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Chessable Masters: Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi in the Semi-Finals

28/06/2020 -

It took a game each for both Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi to warm up in the second mini-match of Chessable Masters Quarter-Final. After that, both Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi won their next two games and hurriedly advanced to the Semi-Finals. However Caruana definitely had some initiative in the third game of the day. On the other hand, Artemiev had fantastic chances on both second and third game of his second mini-mach against Nepomniachtchi, unfortunately for him, he missed both of those opportunities. Semi-Finals will start on Tuesday 30th June. Giri will battle against Grischuk on Giri's 26th birthday and Ding Liren will try to capitalize his advantage over Nakamura.

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Chessable Masters Day 6: Giri wins without winning a single game!

27/06/2020 -

Anish Giri made six draws with Alexander Grischuk before they had to play an Armageddon game to the break the tie. Much like anyone's guess Giri opted for black and he drew that game too and managed to win their first mini-match in the Quarter-Finals of Chessable Masters. Although Giri was winning at one point in the Armageddon but he opted for the safer path as draw was enough to win the match as per Armageddon rules. Ding Liren defeated Hikaru Nakamura in their second game in the Quarter-Finals after Nakamura made a huge mistake in the final part. They drew the other two games thus resulting in Ding Liren winning their first mini-match. Both Grischuk and Nakamura have a surmountable task of winning the next two mini-matches to advance to the Semi-Finals. Carlsen-Caruana and Nepomniachtchi-Artemiev will play their second mini-matches of the Quarter-Finals today.

Vaishali loses in the Semi-Finals

27/06/2020 -

Vaishali's fantastic run at the FIDE chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship came to an end as she lost against former Women's World Champion Anna Ushenina by 4.5-5.5. The 19-year-old India no.3 woman should be proud of her performance at the GP as she played fantastic and at one point she was leading by 4-3 till the Blitz stage. She only faltered in the Bullet and we all know anything can happen in Bullet. Vaishali will be back in the next GP starting on July 1st. However in both GP 2 and 3, she will face the reigning Women's World Rapid Champion GM Koneru Humpy. In GP 4, she will face WGM Tatev Abrahamyan.

Priyanka Nutakki wins SPF Girls' Invitational Online and scholarship worth $60000

26/06/2020 -

17-year old WIM Priyanka Nutakki of Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh won her biggest online tournament on Sunday 21st June as she won her first Armageddon match ever against IM-elect WGM Anna Sargsyan of Armenia in SPF Girls' Invitational Online Championship 2020. She scored an unbeaten 6.5/7 in the Swiss league format then she prevailed Semi-Final and Final to win the event. She won $600 cash prize and a scholarship at Webster University worth $60000 along with an invitation to SPICE Cup which will take place in October 2020. In this article we get to know her mindset, what it means to win the tournament and more along with her best game annotated by the former National, Asian and World Youth Gold medalist Priyanka Nutakki herself.

Chessable Masters Quarter-Finals: Advantage Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi

26/06/2020 -

Carlsen and Nepomniachtchi beat Caruana and Artemiev respectively by 2.5-1.5 and won their first mini-match 1-0 in the Quarter-Finals. While Carlsen capitalized on Caruana's out of element play, drew their last game to win the first mini-match, Nepomniachtchi played some sharp chess in his first game and Artemiev to win using a combination. He beat Artemiev in the third game again after a probable mouse slip. There were a total of 66.67% decisive games on the first day of the Quarter-Finals. Both Caruana and Artemiev have a surmountable task of winning the next two mini-matches to advance to the Semi-Finals. Ding-Nakamura and Giri-Grischuk will play their mini-matches of Quarter-Finals today.

Late Shailesh Nerlikar Memorial Online Blitz Open on 27th June

26/06/2020 -

The chess world is filled with many brave souls, but none so courageous as Shailesh Nerlikar. Shailesh suffered from 100% physical disability and could not walk or even sit. However, he made the game of chess his world and excelled at it getting an initial FIDE rating of 1743 in 2006. In the year 2015 he represented India at the World Disabled Championships held in Germany. In 2018 Shailesh passed away at the age of just 41 years. In order to honour this amazing chess player Victorious Chess Academy run by Shailesh's good friend Kapil Lohana has come forward with an online blitz event on 27th of June 2020. We request the participation of chess players in huge numbers. Photo: Victorious Chess Academy

Vaishali storms into the Semi-Finals

26/06/2020 -

India no.3 WGM Vaishali R seemed to be in a hurry to get into the Semi-Finals of FIDE chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship as she won six consecutive games after losing the first game to take an unassailable lead of 6-1 which meant the result of the remaining four games wouldn't impact her opportunity at the Semi-Finals. Today 26th June at 6 pm onwards, Vaishali will face former Women's World Champion GM Anna Ushenina in what will be an interesting battle of the generations as she will be facing her toughest challenge in the event. Since she has beaten the likes of Gunina, Kashlinskaya on her way to the Semi-Finals, she has all the momentum and form on her side.

Letsup MCA GP Blitz 4 rescheduled to 1st July, Total Prize fund increased by 20%

25/06/2020 -

On Wednesday 24th June, something unusual happened. For the first time, we had to cancel a ChessBase India Online Blitz event as due to technical issues beyond our control, the tournament was not possible to be completed. So we had to cancel it. So when will Letsup MCA GP Blitz 4 take place? Same time on 1st July at 8 pm IST. And Blitz 5? On 8th July at 8 pm IST. We understand your valuable time and effort, thus to compensate the players we are adding an additional 20% of prize fund to the already announced prize. Total Prize fund for Blitz 4 will be ₹30000 and each prize will be increased by 20%. Those who have already registered for the event, need not do it again. Registration is open for others. Photo: MCA

A guide to using the Swiss Manager

25/06/2020 -

One of the most important softwares in the world of chess is the Swiss Manager. It is used for preparing pairings during a chess tournament. It is developed by Heinz Herzog and is FIDE approved. Currently 180 federations are using it and it has generated over 600,000 tournament files! Although Swiss Manager is user friendly, many of the arbiters and tournament organizers are not well versed with all its functions. Hence, IA Tania Karali from Greece decided to create a 51 page manual which covers all the functions of the Swiss Manager. It's completely free and the PDF document can be downloaded from the article. A great gesture by Tania for the chess community.

Vaishali in the Quarter-Finals of FIDE chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship

25/06/2020 -

India no.3 woman WGM Vaishali R defeated former Women's World Champion and wildcard of the event GM Antoaneta Stefanova by 6-5 to advance to the Quarter-Finals of FIDE chess.com Women's Speed Chess Championship. She will face WIM Turmunkh Munkhzul of Mongolia in the Quarter-Finals today at 6 pm IST. Reigning Women's World Rapid Champion Koneru Humpy is one of the nine seeded players and India no.2 woman GM Harika Dronavalli qualified to the WSCC Grand Prix by finishing in the top two of Qualifier 3 which was a 21-round Bullet (1+1) event where she whitewashed GM Valentina Gunina and IM Alina Kashlinskaya 2-0 each respectively to earn her spot in the GP. Photo: Amruta Mokal

New: Nicholas Pert - An attacking Repertoire with 1.d4

24/06/2020 -

The third volume of Nicholas Pert's 1.d4 repertoire concludes his trilogy. Pert shows how White can get promising positions against the King's Indian and the Grünfeld Defence, how White can counter offbeat openings by Black, and he also offers comprehensive analysis how to fight the Dutch, the Modern and the Pirc. Now is as good as any time to learn and strengthen the repertoire with 1.d4 against various openings. In case you didn't get the first two volumes, you should get them now to enrich your knowledge on how to deal with various openings and the resultant structures. English GM Nicholas Pert brings you the latest volume of 1.d4 repertoire which is available now. Photo: ChessBase

Chessable Masters Day 4: Anish Giri tops Group B

24/06/2020 -

Anish Giri surprised everyone by finishing at the top of Group B with 6.0/10. Ding Liren and Ian Nepomniachtchi both finished the group stage with 5.5/10 each respectively. The fourth qualifier from Group B was former World Championship Challenger Fabiano Caruana. Teimour Radjabov and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave got knocked-out of theee Chessable Masters. In the Quarter-finals, Carlsen will play against Caruana in a best of three rapid games knockout match. Quarter-finals will take place between 25th and 29th June. Wednesday 24th June is a rest day. Day 4 witnessed the maximum number of decisive games. Find out about all interesting moments and games. Photo: Amruta Mokal

Talk of the Universe: Ganguly in conversation with Anand

23/06/2020 -

Due to Covid-19 most of us are confined inside our home, some people are creating content, while some are watching them. Since there are so much to follow and watch, what to choose and what to skip? Well this past Saturday on 20th June, Arjuna Awardee and six-time consecutive National Champion GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly started his own series with the first guest on his debut episode as none other than the seven-time World Champion, the one and only Vishy Anand. Ganguly is a former second of Anand who helped Anand in numerous World Championships. But where did their journey begin? Only two episodes have come out so far but both of them are packed with stories as well as never-before-seen questions and preparations. Photo: Surya's youtube channel

Chessable Masters Day 3: Harikrishna holds Carlsen to a draw

23/06/2020 -

The preliminary stage games of Chessable Masters got over for Group A as Carlsen, Artemiev, Nakamura and Grischuk advance to the knockout stage in the Quarter-finals. Dubov and Harikrishna got knocked out of the tournament. Despite finishing at the bottom of the table, Harikrishna scored three impressive draws against Carlsen, Nakamura and Dubov on Day 3. Dubov scored a beautiful win over Artemiev and Nakamura defeated Dubov in the final group stage game of Group A to make sure he is out of the tournament. Group B will resume their tournament today where the battle is very close to call who will advance which is currently led by Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Anish Giri with 3.0/5 each respectively. Photo: Amruta Mokal

Abdusattorov wins Letsup MCA GP Blitz again

22/06/2020 -

World no.1 in Under-16 GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov won Letsup MCA GP Blitz 3 on 17th June with a score of 8.5/10. The tournament was the third of five events in the Grand Prix. Abdusattorov won ₹6500 cash prize for his efforts. The remaining podium finishers are GM Vaibhav Suri and winner of Blitz 1 GM Vugar Rasulov of Azerbaijan. They finished at 8.0/10 each and they were placed second and third respectively. Vaibhav maintained his lead of the GP standings with three consecutive podium finishes at 26/30 points, followed by Abdusattorov and Rasulov at second and third position with 21/30 and 18/30 points each respectively. In case you missed you the first three events, do not worry, you can still play the remaining two. Registration is on for Blitz 4 on 24th June.