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Grandmaster Lalit Babu MR and Madhesh Kumar S are the Champions of Aurionpro Mumbai International GM Open and Juniors Chess Tournament 2025

22/07/2025 -

With a highly exciting finish, Grandmaster Lalit Babu MR and Madhesh Kumar S are the Champions of the Aurionpro International Grandmaster Chess Tournament and Aurionpro International Juniors Chess Tournament respectively. Both Madhesh and Lalit scored critical wins in the final round to become the Champion! Lalit took home a beautiful trophy and Rs. 4,00,000, while Madhesh won Rs. 2,00,000 and an equally impressive trophy! Check out all that happened in the final round and all the information of the closing ceremony in this report. Photos: Aditya Sur Roy, Himank Ghosh

ChessBase 18 and Mega 2025 are here

ChessBase 18 is an all-new program that helps you manage all your databases as an ambitious player. Mega Database 2025 has 11 million games with over 113,000 games annotated by masters. The cost of ChessBase 18 is Rs.4499/- and the cost of Mega Database 2025 is Rs.6499/- However, if you go for the combo the total amount comes to Rs.8999 (instead of 10,998/-) helping you save Rs. 1999/-.

ChessBase 18 + Mega 2025 Combo

Biel MTO R7: Karthikeyan Murali and Pranav Anand emerge coleaders

22/07/2025 -

GM Karthikeyan Murali and GM Pranav Anand have emerged coleaders 6/7 at 58th Biel Chess Festival Master Tournament (MTO). Karthikeyan and Pranav defeated GM Sasikiran Krishnan and IM Christian Gloeckler (GER) respectively to stay in the lead. They are pursued by four players - GM Mustafa Yilmaz (TUR), GM Karthik Venkataraman, IM Dau Khuong Duy (VIE) and GM Pranesh M at 5.5/7 each. In the GMT Masters, GM Salem Saleh (UAE) and GM Vladimir Fedoseev (SLO) moved to the top with 23/48 each. Fedoseev topped the Blitz event with 7.5/10, after starting the event with a loss against GM Aravindh Chithambaram. Aravindh scored 6/10 in Blitz, same as Salem. Aravindh's overall score is 21.5/48. He is in the final four of the GMT Masters with Salem, Fedoseev and GM Volodar Murzin. GMT Final Round 1 starts today at 2 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Biel Chess Festival

2nd Dole Trophy Pasino Grand Aix R3: Leon Luke Mendonca and Aditya Samant score a hat-trick

22/07/2025 -

Five players - GM Pavel Eljanov (UKR), GM Baadur Jobava (GEO), IM Patryk Cieslak (POL), GM Aditya S Samant and GM Leon Luke Mendonca are at perfect 3/3. Eljanov scored a comfortable win over GM Ivan Schitco (MDA). Jobava made a short work of IM Edvin Trost. Patryk outplayed GM G N Gopal. Aditya defeated WIM Sila Caglar (TUR). Leon had a bumpy win against IM Tobias Koelle (GER). Leon let his advantage slip by only for his opponent to return the upper hand. Eventually, it was Tobias who made the final mistake and lost the game. It will be Eljanov vs Leon and Jobava vs Aditya in the fourth round. It starts today at 2:30 p.m. local time, 6 p.m. IST. Photos: Shahid Ahmed

Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi dominates Great Minds Chess Academy Rapid Rating Open 2025

21/07/2025 -

IM Aakash Sharadchandra Dalvi scored an unbeaten 8.5/9 to win Great Minds Chess Academy Rapid Rating Open 2025. He finished a half point ahead of the rest. IM Md. Imran, IM Srihari L and B Vignesh scored 8/9 each. They secured second, third and fourth place respectively. Imran also remained undefeated. Their final round battle against each other ended in a draw. The total prize fund was ₹400000. The top three prizes were ₹40000, ₹30000 and ₹25000 along with a trophy each. The one-day nine round Rapid rating tournament was  organized by Great Minds Chess Academy at Rahul Convention Hall in Mysore, Karnataka on 22nd June 2025. This is Aakash's third overall, first rating tournament triumph of the year. Photo: Great Minds Chess Academy

Women's World Cup QF TB: Divya Deshmukh eliminates Harika Dronavalli to advance to the Semifinals

21/07/2025 -

IM Divya Deshmukh defeated GM Harika Dronavalli twice in tie-breaks to win her Quarterfinals match and advance to the Semifinals of FIDE Women's World Cup 2025. After, GM Koneru Humpy, Divya becomes the Indian woman to qualify in a FIDE Women's World Cup tournament. Divya seized her opportunity when Harika erred in the endgame of the first 15'+10" tie-break. In the second game, Harika missed a couple of winning chances in the end. It cost her dearly and the match. Thus, the legend, Harika's journey at this event comes to an end. Divya will face the 16th Women's World Champion, GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN) in the Semifinals. Round 6/Semifinal Game 1 starts today at 3 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Photo: FIDE/Anna Shtourman

FIDE World Cup 2025 to take place in India

21/07/2025 -

FIDE World Cup 2025 will take place in India from 30th October to 27th November. World Cup is an event where not only World's best players but the respective country's best players can also face a World-Class player, something that may not happen in other events except Olympiad. A total of 206 players will take part. Out of them, 20 Indians have already qualified via various path. They are - D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Aravindh Chithambaram, Vishy Anand, Nihal Sarin, Iniyan Pa, Raja Rithvik R, Narayanan S L, Pranesh M, Harshavardhan G B, Karthikeyan Murali, Karthik Venkataraman, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Neelash Saha, Diptayan Ghosh, Aronyak Ghosh, Himal Gusain, Lalit Rohith and Vidit Gujrathi. More Indians can qualify as FIDE President and Organizer's nominees are pending. Who do you think will win this edition? Photo: FIDE

2nd Dole Trophy Pasino Grand Aix R2: Jobava's beauty game

21/07/2025 -

GM Baadur Jobava (GEO) played a beautiful game in the second round of 2nd Dole Trophy Pasino Grand 2025 Masters. He has had a long and illustrious career full of fantastic games by him. He admitted that these do not fall in his top ten best games, still one must take a look at it to be familiar with Jobava's brand of play. GM Pavel Eljanov (UKR) is the sole player among the top five seeds to win his game. GM Jorden van Foreest (NED), GM Awonder Liang (USA), GM Nils Grandelius (SWE) and GM Jaime Santos Latasa (ESP) were held to a draw each by IM Bennet Hagner (GER), IM Aaryan Varshney, IM Mohamed Anees M and IM Atilla Kuru (TUR) respectively. Round 3 starts today at 2:30 p.m. local time, 6 p.m. IST. Photos: Shahid Ahmed

Koneru Humpy becomes the first Indian woman to qualify in a FIDE Women's World Cup Semifinal

21/07/2025 -

GM Koneru Humpy became the first Indian woman ever to advance to the Semifinal of a FIDE World Cup. She drew against IM Yuxin Song (CHN) to secure her spot in the final four. GM Tingjie Lei (CHN) defeated GM Nana Dzagnidze (GEO) again. It means Humpy will face Tingjie in the Semifinals. GM Harika Dronavalli and IM Divya Deshmukh had another well contested draw. GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN) defeated GM R Vaishali to eliminate her. Zhongyi will face the winner of the tie-breaks between Harika and Divya. Round 5/Quarterfinal Tie-break games start today at 3 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Photo: FIDE/Anna Shtourman

2nd Dole Trophy Pasino Grand Aix R1: Gulenay and Marco battle for nearly 6.5 hours

20/07/2025 -

The second edition of Dole Trophy Pasino Grand Aix 2025 features over 400 players from 40+ countries. In the very first round, teenagers WIM Gulenay Aydin (TUR) and IM Marco Materia (FRA) battled for over six hours and 20 minutes before their intriguing six minor piece endgame finished in a draw. Gulenay thwarted all attempts by Marco to score a win. CM V S Nandish had a great opportunity to trap GM Max Warmerdam's (NED) bishop in the endgame. Time trouble caused him to miss it and he ended up losing the game. Raghav V played a good game against the super strong GM Pavel Eljanov (UKR). However, in the endgame, Raghav got his knight trapped. A total of 39 GMs, 62 IMs, 4 WGMs and 9 WIMs are taking part in the Masters (>2100) section. Round 2 starts today at 2:30 p.m. local time, 6 p.m. IST. Photos: Shahid Ahmed

Women's World Cup 2025 QF1: Humpy wins, Harika, Divya and Vaishali draw

20/07/2025 -

GM Koneru Humpy defeated IM Yuxin Song (CHN) in the first game of the FIDE Women's World Cup 2025 Quarterfinals. Humpy needs a draw in the second game to secure her place in the Semifinals. IM Divya Deshmukh drew against GM Harika Dronavalli. GM R Vaishali had a hard-fought draw against GM Zhongyi Tan (CHN). GM Tingjie Lei (CHN) defeated GM Nana Dzagnidze (GEO). She is also a draw away from advancing to the Semifinals. The top three finishers earn a place in the next FIDE Women's Candidates. So the stakes are very high. Round 5/Quarterfinal Game 2 starts today at 3 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Photo: FIDE/Anna Shtourman

Honi Arora clear first at 58th Biel Chess Festival 2025 SZB U20 Blitz Rating

19/07/2025 -

Honi Arora scored 7/8 to win Biel Chess Festival 2025 SZB Under-20 Blitz Rating. He finished a full point ahead of the rest. Shirui Ding (CHN) secured second place. Felix Meshach (SUI) was placed third. Honi defeated both eventual runners-up, Shirui and Felix 2-0. His sole loss was against Weronika Trzcsinska (POL) with the black pieces. Each player faced four opponents and played two games with both colors each. The one-day eight-round Under-20 Blitz Rating Tournament was organized by Biel-Bienne Chess in Biel/Bienne, Switzerland. This is Honi's first rating tournament triumph of the year. Photo: Biel Chess Festival

A new home for chess players opens up in Gurugram!

19/07/2025 -

A new chess club is launching in Gurugram called the Espresso Defense Chess Club. It is launched in partnership with the beautiful cafe space called Cut Coffee Paste that envisions to make this a regular weekend chess club open for all! 15 chess sets will be placed for chess enthusiasts from all across the city to come and play over the board! The club is being launched with a Rapid Tournament on the occasion of International Chess Day! Read more to know about the story behind it and to register for our launch event

Biel GMT R4: Aravindh Chithambaram maintains his sole lead

19/07/2025 -

GM Aravindh Chithambaram drew both his third and fourth round games against GM Volodar Murzin and GM Radoslaw Wojtaszek (POL) respectvely at 58th Biel Chess Festival GMT Masters 2025. He is now at 15.5/30, 1.5 points ahead of GM Vladimir Fedoseev (SLO). GM Salem Saleh's win over Fedoseev ensured Aravindh's sole lead. Salem moved to 13/30. GM Nikolas Theodorou (GRE) stays ahead in the Challengers section with a score 19/30, 3.5 points ahead of GM Aram Hakobyan (ARM). In the Master Tournament (MTO), GM Karthikeyan Murali, GM Pranav Anand and GM Sasikiran Krishnan are in a three-way lead 4.5/5. GMT Round 5 starts today at 2 p.m. local time, 5:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Freestyle Grand Slam Tour Las Vegas: Levon Aronian vs Hans Niemann in the Finals

19/07/2025 -

Levon Aronian won the World Cup twice for a reason. He defeated Arjun Erigaisi twice in the Semifinals to advance to the Finals of Freestyle Grand Slam Tour Las Vegas. Hans Niemann (USA) also won his match 1.5-2.5 against Fabiano Caruana (USA) to move to the Finals. Caruana had winning chances in both first 30'+30" and 10'+10" games. In the Finals, it will be Aronian vs Niemann. Arjun will play Lower Bracket Semifinal against Caruana. R Praggnanandhaa defeated Vincent Keymer (GER) 1.5-0.5 in the Intermediate Stage 1. Lower Bracket Semifinals and Intermediate Stage 2 Game 1 starts today at 11 a.m. local time, 10:30 p.m. IST. Finals will take place tomorrow on 20th July. Photo: Abhyudaya Ram

Women's World Cup 2025 R4 TB: Humpy, Harika, Vaishali and Divya qualify to the QF, create history

19/07/2025 -

For the first time in a FIDE Women's World Cup, four Indian women are in the Quarterfinal stage. It means 50% of the players remaining in the tournament are Indians. Both GM Koneru Humpy and IM Divya Deshmukh needed two tie-break games to eliminate GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI) and GM Jiner Zhu (CHN) respectively. Divya scored a huge win against Jiner and Humpy remained undefeated in her match. GM Harika Dronavalli knocked out GM Kateryna Lagno by 2.5-3.5. GM R Vaishali had to battle the longest. She eliminated the giant-killer of the tournament by 4.5-3.5 after a grueling tie-breaks. Round 5/Quarterfinal Game 1 starts today at 3 p.m. local time, 4:30 p.m. IST. Photo: FIDE/Anna Shtourman

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