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Checkmate Covid-19 Online Blitz Open raises ₹451650

07/05/2020 -

Checkmate Covid-19 Online Blitz Open raised ₹451650 with the contribution of 465 people all over the world. The event witnessed the participation of 331 players from 12 countries, including 32 GMs, 25 IMs, 2 WGMs and 5 WIMs. GM Sunilduth Lyna Narayanan scored an unbeaten 9.0/10 to win the tournament. GM Abhijeet Gupta also finished at 9.0/10 but he was placed second according to their tie-break scores. Both of them donated their entire prize fund for the noble cause which will be donated to the Kerala Chief Minister's Disaster Relief Fund. Star attraction of the event was the participation of the former World Championship Challenger GM Nigel Short.

The secret chess database

What is a very powerful way to do your opening preparation? Enter the world of Correspondence Database 2020. This is a database of 1.6 million games played in correspondence chess which can give you some amazing ideas which your over the board opponents would not be aware of! Check more details.

Get the Correspondence Database 2020

Have you registered for the biggest online ChessBase India event on 9th of May 2020?

06/05/2020 -

On this Saturday 9th May, Playchess will host the biggest ChessBase India Online Blitz event with a total prize fund of ₹101000 having the first prize of ₹20000. So far 20 GMs, 18 IMs, 2 WGMs and WIMs have registered ten different countries across the world including India. The tournament is organized by Central India's largest educational hub IPS Academy, Indore, Madhya Pradesh. The entire prize fund is also sponsored by the educational institute. The tournament will have 10 rounds with a time control of 3 minutes each with no increment. Entry is FREE for GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs. For everyone else, ₹500 for ChessBase Premium subscribers and ₹600 for ChessBase Non-Premium subscribers. Photo: Various sources

A tough first day for team India at the Online Nations Cup 2020

06/05/2020 -

The FIDE chess. com online nations cup 2020 has kicked off and day one was day of misses for team India. With Humpy scoring a crucial win against USA, India had chances to take down their much fancied opponents. However, Vidit was outplayed by Caruana in a very complex endgame of two bishops vs knight. The match with USA ended in a 2-2 draw. Against Rest of the World in the second round India had great chances thanks to both Harikrishna and Humpy having decisive advantage. But Firouzja tricked Hari and Mariya Muzychuk managed to wriggle out against Humpy. Adhiban lost to Cori Jorge which gave India a defeat with a score 1.5-2.5. We are now in fourth place with 1.0/4. Full report by IM Sagar Shah. 

Is the Benoni really back in business?

05/05/2020 -

The Benoni Defence is a very double-edged weapon, well suited to play for a win but also dangerous. On his recently released DVD, Rustam Kasimdzhanov, one of the world's most renowned opening experts and one of the second former World Championship Challenger Fabiano Caruana, claims that "The Benoni is back in business". IM Roven Vogel took a close look at Kasimdzhanov's latest DVD to check this claim. This could be a perfect DVD to increase one's arsenal of openings and enrich themselves in these difficult times. The DVD has almost six hours of content including exercises, multiple lines and also a video on how to avoid Benoni. Photo: ChessBase

India will take on USA and ROW on day one of the Online Nations Cup

05/05/2020 -

On paper India is the 5th seed at the Online Nations Cup starting from today. But when you have players like Anand, Vidit, Harikrishna, Adhiban, Humpy and Harika, you can be sure that they will create some upsets! Also with just six teams in the fray, there are good chances that team India will qualify for the Superfinal on May 10th where the top four teams will be pitted against each other. On day one (5th of May 2020), the action begins at 18.30 hours IST when team India takes on USA in round 1 and Rest of the World (ROW) in round two at 20.15 hours. Also guess India's final placing in the event and win a special prize!

New chess format on the block? | Sunway Sitges International Online Open

05/05/2020 -

The Sunway Sitges International Online Open was the first tournament with a classical format to be held online. Over 500 players fought it out in respective categories, Group A and Group B, featuring a time format of 90'+30". With multiple GM's and IM's playing together, the tournament also saw a Zoom call with videos of participants, as well as commentary by Daniel King and Anna Rudolf. Neel Shintre from Mumbai participated in the event, and in this article describes the proceedings of the event from his perspective, and also gives his view on how Online tournaments could become more common and staple. Honi Arora, one of the top performers in the Group B category, also shares his experience.

Lucena in Lockdown #8: The boy next door

03/05/2020 -

Hello! Today we are met with ████████. He lives in the suburb of Padi, in Chennai, Tamil Nadu. I'm sure you all have heard about this boy, and about what a formidable chess player he is. The boy has persevered for a long time, and his meticulous efforts earned him the rank of ██████████████ all over India, one of the many other amazing successes that he has under his belt! What makes him particularly special is his humility, and that virtue alone has brought him a long way. His simplicity and friendliness is enough to enamor anyone into a pleasant chat. Below he shares a wonderful perspective on the coronavirus situation, and much, much more. Do read on and have a great time!

Women Turups Men

02/05/2020 -

Turup (Checkmate) is a movie released in 2017. It's a story of three women who fight caste, religion and patriarchy in the midst of a community chess tournament played by men. The game of chess has been used on such a wide scale in the movie, that this movie deserves to be seen by every chess lover out there. FI Praful Zaveri, the author of this article, saw the movie just a week ago, and was so enamoured by it that he viewed it five times. He finally picked up his pen and wrote this review. In this review, you will also find the entire movie that can be viewed freely. Praful Zaveri has also launched a contest where the winner gets his Chess Course Books worth Rs.3499/-

Government of Karnataka and MPL come together to host Rs.10 lakh prize fund chess event for charity

01/05/2020 -

The Government of Karnataka has joined hands with one of India's biggest gaming platforms Mobile Premier League to organize an online chess event to raise funds for the fight against Covid-19. The tournament will be held for six hours on both 2nd and 3rd of May 2020 from 12 p.m. to 6 p.m. and has a whopping prize fund of Rs. 10 lakh. The winner takes home the first prize of Rs. 1 lakh. The tournament is also supported by the United Karnataka Chess Association. This is your chance to win huge prize money and also involve yourself in a good cause.

The biggest rating gainers in Indian chess in the last year

01/05/2020 -

It's 1st of May and being the first day of a new month, the new FIDE rating list is published. However, there has been absolutely no change in anyone's rating in the last month as no tournaments were held across the country and the world. Hence, we at ChessBase India decided to dig up some data. We took the entire FIDE Rating lists from April 2019 to April 2020 and analyzed it thoroughly to bring you some very interesting findings. We tell you about the players who did really well and who are the ones you should watch out for once this lockdown ends.

New: ChessBase Magazine #195

30/04/2020 -

ChessBase Magazine is the most comprehensive and most sophisticated chess magazine there is. Star analyses by Giri, Duda, Firouzja, Harikrishna, Navara, Vidit, Vitiugov, Muzychuk, Ju Wenjun, Dzagnidze, Goryachkina. Williams shows MVL's game in his Move by Move series. Evgeny Postny discusses Ruy Lopez, Mihal Marin shows attack in the middle game, Oliver Reeh's interactive tactics video, Jan Werle shows what fascinated him in the rediscovered line from The Slav, Endgame expert Karsten Müller dissects recent Rook and Double Rook endgame, Dorian Rogozenco shows rediscovered Kasparov games. Top tournaments FIDE Candidates 2020, Prague Masters 2020, FIDE Grand Prix Lausanne and much more. Photo: ChessBase

Vladimir Kramnik and seven top Russian players come together for a unique charity event

29/04/2020 -

All over the world chess is being used as a powerful tool for raising funds for the fight against Corona virus. In India we had several events where chess players came together to raise funds for the PM CARES fund. Now, we see something quite wonderful happening in Russia. Eight of the top Russian players including 14th World Champion Vladimir Kramnik, Nepo, Grischuk, Karjakin, Svidler, Tomashevsky, Inarkiev and Riazentsev are going to play a blitz tournament from the 12th to the 14th of May to raise funds for regional hospitals and health workers in Russia. Already over 2500,000 Rubles (close to Rs.25 lakh) have been raised through this noble initiative. Read more.

The Unpublished Games of Nigel Short - Part 2

29/04/2020 -

Last month we published the article containing Nigel Short's unpublished games. It was so well received that a lot of people reached out to Short mentioning about the games they have played against him. Naturally it called for a Part 2. In this article we publish some more never-before-seen games of the maestro. It also contains seven Secret Training Matches with then FIDE World Champion Ruslan Ponomariov of Ukraine. There is also a Kramnik/Short tandem simul game which the world hasn't seen yet. Now if you are wondering how to get an opportunity to play against the British Legend and 007 of chess - Nigel Short, we would like to tell you that he is taking part in an Online Blitz tournament this Saturday at 8 p.m. IST. Photo: Shahid Ahmed/Nigel Short

Champions Combat Corona - IM Neelash Saha

28/04/2020 -

To find out how the champions are dealing with the global pandemic Covid-19, we decided to start a new series titled Champions Combat Corona where the current National Champions talk about how they are coping with the unprecedented adversity. In this article, the current National Under-17 Open also West Bengal State Blitz and Under-17 Open Champion IM Neelash Saha talks about how he is spending his lockdown days. The worry of the remaining two class 12 board exams is still at the back of his mind, playing online tournaments regularly, doing exercise everyday to make sure his body doesn't slow down and stay fit. We also take a look at one of his online Blitz game win against IM Tania Sachdev. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Emil Sutovsky discusses FIDE's policy during the Covid19 pandemic

28/04/2020 -

With the advent of Covid-19 things have changed drastically in the world of chess. All over-the-board tournaments have been cancelled and the action has shifted to the online format of the game. In such a situation what is FIDE's online policy for the next few months? ChessBase India got in touch with the FIDE Director General Emil Sutovsky and did an exlcusive interview with him discussing about the current situation and FIDE's response to it, the status of various sponsors who have supported FIDE, the Candidates 2020 and the Radjabov conundrum, the World Championship Match 2020 and much more.