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ChessBase India Power Group Tour makes a strong beginning in Montcada!

12/07/2018 -

Somewhere around March we published an article on ChessBase India newspage about the ChessBase India Power (CBIP) group tour to Barcelona, Spain. Ankit Dalal, the head of CBIP, was going to be the tour manager and would not only ensure that all the logistics are in place but would also travel to Barcelona with the players to take care of their every need. This dream project began on 23rd of June when 20 members of the group tour landed in Barcelona, Spain. The first tournament was the Montcada International 2018. Indians simply dominated the event, with GM Shyam Sundar winning it. Ankit Dalal writes about his experience of managing a tour where he is with kids who are travelling to a tournament for the first time without their parents!

Dressed to Impress: How IM Kevin Goh prepped and persevered for his final GM norm

11/07/2018 -

The recently concluded QCD-Prof Lim Kok Ann GMs Invitational saw one of Singapore's most talented players, IM Kevin Goh, earn his final GM norm after a six-year-long hiatus! In the tournament, Kevin showed some excellent preparation coupled with resourceful play to finish second whilst achieving his final norm. All that stands between Kevin and the GM title now are seven rating points; he is currently rated 2493. Besides being a master-class chess player, Kevin is also a Chartered Accountant. In this interview with CM Junior Tay, Kevin discusses some of his games, his mindset during the tournament, how he juggles chess and work, his future goals and his dazzling dressing sense! 

MKG Scholarship of Rs.50,000 for a girl chess player below the age of 18 years

10/07/2018 -

The MKG Scholarship for girl child is the first scholarship under the HelpChess initiative of the ChessBase India Foundation. This is an annual scholarship of Rs.50,000 that will be given to a deserving girl chess player under the age of 18 years. There are certain requirements which need to be fulfilled in order to be eligible for the scholarship. These are mentioned in the article. MK Govindraj always supported kids from poor background for their education. He passed away at the age of 54, but his daughter Anitha and son-in-law Jagadeesh carry on the tradition. So, what are you waiting for? If you fit the bill, fill the Google form to win the Scholarship of Rs.50,000!

Know your Commonwealth Champions!

10/07/2018 -

On the final day of the Commonwealth Championships 2018, IM Sagar Shah moved around the playing hall with his Samsung Note 8 and a microphone to interview some of the best talents of Indian chess - the Commonwealth Champions 2018. In all 17 Champions were decided that day - 14 age category winners, open champion, women's champion and senior's champion. However, the focus was more on the young winners. They are the ones who have the capability to change the future of Indian chess. In this article you can enjoy over 100 minutes of video with the Commonwealth Champions! 

Innovators Chess Academy earn huge victories in ACL 1st Super League 2018

09/07/2018 -

The inception behind Academy Chess League was to bring all kids together and battle against the top academies to improve. Trainers get the practice games ready to analyze and help out the game. Bengaluru has the maximum number of teams participating in this 1st Super League 2018. So it's bound to be that Bengaluru teams will eventually face each other. Innovators Chess Academy is one such academy that has proved to win by huge margins against other academies in round 1. This report contains results of round 1 in unrated category and a few interesting position arising out of the game. Photo: Sushrutha Reddy/Innovators Chess Academy

How I became the ACO World Amateur Champion

08/07/2018 -

He was the only unrated player in the field, the rest were all rated between 1600-1800. Ashwin Subramanian is an engineering manager in Intel Corporation. Even at the age of 40, being unrated, he still harboured the ambitions of getting better at chess. He took part in the ACO World Amateur Championships and won the event with a score of 7.5/9. Usually you get to see one or two games of a person winning a tournament, but here Ashwin was kind enough to share with us not only all of his games, but also the lessons he learnt from them. Along with it we also tell you about the chess journey of this highly dedicated individual.

Praggnanandhaa gives a major scare to Wesley So at the Leon Masters 2018

08/07/2018 -

It was one of Praggnanandhaa's biggest tests after becoming a GM. He was invited to the Leon Masters 2018 to fight it out in the four game rapid match against Wesley So. Many people thought that it would be a complete rout. But the 12-year-old surprised one and all by his inspired play. He beat Wesley So in game one and after three games the score was tied at 1.5-1.5. In the last game So showed his superior understanding and advanced to the finals. Praggnanandhaa lost the match, but won many hearts. We have detailed game analysis, quotes from Vishy Anand, Wesley So and RB. Ramesh. 

CBIJ #07: The Triumphant Winners of National U-13

07/07/2018 -

This week's edition of CBIJ, (ChessBase India Juniors) brings to you the latest coverage in the juniors world. Praggnanandhaa finally becomes India's youngest and the world's second youngest Grandmaster at 12 years 10 months and 13 days. The all important national under-13 was held in Ahmedabad Gujarat a few weeks ago. This article features interviews with the winners of Nationals U-13, Aaryan Varshney and WFM Dhyana Patel. Find out the winners of the Trivia. In our editor's pick, Avathanshu Bhat speaks about the various NO's of chess! Don't miss out this exciting edition of CBIJ!

The man who nurtured two prodigious talents from Nagpur

06/07/2018 -

The role of the first coach is highly critical in creating a world class chess player. That's because he is not just teaching the basics of the game, but laying the foundation and igniting the love for the game, that may or may not last forever. A seed that is planted in the right way and nurtured properly results in a tree with strong roots and great height. Rahul Joshi is a chess coach in Nagpur and the founder of Anand Chess Acadmy. His core competence lies in laying down the foundation for young talents who come to train under him. A few years ago two toddlers came to him to learn chess, and today they are the best talents of India. Read on to know who they are, and how Rahul is able to bring the best out of young chess players. 

Dramatic result in Group B of Unrated Category in ACL 1st Super League 2018

05/07/2018 -

We all know that team championship means anything can happen. At the conclusion of round 1 in Unrated category of Group B teams, all four teams finished at the exact same match point as well as game point. Chess Gurukul Seniors, d'pawn Chess Academy, ICA Pups and Pioneer Chess School, all are at the same position. d'pawn Chess Academy has shown outstanding enthusiasm, they got 3 matches in different categories out of 8 league matches. So far they all managed to turn up in every single game and sometimes they also watch their future opponents' game to understand what they are going to face. Let's take a look at what happened in Group B in this pictorial report and a cute video.

P. Karthikeyan and Tania Sachdev are the Commonwealth Champion 2018

05/07/2018 -

It was an exciting final day at the Commonwealth Championships 2018. At the end of penultimate round we had four leaders with a score of 6.5/8. P. Karthikeyan was the only one who won his game. With 7.5/9, he became the Commonwealth Champion. Tania Sachdev scored 6.0/9 and took the women's title. Including all the age group medals and senior medals, there were 51 at stake. India won 47 medals. One gold went to Sri Lanka for under-16, One gold to Bangladesh for under-8 and one gold and a bronze to South Africa and Bangladesh in the seniors section. ChessBase India brings you the entire coverage of the last day of Commonwealth 2018.

A chat with the world's second youngest Grandmaster, R Praggnanandhaa

05/07/2018 -

India's beloved chess star, R Praggnanandhaa was recently coronated with the Grandmaster title at the Gredine Open in Italy. Besides scoring his final grandmaster norm with a round to spare, the little champ also finished joint first in the tournament alongside GM Ivan Saric. But this success came after a dismal finish at the Schaakweek Apeldoorn where he had finished at the bottom of the leaderboard. In this interview, he tells how he remains confident despite setbacks, his meet with Vishy Anand and his love for sambhar and rice over pizza. | Photo: Arun Sekhar

16 Commonwealth Champions will be decided today!

03/07/2018 -

A lot is at stake in the final round of the Commonwealth Championships 2018. We will have two Champions in the open section - the open winner and women's top player. Apart from this we have 14 age categories! In all 48 medals are at stake. Last rounds are always very stressful. Only one player has successfully confirmed her gold medal and that's Tejaswini Sagar in the under-18 girls section. In this report we bring you all the action from the penultimate round. Apart from that we also have impressions from the Jacob Aagaard lecture that was held on the 2nd of July, absolutely free of cost for all the participants. Photos by Amruta Mokal, write up and videos by Sagar Shah.

Videos and Photos from Commonwealth Championship 2018

02/07/2018 -

Sagar Shah is moving around the tournament with his tangled wired microphone and Samsung Note 8. Amruta Mokal is moving around the playing venue with her Canon 1200D and Sony A7M2. Both of them are generating tremendous amounts of high quality content in videos and photos which are a pleasure to the eyes as well as food for thought for your brain. In this article we will skip the traditional method of our reports with games and analysis and bring you some of the photos and videos captured on the seventh day of this championship! 

And we are off! The 1st Super League of ACL begins!

02/07/2018 -

For the first time in the history of Indian Chess, over 50 teams from various academies across India and players from five different countries, Colombo, Oman, Sri Lanka, USA and India are taking part in an online team chess championship. The tournament started off on 1st July 2018 with four matches, one match from each of the rating category. Dynamic Chess Academy, d'pawn Chess Academy, Matrix Chess Academy and PKCCE were the victorious teams on day 1 of round 1 of Academy Chess League's - 1st Super League 2018. Let's take a look at what exactly happened on the very first day of this unique initiative.