Lakecity GM R05: Swapnil Dhopade goes down against Denis Eraschenkov

17/09/2019 -

Grandmaster Swapnil Dhopade suffered a disappointing loss against Russian International Master Denis Eraschenkov in the fifth round of the ongoing Lakecity GM Open. What started off as a super-solid symmetrical English turned out into a staggering 90-move long battle with many ups and downs. Eraschenkov gave up an exchange on move 21 and the game liquidated into a roughly equal but complex ending where the Indian player made multiple slips and conceded his opponent strong passers on both sides of the board and this ultimately proved to be fatal. The encounters in the top three boards ended in draws, thus after five rounds as many as ten players, led by India's Deepan Chakkravarthy, are tied with 4.5/5 points each. 

Best chess solving books for professional players

16/09/2019 -

FM Nikhil Dixit is from Pune, Maharshtra. He is currently rated 2358, holds two IM-norms and looks forward to secure his final norm. This is his first blog post ever. where Nikhil helps you with the best chess solving book recommendations for professional players especially for above 2000 rated players. The book links are attached so you can see preview and buy them too. In this article, Nikhil explains which solving books he likes, his honest review about those books, the contents of the books and some selected positions from a few of the books to get an idea about it. Photo: various sources

Lakecity GM R04: Deepan Chakkravarthy's 21-move crush

16/09/2019 -

Deepan Chakkravarthy pulled off a 21-move miniature to demolish his Egyptian adversary Hesham Abdelrahman and registered his fourth consecutive win in the ongoing Lakecity Grandmaster Open Chess Tournament taking place in Udaipur, Rajasthan. After four rounds of the event six players have emerged as leaders with 4.0/4 points each including Deepan and two more Indians, namely Mitrabha Guha and IM Sayantan Das. Elsewhere, Swapnil Dhopade beat Kumar Gaurav and Neelotpal Das got the better of Pranav Shetty. While, in what were the most surprising results of the day, Saptarshi Roy (2480) was held to a draw by Odisha's Utkal Ranjan Sahoo (2329) and Himanshu Sharma (2408) by Thanki Hemal Karsanji (2098) of Gujarat. 

World Cup 2019 Rd.2 tiebreaks: Nihal Sarin's dream run comes to an end

15/09/2019 -

Nihal Sarin's elimination from the World Cup wasn't expected after the way he played the first game of his match against Eltaj Safarli. The Azeri GM, however proved that in order to win a match at this level, apart from chess strength you also need to be psychologically strong. Nihal was not his usual confident self in the tiebreaks as he lost the match with a score of 2.5-1.5. Adhiban also couldn't showcase his skills and slumped to a defeat against Yu Yangyi. Only two Indians are left in the fray now - Harikrishna Pentala and Vidit Gujrathi. Hari will now face GM Kiril Alekseenko and Vidit will be up against Wesley So. We bring you a detailed report on round two tiebreaks.

Humpy and Harika make a solid start at Skolkovo FIDE Women's Grand Prix

15/09/2019 -

Skolkovo FIDE Women's Grand Prix is the first Women's GP event of the 2019-20 GP series, part of the Women's World Championship cycle. Twelve women are participating in this single round robin event being held in Russia, including our very own, Koneru Humpy, Harika Dronavalli along with the reigning Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun, the new Women's World Championship Challenger Aleksandra Goryachkina, former Women's World Champions Alexandra Kosteniuk and Antoaneta Stefanova among others. Top two finishers of FIDE Women's GP 2019-20 will advance to the next Women's Candidates. Photo: David Llada / FIDE

World Cup 2019 Rd. 2.2: Harikrishna and Vidit advance, Nihal's blackout

15/09/2019 -

How much chess action can you pack in one day! " A LOT" is the answer if you are following the World Cup 2019. Harikrishna and Vidit Gujrathi showcased clinical performances and progressed to round three. While Hari dominated the match against Fedoseev, Vidit took his chances when he was presented and beat Rakhmanov. The big news of the day of Nihal Sarin's blackout moment and a piece blunder against Eltaj Safarli in a better position. Nihal now has to fight it out in the tiebreaks against the Azeri GM. Adhiban has played a solid 1-1 draw against Yu Yangyi and the match goes into the tiebreaks. Aravindh Chithambaram couldn't continue his magic and was eliminated against Tomashevsky. A detailed round 2.2 report by IM Sagar Shah.

Lakecity GM R01 to 03: Bihar talent Kumar Gaurav stuns Grandmaster Laxman Rajaram

15/09/2019 -

The princely city of Udaipur in Rajasthan is witnessing the 1st Lakecity International Grandmaster Open which is taking place from 13th to the 20th of September 2019. A total of 223 players from 11 different countries have come to participate including 13 GMs and 9 IMs. The Russian Grandmaster Ivan Rozum is the top seed of the tournament with a rating of 2596; while the Indian contingent, consisting of 186 participants in all, is led by the country's 13th GM and the event's second seed Deepan Chakkravarthy. Three rounds have been completed so far, in this consolidated report we bring you the jist of the most important moments from the same.

Om Kadam and Shruti Kale win Maharashtra State selection under-11 2019

14/09/2019 -

CM Om Manish Kadam and Shruti Kale win Maharashtra State Selection FIDE Rated under-11 in open and girls category by scoring 7.5/8 and 7.0/8 respectively. Both champions remained undefeated throughout the tournament. Total 162 players including 100 in open and 62 in girls participated from various districts across Maharashtra to take part in this four-day eight-round rating tournament, organized by PR Chess Academy and Akola District Chess Association at Bhatru Mandal Hall in Akola, Maharashtra from 8th to 11th September 2019. Photo: PR Chess Academy

World Cup 2019 Rd.2.1: Nihal and Harikrishna score sparkling wins

13/09/2019 -

Nihal Sarin continued his impressive run at the World Cup 2019, this time completely blanking Azeri GM Eltaj Safarli. Harikrishna showed that he is in excellent form in the event as he brushed off Vladimir Fedoseev from the white side of a Queen's Gambit Declined. Nihal's play was praised by people all across the world including World Champion Magnus Carlsen, who said that the youngster played a perfect game. Aravindh Chithambaram couldn't keep up his momentum and lost to Evgeny Tomashevsky. Vidit and Adhiban tried hard with the white pieces against Rakhmanov and Yu Yangyi respectively but couldn't get much. They agreed to a draw. A detailed report with in-depth analysis of all the games from round 2.

Laxman wins Pearl City All India Open and a brand new Maruti Alto 800

13/09/2019 -

Top seed of the tournament GM Laxman R R wins Pearl City All India Open 2019 by scoring 9.0/11. Two more players GM P Karthikeyan and IM Al Muthaiah also finished at the same score, however due to a better tie-break score Laxman clinched the championship, Karthikeyan and Muthaiah were placed second and third respectively. Laxman won a unique prize of Brand new Maruti Alto 800 Car along with a trophy and cash prize. Karthikeyan and Muthaiah's unique prizes were bike and laptop respectively. In this article we also learn about Laxman's performance through an interview. Photo: Chessplug

The Human AlphaZero!

13/09/2019 -

Nihal Sarin stunned the chess world with his 2-0 victory against GM Jorge Cori at the first round of the World Cup 2019. People who always used to wonder how strong Nihal really is got their questions answered through his games. But how did Nihal become so strong? What are the ingredients that have helped him reach the rating of 2622 at the age of just 15 years. Ashwin Subramanian has spent time with the youngster and through his interactions with Nihal and constantly following his updates has come to the conclusion that there five factors which makes him a future World Championship contender. What are these five points? We welcome you to read the article penned down by our guest author. 

Navigate the Ruy Lopez with Fabiano Caruana

13/09/2019 -

Former World Championship challenger Super GM Fabiano Caruana has made three DVDs for ChessBase about various lines in the Ruy Lopez. They will offer you a complete repertoire for White in the Ruy Lopez covering all options after the moves 1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.Bb5. However, if you are a black player facing the Ruy Lopez, you too are bound to learn quite a bit from this DVD because of Caruana's objective approach towards the opening. The release date is 25th of September. However, we are launching a pre-order for the product, so that you are able to save quite a bit of money. Usually it takes years to learn and understand the intricacies of a major opening like Ruy Lopez. But with these three DVDs you will learn it in 16 hours and 20 minutes from one of the best in the business! 

World Cup 2019 Rd.1 tiebreaks: Aravindh beats Michael Adams

13/09/2019 -

The round one tiebreaks at the World Cup 2019 was an intense one. Due to the shorter format of the games, there were quite a few errors. Sethuraman and S.L. Narayanan were the first ones to get knocked out as they lost in the 25'+10" section against Nabaty and David Anton respectively. Ganguly and Abhijeet Gupta gave a tough fight to their opponents, but when the 10'+10" section had ended both of them had to bite the dust against Fedoseev and Korobov respectively. There was only one Indian who managed to hang in there right until the very end - Aravindh Chithambaram. He played a marathon 8-game match with world class GM Michael Adams and came out on top with a score of 4.5-3.5. Check out the match with the key moments in our report.

Western Asian 2019 final day: Medals galore for India!

12/09/2019 -

The inaugural edition of the Western Asian Youth Chess Championship ended with medals galore for India. Combining all three formats - standard, rapid, and blitz - the country bagged a whopping total of 125 medals. In the classical event it was only Uzbekistan’s Abdimalik Abdisalimov (under-20) and Kazakhstan’s Abilmansur Abdikhair (under-16) who went back home clinching gold medals, while Indians claimed 41 out of 48 medals at stake. In the Blitz tournament too the domination prevailed as there also 41 medals were clinched by India itself. The nation also found its latest Internationational Masters in two young lads from West Bengal, Srijit Paul and Rajdeep Sarkar. In this final report we bring you photos, analyses, and much more from the last day of the event.

World Cup 2019 Rd 1.2: The fighters who never give up!

12/09/2019 -

After the two classical games of the World Cup 2019 in round one, we have nine out of the ten Indians still in fray. Karthikeyan Murali lost to Inarkiev and was eliminated with a score of 1.5-0.5. Ganguly, Sethuraman and S.L. Narayanan had their backs to the wall as all three of them had lost their game one, but the trio fought back and registered victories to force their match into tiebreaks. Nihal Sarin and Harikrishna won with a score of 2-0, while Vidit and Adhiban advanced with 1.5-0.5. Aravindh and Abhijeet Gupta are the other two players along with Ganguly, Sethu and Narayanan who will fight it out at the tiebreaks!