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Shevchenko takes sole lead, Arghyadip stays ahead in XLV Seville Open 2020

18/01/2020 -

Kirill Shevchenko beat Lu Shanglei to take sole at 7.5/8 heading into the final round of the tournament. IM Arghyadip Das slipped a bit in the middle game against GM Andrey Shariyazdanov. However his opponent was unable to spot the intermediate move which allowed Arghyadip to regroup and equalize, leading to a draw. Both GM Swayams Mishra and IM Ravi Teja S scored comfortable draws. GM Shardul Gagare perhaps played one of the best game of the round, however he was unable to capitalize on his chances and eventually lost the game against GM Di Li. Both IM Padmini Rout and WIM Pratyusha Bodda won their respective matches to setup an All-Indian clash in the final round of the tournament. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

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Goryachkina wins and leads FIDE Women's World Championship Match 2020

18/01/2020 -

Aleksandra Goryachkina beat Ju Wenjun for the second time in FIDE Women's World Championship Match 2020 and for the first time she has taken the lead. The score is now 4½-3½. Goryachkina playing with white pieces opted for QGD Exchange variation. The Challenger Goryachkina played aggressively in the middlegame and the defending champion played quite passively. Ju's defence proved to be futile as Goryachkina created a center passed pawn after neutralizing black's center passed pawn with ease. With four games to go and the second stage being held in Russia, all signs seem to point towards the Challenger. She was able to make a comeback immediately after suffering a loss, can Ju do the same? Photo: Eteri Kublashvili / FIDE

A valiant Vishy in Eindhoven

17/01/2020 -

The fifth round of the ongoing Tata Steel Chess Tournament was played in a new venue in Eindhoven yesterday and became witness to a sparkling performance by the five-time World Champion Vishy Anand. Vishy's mammoth experience proved too much for his young and talented opponent Jeffery Xiong of the United States who ventured to surprise him with an unusual move in the French Winawer. Elsewhere, Alireza Firouzja too got back in his form and shocked Anish Giri in a tricky rook-pawn ending. In the Challengers group, as many as six games ended decisively. Nihal Sarin suffered his first defeat in the hands of Lucas Van Foreest, while Surya Shekhar Ganguly was held to a draw by David Anton Guijarro. 

Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Program 2020 Day 6+7+8 : Celebrating Pongal and Chess

17/01/2020 -

On 15th of January 2020, the entire atmosphere at the Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Training camp lit up with the Pongal celebrations. The mood was upbeat and this has been carried forward on the next days as well. Co-founder of ChessBase Frederic Friedel is here with at the venue with his son Martin. Amongst all of this, the second half of the training of the students continues in full flow as Kramnik has begun working on the Italian Opening, while Gelfand has taken up the task of working on the Semi-Slav. In this article you get the entire feel of what is happening at the Coastal Paradise villas in Chennai along with a couple of instructive chess positions explained by the young super talents!

Shardul Gagare and Arghyadip Das stay in the hunt at XLV Seville Open 2020

17/01/2020 -

GM Kirill Shevchenko (UKR) and GM Lu Shanglei (CHN) are in the joint lead with 6.5/7 at the end of the seventh round of XLV Seville Open 2020. They will face each other in the penultimate round. Among the Indians, both GM Shardul Gagare and IM Arghyadip Das registered fine victories and they are now just a half point behind the leaders at 6.0/7. GM Swayams Mishra and IM Ravi Teja S drew their respective games, they are at 5.5/7. Among the Indian women, IM Padmini Rout, IM Nisha Mohota, WIM Pratyusha Bodda and WIM Shalmali Gagare all won their respective games and they are now at 5.0/7. The tournament has only two rounds left to go. Photo: Amruta Mokal and Shahid Ahmed

Mr.Commonwealth Abhijeet Gupta wins 18th Delhi GM Open 2020

17/01/2020 -

Reigning and five-time Commonwealth Champion Abhijeet Gupta beat Aleksej Aleksandrov in the final round to clinch the championship in 18th Delhi International GM Open 2020. He finished at 8.5/10, a half point ahead of the field, won a huge trophy and ₹650000 cash prize. Aleksej Aleksandrov secured the runner-up position with a score of 8.0/10 according to the tie-break score, he received a huge trophy and ₹550000 cash prize. Pavel Ponkratov also finished with 8.0/10, he was placed third and won ₹450000 cash prize. The Category 'C' event was won by Bishwajit Singh Khagokpam of Manipur, he scored an unbeaten 9.5/10, followed by Shaurya Kumaria and Chiranjit Manna who finished second and third respectively. Photo: Niklesh Jain

The first ever No-Castling Chess Tournament results in 89% decisive games!

17/01/2020 -

Vladimir Kramnik suggested the idea of No-Castling chess a couple of months ago. All the rules of chess remain the same, just that both the players cannot castle. How does removing this one rule alter the game? Well, we decided to put this idea to test by getting 13 of the strongest Indian youngsters (average Elo - 2457) and holding the first ever No-Castling chess tournament at the Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Training camp in Chennai. It was a hard fought event with GM Raunak Sadhwani winning it ahead of many other talents. The most heartening thing to see was the number of fighting games! Out of the 27 games played, 24 of them ended in decisive results with only three draws. We bring you a comprehensive report with all the games, videos, analysis by Sagar Shah and some brilliant photos by Amruta Mokal. 

FIDE Women's World Championship Match 2020 resumes with a draw in Game 7

16/01/2020 -

The second stage of the FIDE Women's World Championship Match 2020 started at Vladivostok, Russia today. Game 7 ended up in a draw after a five-hour long battle spanning 67 moves. Goryachkina went for Berlin Defence for the third time, but Ju was not in a mood to play the same, so she opted for Anti-Berlin system. Neither side was able to extract anything. The game eventually reached into a double rook endgame which liquidated into a drawn King Pawn endgame. Only five games in the classical format. Game 8 will take place on 17th January at 3:30 p.m. local time, 11:00 a.m. IST. Photo: Eteri Kublashvili / FIDE

Swayams, Ravi, Arghyadip and Shardul are in the title fray of XLV Seville Open 2020

16/01/2020 -

Four Indians GM Swayams Mishra, IM Ravi Teja S, IM Arghyadip Das and GM Shardul Gagare are trailing behind half a point at 5.0/7 in XLV Abierto Internacional "Ciudad de Sevilla". Currently five players are leading the tournament at 5.5/6 each, they are Karen Grigoryan, Kirill Shevchenko, Vitaliy Bernadskiy, Di Li and Shanglei Lu. Among the Indian women, Padmini Rout, Soumya Swaminathan, Shalmali Gagare, Nisha Mohota and Pratyusha Bodda are at 4.0/6 each. With three rounds left, a lot of ups and downs are expected to happen. First prize 2000 Euros is up for grabs. The report contains selected games, key moments and photos from the tournament. Photo: Ismael Nieto

Can Abhijeet Gupta win 18th Delhi GM Open 2020?

16/01/2020 -

Aleksej Aleksandrov scored a victory in the penultimate round against Jose Eduardo Martinez and maintained his sole lead by a half point going into the final round. Abhijeet Gupta is the only one who has the opportunity to beat Aleksandrov and become champion. Aleksandrov is leading with a score of 8.0/9 and Abhijeet is at 7.5/9. They are followed by a pack of eight players who are at 7.0/9. Pranesh, Shyamnikhil and Visakh are the three Indians among the eight. The Category 'C' witnesses a total participation of 1260 players from six different countries which makes the total participation in the tournament 2347 in this year's edition. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Ganguly's Catalan masterclass, Nihal's robust endgame play

15/01/2020 -

Surya Shekhar Ganguly and Nihal Sarin, the two Indian Challengers at the ongoing Tata Steel Chess 2020 in Wijk Aan Zee, both registered impressive victories with black pieces yesterday. While the former showed his deep knowledge of opening and calculation prowess to beat Dinara Saduakassova, the latter edged out Max Warmerdam in a rook ending. Thus, after four rounds, Ganguly has emerged as the sole leader with 3.0/4 points and Nihal has climbed up to the joint second place on the leaderboard. In the Masters event Alireza Firouzja suffered his first loss in the hands of Wesley So, and Magnus Carlsen drew Jorden Van Foreest to surpass Sergei Tiviakov's record streak of 110 classical games. 

Diptayan, Abhijeet and Pranesh in the title fray of 18th Delhi GM Open 2020

15/01/2020 -

Aleksej Aleksandrov maintained his sole lead with a score of 7.0/8, by making a short draw with compatriot Alexei Fedorov. Abhijeet Gupta defeated Himal Gusain after the latter made an incorrect bishop exchange. Diptayan converted his decent advantage in the middle game against Lokesh N. 14-year old Pranesh M continued his fantastic run as he defeated Adam Tukhaev by double piece sacrifice and scored his second IM-norm. He is on the verge of scoring his maiden GM-norm. All players and officials maintained a two-minute silence to mourn the loss of former AICF Secretary General P T Ummer Koya | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Alireza Firouzja leads Tata Steel Masters

14/01/2020 -

He is just 16 but he is already leading the ongoing Tata Steel Masters in Wijk Aan Zee ahead of giants like Magnus Carlsen and Fabiano Caruana. Alireza Firouzja is one of the most formidable talents of this generation, many say he even has the potential to become the next World Champion. But what is it that makes him so special? Well, his third round victory against Vladislav Artemiev, who is interestingly also another world class prodigy, might just give us an answer. In this illustrated report we discuss Alireza's encounter against Artemiev in detail and more.

18th Delhi GM Open 2020: Aleksandrov maintains sole lead, Himal in the fray

14/01/2020 -

Belarusian GM Alexej Aleksandrov maitained his sole lead by making a draw with Ukrainian GM Adam Tukhaev. He is currently leading with a score of 6.5/7. IM Himal Gusain beat GM Visakh N R and became the only Indian who is a half point behind the leader at 5.5/7. Currently seven Indians are at 5.5/7 and they are - GM Karthik Venkataraman, GM Diptayan Ghosh, FM Pranesh M, GM Abhijeet Gupta, IM Neelash Saha and untitled Lokesh N. While the top board on the eighth round witnesses an All-Belarussian battle between Aleksej Aleksandrov and Alexei Fedorov, the second board witnesses a match between two Indians, Himal Gusain and Abhijeet Gupta. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Let's remember our first national champion of India - R B Sapre

14/01/2020 -

Chennai is known as the chess capital of India. Tamil Nadu is the Indian state that has the most number of grandmasters in the country. But did you know the first national champion of India was from Maharashtra. R.B. Sapre. Ramchandra Bhargav Sapre was a pure natural talent at the game of chess. Without any formal chess education he went on to become one of the greatest chess players of the country. His analytical ability was so great that he was invited to the Botvinnik-Smyslov match in Russia in 1954. R.B. Sapre his no more, but his chess legacy continues thanks to a few chess enthusiasts who have organized an open rapid rating event on 18th and 19th January 2020 in Ratnagiri, Maharashtra. Know more about this event. 

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