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Adhiban and Arjun Erigaisi qualify to the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour

10/05/2021 -

Adhiban continues his unbeaten streak as he beat Aravindh Chithambaram by 2.5-1.5 in the Semi-Finals to advance to the Finals of Indian Qualifier and also secure his place in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. While Aravindh had his small chance in the first game, Adhiban is yet to show a chink in his armor. Arjun Erigaisi fought back well after losing the first game to Gukesh and then won the next three games to setup a clash with Adhiban in the finals and also qualify in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. Gukesh had a fantastic chance in the third game to take the lead but he was unable to seize it. The finals will be interesting to see a clash between experience and youth. Photo: Amruta Mokal

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CCT Indian Qualifier QF: Adhiban eliminates Praggnanandhaa

09/05/2021 -

Both Adhiban and Arjun Erigaisi continues their impressive run as they are still undefeated in the Indian Qualifier for the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. While Adhiban was completely dominant against Praggnanandhaa, Arjun was against Harsha. The other two Semi-Finalists Aravindh and Gukesh also scored emphatic victories when required to secure their place in the Semi-Finals. Adhiban will go against Aravindh and Gukesh will face Arjun Erigaisi in the Semi-Finals. One thing that is now guaranteed is, we will get two finalists from two facets of Indian chess - One of India's top established and a talented youth player will qualify in the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. Photo: Tata Steel Chess

Checkmate Covid initiative by AICF raises over Rs.60 lakh

08/05/2021 -

The All India Chess Federation has come up with an action plan to help the chess community fight Covid-19. For this purpose a fundraiser was organized on 4th of May on the ChessBase India YouTube channel. A massive fund of Rs.60 lakh was raised thanks to the efforts of all the chess lovers. AICF has already started mobilizing these funds. Over 30 members of the chess community have made use of the Covid helpline numbers and three people have received financial aid. We bring you all the updates of this noble initiative.  

CCT Indian Qualifier Pre QF: Mitrabha stuns Sasikiran

08/05/2021 -

Indian Qualifier for the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour started with a bang. While Adhiban, Praggnanandhaa, Aravindh and Ganguly had a smooth sailing towards the Quarter-Finals, the favorites on the other side of bracket Nihal, Sethuraman, Abhijeet and Sasikiran were surprised by their opponents and got eliminated from the tournament. Ganguly scored two fantastic victories against Visakh with the black pieces. One cannot overlook the triumphs of Harsha, Gukesh and Mitrabha who proved to be the better players than their respective opponents on the very same day. Quarter-Finals will have interesting battles between Adhiban-Praggnanandhaa, Aravindh-Ganguly, Arjun-Harsha and Gukesh-Mitrabha starting from 3 p.m. IST today 8th May 2021. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

The boy who is racing ahead to break Karjakin's youngest GM record - Abhimanyu Mishra

07/05/2021 -

He learnt the rules of chess when he was two and a half years old. He became the youngest national expert at the age of 7 years and 6 months. He became the youngest National Master in the US at the age of nine years and two months. In late 2019, he beat R. Praggnanandhaa's record of becoming the youngest IM in the world at the age of 10 years, 9 months and 3 days. Meet Abhimanyu Mishra, the youngster who lives in New Jersey, USA. Abhimanyu is an amazing talent and is now going after the record of becoming the world's youngest GM. But wait! What about the Covid19 pandemic? Nothing, absolutely nothing, stands in between Abhimanyu and his goals! Check out this amazing story. 

Adhiban starts as the top seed in Indian Champions Chess Tour Qualifier

07/05/2021 -

Indian Qualifier for the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour starts today 7th May from 3 p.m. IST onwards. Top two finishers will qualify to the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. Adhiban will be the highest rated player in the event. He is joined by Sasikiran, Sethuraman, Aravindh, Ganguly, Abhijeet, Karthikeyan Murali and Harika. The remaining eight players are top seven finishers in Vidit Chess Tour. They are - Gukesh, Aronyak, Arjun Erigaisi, Harsha, Visakh, Praggnanandhaa, Mitrabha and the Asian Continental Blitz 2019 champion Nihal Sarin who has been super impressive against the world champion a fortnite ago. Photo: chess24

Samay Raina wins the $10,000 Botez Bullet Invitational

06/05/2021 -

Samay Raina has been getting stronger each day as a chess player in the last one year. Apart from strengthening his chess knowledge, he has also become a fierce bullet player having beaten many strong players in 1+0 format. Hence, when on 5th of May 2021, he was invited to be a part of the Botez Bullet tournament, it was clear that Samay was one of the favourites. The stand-up comedian turned chess streamer lived up to the expectations and won the 1 hour bullet arena tournament! For his efforts he received US$4,000. Guess what Samay did with that money? Read on to find out. 

Throwback Thursday: 9-year-old Anish Giri wins Hokkaido Chess Championship 2004

06/05/2021 -

Every superhero has its origin story, every world class sports person has their own breakout moment. However some of these moments, we have only read briefly but not in great detail. Wouldn't it be interesting to know more about these world class players before they were superstars? Those who have Anish Giri's book - My Junior Years in 20 Games are well versed with his triumph at Hokkaido Chess Championship in 2004 being his first major victory. For the first time the games are being made available for public in this article thanks to Mr. Sugimoto, Sapporo Chess Club and NCS Japan newsletter. Photo: Mr. Sugimoto/Sapporo Chess Club

Sultan Khan - From the name to Knowing the person

05/05/2021 -

Reading seems to have become a dying habit. With the advent of gadgets and distraction lurking around every corner, the temptation to resist them is increasingly becoming a difficult task. A true bibliophile knows the real essence of reading from a physical book, the smell of a newly printed one cannot be replaced by a digital or e-ink. Four-time National Women's champion, Asian Continental champion, Individual Gold medalist at Tromso Olympiad 2014 - the woman of multitude of accolades - IM and WGM Padmini Rout writes her thoughts after reading Daniel King's new book about Sultan Khan. Photo: Amazon India

Kaustuv Kundu wins 2nd Nagaon Open 2021

04/05/2021 -

Assam had its first Classical rating tournament in over a year at ADP College in Nagaon district from 16th to 20th April organized by Nagaon District Chess Association. Total cash prize ₹275000 was up for grabs for the prize winners. Top seed of the tournament Kaustuv Kundu scored an unbeaten 7.5/9 and finished a half point ahead of the competition. He earned ₹50000 cash and a trophy for his efforts. Khumukcham Sanjoy Singh and IM Ramnathan Balasubramniam scored 7.0/9 and they were placed second and third respectively according to tie-breaks. A total of 116 players took part in this event. Photo: FI Pranab Kumar Nath

Checkmate Covid initiative by AICF to be launched by Vishy Anand, Koneru Humpy and FIDE President

03/05/2021 -

In these testing times of Covid-19, the situation in the country has deteriorated quite terribly. Help is difficult to find and all those who are attacked by the Covid virus find themselves in grave danger. In such a dire situation, the All India Chess Federation (AICF) has decided to launch the Checkmate Covid initiative. The idea is to not just help the chess community affected by Covid through financial aid, but also have a team of doctors that works around to clock to provide the right assistance to the chess community. This initiative will be launched by some of India's gems Vishy Anand, Koneru Humpy, Vidit Gujrathi, Harika Dronavalli among others. FIDE President Arkadij Dvorkovich will also be present.

The story of how Arjun Kalyan became India's 68th GM at the age of 18 years

03/05/2021 -

On 20th of April 2021, Arjun Kalyan became the 68th Grandmaster of India. He did so in Serbia by beating GM Dragan Kosic and crossing the Elo barrier of 2500. Born in 2002, Arjun is just 18 years old. Apart from becoming a GM, Arjun is also a brilliant student and scored 95% in his 12th standard exams. How has this lad managed to achieve so much in chess as well as academics? What is his story? Just 80 minutes after he became a GM, we invited Arjun to a Live interview on the ChessBase India channel. This article has the transcript of the entire interview, analysis of his victory that gave him the GM title and quotes + anecdotes from his parents and trainers. 

Magnus Carlsen ends his championship drought by winning New in Chess Classic

03/05/2021 -

There was no doubt about Carlsen ending his championship drought which started when he turned 30 years of age. Every time we all wondered that it might be this tournament, turns out New in Chess Classic is that tournament where Carlsen ended his curse. With this win Carlsen jumped to the top of the tour standings of Meltwater Champions Chess Tour. Nakamura made a perfect start by winning the first game in the second set of the finals but of course that was not going to be enough as he had to win the second set. Unfortunately for him, he only managed to tie the set 2-2 and had to settle for the runner-up position. Mamedyarov beat Aronian 2.5-0.5 in the second set to secure the third position. The next event of Meltwater Champions Chess Tour which is a Major event starts this month on Sunday 23rd May 2021. Photo: Champions Chess Tour

Unstoppable Leon conquers three events in April 2021

02/05/2021 -

GM Leon Luke Mendonca won all three Vezerkepzo tournaments he played this year. He won four consecutive over-the-board tournaments so far, starting with a victory at 2nd Kumania GM. He scored a massive 23.5/27 in April and became unbeaten champion in all of them. He finished a half point ahead of the competition in the first event, 1.5 points in ahead in the second and a whopping 2.0 points ahead in the third event. He is now at a 42 game unbeaten streak. All these are over-the-board tournament statistics. He also took part in the Julius Baer Challengers Chess Tour for Team Kramnik and finished ninth. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Sunway Sitges Open

New in Chess Classic Finals Day 1: Carlsen wins the first set

02/05/2021 -

As always Carlsen and Nakamura did not disappoint in the first set of the finals of Meltwater Champions Chess Tour New in Chess Classic. After all these two have put on some classic matches during this online era. This time also they had two exciting draws and then Carlsen scored two consecutive wins to win the first set which means Nakamura must win the second set to force tie-breaks. Mamedyarov and Aronian are fighting for the third and fourth place but their games are nothing short of must-see as they exchanged wins in all four games to draw the first set 2-2. Photo: Champions Chess Tour