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Avinash Ramesh increases 491 Elo points in six months, recovers from COVID-19 and becomes India's latest IM

01/01/2022 -

17-year-old Avinash Ramesh started the year 2021 with a rating 1933. After his tenth standard board exams got over, he devoted 10-12 hours per day on chess which instilled belief in his parents to take him for tournaments in Italy, Serbia and Hungary. After scoring his first IM-norm and crossing 2400, he was struck with the deadly COVID-19 virus. He recovered from it and scored the remaining two IM-norms in two consecutive events in just 20 days. Avinash's willpower and dedication for chess allowed him to make a fierce comeback and become India's latest International Master on 23rd December 2021. Check out Avinash's not-so-easy road towards IM title with inputs from his mother Vijayalakshmi Ramesh.

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Back to the Board with IIFL Wealth

31/12/2021 -

The sixth season of IIFL Wealth Mumbai International Open and Junior (Under-13) Chess Tournament started yesterday at the World Trade Center. The gala tournament of Mumbai is back after skipping the last year due to Covid-19 pandemic. The total prize fund of the tournament is ₹ 5 lacs, ₹2.5 lacs each in Open and Junior section. The tournament director IO FA FT Praful Zaveri whose brainchild is this event, decided to take baby steps and instead of going for five-six events and make it a chess festival like we have seen in previous editions, he decided to go for Open and Under-13 event only. Photo: Praful Zaveri

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Bibisara Assaubayeva are the World Blitz 2021 champions

31/12/2021 -

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave ended Levon Aronian's fantastic momentum in Round 17 and tied three-way for the first place along with Jan-Krzyzstof Duda (POL) and fellow countryman, Alireza Firouzja. As per tournament regulations, only top two according to the tie-break had to play the Playoffs. MVL beat Duda 2-1 in the Playoffs to win his first world title, World Blitz 2021. Previous day leader, 17-year-old IM Bibisara Assaubayeva continued her dominance as she won the World Blitz Women 2021 with a round to spare and finished 1.5 points ahead of the competition. The cash prize for top three were US$ 60000, 50000 and 40000 in Rapid and Blitz event each respectively. There will be separate overviews of Indian performances in both Rapid and Blitz event. Photo: Lennart Ootes/FIDE

New: ChessBase Magazine #205

31/12/2021 -

The "Special" in the new ChessBase Magazine #205 is dedicated to Robert Huebner, the best German player since Emanuel Lasker: an exclusive collection of 16 games, with analyses by Michal Krasenkow, Romain Edouard, Viktor Moskalenko, and others. And there's the best of the FIDE Grand Swiss 2021: tournament winner Alireza Firouzja annotates his victory against Nijat Abasov, and Grigoriy Oparin, Yu Yangyi, Alexandr Predke, Samuel Sevian, Nikita Vitiugov, and others annotate their best games. In a video Markus Ragger reveals a brand-new update in the Gruenfeld Defence with 5.Bd2. Plus 11 opening articles ("Surprise in the London System: 6...e5!", "Benko Gambit with open centre: 5.b6 e6!?", "News in the French Tarrasch: 8...g5" ), as well as training columns on tactics, strategy and endgame. Photo: ChessBase

World Blitz 2021 Day 1: Arjun Erigaisi draws with Magnus Carlsen, Vaishali and Humpy eye the title

30/12/2021 -

Arjun Erigaisi and Vaishali R are the Indian players who had a fantastic first day in World Blitz 2021 Open and Women's section respectively. While Arjun scored a uber impressive 8.5/12, Vaishali was no less 7.5/9. She is just a half point behind the leader IM Bibisara Assaubayeva (KAZ). Humpy is also in the title fray 7.0/9. She will face the newly crowned World Women's Rapid 2021 winner, Kosteniuk in the next round. Magnus has already lost three games. The last time he lost three or more games at World Blitz was back in 2015 which Grischuk won. Abhimanyu Puranik is so far the only person who has beaten the sole leader, Levon Aronian 10.0/12. Who do you think will win World Blitz 2021 in Open and Women's section? Final day of World Blitz 2021 starts today at 6:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Anna Shtourman/FIDE

Abdusattorov and Kosteniuk are World Rapid Champions 2021

29/12/2021 -

Nodirbek Abdusattorov created history by beating Carlsen, Aronian, Caruana, Wojtaszek and becoming the youngest ever World Rapid Champion in the history of chess at the age of 17 years. Ian Nepomniachtchi, who lost the playoff blitz match against Abdusattorov, took home the silver medal. Magnus Carlsen won the bronze. In the women's section Alexandra Kosteniuk dominated from the start and became the Champion with 9.0/11. Second place went to Kazakh player Bibisara Assaubayeva and third was taken by Valentina Gunina.

Aronyak Ghosh clinches 3rd SDDM Cup All Bengal Open Rapid 2021

29/12/2021 -

IM Aronyak Ghosh scored an unbeaten 8.5/9 to finish a full point ahead of the competition and win 3rd SDDM Cup 2021. Four players - Pradip Ghosh, IM Koustav Chatterjee, Rupankar Nath and Alekhya Mukhopadhyay scored 7.5/9 each. They were placed second to fourth according to tie-breaks. It is one of the few tournaments which is organized by a Chess Division of a Municipality, South Dum Dum to be exact. Total prize fund of the event was ₹200000 with entry being only ₹600. The objective of the event is for maximum chess players to take part and they managed to achieve as 253 players took part in it. Check out few games of Aronyak which was shared with us. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

New: The 4 Player Types standard model by Luis Engel and Karsten Müller

28/12/2021 -

Playing styles in chess are an important and thus often discussed topic. GM Dr. Karsten Müller and GM Luis Engel take up a model by GM Lars Bo Hansen based on 4 player types – namely ‘activists’, ‘pragmatics’, ‘theoreticians’ and so-called ‘reflectors’. Their respective strengths and weaknesses are explained with the help of many examples, enabling the reader to try and assign himself or herself to one or the other player type. Do you know what type of player you are? Are you trying to figure out what type of player your probable opponents are, to prepare better? This DVD will certainly help you to determine it. Photo: ChessBase

World Rapid 2021 Day 1: Extreme Chess!

27/12/2021 -

The World Rapid and Blitz 2021 kicked off on 26th of December at the Narodowy stadium in Warsaw, Poland with a total of 279 players - 176 in the open and 103 in women. At the end of day one we have three leaders in the open section - Carlsen, Jobava and Duda on 4.5/5, and in the women' section we have Kosteniuk and Gunina on a 100% score. For Indians the best performers of the day were Vaishali, who beat Kashlinskaya and Mariya Muzychuk and Harsha Bharathakoti who scored 3.5/5 only losing to World Champion Magnus Carlsen. Thumbnal image by Lennart Ootes.

IM Muthaiah Al dominates Torpedoes Rashmi Shetti Memorial All India Rapid Rating Open 2021

27/12/2021 -

IM Muthaiah Al of Tamil Nadu, scored eight consecutive victories before drawing his final round game against IM Ratnakaran K of Railways, as it was enough to win Torpedoes Rashmi Shetti Memorial All India Rapid Rating Open 2021. Karnataka's very own, IM Viani Antonio Dcunha scored 8.0/9 with a no-draw approach to secure second position. Three players IM Harikirshnan A Ra (TN), IM Ratnakaran K and 14-year-old Gokulakrishna S (TN) scored 7.5/9 each. They were placed third to fifth according to tie-breaks. Muthaiah won ₹30000 cash, Viani got ₹20000 and Harikrishnan ₹10000. Total cash prize ₹200000 and 159 trophies were given as prize including top three. Photo: Babu J Poojary

A preview of the World Rapid and Blitz 2021

26/12/2021 -

After extensive coverage at the World Championship 2021 in Dubai, the ChessBase India team has made its way to Warsaw, Poland for the coverage of the World Rapid and Blitz 2021. The tournament is going to being from the 26th of December 2021 (3 p.m. local time). IM Sagar Shah brings you a preview, that gives you information about the players who are taking part, the format, schedule, prize money and more. We also bring you a lot of exclusive pictures and videos from the venue. Not to miss the Polish Quiz that Sagar tested some of the top players with!

Sriram Jha wins 1st Chhindwara All India Rapid Rating Open

26/12/2021 -

Top seed of the tournament, GM Sriram Jha of LIC, scored an unbeaten 8.0/9 along with IM Himal Gusain at 1st Chhindwara All India Open Rapid Rating. Sriram won the tournament due to better tie-break score, Himal was placed second. Madhya Pradesh's very own, IM Anuj Shrivatri secured third place 7.5/9, edging past Harish Sharma on tie-breaks. The tournament had the total prize fund of ₹100000 with the first prize being ₹21000 cash and a trophy. It took place on 11th and 12th December at Parasia, Chhindwara, Madhya Pradesh. This is Sriram Jha's first triumph since he won Nagoya Open in Japan in November 2019. Check out a pictorial report of this tournament. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Deep Sengupta triumphs 18th Vandoeuvre Open 2021

25/12/2021 -

India's 22nd GM Deep Sengupta scored an unbeaten 7.0/9 to win 18th Vandoeuvre Open 2021. Four players - GM Deep Sengupta, GM Sergey Fedorchuk (UKR), IM Pierre Laurent-Paoli (FRA) and GM MarcAndria Maurizzi (ITA) finished with the same score. They were placed first to fourth according to tie-breaks. Deep drew against all of them. He won a beautiful trophy and €1500 (approx. ₹1.28 lacs) as his first prize. IM Arghyadip Das and IM Sayantan Das were the only two other Indians to finish in top 10. They scored 6.5/9, secured eighth and ninth place respectively. WIM Isha Sharma, the sole Indian woman taking part in this event, won the Best Woman prize. Photo: Official site

Raahul V S and Savitha Shri B win Gold at Asian Junior Open and Girls 2021

24/12/2021 -

The reigning AICF National Junior Online 2021 champions, IM Raahul V S and WIM Savitha Shri B are now the Asian Junior Open and Girls 2021 champion. They performed identically as they took sole lead after the fourth round and remained unbeaten throughout the event. Raahul scored 7.5/9 and Savitha 7.0/9 to clinch their respective Gold medals. GM Mitrabha Guha 7.0/9 and IM Harshavardhan G B 6.5/9 had to settle for Silver and Bronze medals respectively. WIM Priyanka K 6.5/9 secured Silver medal due to better tie-breaks. Raahul also won Gold in Blitz, Savitha got Silver and Priyanka bagged Bronze in the Blitz girls event. Photo: IM Suvrajit Saha

Abdusattorov clinches 8th Sunway Sitges Open 2021 in Playoffs, Abhimanyu Puranik third

24/12/2021 -

Abhimanyu Puranik beat Ivan Cheparinov (BUL) in the Armageddon Playoffs to secure third position in 8th Sunway Sitges Open 2021. Nodirbek Abdusattorov (UZB) beat Dmitrij Kollars 1.5-0.5 in the Playoff Finals to clinch the first place. Abdusattorov earned €5000 and a beautiful trophy, Kollars got richer by €3000 and Abhimanyu received €1500 as their prize. Sethuraman, Nihal and Arjun Erigaisi are the remaining Indians who finished in top ten. Dhananjay S was the highest placed finisher among untitled players. He scored an impressive 6.5/10. WIM Sakshi Chitlange 6.0/10 was the best placed woman among Indians. Photo: Niklesh Jain

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