everyone else Entry fee is ₹300. Registration is on.

GM Karthikeyan Murali on balancing chess and academics

21/05/2020 -

At the age of 16 Karthikeyan Murali became the national champion of India. A title that he defended next year! He has already been two time World Youth champion and has a current rating of 2600+! Apart from these achievements, he is a well-known chess solver and his battle against Firouzja from Asian Championships 2019 is deemed as one of the greatest queen sacrifices in the history of the game. It is clear that Karthi is an overachiever when it comes to chess. But what about academics? How did Karthikeyan do in his 10th and 12th grade exams? Turns out he scored more than 95% in both these exams! How did Karthikeyan manage to do it? In this article he tells us his recipe of success!

Champions Combat Corona - Aradhya Garg

20/05/2020 -

To find out how the champions are dealing with the global pandemic Covid-19, we decided to start a new series titled Champions Combat Corona where the current National Champions talks about how they are coping with the unprecedented adversity. In this article, the current National Junior (Under-19) Open champion Aradhya Garg of Delhi, talks about how he is spending his lockdown days. How he was wishing that the pandemic wouldn't reach India, playing online tournaments regularly, reading various books as well as enriching himself to explore his philosophical side. We also take a look at one of his online Blitz game win against IM Harshit Raja. Photo: Amruta Mokal