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Can 57-year-old D.V. Prasad become India's 66th GM?

16/11/2019 -

With the Indian players who achieve the GM title getting younger by the day, it is a good question to ask - how old will India's next GM be? Will he be 12 years old like Gukesh or Pragg, 13 years old like Negi or Raunak, or 14 years old like Nihal Sarin? It could well be that India may get its next GM in a week's time and his age would 57! Yes, you read that right! IM D.V. Prasad is playing at the World Senior (+50 years) Championships 2019 in Romania and is currently in the joint second position with 3.5/4. If Prasad wins this championship he directly gets the GM title and would become India's 66th GM. Of course, the road to GM title won't be easy as Prasad is competing with 20 other GMs and is the 40th seed. But he has made a powerful start by beating a former World senior champion in 26 moves. 

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IIFL Wealth Chess 5 - It cannot get bigger than this!

16/11/2019 -

This new year, if you are a chess player, you have to celebrate it in Mumbai! The IIFL Wealth Chess is back. This time it's the fifth edition and it is bigger and better than ever before. The total prize fund of all the events combined is Rs.50 lakh! For the first time in many years we will witness a GM Open in India with a rating cut off of 2250 and above! In the under-13 Juniors section, the winner will take back home a whopping prize fund of Rs.2,50,000. There is also a Masters Open (2250 and below) and a Challengers Open (2150 and below). Finally we have a blitz event open for all with a prize fund of Rs.2 lakh. In this article you will get all the information about this mega event!

Talent Test with GM Raunak Sadhwani

15/11/2019 -

ChessBase India's talent tests are enjoyed by one and all. What we usually do is subject a talented youngster of Indian chess to a selection of chess positions ranging from easy to tough and try to see how they crack these problems. This time our guest was India's latest GM, 13-year-old Raunak Sadhwani. Raunak was given 13 positions to solve. He was super quick at most of them, while some did give him trouble. Yet, finishing the entire set in 50 minutes is quite commendable. In this article we bring you all the 13 positions, and ask you to solve them, just like Raunak did with a timer, and then go through the video to see how you fared in the test as compared to one of the biggest talents of Indian chess! Also as an added bonus in this article we have Raunak's mother Heena speak about how she uses ChessBase softwares to help her son get better at chess.

Coach Priyadharshan Kannappan speaks about India's campaign at the World Youth Under-16 Olympiad

15/11/2019 -

Team India started off as the nineteenth seed at the World Youth under-16 Chess Olympiad but made a commendable seventh-place finish winning against Turkey-White and Serbia in the last two rounds of the event. From starting with emphatic victories in the initial rounds to suffering a heartbreaking 4-0 loss against Belarus, the Indian team went through a lot of ups and downs throughout the tournament. Grandmaster Priyadharshan Kannappan, who was the accompanying coach cum captain, speaks at length about it all. He shares his overall experience of the event, his impression of the players, his thoughts about the team selection this year, and much more. Read this detailed article and get to know what it feels like to compete in one of world's most prestigious team championships. 

The Telegraph Schools' Chess invites all school students

14/11/2019 -

28th edition of The Telegraph Schools' Chess in Kolkata, West Bengal is just less than a month away. The longest running school level chess tournament in the country will have its 28th edition start on 13th December 2019. The tournament which has witnessed the participation of the country's many top players in their budding years who eventually went on to become World beaters, open its doors once again to all chess players all over the country. The tournament holds a total prize fund of ₹155000 and the bragging rights for the Best School of the tournament which can be won by any school. The last two champions Srijit Paul and Mitrabha Guha went on to become to IMs. Who will be the next winner? Registration is live now

New products available in ChessBase India shop

14/11/2019 -

Fritz 17 is world's longest lasting chess program series. It's out now with Fat Fritz - neural network engine. It also comes with new and improved Fritz 17 engine along with myriad of new features which we have already mentioned before. Mega Database 2020 is also out which has more than 8 Million games, including over 85000 annotated games and 250000 more games will be added through update in 2020. Correspondence Database 2020 and Fritz Powerbook 2020 is also available. Former World Championship Challenger Fabiano Caruana has released a dvd on Ruy Lopez and Simon Williams 'Ginger GM' has released the updated London System in London System Reloaded. Find out all details about the new ChessBase products available now.

Children's Day: Today, All Day, Everyday!

14/11/2019 -

"We are the children. we are the versed, we are the pioneers that will shape this world!", writes ChessBase India Juniors editor-in-chief Avathanshu Bhat. This Children's Day, ChessBase India has a poem for you about the young talents of this country that are pivotal to the chess community! Entitled the "Children of Caissa", the poem speaks about 12 talents who have shown unbelievable skills at chess in spite of being just 12,13,14, or 15. Each one of them has either grabbed the prestigious GM or the IM/WIM title! Apart from the poem, we also have a special contest at the end, where you need to find out names of all the titled players in the picture! The winner will be awarded membership to ChessBase India Elite Pass. Read on to find out!

Six Indians in the hunt for norms at AICF Gujarat WGM Tournament

13/11/2019 -

The AICF International Women Grand Master Round Robin Chess Tournament 2019 is taking place from the 11th to 18th of November in the Navrangpura sports club near Sardar Patel Stadium, Ahmedabad. Organized by the Gujarat Chess Association under the auspices of All India Chess Federation, the event features six Indian and six International players in all. A total of Rs.10 Lakh has been instated as the prize fund and moreover this is a lucrative norm making opportunity for all the participants. Four rounds of the tournament are already over. In this report we bring you the current standings, photos, games, and much more.

Girish Koushik dominates field to retain SDM Roto Lawyer's Cup

13/11/2019 -

After a rather long gap of 3 years, the holy town of Belthangady came back with the SDM Roto Lawyer's Cup 2019. With an attractive prize fund of Rs.4 Lakhs, the tournament attracted around 140 players from 16 states. GM Girish Koushik, the 2nd seed, played a superlative tournament, remaining unbeaten and taking 1st with a score of 7.5/9. IM Chakravarthy Reddy tied with Girish for 1st, but since the former had won their encounter he had to settle for runner up. 18th seed Swaraj Palit had a dream tournament to finish 3rd, while top seed Vishnu Prasanna had a forgettable event. A detailed report by Major Gen (Rtd) MV Bhat.

Pablo Glavina is the winner of IX Open Ciudad de Alfaro

13/11/2019 -

Top seed of the tournament IM Pablo Glavina scored an unbeaten 6.0/7 to win the tournament for the first time since 2016. Untitled Andres Malon Insausti also scored 6.0/7, he was placed second according to the tie-break score. IM Rufino Camarena of Valencia, scored 5.5/7 to claim the third position. The champion's trophy is designed in the form of 'Stork' which is the main symbol of the city Alfaro in Spain. Total 115 players from 40 different clubs and fifteen regions of Spain, including four different countries Colombia, Germany, Guatemala and Spain participated in this tournament. Photo: Miguel Angel Felipo / Club Ajedrez Alfaro

Russia will be the hotbed for chess in 2020

13/11/2019 -

The year 2020 will be an exciting one for chess and Russia will be the hotbed for some of the most important events. As early as March 2020 we have the Candidates tournament which will be an 8-player double round robin event to determine the challenger to World Champion Magnus Carlsen. This will be held in the fourth largest city in Russia - Yekaterinberg. During July-August 2020, we will witness not just the Chess Olympiad in Moscow, but also for the 1st time in the history - a Chess Paralympiad. The Chess Paralympiad in Khanty Mansiysk will be held from 29th July to 4th August, while the Olympiad will be in Moscow from 5th to 17th of August. We bring you all the details along with the probable players who have qualified for the Candidates 2020.

Introducing Fritz 17 with Fat Fritz and other goodies

13/11/2019 -

In our most ambitious release yet, Fritz 17 brings a slew of features such as new functions to help you build your repertoire, special tools to help memorize it, new ways to generate exercises from your games, and more! It also brings not one, but several new engines such as the latest Fat Fritz with new percentage displays, the new Fritz 17 engine, and an easy-to-install Leela for the fans of the open-source project, and more! We have published a few articles on Fat Fritz before, in this one we are going to tell you all new features of Fritz 17 and what is the primary hardware requirement for Fat Fritz to get optimum performance.

Danyyil Dvirnyy wins Florence Move 2019

12/11/2019 -

Top seed of the tournament GM Danyyil Dvirnyy of Italy scored an unbeaten 4.5/5 to win the Master section of Florence Move 2019. IM Duilio Collutiis and FM Ivan Tomba scored 4.0/5 each. They were placed second and third. This is the largest chess tournament in Florence, Italy. Total 232 players participated from six different countries England, France, Italy, Russia, Spain and Sweden in eight different groups including Master, Junior, Blitz and various rating categories. The tournament was inaugurated by former Miss Toscana, Federica Bertolani. The tournament was in collaboration with Meyer Children Hospital, to which AD Firenze Scacchi has decided to make a donation. A report from the Tournament Director Nicolò Di Girolamo. Photo: Portray Chess

IM Arjun Kalyan and Pranav Venkatesh win Velammal Rapid and Blitz

12/11/2019 -

IM Arjun Kalyan and untitled Pranav V surprised everyone by winning Velammal Rapid and Blitz with a score of 8.0/9 and 8.0/8 respectively. Starting out as the tenth seed Arjun remained unbeaten and scored upset victories of GM Karthikeyan Murali and GM Vishnu Prasanna. IM Rathanvel VS also scored 8.0/9, however due to a better tie-break score Arjun clinched the championship. Karthikeyan finished at third place by scoring 7.5/9 in the Rapid event. 13-year-old Pranav scored eight straight victories in Blitz to become champion. He beat GM Vishnu Prasanna and GM Deepan Chakkravarthy on his path to victory. Untitled Peter Anand of Pondicherry claimed sole second position with a score of 7.5/9. IM S Nitin was the only titled player to finish in top 5 in Blitz. Photo: IA R Anantharam

Superbet Rapid and Blitz: Aronian is the champion, Vishy steals the show on final day

11/11/2019 -

Levon Aronian emerged as the champion of Romania Grand Chess Tour Superbet Rapid and Blitz 2019 and with that clinched his second tour victory of the year. The Armenian is therefore now in the optimal position to qualify for the London finals. Vishy Anand too pulled off a power packed performance in the last day of the event to finish third, just half a point behind Aronian and Sergey Karjakin. The Madras Tiger remained unbeaten in the concluding blitz rounds and scored three important wins against Fabiano Caruana, Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, and the in-form Anton Korobov. In this final report we bring you the glimpses of all the action through photos, games, analyses, and much more.