CANDIDATES SALE IS LIVE

Use code: CANDIDATES to get 20% off on popular products

Shop now!

new books banner

Lausanne GP R3: Harika outplays Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun

05/03/2020 -

Harika Dronavalli outplayed the reigning Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun in Round 3 of FIDE Lausanne GP. After an incorrect Queen exchange offer by Ju, Harika seized her opportunity and correctly played the Same Color Bishop ending to be one of the five leaders. Anna Muzychuk crushed Marie Sebag with a beautiful attacking game to take the shared lead. Alina Kashlinskaya survived an early attack and turned things around to beat her compatriot Alexandra Kosteniuk. Nana Dzagnidze had an exciting draw with Antoaneta Stefanova in Modern Benoni. Goryachkina made a quick draw to maintain her lead. Anna, Harika, Nana, Kashlinskaya and Goryachkina lead with 2.0/3. Photo: FIDE

NEW LAUNCH

CHESSBASE '26 + MEGA DATABASE '26

The industry standard new combo is here to help you uplift your Chess!

ChessBase '26 + MEGA DATABASE '26 Shop Now

Pranav Anand and Rucha Pujari make norms at Aeroflot Open B

04/03/2020 -

The category A Open of the recently concluded Aeroflot Chess Festival was mainly restricted to players rated 2550 or more, but the organizers encouragingly exempted a select group of talented youngsters from this requirement and welcomed them to contest on equal terms with the strongest Grandmasters in the event. The result of this well-intentioned concession proved a huge success as not only did the tournament see a spurt of promising juniors come to the fore but also a 14-year-old ended up clinching the championship ahead of many an experienced player in the field. However, perhaps not too surprisingly, the competition in B and C Opens as well were dominated by young players. In today's article we bring you the exploits of two young Indians, namely Pranav Anand and Rucha Pujari, who performed commendably well in the open B category and managed to return home with an IM norm and a WGM norm respectively.

And that's how a star is welcomed! WGM Pratyusha Bodda in Tuni

04/03/2020 -

Getting your WGM or GM titles is not at all an easy feat. It takes years of hard work, investment, training and single minded dedication to achieve these titles. When the player reaches the milestone, of course, there is huge sense of achievement and relief, but in terms of recognition very little has been forthcoming from the government or the region where they live in. But things are surely changing in this direction. When Pratyusha Bodda returned home from her European tour after becoming a WGM, she was invited to her home-town in Tuni, Andhra Pradesh. What followed next was akin to what Vishy Anand witnessed when he returned after winning the World Championship title. The people were ecstatic that their daughter had become a WGM and they didn't hold back their celebrations!

Lausanne GP R2: Goryachkina and Dzagnidze take early lead

04/03/2020 -

Georgia no.1 woman Nana Dzagnidze defeated GP debutant IM Zhansaya Abdumalik of Kazakhstan in an emphatic manner to take the lead with Aleksandra Goryachkina who defeated the former Women's World Champion Alexandra Kosteniuk. Kosteniuk misplayed in the endgame and landed herself in difficult situation. Anna Muzychuk had the longest game of the day against Pia Cramling which lasted for almost five hours but Anna's advantage was not enough to score a full point. The remaining three games ended in draws in exactly 30 moves. Harika got herself out of difficult situation and managed to salvage a draw. Photo: FIDE

Fat Fritz and the 1200 - Chess Improvement made Easy!

03/03/2020 -

2019 was a landmark year for Chess. World Triple Crown Champion Magnus Carlsen shrugged off his abysmal 2018 to become a Terminator of top class players, Vishy Anand continued to remain relevant at 50, Radjabov banishing the ghosts of London 2013 with a World Cup in his hands- the list goes on. The one development however that shook up the chess world was Fat Fritz, an AI which learnt from self play as well as the very best of human games. The pertinent question however remained unanswered - how does an ordinary club player, or ambitious lower rated players make use of this technology to improve their games. In this comprehensive article, Tanmay Srinath tells us why having a more 'Human' Engine makes all the difference in the world regarding Chess Improvement.

Lausanne GP R1: Zhansaya Abdumalik holds Ju Wenjun to a draw

03/03/2020 -

The Olympic Capital - Lausanne, Switzerland hosts the third leg of FIDE Women's Grand Prix 2019-20. The GP leader Humpy Koneru, Kateryna Lagno, Elisabeth Paehtz and Valentina Gunina skip this event as all GP participants are allowed to choose only three out of four events. 20-year old young Kazakh IM Zhansaya Abdumalik was a last minute replacement for Chinese GM Zhao Xue, she made the most out of her opportunity by holding the reigning Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun to a draw in the very first round of the event. All other games also ended up in draw in round 1. The tournament will have a total of eleven rounds in a Round-Robin format. Photo: FIDE

Lokesh wins GMLs Coimbatore Grand Prix Rapid Rating Open

02/03/2020 -

Fourth seeded Lokesh N scored 6.5/7 to win the final leg GMLs All India Rapid Rating Open, part of All India Chess Grandprix. Two other players Selvamurugan B and Senthil Maran also finished at 6.5/7 each and they were placed second and third respectively. Total 280 players participated in this one-day rapid rating tournament at Hindusthan Arts & Science College, Coimbatore on 23rd February 2020, organized by GMLs Academy. The tournament had a total prize fund of ₹1.25 lacs, Lokesh bagging the first prize of champion's trophy and ₹15000 cash. He will also be one of the top ten finalists of All India Chess Grandprix which will take place next month. Photo: Uma Maheswaran Palanisamy

Ireland's first WIM - Trisha Kanyamarala

02/03/2020 -

The Irish Chess Union has two gems of Indian origin in their fold - the brother and sister duo of Tarun and Trisha Kanyamarala. While 15-year-old Tarun is now an FM with a rating of 2376, 14-year-old Trisha became Ireland's first WIM ever. She even crossed 2300 on the live rating list getting her the FM title. In this article we get to know more about the Kanyamarala family - how they took some bold decisions in their chess career to be where they are right now. We also interview Trisha and ask her about her journey from being a young kid who took up chess following her brother's footsteps, to now becoming Ireland's first WIM.

Test your chess with the Civil Engineer!

01/03/2020 -

Nubairshah Shaikh, 22 years old, is a civil engineer and also pursuing his aim of becoming a GM. He is an IM and scored his second GM norm at the Capelle La Grande 2020 in France. Nubair was rock solid as he won four of his games and drew five to reach a score of 6.5/9. Most probably, he will remember the event for his amazing game against GM Ivaljo Enchev. After just ten moves you already had four queens on the board! This was quite an amazing scene as both players had to be extremely accurate in order to take the game to its logical conclusion. In the end, Nubair managed to come out on top, but it was only after both sides missed quite some brilliant variations. In this article we invite you to test your chess with the Civil Engineer!

The new Chess fiction is here! - ALMA and the Dark Dominion review

29/02/2020 -

If you are into Fantasy, and you are into chess, then this book is exactly right for you! The story is about four friends that are transported to another world, which shares many parallels to chess, and must defeat the ruler by solving all the tricky problems with logic and chess to return home. ALMA perfectly minces both of these together to create a unique and original idea. The two combined abilities of Judit Berg, the award-winning children's author from Hungary and Judit Polgar, the best female chess player of all time, turn these into a fun read on a nice afternoon. Read on for an exciting review on the reason why this book is absolutely incredible!

Upcoming tournaments in March 2020

29/02/2020 -

The month of March features two elite level tournaments. On the very first day, FIDE Women's Grand Prix starts off in Lausanne, Switzerland. Couple of days after it concludes, from 17th March, FIDE Candidates 2020 will start at Yekaterinburg, Russia. It is the tournament which will determine the challenger for the World Champion Magnus Carlsen. World Senior Team Championship will take place from 5th - 15th March at Prague, Czech Republic. There are two open rating tournaments in India which has a huge prize fund - 4th Holi Cup Lakecity Open and 2nd Nitai Ghosh Memorial Open 2020. There are various other state level, national level standard and rapid rating tournaments across the country and all over the world.

14-year-old Aydin Suleymanli is the champion of Aeroflot Open 2020

28/02/2020 -

The Aeroflot Open 2020 ended yesterday in a tie for the first place between four players, namely Aydin Suleymanli, Rinat Jumabayev, Rauf Mamedov, and Aravindh Chithambaram. But of the four the 14-year-old Aydin had the best tie-break score and therefore was declared the rightful champion of the event. The Azerbaijani thus took back home a purse worth €13,875 (approx 11 Lakh rupees). From Aravindh crushing Sanan Sjugirov to Pranesh and Praggnanandhaa scoring nice miniature wins, a lot of action took place on the final day of the tournament. We bring you a comprehensive report from Moscow with games, analyses, photos, and more.

The mother of all comebacks - Koneru Humpy!

28/02/2020 -

If you are looking at an inspirational story in the world of chess, it is definitely Koneru Humpy's. After two years of break from competitive chess, she is back where she belongs - world no.2 with three huge titles in the last few months. It all began with the Skolkovo Women's Grand Prix, followed by the World Rapid Championship title and now finally the Cairns Cup 2020, which ended just a week ago. The Cairns Cup organized in the Saint Louis Chess Club in the United States was the strongest ever tournament held in the history of women's chess. With a rating average of 2510, the event had all the top players in the world. Humpy scored 6.0/9 and won the event half a point ahead of World Champion Ju Wenjun. After the event we caught up with Humpy to recap her performance. 

New: ChessBase Magazine #194

28/02/2020 -

ChessBase Magazine is the most comprehensive and most sophisticated chess magazine there is. Star analyses: Giri, Firouzja, So, Duda, Navara, Van Foreest, Nielsen, Ganguly, Nihal and many more. Anish Giri reviews his game against one of his seconds Jorden Van Foreest, Simon Williams discusses Dubov’s King Hunt against Svane, David Navara analyses his endgame victory over Dmitry Jakovenko from the Jerusalem Grand Prix, Karsten Müller shows another fundamental endgame topic, Mihail Marin explains how to evaluate positions when only Queen and Rook remains on the board after minor pieces are exchanged off, 11 opening articles with new repertoire ideas and much more. Photo: ChessBase 

Aeroflot R08: Bharath Subramaniyam makes his maiden GM norm

27/02/2020 -

While the penultimate round of Aeroflot Open 2020 was lit up by the 14-year-old Azerbaijani phenom Aydin Suleymanli, for the Indian chess fans Bharath Subramaniyam too brought no less a reason to cheer as he drew his game against Alexander Riazantsev and secured his maiden GM norm with one round to spare. Bharath is just 12 years and 4 months old and is a star student of the Chess Gurukul academy run by Grandmaster Ramesh RB. In this article we give you an overview of his brilliant performance thus far and tell you what makes him special among other up and coming talents in the country. 

Contact Us