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GCT Finals: Advantage Ding, Carlsen's streak is still alive

08/12/2019 -

Ding Liren beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in their second Classical match in the finals, taking an enormous six-point lead. Now they will play two rapid and two blitz games where a win in rapid nets a player four points, a win in blitz means two points. Maxime has a lot of catching up to do if he wants to win Grand Chess Tour 2019. Meanwhile, for the first time in a long while, Carlsen's unbeaten streak of 106 games in Classical format came in serious jeopardy as Aronian got a winning position. When the entire world was wondering if the streak will end, Aronian kept blundering and squandering his chances and the game ended up in a draw. Aronian should be applauded for bringing Carlsen's undefeated streak almost to an end despite not being 100%. Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

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Vishy's December #06: The Anand Files

08/12/2019 -

With Anand's 50th birthday coming up, we are seeing the release of two high quality books on the Indian chess legend. The first one is an autobiography written by Vishy Anand himself - it's called the Mind Master and will be released on 13th of December. The other book is called "The Anand Files". It's already released and it deals with Vishy's three World Championship Matches victory in 2008, 2010 and 2012. In this article we interview with the author of the book - FM Michiel Abeln. This December, ChessBase India is celebrating the month as Vishy's December in honour of the Indian chess legend Vishy Anand turning 50 years old. If you have a story, experience or an anecdote related to Anand which you would like to share with the chess world, you can send it to us at chessbaseindia@gmail.com.  

Monaco GP: Goryachkina misses a chance to catch up with Humpy

08/12/2019 -

Humpy had a quiet draw with Kateryna Lagno to maintain her sole lead. Pia Cramling had an uneventful draw with Nana Dzagnidze. Goryachkina missed a win against Paehtz, thus missing the opportunity to join Humpy in the lead. Harika beat Gunina after the latter blundered in the endgame. Anna Muzychuk missed an initiative in the opening against Kosteniuk and later made an exchange sacrifice which eventually turned out incorrect and she lost the game. Zhao Xue missed a win against Mariya in time pressure. Five players Pia Cramling, Nana Dzagnidze, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Harika Dronavalli and Alexandra Kosteniuk are at 3.0/5, a half point behind the leader Humpy, going into the final round before the rest day. Photo: Karol Bartnik / FIDE

Mayank Chakraborty - 'The Awesome Kid' from Assam

07/12/2019 -

10-year-old Mayank Chakraborty of Guwahati, Assam won his maiden National title by winning National under-11 open in New Delhi last month. In just over a week, he finished tied first, second place at National Schools under-10 open. Earlier this year he won Silver in Asian Youth under-10 open, few months later he won Gold and Bronze medal at Western Asia Youth and Junior. How did this boy do all that? By self learning, studying from various ChessBase videos, DVDs, youtube videos etc. For more than a year, he did not even have a single chess coach to guide him. Get to know more about this amazing kid from Assam in an interview where he also shares a few of his annotated games from National under-11 open and National Schools. Photo: IA Jitendra Choudhary

Over 50 Indians are competing at the Elllobregat Open 2019 in Spain

07/12/2019 -

The first Elllobregat Open 2019 has commenced from the 3rd of this month and will continue till the 11th. The grand, week-long event, that is going to disburse a total of 21,490 Euro (about 16,90,000 Rupees) as prizes is seeing a phenomenal participation of more than fifty Indians this year. The tournament has found eight leaders after four rounds who have scored 3.5/4 points each and following them closely is a pack of eighteen players who are just half a point behind with 3.0/4 each. Read this article to know how the Indian players are faring so far in the competition.

GCT Finals: MVL escapes with a draw, Carlsen wins

07/12/2019 -

In the first final match between Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Ding Liren, MVL got into deep trouble when he reached to a completely lost Queen endgame. However, Ding misplayed and allowed MVL to promote another Queen which made the game finish with four queens on the board and none getting the winning opportunity. For the third place match, Carlsen defeated Aronian without any difficulty after the latter couldn't manage to find compensation and equalize in time pressure after he sacrificed a pawn to open things up. All four of them will play their next classical match with reversed colors today at 7:30 p.m. IST (two hours before yesterday's scheduled time). Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Monaco GP: Humpy escapes with a draw

07/12/2019 -

Tournament leader Humpy maintained her sole lead after surviving quite a few missed opportunities by her opponent Nana Dzagnidze. Anna Muzychuk arguably had the most interesting game of the round against Kateryna Lagno after almost a five-hour long game. Pia Cramling finally managed to convert advantage into a victory after her opponent Elisabeth Paehtz blundered and made a few inaccuracies under time pressure. Valentina Gunina's tough luck at the tournament continues as this time she made a huge error in the opening against Zhao Xue after which she could not recover for the rest of the game. Goryachkina beat Harika, after the latter made a wrong exchange which resulted in an isolated pawn and advanced king for her opponent. Kosteniuk and Mariya Muzychuk made a grandmaster draw in just 23 moves. Photo: Karol Bartnik / FIDE

Praggnanandhaa wins the London Chess Classic FIDE Open 2019

07/12/2019 -

2019 has been a special year for R. Praggnanandhaa. He won the super strong Xtracon Open in Denmark, he became the World Youth Champion under-18, he crossed the live rating of 2600 and now has become the London Chess Classic FIDE Open 2019 champion! More good news? He is not yet finished for the year! He will be taking part in the Sunway Sitges Open 2019 beginning from the 13th of December. Pragg finished the London Chess Classic with a score of 7.5/9 and a rating performance of 2699. He was joined at the top by Anton Smirnov, who also scored 7.5/9. Third place went to Aravindh Chithambaram. Both Sahaj Grover and R. Vaishali had a respectable finish with 6.5/9. Overall a successful event for the Indian players. 

Vishy's December #05: Tyger Tyger burning bright

06/12/2019 -

Vishy Anand lost his World Championship crown in 2013 to Magnus Carlsen. After his loss it seemed as if an era had come to an end. Anand was 44 years old and it didn't seem that he would compete again for a World Championship Match. But Vishy is Vishy! Just when everyone writes him off, he rises from the ashes like a phoenix. And this he did at the Candidates tournament in 2014, finishing ahead of some of the best players in the world and securing another shot at the World title! This victory of Vishy was so inspiring for Upendra Rawat that he decided to pen down a wonderful poem. In this article we bring you that poem along with some of Upendra's answers where he explains why he is one of Vishy's biggest fans!

NEW: Mastering Pattern Recognition in the Opening

06/12/2019 -

Pattern recognition is an important tool in modern chess, as it helps you to better understand the characteristics of a position. Particularly when you have been confronted with a surprise opening system played by your opponent, relying on general principles is an asset. In this video series, IM Robert Ris explores ten key elements of opening play. While these themes are found throughout chess literature this time you will get actively involved yourself as well by trying to solve the patterns you learned in over 50 examples, through which you will understand how much you learnt and what you need to work on. Read the article to know more about this dvd.

Monaco GP: Anna Muzychuk halts Humpy

06/12/2019 -

Anna Muzychuk halted Humpy Koneru's winning streak by holding her to a draw. The Ukrainian grabbed a pawn and trapped her own bishop which was not possible for Humpy to capture by any means. The most exciting game of the round was between Mariya Muzychuk and Kateryna Lagno. Although Mariya won the game with brilliant sharp play, but there were moments where Lagno could have salvaged her position. Goryachkina got back to winning ways by beating Zhao Xue, Nana Dzagnidze scored her first win of the tournament and jumped to tied second position, Gunina also made a comeback by staying true to her style and beating Alexandra Kosteniuk, after suffering two losses in the first two rounds. Harika had a tepid draw with Pia Cramling. Photo: Karol Bartnik / FIDE

Are you ready to play chess in Houseboat?

06/12/2019 -

Chess Train tournament launched in the year 2013 covering Czech Republic, some parts of Germany and Austria. The tradition still continues with an annual event starting in Prague with varied destinations. Similar to that, Chess Houseboat in India will take place from 26th January - 2nd February 2020 in the state of Kerala. Everyday double round will be played, each round consisting of 20 minutes each inside houseboat in various scenic location. Total €5000 prize fund is up for grabs. The tournament will be a non-rated Swiss league event. Only first 100 registered players will be able to participate. This is your unique chance to combine chess with sight seeing in one of the most beautiful destinations in India. For more details read the article. Photo: Official site

No-Castling Chess - Vladimir Kramnik proposes an exciting variant!

05/12/2019 -

From lay fans to top Grandmasters, more or less everyone in the world of chess feel upset today about the huge number of draws that take place in virtually every classical elite tournament. Too much of theory reinforced by extensive engine work is seemingly rendering the game of chess sterile and lifeless. One therefore wonders what lies in the future of the royal game. Thankfully, solutions are being proposed and some of them are also being welcomed with open arms. The successful organization and popularity of the first FIDE Fischer Random World Championship is a testament to the same. Very recently the legendary Vladimir Kramnik has also proposed a lucrative solution to the problem which surprisingly appears to be even simpler and more efficient than the Fischer Random. Read on to know more. 

MVL stops the Magnus juggernaut

05/12/2019 -

Just when it seemed like Magnus is unstoppable and MVL has an outside chance, Maxime made the most out of his opportunity and defeated Carlsen in the Rapid Playoff to advance to the finals. In the final rapid tie-break game, MVL had a decisive advantage, but he missed it and managed to make a draw which was sufficient enough for him to book a berth at the finals against Ding Liren. Levon Aronian's woes continued as he lost both rapid games and then he drew a blitz game, only to lose the next two. He redeemed himself by beating Ding in the last blitz match. The Finals Classical game 1 will take place on 6th and game 2 on 7th December. The Rapid and Blitz part of the Finals will take place on 8th December. Photo: Lennart Ootes / Grand Chess Tour

Vishy's December #04 - India having 65 GMs is unthinkable without Anand

05/12/2019 -

He met Anand at the airport when he was just a nine-year-old boy! He played a simul with him and grew up with Vishy as his role model. Today Surya Sekhar Ganguly is one India's strongest GMs. He has not only won innumerable accolades for the country as a chess player, but has helped Anand to become a World Champion for a record three times as his second. In this article Surya relives some of his most precious moments with the Indian legend. This December, ChessBase India is celebrating the month as Vishy's December in honour of the Indian chess legend Vishy Anand turning 50 years old. If you have a story, experience or an anecdote related to Anand which you would like to share with the chess world, you can send it to us at chessbaseindia@gmail.com.