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Altibox Norway Chess R1: Carlsen starts with an Armageddon victory

06/10/2020 -

Carlsen started his Altibox Norway Chess campaign with a victory over Aronian in the Armageddon after making a draw in their first Classical encounter since December 2019. Thus Carlsen has 1.5 points after the conclusion of Round 1. Aronian being in a must-win situation in the Armageddon, pushed too hard in a seemingly equal position and blundered his rook. Both Caruana and Firouzja scored fine wins against Tari and Duda respectively, allowing themselves to share the lead with 3.0 points each at the end of the opening round. Catch all the action of Round 2 tonight from 8:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Lennart Ootes / Altibox Norway Chess

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Carlsen returns to OTB at Altibox Norway Chess 2020

05/10/2020 -

The entire chess universe is craving for some over-the-board action. For the first time since July, an over-the-board super tournament, eighth edition of Altibox Norway Chess will start from 5th October. The most interesting thing about this tournament is every game will have a winner. All draws will be decided in Armageddon. Defending champion of the event, World Champion Carlsen will be seen in action along with Aronian, Caruana, Duda, Firouzja and Aryan Tari. Carlsen has only won this tournament two times out of all seven editions. The other winners are Karjakin (twice), Topalov, Aronian and Caruana. Will Carlsen win this tournament for the second year in-a-row and also for the third time? Catch all the action of Round 1 tonight from 8:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Lennart Ootes / Norway Chess

Just Starting out in Chess? Pick Chess Pathshala as your Pathfinder!

04/10/2020 -

The four online courses - Tactical, Positional, Endgame, and Opening - launched by Chess Pathshala six months ago has since then been very well received by students and improvers from all around the world. Encouraged by the success and cheerful response, the head coach of the Academy, Grandmaster Swapnil Dhopade, has now decided to take a step further and introduce a course aimed exclusively at beginners. In this article we bring you the details of the course and tell you why we think it can prove a gamechanger for young minds who are just starting to make their moves on the sixty-four squares. Swapnil has already been an inspiring instructor to the who's who of Indian chess, but his latest endeavour to work with absolute newcomers is unlike anything he has done before and can potentially help bring plenty of fresh faces into the fold.

Steinitz's positional play that expanded our understanding of chess | Classics Ep.03

04/10/2020 -

Born in 1836, Steinitz became the first official World Champion at the age of 50 years in 1886. Starting out as a brutal attacker, Steinitz made a lot of changes in his playing style that led him to discover certain ideas related to positional play that have been very obvious these days! But back in 1885, they weren't so obvious. This game between Steinitz and Sellman, that you are about to see in Chess Classics you must know Episode 3 is something that will help you deepen your understanding about weaknesses, manoeuvring and other positional concepts. The ten questions, game analysis by Kasparov, and the video explanations by Sagar Shah is not to be missed. 

Niladri explains a Study-like Endgame

03/10/2020 -

In the online era, we play several matches in such a short period of time compared to what we would have played when over-the-board events were on. It is true that blitz games are not worth analyzing as experts say but often we come across position which is definitely worth a second look and sometimes a deep analysis too. Few days ago we shared a position by trainer Niladri Bhattacharyya on our facebook page. This position occurred in his online blitz game over a year ago where his opponent blundered and lost the game soon. However, there was a defence. Try to find out and check it with his analysis whether it's correct or not. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Moksh Amit Doshi - The latest IM from Gujarat

02/10/2020 -

Moksh Amit Doshi became the latest International Master from Gujarat. He scored six IM-norms in just over 16 months, but he became an IM only when he crossed the 2400 rating barrier on 29th October 2019 at the second round of Romanian International Open. He scored his maiden IM-norm at a Round-Robin event in Balaton, Hungary in June 2018. He scored his second IM-norm at Rilton Cup 2018-19. The final norm was scored at Asian Youth Under-16 Open when he won Gold. Get to know about this young talent's journey from the boy Moksh himself. He also shares seven of his game with detailed annotations. Photo: Rupali Mullick

ChessCult - How a Strong Indian GM Plans to Make Chess a Spectator Sport!

02/10/2020 -

The COVID-19 pandemic has brought forth a lot of change in the world. The advent of modern technology has ensured that people are more productive than ever before, and streaming has become more and more mainstream. With numerous chess players entering a new phase of their life, a young chess star decided it was time for a change of pace. GM Karthik Venkataraman, former National Junior Champion, has launched his own company Chess Cult in collaboration with his friend Hariharan S Pillai, to make a difference to chess players across the globe. Karthik has come with some very innovative content on ChessCult's YouTube channel, right from reintroducing the masters of the past, to the Secret to Success series, where he features stalwarts of Indian chess like GM Sasikiran and GM Murali Karthikeyan. Tanmay Srinath takes you through his experience navigating the ChessCult!

A Scientific Inquiry on Combinations

01/10/2020 -

India's 33rd GM Vishnu Prasanna is a prolific trainer. He has trained World's second youngest GM in history, Gukesh D and also worked with GM Adhiban B, he is also training with GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly. He launched his new official couple of months. The website has all the information about Vishnu and it is rich with features. One of the feature of the site is blog where Vishnu himself discusses various themes about chess. In his fourth blog post, he does a scientific inquiry on Combinations using illustrative examples of Steinitz's game. Combinations are very important either to win or defend yourself from impending doom. How and when to spot one? How to improve combinational vision? Vishnu tells it all.

Getting the most out of ChessBase 15: a step-by-step guide #4 – The Board

30/09/2020 -

You are raring to get started with some of the amazing functions of ChessBase 15. But there is one last thing we need to consider before we dive into the substance – and that is style! ChessBase 15 is fantastically customisable and here Nick Murphy will show you step by step how to get the look you want. Because it helps to enjoy your chess! You can completely customize everything you want, from the board, type of the wooden board, piece design, square colors to the dimension of the board 2D or 3D, notation type and window size, forward, rewind buttons etc. Photo: ChessBase

Petrosian's beautiful queen sac against Pachman - Classics you must know Ep.02

29/09/2020 -

After Botvinnik vs Capablanca in episode one, we now move to Petrosian versus Pachman on day two of the Classics You must know series by IM Sagar Shah. The 9th World Champion is famed for his positional and prophylactic play. And until move 15 it seems as if the game is going in that direction. But something quite unbelievable happens in the last five moves of the game and the experienced Ludek Pachman resigns after White's 21st move blow! This game has a lot of little nuances that you can learn from. We dissect them for you, with the video analysis, PGN file and also 10 test positions.

Raja Ravi Sekhar - The man who played in 16 consecutive National 'A' from 1975 to 1990

29/09/2020 -

To make progress in anything, one must know the history of it. A sport is defined by the achievement of various sports persons. Some are known and some are not widely known. In an attempt to bring untold stories, achievements and journeys to a wider audience, Shahid Ahmed launched his Straight Talk with Shahid podcast where the idea is to bring out some untold inspiring stories. In the second episode, we get to know about IM Raja Ravi Sekhar, the man who played in 16 consecutive National 'A' events, won National Junior, National 'B' and National 'A' simultaneously. He has also played for team India at various Olympiads. Get to know about the journey of the man from himself along with some his best games annotated by himself. Photo: Raja Ravi Sekhar

How Velammal Education Trust created nine GMs in Indian chess

28/09/2020 -

From 66 GMs in India, a single educational trust is responsible for the creation of 9 grandmasters! Velammal Education Trust has done a yeoman service to the sport of chess. Adhiban, Sethuraman, Shyam Sundar, K. Priyadharshan, Karthik VAP, Karthikeyan Murali, Aravindh Chithambaram, Praggnanandhaa and D. Gukesh are nine GMs that have studied in Velammal school. Apart from them the school also boasts of having players like Leon Mendonca, Arjun Kalyan who will soon become GMs and also strong female players like Vaishali, Rakshitta, Savitha Shri, Varshini and many others. How is one single trust able to create so many chess champions? We decided to dig in a bit and reveal to you the secret of Velammal's success! 

Learn from the Classics Ep 01: Botvinnik vs Capablanca, 1938

28/09/2020 -

Chess Classics are an integral part for every young chess player's development. These are the building blocks which help you to develop your style of play. IM Sagar Shah has started a new series on the ChessBase India YouTube channel where he has taken on the challenging task of covering some of the most important classics in chess! The first one he begins with is his personal favourite - Botvinnik vs Capablanca AVRO tournament 1938. A young Botvinnik takes on an experienced Capablanca and outplays him both strategically as well as tactically. 10 positions to solve, an hour long video and detailed game analysis for you to understand this duel.

The Playchess club rooms, now with video function!

27/09/2020 -

Online chess is most fun when you know your opponents: less anonymity means less cheating! In the virtual club room on Playchess, clubs can meet and play blitz tournaments among themselves. To improve your playing experience we now present the video function! All players can log in with their webcam and you can hear and see each other! Suddenly you experience a blitz chess evening almost like in the old days: trash-talk, noises from the next board, cheering, frustration — it all feels more real because you see and hear each other. And everything starts with 2 mouse clicks. Just try it out: create a virtual room with one mouse click, activate the video function with another mouse click, and off you go! The only requirement: to have a premium account! 

The Harikrishna Master Class

26/09/2020 -

It is always a wonderful opportunity to interact and learn from someone like Harikrishna. The World no.20 is doing a webinar with World Chess on Wednesday 30th of September 2020 at 9.30 p.m. IST. The topic of the session is "How to win an equal endgame." You will be able to ask questions to Harikrishna and also get your doubts answered. In this article we tell you how to seize this opportunity, how Harikrishna explains his games, ideas and much more, so that you understand how detailed he is in explanations and get a preview of his Master Class. Photo: Biel Chess Festival

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