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Raahul VS is the latest International Master of India

16/11/2021 -

18-year-old Raahul VS scored his first IM-norm back in March 2017 at  Sharjah Open. He scored his second IM-norm at Prague Open 2018 and in the next ten months, he scored his final IM-norm at 1st Goa GM Open. He reached 2381 in December 2018, but a few setbacks moved him further away from 2400. The Chennai lad played his last over-the-board tournament 4th Shaastra Rapid Rating in February 2020. The Covid-19 delayed his opportunity to fulfill the rating criteria. 14-months later he returned to Classical chess tournament. He scored his fourth and fifth IM-norm before crossing 2400 in the live ratings on Children's day, 14th November to become India's latest International Master. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

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Pranesh gets a boost for his GM title journey with October 2021 YouTube memberships fund

15/11/2021 -

Pranesh is one of the biggest talents in the country. The reason? The boy was born in 2006 and as on March 2020, he had an Elo of 2437, IM title and 1 GM norm. And this he did by playing most of his tournaments in India. Due to the pandemic its been 20 months since Pranesh played a rated game. Hailing from a humble background where his father is a Javuli worker and mother is an Anganwadi worker, Pranesh's GM dreams (2 GM norms and 63 Elo points left) need financial backing. That's the reason why the October fund of our YouTube memberships of Rs.62,194 goes to Pranesh for his upcoming Europe trip. Rs.45,000 are contributed by Prakhar Gupta and the total amount comes to Rs.1,07,194. 

My first ever ‘first’ place (U-1600) in an OTB event

14/11/2021 -

NCS Japan’s official over-the-board event in Tokyo area resumed with the Halloween Rapid Tournament after almost seven months. Full participation and a lot of fun games ensued. It was a one-day rapid tournament which took place on 24th October, a week before Halloween. Mayur Gondhalekar, currently residing in Japan, a chess enthusiast who loves to play chess and follow the sport, writes his experience after winning his first ever over-the-board tournament in under-1600 category. He also shares a picturesque checkmate which he did on the board and shares a few games from the event. For those who are yet to attend an otb event, there is a very nice video made by WCM Natsumi Kojima which shares dos and don'ts of visiting and spectating tournament games.

New: ChessBase Magazine #204

13/11/2021 -

The new ChessBase Magazine #204 dedicates its "Special" to the strongest female chess player of all time: Judit Polgar! The CBM authors annotate their favourite games of the attacking artist, Mihail Marin shows her great strategic skills and Karsten Müller shows her virtuosity in the endgame. The issue also contains the best from the European Championship 2021 - with analyes by the new Champion Anton Demchenko, Viktor Erdos, Daniel Fridman, Nils Grandelius, Maxime Lagarde, Aleksei Sarana, Ivan Saric and others. In his first opening video for the magazine, Austrian GM Markus Ragger presents an idea of World Champion Magnus Carlsen in the 3.Bb5+ Sicilian. Plus 11 opening articles ("A clear attacking plan against the Rubinstein Variation: 7.Be3", "Modern and simple vs. the Najdorf: 7.Nf3/8.Bg5" etc.), as well as training columns on tactics, strategy and endgame. All in a new layout!. Photo: ChessBase

Nur-Sultan will host World Rapid and Blitz 2021

12/11/2021 -

FIDE World Rapid and Blitz championship is back after a yearlong hiatus due to Covid-19 pandemic. The eligibility criteria and total prize fund remains the same, however the total number of rounds in the Rapid format gets reduced to 13 in Open and 11 in Women, previously it was 15 and 12 respectively. The total number of rounds in Blitz remain unchanged. Magnus, Humpy and Lagno are the defending champions. They would definitely like to defend their titles. Among the Indians, it would be great to see Anand and Harikrishna return to the event along with Vidit, Adhiban, Narayanan, Nihal, Sasikiran, Ganguly, Arjun Erigaisi, Gukesh, Raunak, Harika and others. Photo: Alexey Tarakanov

Against All Odds - Marimuthu K and his inspiring story

12/11/2021 -

ChessBase India has a thriving YouTube channel with more than 100 videos being released each month. It is a rich place for chess education, learning and keeping yourself updated with all the happenings of the chess world. As a result a lot of people visit it and have become members of the channel by paying a fee. This membership amount each month is used to support a young talent and push him on his journey of chess improvement. In the month of September K. Marimuthu, one of India's top visually impaired chess players has been chosen. The youngster from Sivakasi gets Rs.68,907.

Nitish Belurkar becomes the latest International Master of India

12/11/2021 -

20-year-old Nitish Belurkar crossed 2400 in the live ratings on 9th November as he drew with GM Andrei Kovalev at First Saturday GM November 2021. The Goan lad scored his maiden IM-norm over five years ago, August 2016 in the Czech Republic. The second one in April 2019 at GM Third Saturday 110 in Novi Sad, Serbia. He reached his then peak rating of 2353 in June 2019. Then he earned his final IM-norm at 26th Abu Dhabi Open 2019. However, he was only missing the 2400 rating requirement until a few days ago. He made two more IM-norms before crossing 2400 in the live ratings to become India's latest International Master. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Raunak Sadhwani: The strongest under-16 player in the world

11/11/2021 -

Raunak Sadhwani gained 7 Elo points at the FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss 2021. This pumped up his Classical rating to 2616, thereby surpassing Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa to become the strongest 2600 in the world. The 15-year-old, who will turn 16 this December, is growing in strength every day and in this article you get to know some of the reasons why Raunak is constantly improving as a player. The boy has a single minded focus on his ambition and has built a strong core team of trainers and individuals who are helping him towards his eventual goal - to become the World Champion.

The First and Last Game of Mikhail Tal

11/11/2021 -

There is no chess player in the world that does not know or have never heard about Tal. He is genuinely famous for the absurd and miraculous queen sacrifice that he made out of nowhere. He had such a unique style of playing the game that at that time it was quite remarkable and to some extent, revolutionary. It had changed people’s perspectives. In this modern era, many people are attracted to the game only because somewhere they came across Tal’s game or seen his signature move, which is the queen's sacrifice. It was Tal's 85th birth anniversary on 9th November 2021. Ragib Shahriar writes on the maestro's first and last game. Photo: Ron Kroon/Anefo

Indian kids win 15 medals at Asian Youth 2021

10/11/2021 -

Indian kids shined brightly at Asian Youth Championships 2021. IMs Bharath Subramaniyam H and Pranav Anand, Pooja Shree R and Susmita Bhowmick are the Gold winners. Ananya Rajan P, WGM Divya Deshmukh, IM Aditya Mittal, and WFM Saina Salonika secured the Silver. Bronze winners are - Samhita Pungavanam, A Aarav, Ananya Raman, Atharav Singh Naruka, CM Bhavesh Mahajan, FM Aaryan Varshney and IM Anuj Shrivatri. India won the overall medal tally in the Girls section, while in the Open section, India finished second behind Vietnam. Check out the article for detailed rankings and games of the event. Photo: Amruta Mokal

Breaking News: Mitrabha Guha becomes India's 72nd Grandmaster

09/11/2021 -

20-year-old Mitrabha Guha scored his final GM-norm at GM Third Saturday Mix 220 as he defeated GM Nikola Sedlak (SRB) in the penultimate ninth round at Novi Sad, Serbia on 8th November 2021. He had already crossed the 2500 in the live ratings when he beat FM Aradhya Garg in the second round of the tournament. 13-days after scoring his second GM-norm at Sheikh Russel GM tournament in Bangladesh, Mitrabha became India's latest Grandmaster. He becomes Kolkata and West Bengal's ninth GM, the second ever from his childhood school South Point. Let's take a look at Mitrabha's journey towards the GM title. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Astounding Arjun Erigaisi finishes third in Lindores Abbey Blitz, now World no.31 in Blitz

09/11/2021 -

Kirill Shevchenko (UKR) made a strong comeback after losing three games in-a-row including two against Fabiano Caruana (USA). The Ukrainian finished the event 14.0/18, a half point ahead of the competition to win Lindores Abbey Blitz in honor of Mikhail Tal's 85th birth anniversary. Both Caruana and Arjun Erigaisi scored 13.5/18. The former once again secured second position, just like in Grand Swiss 2021. The most spectacular performance was of Arjun's as he started the event with nine consecutive wins, including two wins over Aronian, Howell, Mamedov and Korobov. He beat Caruana once and drew the duel. Arjun gained a massive 107 Elo rating points to become World no.31 in Blitz. Photo: Mark Livshitz/FIDE

Harikrishnan and Neelash win Pursue your Chess Scholarship-3, get Rs.50,000 each

09/11/2021 -

On 7th of November 2021, India got its 71st GM in Sankalp Gupta and on 9th of November 2021 India got its 72nd GM in Mitrabha Guha. The country has a lot of youngsters who are extremely talented, but do not have the funds or the means to single mindedly achieve their dream of becoming a GM. That is where the HelpChess Foundation has been helping the youngsters. One of the long standing scholarships of the foundation, which is into its 3rd edition is Pursue your Chess Scholarship instituted by Ashwin Subramanian. This year the amount of Rs.1,00,000 is split between two young IMs of the country Harikrishnan and Neelash Saha. Read on to know more about this scholarship and the recipients.

India and Asia no.1 in under-11: Mayank Chakraborty

08/11/2021 -

From 1838 in August 2021, Mayank Chakraborty has gained 347 Elo points in the last couple of months when he travelled to Europe, to reach 2185. He is now India and Asia no.1 and world no.6 in the Elo rankings of boys born on or after 2009. The 11-year-old from Assam is a pure natural talent, as all that he achieved in chess has been done without individual training. In this article you get to know the youngster better. You also get to see a couple of his games annotated by the lad himself. This will give you a better understanding with regards to his playing style. 

Fiery Firouzja clinches FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss 2021, Qualifies to the Candidates with Caruana

08/11/2021 -

Alireza Firouzja drew his final round game against Grigoriy Oparin to win FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss 2021. He has qualified to the FIDE Candidates 2022 along with Fabiano Caruana who also drew his game and finished second. The third to eighth place finishers secured their place in the FIDE Grand Prix. They are - Oparin, Yangyi, Keymer, Vachier-Lagrave, Predke and Shirov. GM Tingjie Lei was already the winner of the first Women's Grand Swiss. Elisabeth Paehtz secured second position, by winning her last round game, she became a Grandmaster, more than a decade after securing her first GM-norm. WGM Jiner Zhu was placed third. Harika and Nihal are the highest placed finishers among Indians. Photo: Mark Livshitz/FIDE

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