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Grand Swiss R09: An array of strong performances with Vishy leading the way

20/10/2019 -

The FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Isle of Man is inching closer towards the finishing line but the excitement at the top is only swelling up as after the ninth round yesterday, the event has found a fourth leader in Hikaru Nakamura. The American star defeated Vladislav Kovalev with black pieces to climb up the leaderboard and join Fabiano Caruana, David Anton Guijarro, and Levon Aronian in the lead. Vishy Anand held Kirill Alekseenko to a solid draw to remain in the chasing group, while Vidit Gujrathi and Raunak Sadhwani made emphatic comebacks. Several Indians have so far performed admirably well in this extremely strong tournament. In this report we bring you the glimpses of some of their achievements from the ninth round. 

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World Juniors Rd.06: Alinasab leads, Iran-Israel pairing creates chaos

20/10/2019 -

Going into the rest day we are now past the half way mark at the World Junior Championships 2019. In the open section we have two leader - Evgeny Shtembuliak of Ukraine and Aram Hakobyan of Armenia. They are on 5.0/6 and are followed by a pack of seven players on 4.5/6. In the girls section we have Mobina Alinasab who has taken the sole lead with 5.5/6 beating Altantuya on top board. Polina Shuvalova is in the sole second spot with 5.0/6. As many as ten girls are on 4.5/6. In this report we bring you the most interesting games of round six and interviews. We also tell you about the Iran-Israel controversy which has been going on at the event. A powerpacked report from New Delhi.

Rajdeep wins his maiden State Senior Open title

20/10/2019 -

Top seed of the tournament, IM Rajdeep Sarkar scored an unbeaten 8.0/9 to win 57th West Bengal State Open. Second seeded Kaustuv Kundu also scored 8.0/9, however due to a lower tie-break score, Kaustuv had to settle for the runner-up position. Four players finished at 7.5/9, out of them Anustoop Biswas secured the second runner-up position due to his highest tie-break among them. Total 251 players participated from various districts of West Bengal in this five-day nine-round tournament held between 9th and 13th October at Kolkata, organized by 64 squares. A pictorial report of this tournament by Shahid Ahmed. 

Grand Swiss R08: Vishy inches closer to the top

19/10/2019 -

In the eighth round of FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Isle of Man Vishy Anand registered a crushing victory against Vladimir Fedoseev of Russia to inch closer to the top of the leaderboard. The Madras Tiger is now just half a point behind Fabiano Caruana, David Anton Guijarro, and Levon Aronian who share the lead with 6.0/8 points each. The other notable Indian victory came on the sixtieth board where Soumya Swaminathan beat Zahar Efimenko of Ukraine rated more than 200 Elo points above her. Gukesh D too displayed some very steady chess to outplay Vadim Zvjaginsev who attempted to surprise the youngster with some rather irregular stuff in the opening. In this report we bring you photos, games, analyses, and much more.

World Juniors Rd.05: Shtembuliak beats Praggnanandhaa

19/10/2019 -

Praggnanandhaa had unbeaten streak of quite some games having won the under-18 gold at World Youth and playing some inspired chess in first four rounds of the World Juniors. However, this came to an end at the hands of Ukrainian GM Evgeny Shtembuliak. Pragg sacrificed yet another exchange in the game, but it was not enough. Shtembuliak is now the sole leader with 4.5/5, with three players following him on 4.0/5. In the girls section Mobina Alinasab joined the leader Boldbaatar Altantuya at the top. Something from Iran to cheer amidst their player Aryan Gholami withdrawing from the event and Amin Tabatabaei facing Or Bronstein. In this report we bring you detailed analysis, photos and videos from New Delhi. 

Ramesh wins Mark Dvoretsky Award

19/10/2019 -

India is currently booming with talents and it is thanks to many of the hardworking trainers of the country. One of them who has made the country proud on many occasions is GM Ramesh RB. He won the The Mark Dvoretsky Award for achievements by a trainer of juniors or a team in a juniors event. The award was announced by FIDE Trainers' Commission at the Trainer Awards, results for best achievements in 2018. All the awardees will receive the trophy "The Tree of Chess", designed by the famous Ukrainian sculptor Volodymyr Odrekhivskyi.

Rodrigo Schroeder wins the biggest open in Northeast history

18/10/2019 -

Top seed Chilean GM Rodrigo Vasquez Schroeder scored an unbeaten 9.0/10 to win 3rd RGS Guwahati Open. He finished a half point ahead of the runner-up IM Koustav Chatterjee. Six players finished with a score of 8.0/10, IM Dhulipalla Bala Chandra Prasad claimed the second runner-up position due to a better tie-break score. This is Rodrigo's second tournament win in India in consecutive months after winning Lakecity Open in September. Total 345 players from seven different countries including Bangladesh, Belgium, Chile, Nepal, Philippines, Thailand and India. The tournament is the biggest in the Northeast history both in terms of the total number of participants and total prize fund. Photo: IA Biswajit Bharadwaj

 

Grand Swiss R07: Aronian joins the lead, a mixed day for Indians

18/10/2019 -

Levon Aronian joined Fabiano Caruana in the lead after defeating Wang Hao in round seven of the FIDE Chess.com Grand Swiss Isle of Man. In what was a draws galore in the top twelve boards of the round, the Armenian became the only one to clinch a victory. However, for the Indian contingent it was a mixed day as four players registered wins, three lost, and the rest out of the fifteen split points. Arguably the best performance was pulled off by Harika Dronavalli who demolished Mircea Pârligras, a 2629 rated Romanian Grandmaster, in just 34 moves. The ever steady S.L.Narayanan, who has drawn all his games from rounds one to six, registered a much needed win against Anton Domchenko. Gukesh D and Soumya Swaminathan were the other two Indians who won their encounters against Axel Bachmann and Pia Cramling respectively.  

World Juniors Rd.03+04: Petrosian would have been proud

18/10/2019 -

On 17th of October 2019, the World Juniors 2019 had two rounds. After the final game ended we already had clarity on who has the early lead in the event. In the open section we have three players who are sharing the lead with 3.5/4 - Miguel Ruiz from Spain, Evgeny Shtembuliak from Ukraine and the local favourite R. Praggnanandhaa. In this article we analyze one game of Praggnanandhaa and one game of Shtembuliak in great depth. While Pragg teaches you the art of exchange sacrifices, Shtembuliak shows you how to play positions in which you are winning. In the girls section we have Boldbaatar Altantuya from Mongolia who is on 4.0/4 and is the sole leader. A detailed report from New Delhi. 

Breaking news! Raunak Sadhwani is India's 65th GM

18/10/2019 -

13-year-old Raunak Sadhwani has made the world sit up and take notice of his talent by playing phenomenal chess at the FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss 2019. He has a score 4.0/7 and has not lost a single game against some of the best players in the world. He has six draws and one win against seven opponents above the Elo of 2650 and also held Sergey Karjakin to an easy draw with black. With this performance Raunak has crossed the live rating of 2500 and become India's 65th GM! But doesn't a player get a GM norm after nine rounds? With two more rounds to go to reach the nine round mark, how are we so confident that Raunak has become a GM? Well, ChessBase India has done the math, and in this article we tell you why all that Raunak needs to do to become India's 65th GM is to just show up for his next two games!

ChessBase DVDs helped Kaustuv win 1st Hyderabad Open

17/10/2019 -

Top seed of the tournament Kaustuv Kundu scored an unbeaten 8.0/9 and finished a half point ahead of the pack of five players to win the tournament. Ram Prakash of Punjab scored 7.5/9 and he was placed second due to his better tie-break score and local lad Bharat Kumar Reddy Poluri of Telangana secured the third position. Total 274 players from all over the country participated in this tournament from 1st - 5th October 2019, organized by Prufer Logic and Sphoorthi Chess Academy. The total prize fund ₹310500 was distributed among the prize winners. This was the third consecutive open rating tournament in Hyderabad which makes the City of Pearls a chess destination for all chess players and enthusiasts. Photo: Kaustuv Kundu

Indian Chess Raises ₹103603 in the memory of Late Rafiq Khan

17/10/2019 -

ChessBase India organized a blitz tournament in the memory of India's first Olympiad medal winner Rafiq Khan. The prize money of Rs.51,000 was instituted by Rafiq Khan's friends and admirers from Madhya Pradesh. The total amount that was collected by way of entry fee and donations was Rs.1,03,603. This entire amount will be given to Rafiq Khan's wife Zahida Khan. India's 54th GM Arjun Erigaisi (Indian-Lion) won the event and also Rs.12,400! Karthikeyan Murali and Abhimanyu Puranik were placed second and third according to their tie-break scores. Kaustuv Kundu and R Ashwath were the only two untitled players to have made it in the top 10 by securing seventh and ninth place respectively with a score of 6.0/9 each. Photo: Amruta Mokal

World Juniors 2019 Rd.02: The optimism of the young!

17/10/2019 -

The World Junior Championships 2019 is such high on chess content that it is becoming extremely difficult to write a report that would cover everything! In spite of having just 94 boards (47 in open and 47 in girls) there is high quality chess taking place on almost 70% of these games. After two rounds we have nine boys in the lead with 2.0/2 in the open section and eleven girls in the lead with 2.0/2 in the girls section. In this article we bring some of the most interesting and instructive moments of the second round. We not only have the pictures, analysis, and interviews but also a special section called highlights of the day which gives you the glimpse of what happened in just 12 minutes!

All India Chess Grand Prix begins in three days

16/10/2019 -

It is a well known fact that Tamil Nadu is the chess hub of the country. This time Tamil Nadu brings up an innovative series of rapid tournaments named All India Chess Grand Prix. There will be five one-day rapid rating tournaments, spanning a total of five months. To be eligible for a Grand Prix prize, a player must play a minimum of three tournaments of the series. Entry fee is as low as only ₹600. If you play more and submit your entry fee early, you can save more too. That's not all, each tournament has its own prize fund of ₹125000 each and the Grand Prix final will also have a total prize fund of ₹125000. There is no dearth of tournaments in Tamil Nadu. All India Chess Grand Prix is surely going to spice things up more.

World Juniors Rd.01: Dvorkovich visit and a tough start for the top seeds

16/10/2019 -

The World Junior Championships 2019 began with great excitement on the 15th of October 2019 in New Delhi, India. FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich visited the event and boosted the spirit of the participants. This is the second big event happening in India in the month of October after the successful completion of the World Youth Championships 2019. It is perhaps for the first time in the history that the number of male participants in the open section is exactly equal to the number of female participants in the girls section - 94 each! In the first round both the top seeds - Amin Tabatabaei (2642) and Zhu Jiner (2507) were held to a draw. We bring you detailed coverage from the venue in New Delhi.