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Levon Aronian's wife WIM Arianne Caoili is no more (1986-2020)

31/03/2020 -

The chess world experienced a huge blow when on 31st of March 2020, Arianne Caoili passed away after a road accident and fighting for 15 days at the Astghik Medical center. Arianne was an excellent chess player with the highest Elo of 2309 and WIM title. In 2017, she tied the knot with Levon Aronian. Apart from being a chess player, Arianne was a visionary, social worker, political advisor, MD at a strategy consultant firm, dancer, boxer, mountain climber, biker and excelled at just about everything she did. Her death at the age of 33 comes as a huge shock. 

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13-year-old Aditya Mittal analyzes an AlphaZero inspired opening trend from Candidates 2020

30/03/2020 -

The Candidates 2020 came to an abrupt halt due to the growing COVID-19 pandemic worldwide. But despite all the tension, the first seven rounds didn't cease to deliver the usual high-quality, cutting-edge chess that is expected of such mega-events. In this article, the 13-year-old IM Aditya Mittal, delves into one of the curious AlphaZero inspired opening trends that recurred in several of the games in the tournament. Aditya is one of the most promising up-and-coming talents of our country. Read this article to learn how he critically investigates these top-level games to enhance his own understanding and knowledge.

Sundararajan Kidambi goes deep into Vishnu Prasanna's analysis of a B+N vs B+N endgame

29/03/2020 -

Chess, in its very essence, is a constant struggle to either seize or give up control of certain key squares on the chessboard. Grandmaster Sundararajan Kidambi realizes this fundamental truth while going through the analysis of a very instructive ending that happened recently between Wang Hao and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in their game from Candidates 2020. In this article he puts down his musings in his characteristic clear and concise manner. For anyone who wants to improve their understanding of endgames in general and the dynamics of minor pieces ending in particular, this beautiful piece is a must read.

Donchenko, Sethuraman, Aravind and more in action in March Masters Online Blitz 2020

29/03/2020 -

This Sunday will be a double header in ChessBase India Online Blitz tournament as Saturday we will have the 2nd edition of Saturday Online Blitz tournament, but Sunday we will have the Mega event of March Masters Online Blitz with Laxman which has the five times the prize money of a Saturday Online event. The total Prize fund is ₹50000 with the first prize being ₹10000. Laxman has contributed ₹15000 to the tournament prize fund as he loves playing Blitz on Playchess. Total 24 GMs, 34 IMs, 3 WGMs and 8 WIMs have confirmed their participation for the event. Entry is FREE for GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs. Photo: Various sources 

The Friedel Chronicles Part I - Tales of the nonpareil chess raconteur

28/03/2020 -

There are very few individuals in the chess world who have met and known the many legends of the royal game as closely as the ChessBase co-founder Frederic Friedel. For years, Frederic traveled to chess tournaments, covering events after events and running the ChessBase newspage. In this process he rubbed shoulders with greats like Kasparov and Karpov, became friend and mentor to talents like Anand and Short. Well, one can only imagine the experiences that he accumulated over the years interacting with all these super-talents. The wonderful raconteur that Frederic is, he always makes sure to treat IM Sagar Shah with a story or two every time they meet. The Knowing the Chess Greats series is an effort to bring some of these much cherished conversations to the general chess audience! 

Guseinov, Aravindh and Pragg star in strong 2nd Saturday Blitz Tournament 2020

27/03/2020 -

We are back again with the 2nd Saturday Online Blitz 2020 after a super strong first edition. To give you a clue of the lineup, we have 18 GMs, 31 IMs, 2 WGMs and 4 WIMs taking part in the second edition. Players from India, Algeria, Azerbaijan, Bangladesh, Colombia, England, France, Singapore and USA have already confirmed their participation. The entry fee to the tournament is *FREE, however you need an active ChessBase Premium subscription. There are prizes worth ₹10000 to be won for the top three finishers. That's not all, the circuit winner at the conclusion of five Saturday Blitz event will win an additional ₹10000. Currently Praggnanandhaa is leading the table after winning the first edition. Photo: Various sources

BREAKING: FIDE stops Candidates 2020

26/03/2020 -

The Postponement of the Candidates 2020 was hanging on the heads of the players, organizers, and spectators like a damocles sword throughout the last ten days. Finally it has happened. The Russian Government announced that starting from 27th of March 2020, Russia will interrupt air traffics with other countries without indicating any time frames. This could mean that the players could be stuck in Russia for months together. As a result FIDE has stopped the tournament and the FIDE President Arkadij Dvorkovich has published a press release on the FIDE website. What's interesting is that the tournament has only been postponed and not cancelled. It will resume from round 8 onwards after the Covid19 pandemic situation cools down.

Candidates R07: The French Defense against French no.1 wasn't a good idea!

26/03/2020 -

The way Nepo was playing at the event made him look untouchable. But MVL, his seventh round opponent had different plans. Nepo's French Defense was punished by the Frenchman with great precision. With this victory MVL caught up with Nepo at the top and both of them lead the event with a score of 4.5/7, one point more than the rest of the field. The remaining three games ended in draws. We bring you the detailed analysis of the decisive game, pictures, videos and more.  

Live Games and Updates of FIDE Candidates 2020

25/03/2020 -

The Candidates 2020 will take place in the city of Yekaterinburg, Russia from the 17th of March to the 3rd of April 2020. Eight players - Fabiano Caruana, Ding Liren, Alexander Grischuk, Ian Nepomniachtchi, Anish Giri, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Wang Hao and Kirill Alekseenko will fight it out to win the tournament and earn the right to challenge Magnus Carlsen. On this page you will find the Live games, commentary as well as real time updates by the ChessBase India team. Games begin each day at 4.30 p.m. Indian time. We hope you will enjoy our coverage of this mega event.

"Right Mood = Right Move" says GM Avetik Grigoryan, founder of ChessMood

25/03/2020 -

Avetik Grigoryan was rated 2600+. He is a strong GM and was also the former national champion of Armenia. However, a couple of years ago, he made an important decision in life. He decided to give up playing chess, and develop a community called ChessMood. What started as just a Facebook Group, is now a full blown website with over 100 hours of training from some of the best grandmasters of Armenia. How did Avetik manage to create something so valuable as the ChessMood? What is the secret of inimitable enthusiasm and energy? We find out in this interview! ChessMood has opened up its website for 7 days due to the Corona virus outbreak and all of the premium content is now freely viewable until the 29th of March 2020. 

Out Preparing the Candidates with Fat Fritz Part 2

25/03/2020 -

What is the one thing that is common among the Grunfeld, the Slav and the Najdorf? Well, apart from being the elite's most common choice of openings, they are lines where it is very difficult for both sides to find radical improvements! Why is this so? Well when you take any one of these venerated defenses, the amount of time and effort poured into analyzing each and every variation over the years has resulted in a mass of theory that has established clear guidelines, and before the advent of NN engines it seemed impossible to find new ideas. Today however, this is not the case. Tanmay Srinath in this article analyzes openings of the Candidates in these very lines with Fat Fritz and suggests improvements which players of all levels can use in their games.

Candidates 2020 R06: If you spot ...Re5, you should be disqualified!

24/03/2020 -

The sixth round at the Candidates 2020 was filled with tremendous excitement. Ian Nepomniachtchi scored his third win at the event and is now leading with a score of 4.5/6, a full point ahead of MVL. Although Ian's health is not the best, it didn't stop him from beating Ding Liren with the white pieces. The big news of the round was also Anish Giri getting the better of Kirill Alekseenko to register his first victory ever at the Candidates 2020. Wang Hao missed a certain win against MVL and Caruana could have pressed better in a plus position against Grischuk. We bring you game analysis, videos, pictures and all the drama from Yekaterinburg in Russia. 

Pragg stands on top of “Chessworld”

24/03/2020 -

The response for the first ChessBase India Saturday online blitz was huge! We had 191 participants with 16 GMs, 24 IMs, 3 WGMs and 3 WIMs participating from 12 countries! It was the biggest ever online tournament held at ChessBase India. GM R. Praggnanandhaa won the event taking home not just Rs.5000 but also valuable 10 Grand Prix points. GM Elshan Moradiabadi, who was one of the participants at the event, played from USA and had a great time fighting it out against some of the talented Indian youngsters. He writes this article sharing with you his experience of playing in this blitz event! Mind you, this weekend we have two more blitz events coming up - the second edition of Saturday online blitz on 28th March and the March Masters event on 29th March which has a prize fund of Rs.50,000! 

Candidates R05: Nepo leads; players worried about the global pandemic

23/03/2020 -

The big news of Round 5 at the Candidates 2020 was Ian Nepomaniachtchi winning his game against Wang Hao and taking the sole lead with 3.5/5. It was a game where you can learn a lot about how symmetry doesn't really result into equality every time. Amidst MVL taking the sole second spot and Ding Liren changing his hotels to get fresh air, the most important news is that players are not feeling the most comfortable continuing the event. Grischuk said, "Earlier, I didn't have a clear opinion but now from the last several days I have a strong opinion, I think this tournament should seriously be stopped." Caruana mentioned, "The US State department said that the American citizens have to come back to the US or won't be able to come back later."

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