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The secret behind Samuel Shankland's performance at the FIDE World Cup 2021

29/07/2021 -

Samuel Shankland's run at the FIDE World Cup 2021 has been quite amazing. He has beaten Jobava, Areshchenko, Jumabayev, Svidler and is now very close to eliminating Sergey Karjakin. How did the American GM become so strong all of a sudden? While for some it might be a sudden surge in form, for Sam Shankland and his long standing trainer Jacob Aagaard this is the logical result of several years of hardwork. In this article we try to reveal to you one of the most important elements of Sam's success.

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FIDE World Cup 2021 R5 TB: Carlsen wins an epic match against Esipenko

28/07/2021 -

FIDE World Cup 2021 is an endurance event. One has to be good in all three formats of the game, only then you can advance to the next stage. Carlsen prevailed the biggest challenge he has faced in the event so far in the form of Andrey Esipenko. He is the one who provided him the competition he was looking for. He was called 'A most worthy opponent' by the world no.1 for a reason. Bacrot, Duda, Fedoseev, Tabatabei, Karjakin emerged as the other Quarterfinalists from the tie-break. Anna Muzychuk won the sole tie-break of the day in FIDE Women's World Cup to advance to the Semifinals. FIDE World Cup 2021 Quarterfinals start today at 5:30 p.m. IST. It is a rest day of for the FIDE Women's World Cup Photo: Eric Rosen/FIDE

Biel MTO 2021 R2: Vaishali stuns Gukesh

28/07/2021 -

13 players are at 100% score of 2.0/2 at the conclusion of the second round at 54th Biel International Chess Festival 2021 MTO. Aravindh Chithambaram, Surya Sekhar Ganguly, Narayanan S L, Abhimanyu Puranik and Vaishali are in the lead among the Indians. Vaishali defeated Gukesh in the second round as the latter made a tactical error. Aravindh outplayed Raunak positionally, Arjun Kalyan drew with Praggnanandhaa and Karthikeyan escaped from the jaws of defeat against IM Harshit Raja. Nihal suffered his first loss against Alekseenko in this event after a seven-hour-long grueling battle. GMT Classical Round 2 and MTO Round 3 starts at 5:30 p.m. IST today. Photo: Amruta Mokal

FIDE World Cup 2021 R5.2: Vidit and Shankland through to the Quarterfinals

27/07/2021 -

Vidit completely outplayed Durarbayli in the second game of the fifth round of FIDE World Cup 2021. This win made sure he became the second Indian since Anand to have advanced to a Quarter-Final of a FIDE World Cup. Shankland defeated Svidler to secure his place in the final eight. Thus, both Vidit and Shankland qualified to the FIDE Grand Prix 2022. If they reach the Finals, they will qualify to the next Candidates. Among the women, Goryachkina, Kosteniuk and Zhongyi advanced to the Semi-Finals. Since Goryachkina has already qualified to the next Women's Candidates, the other two Semifinalists will join the winner of Anna Muzychuk-Nana Dzagnidze in the tie-breaks to qualify to the FIDE Women's Candidates 2022. The tie-break games of the fifth round starts today at 5:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Anastasiia Korolkova/FIDE

Biel MTO 2021 R1: Tahay holds Donchenko to a draw

27/07/2021 -

The Master Tournament (MTO) of 54th Biel International Chess Festival 2021 started on Monday 26th July. A total of 73 players are taking part in the Master Tournament (MTO). The biggest contingent in this event is India, which consists of 17 players, followed by Switzerland having eleven players. 27 GMs, 13 IMs, 4 WGMs and 4 WIMs are taking part from 18 countries across the world. All seeded Indian players started the event with a victory. Total prize fund for the MTO is 39000 CHF (approx. Rs 31.6 lacs) with the first prize being 6000 CHF (approx. Rs.4.87 lacs). The tournament will witness a lot of interesting clashes between the Indian players starting from Round 2 which starts at 5:30 p.m. IST today. GMT Classical Round 1 also takes place at the same time. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Raunak and Arjun Erigaisi shine at Portuguese 1st Division 2020-21

26/07/2021 -

GM Raunak Sadhwani continues his strong momentum as this time he scored an unbeaten 7.5/9 to secure a Silver medal for his team AX GAIA at the Portuguese 1st Division 2020-21. He performed at 2614 and gained 11 Elo rating points. GM Arjun Erigaisi was the only other Indian at the event. He scored a valuable 5.5/8 for his team EPGAIA Chess Club A to secure a Bronze medal. Arjun performed at 2635 and gained 8 rating points. A XAT Montemor-o-Novo won the event 27 points. Spanish commentator GM Jose Fernando Cuenca Jimenez famously known as 'Pepe' scored a 100% 8.0/8 to propel his team to the championship.

FIDE World Cup 2021 R5.1: Vidit makes a great escape

26/07/2021 -

Vidit had an early opportunity against Durarbayli which he missed and then got himself into a great peril in the first game of the fifth round of FIDE World Cup 2021. He went into a survival mode and eventually managed to save the game and got out of his nightmare. Martirosyan and Kosteniuk scored the sole victory of the day. Their opponents Tabatabei and Gunina must win today's game to force tie-breaks. Two-time Olympic Silver medalist, world champion and European champion, Evgenia Medevedeva made the inaugural move on Carlsen's board 1.d4 to commence the fifth round games. The second game of the fifth round starts today at 5:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Eric Rosen/FIDE

Kamsky wins Biel GMT Rapid 2021, Nihal finishes second

26/07/2021 -

Gata Kamsky scored 11.0/14 to win the 54th Biel International Chess Festival GMT Rapid. He finished a full point ahead of Nihal Sarin 10.0/14, who prevented him from doing a double hat-trick. Maxime Lagarde scored 9.0/14 to secure third place. Had the frenchman won his last round game against Nihal, he would have tied the score with Kamsky. Gelfand had a difficult day as he scored only 4.0/14. Today is a rest day for the GMT participants. Classical event Round 1 starts tomorrow from 5:30 p.m. IST. Master Tournament (MTO) starts today at the same time. It will feature many top players of India. Photo: Biel Chess Festival

FIDE World Cup 2021 R4 TB: Carlsen makes his way to the Round of 16

25/07/2021 -

The world champion Magnus Carlsen beat Radoslaw Wojtaszek 2.5-1.5 to set a clash with Andrey Esipenko in the Pre Quarter-Finals of the FIDE World Cup. Esipenko defeated Carlsen's second Dubov in the tie-breaks. Vasif Durarbayli traded wins with Abdusattorov and eventually won the match 4-2 to advance to the next stage, where he will face Vidit Gujrathi. Goryachkina beat former women's world champion Stefanova in the tie-breaks to advance to the Quarter-Finals. Dzagnidze, Lagno and Saduakassova are the three other women who won their respective tie-breaks to advance to the final eight. Round 5 starts today at 5:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Anastasiia Korolkova/FIDE

Alekseenko wins Accentus Chess960 in Biel

25/07/2021 -

Kirill Alekseenko scored 4.5/7 to win the Accentus Chess960, opening event of the 54th edition of Biel International Chess Festival. The standings of this event is used to determine the seeding of the Classical segment and if required, as a tie-break too after the conclusion of the Grandmaster Triathlon (GMT). The Rapid event will take place on Sunday 25th July. Monday 26th July and Sunday 1st August will be two rest days. The Classical part will start from 27th July and conclude on 4th August. Blitz will take place on Sunday 31st July. Rapid, Classical and Blitz all are part of the Grandmaster Triathlon. Who do you think will win the GMT? Photo: Biel Chess Festival

Hyderabad Chess Centre launched by and for the chess lovers

24/07/2021 -

Hyderabad has remained a sports loving city for a long time. The joint capital of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana witnessed many strong international chess tournaments. 17 chess enthusiasts and players decided to launch Hyderabad Chess Centre on 7th July 2021 which was inaugurated by K S Prasad, President of Telangana State Chess Association in presence of Guest of honour Mr. Jaikar Daniel, President, YMCA's of Greater Hyderabad and special invitees IM  P D S Girinath and former National 'A' player G V Srinivasa Rao. The idea for the formation of this chess centre is to give a place to practice chess, exchange knowledge and information with the enthusiasts of the sport. All photographs in the article are by Hyderabad Chess Centre.

FIDE World Cup 2021 R4.2: Vidit storms into Round of 16

24/07/2021 -

Vidit scored another emphatic victory over Jeffery Xiong to eliminate him and secure his own place in the Round of 16 at FIDE World Cup 2021. The India no.3 has become India no.2 now as Harikrishna drew his must-win game against Tabatabaei and got knocked out. Praggnanandhaa's fantastic debut the World Cup has come to an end as he lost to Vachier-Lagrave. Carlsen misses a win against Wojtaszek and now he will have to play tie-breaks for the first time in this event. Abdusattorov, Ponkratov, Goryachkina and Dzagnidze have made comebacks to force tie-breaks. Round 4 tie-break games start today at 5:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Eric Rosen/FIDE

The story of SL Narayanan - devoted to the game of chess

23/07/2021 -

Born on 10th of January 1998, S.L. Narayanan is 23 years old. His current rating is 2624 and he is currently ranked no.9 in the country. Narayanan's story begins from the point where he saw his mother playing chess in a tournament and has now reached a point where he is crossing swords with the best in the world. From his father leaving his job, to his sister leaving chess - this Kerala GM has seen too many sacrifices both on and off the board. Apart from exceling at chess, Narayanan also scored 1200/1200 in his 12th grade examinations! This article is a tribute to a brilliant mind in Indian Chess. Know the story of of S.L. Narayanan.

FIDE World Cup 2021 R4.1: Vidit beats Xiong, Pragg holds MVL to a draw

23/07/2021 -

Vidit scored a fantastic win over Jeffery Xiong who blundered in time pressure. The India no.3 finished the game with a beautiful combination which should make it to the future books on tactics. Praggnanandhaa showed that he is well-prepared against Vachier-Lagrave as he managed to hold a draw against the world no.16. Harikrishna suffered a shocking loss as he blundered in the endgame against Tabatabaei. It was a tough day for the Uzbekistan players as Abdusattorov, Jumabayev and Sindarov - all three of them suffered their first loss of the event. Carlsen made his first draw of the tournament against Wojtaszek. The second game of Round 4 starts today at 5:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Eric Rosen/FIDE

New: Master Class Vol. 14: Vasily Smyslov

22/07/2021 -

Vasily Smyslov defeated Mikhail Botvinnik at the second attempt in 1957 and thus became the seventh world champion in chess history, but had to relinquish the title in a rematch the following year. After that Smyslov belonged to the absolute world elite for many years. His performance in the 1982-1985 World Championship cycle was sensational, when he defeated Robert Hübner and Zoltan Ribli one after the other in the candidate matches and only lost in the final to the young Garry Kasparov - Smyslov himself was 62 years old at that time! Photo: ChessBase

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