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Laxman R R wins 1st BNKU Chess Festival Blitz Rating Open 2024

13/11/2024 -

GM Laxman R R, IM Ravi Teja S and IM P Saravana Krishnan scored 8/9 each at 1st Bharatiya Naveena Kreeda Utsav Chess Festival Blitz Rating Open 2024. Laxman won the tournament on tie-breaks. Ravi and Saravana secured second and third place respectively according to tie-breaks. Only Laxman remained undefeated. The total prize fund of the festival was ₹1500009, for Blitz rating it was ₹200000. The top three prizes were ₹25000, ₹15000 and ₹10000 along with a trophy each. The one-day blitz rating open was organized by BNKU Foundation at Icon Public School in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh on 26th October 2024. This was Laxman's fifth tournament triumph of the year. Photo: IA Ammineni Uday Kumar Naidu

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

Magnus Carlsen returns to Kolkata after almost five years at Tata Steel India Rapid and Blitz 2024

12/11/2024 -

Tata Steel Chess India is the strongest and biggest Rapid and Blitz tournament to take place in India. For the first time, Men's and Women's events will take place simultaneously at the same time. Just like the last two years, both men and women's section will have equal prize fund of US$ 41500. The five-day Rapid and Blitz tournament will feature 20 of the world's best including the World no.1 - Magnus Carlsen who returned to Kolkata after almost five years. The remaining players are: Men - Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB), Wesley So (USA), Arjun Erigaisi, Daniil Dubov, Nihal Sarin, R Praggnanandhaa, Vidit Gujrathi, Vincent Keymer and S L Narayanan. Women - GM Alexandra Kosteniuk (SUI), GM Aleksandra Goryachkina, GM Koneru Humpy, GM Kateryna Lagno, GM Nana Dzagnidze (GEO), GM Harika Dronavalli, IM Divya Deshmukh, GM Valentina Gunina, GM R Vaishali and IM Vantika Agrawal. Round 1 starts tomorrow at 2 p.m. IST. Photos: Shahid Ahmed

Anirudhha Potawad receives Rs. 50,001 under the Gopal and Shilpa Ved Scholarship

12/11/2024 -

Many talented young chess players in India struggle financially to pursue their dreams due to the high costs associated with the game. These costs can include high-level coaching, travel expenses, tournament fees, technical needs or other. That’s why the HelpChess Foundation was established in 2018 to provide support to such players. We connect the donors and recipients in a transparent manner after doing a thorough background check. Recently, Mumbai-based chess enthusiast Manan Ved contributed Rs. 50,001 to Anirudhha Potawad under the ‘Gopal and Shilpa Ved Scholarship’. This help will put Anirudhha one step closer to achieving his dream of becoming an IM. Read the article to know more.

Karthikeyan Murali magnificent at Hoogeveen Open 2024 with a 2833 performance, Sankalp Gupta third

12/11/2024 -

Top seed GM Karthikeyan Murali scored an unbeaten 8.5/9 to win Hoogeveen Open 2024. He finished a whopping 1.5 points ahead of the field with a 2833 performance. IM Nico Zwirs (NED) scored sole 7/9 to secure second place. GM Sankalp Gupt and IM Manuel Bosboom (NED) scored 6.5/9 each. Sankalp finished third and Manuel fourth according to tie-breaks. Sankalp was also the only player to draw with the eventual champion, Karthikeyan. The top three prizes were €3000 + trophy, €2000 and €1500. The eight-day nine round rating open tournament organized by Stichting Schaaktoernooi Hoogeveen at Town Hall in Hoogeveen, Netherlands from 27th October to 2nd November 2024. This was Karthikeyan's first tournament triumph of the year. Photo: Frans Peeters / Hoogeveen Open

Kaustuv Kundu wins 1st BNKU Chess Festival Rapid Rating Open 2024

12/11/2024 -

Five players - IM Kaustuv Kundu, IM Kushagra Mohan, GM Venkatesh M R, IM Neelash Saha and IM P Saravana Krishnan scored 8/9 each at 1st Bharatiya Naveena Kreeda Utsav Chess Festival Rapid Rating Open 2024. Kaustuv won the tournament on tie-breaks. The remaining four were placed second to fifth respectively according to tie-breaks. Top four remained undefeated. The total prize fund of the festival was ₹1500009, for Rapid rating it was ₹300000. The top three prizes were ₹50000, ₹20000 and ₹10000 along with a trophy each. The one-day rapid rating open was organized by BNKU Foundation at Icon Public School in Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh on 27th October 2024. This was Kaustuv's fifth rating tournament triumph of the year. Photo: IA Ammineni Uday Kumar Naidu

Aravindh Chithambaram ascends 2nd Chennai Grand Masters with a photo finish, Arjun Erigaisi third

11/11/2024 -

Aravindh Chithambaram won 2nd Chennai Grand Masters 2024 in a photo finish. He needed a win in the final round to put himself in the conversation for the first place. Levon Aronian drew his game quickly with M Amin Tabatabaei. Aravindh needed to win and hope for Arjun to draw. It is exactly what happened. Aravindh defeated Parham Maghsoodloo with his sheer will and determination. Arjun could not manage to win against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, despite having two queens on the board. Of course, it was not easy. All three - Aravindh, Aronian and Arjun ended with 4.5/7. Aronian defeated Arjun in Playoffs by winning Armageddon. He drew it with black pieces. However, Aravindh utilized all his experience of playing 14 rounds of Blitz at 10th Gashimov Memorial, vanquished Aronian in both games to become the champion. What an amazing performance by Aravindh. This definitely marks the 'Age of Aravindh Chithambaram'. Photos: Aditya Sur Roy and Anmol Bhargav

Harikrishnan dominates First Move Rapid Rating Open 2024

11/11/2024 -

Top seed IM Harikrishnan A Ra scored an unbeaten 8.5/9 to win First Move Rapid Rating Open 2024. He finished a half point ahead of the rest. Arpith S Bijoy, IM Hari Madhavan N B, Vinayak Kulkarni and Chinmay Kowshik scored 8/9 each. They were placed second, third and fourth respectively according to tie-breaks. The top three remained undefeated. The total cash prize fund was ₹400000. The top three prizes were ₹30000, ₹25000 and ₹20000 along with a trophy each. The two-day rapid rating open was organized by First Move Chess Academy at Kautilya Vidyalaya Group of Institutions in Mysore, Karnataka on 26th and 27th October 2024. Harikrishnan also won the Blitz Open. This was his 11th and 12th tournament triumph of the year. Photo: Bharath M / First Move Chess Academy

2nd Chennai GM R6: Aravindh Chithambaram astounds World no.2, Arjun Erigaisi

10/11/2024 -

India's first and only triple crown National champion, Aravindh Chithambaram defeated the infallible, Arjun Erigaisi. Aravindh is known to be a difficult opponent for Arjun in recent times especially in Classical events. After making five draws, Aravindh was determined to break the streak. The World no.2 played the role of aggressor. However, he was unable to find anything substantial. His opponent found a beautiful which involved an optional bishop sacrifice. Arjun declined it and his position fell apart. Vidit Gujrathi missed a winning chance against Levon Aronian. Both Arjun and Aronian are now at 4/6 each, followed by Aravindh and M Amin Tabatabaei at 3.5/6 each. It goes without saying that the 2nd Chennai Grand Masters is going to have an exciting finish. Round 7 starts tomorrow at 11 a.m. IST. Photos: Anmol Bhargav and Himank Ghosh

Mitrabha Guha dominates 1st Birsa Munda Rapid and Blitz Rating Open 2024

10/11/2024 -

Top seed GM Mitrabha Guha scored 8.5/9 and 9/9 to win 1st Birsa Munda Rapid and Blitz Rating Open 2024. In Rapid, Mitrabha finished a half point ahead of the competition, whereas in Blitz, his perfect score put him a full point ahead of the rest. Kumar Gaurav scored sole 8/9 to secure second place. Anustoop Biswas, Sudhir Kumar Sinha and Jagdish Barik scored 7.5/9 each. They were placed third, fourth and fifth respectively. Top three remained undefeated. In Blitz, GM Saptarshi RoyChowdhury, Sudhir and Kumar scored 8/9 each. They secured second to fourth place respectively. The total prize fund was ₹300000, ₹200000 in Rapid and ₹100000 in Blitz. The top three prizes in Rapid were ₹31000, ₹21000 and ₹15000. For Blitz they were, ₹15000, ₹10000 and ₹8000. This was Mitrabha's 16th and 17th tournament triumph of the year.

Two Knights Talk: Matthias Wüllenweber on the functions and novelties of ChessBase 18

10/11/2024 -

In the latest episode of their weekly show "Two Knights Talk" Arne Kähler and Johannes Fischer invited Matthias Wüllenweber to talk about the possibilities and new features of ChessBase 18, which will be released in a few days. Then they came back to the topic of cheating, since the Australian grandmaster David Smerdon presented an interesting experiment a few days ago in the C-Squared podcast by Cristian Chirila and Fabiano Caruana: the first 'cheating tournament' in chess history. ChessBase 18 is available to pre-order now. It will release in two days on 12th November 2024. Pre-Order discount of 10% is applicable on all ChessBase 18 and Mega Database 2025 products. Photo: ChessBase

2nd Chennai GM R5: Perfect Parham denies Arjun a hat-trick, Aronian maintains his chase

09/11/2024 -

Parham Maghsoodloo (IRI) played perfect chess to deny Arjun Erigaisi a hat-trick of wins at 2nd Chennai Grand Masters. He is still in the sole lead 4/5. Levon Aronian (USA) played another great game to beat Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA). The World Blitz 2021 winner made a strange anti-positional knight exchange after which his position went downhill. Aronian positionally outplayed him beautifully. Vidit Gujrathi had a well contested draw against M Amin Tabatabaei (IRI). Aravindh Chithambaram drew his fifth consecutive game at this event. This time against Alexey Sarana (SRB). In the Challenger section, Raunak Sadhwani halted Pranav Venkatesh's winning streak. Leon Luke Mendonca salvaged a draw against Pranesh M. Round 6 starts tomorrow at 3 p.m. IST. Photos: Anmol Bhargav

Mayank Chakraborty wins 1st Kingdom of Chess Rating Open 2024

09/11/2024 -

Eight players - IM Mayank Chakraborty, IM Subhayan Kundu, Naitik R Mehta, IM Ameya Audi, FM Arun Kataria, CM Madhvendra Pratap Sharma, IM Sanket Chakravarty, IM and Shahil Dey scored 7.5/9 each 1st Kingdom of Chess Rating Open 2024. Mayank won the tournament on tie-breaks. The remaining seven were placed second to eighth respectively according to tie-breaks. They secured second to eighth place respectively according to tie-breaks. Sourabh Mhamane was the only player to beat the eventual winner, Mayank. The total prize fund was ₹1501000. The top three prizes were ₹111000, ₹71000 and ₹51000 along with a trophy each. This was Mayank's seventh tournament triumph of the year. Photo: Kingdom of Chess

New: ChessBase Magazine #222

09/11/2024 -

2024 Chess Olympiad: Double gold for India! Analyses by Abdusattorov, Aronian, Giri, So and many more - ‘Special’: Dorian Rogozenco gets to the bottom of India's dominance at the Olympiad in four video analyses - ‘All in One’ on the modern Evans Gambit: Tanmay Srinath dissects Carlsen's victory over Anand after 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bc4 Bc5 4.b4!? - ‘Biting the opening dust’: Oliver Reeh's tactics column with 39 games and four interactive videos is all about early fiascos! - ‘Action in the Spanish Exchange Variation’: Evgeny Postny examines 5.0-0 Bg4 6.h3 h5 7.d3 Qf6 8.Nbd2 g5!? - and much more! Photo: ChessBase

What happens when Chess and Spirituality meet? Madara Golsta’s life-changing decision

09/11/2024 -

We always hear about making calculated and precise moves on the chessboard. But sometimes, the most important moves are made off the board. These moves get us control over the game of life. They might lead to discoveries that we never anticipated! Madara Golsta, a chess player from Latvia has a story that reveals how powerful these off-board moves can be. From competing in prestigious tournaments to discovering the power of spirituality, her path took an unexpected turn. She stepped away from her chess dreams to embark on a journey of yoga and meditation. This biggest change has brought clarity and strength to her life. Read on to learn how she redefined success by making a big move within. Photo: Madara Golsta

2nd Chennai GM R4: Arjun Erigaisi plays outstanding to trounce Tabatabaei, emerges sole leader

08/11/2024 -

Arjun Erigaisi is not showing any intention of slowing down after becoming World no.2 in live ratings. He played his signature swashbuckling chess, throwing M Amin Tabatabaei (IRI) off the track early in the middlegame. He made a very nice practical bishop sacrifice. It did not yield him the point immediately, that's obvious at that level. However, eventually his opponent cracked under pressure in the endgame and lost the game. This win moved Arjun's live rating to 2809.3. Aravindh Chithambaram made a quick 17-move draw against Levon Aronian (USA). Vidit Gujrathi had a well contested draw against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave (FRA). Pranav Venkatesh defeated R Vaishali to maintain perfect score 4/4. He is now a full point ahead of the competition. Round 5 starts tomorrow at 3 p.m. IST. Photos: Anmol Bhargav

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