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What happened when Gukesh and Pragg visited Vishy Anand's home in Chennai

07/02/2019 -

5th February was a wonderful day in the life of India's youngest GM D. Gukesh. He was invited by the five-time World Champion Vishy Anand at his residence in Chennai. Gukesh, as always, was a bit shy and tensed, but once the duo sat down in Anand's training room in front of the chess board, all the shyness vanished. What did Anand and Gukesh analyze. And when later Praggnanandhaa joined in which was game that Pragg wanted to have a look at with Anand? We spoke to Gukesh after the meet and he tells us about his experience and the various positions that were analyzed in the session.  

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Watch out for the Indian talents born in 2006! They are coming!

07/02/2019 -

Born in 2006, they are just 12 years old, but they are young and hungry hunters! Indian talents born in 2006 are taking the chess world by storm. Believe it or not, when you search for boys born in 2006 on FIDE, out of the first 16 results that are given out by rating, nine of them are Indians! Gukesh is the most prominent name among them who became a GM at the age of 12 years, 7 months and 17 days. But there are many more extremely proficient players like Sreeshwan Maralakshikari, Aditya Mittal, Leon Mendonca, Pranesh M, Pranav Anand and others who are going to make it big in the years to come. This article contains the links of the previous coverage done by ChessBase India of these young talents which will help you to understand these talents better!

Rahul Gurung wins the North Eastern Championship for 2nd straight year

06/02/2019 -

Last year a historic feat was achieved by Sikkim when 16-year-old Rahul Gurung of Sikkim won the 18th North East Chess Championship title making him the youngest to do so and also the first from the state. Apart from Rahul, Sikkim also had Mr. Thendup Tamang who finished as the 2nd runners-up in the same event. This year the same feat was repeated again by Rahul Gurung when he clinched the 19th North Eastern Chess Championship title by scoring 8.5/10 points and remaining unbeaten throughout the event which took place on his home soil. We bring you a detailed pictorial report of the 19th North Eastern States FIDE Rating Chess Championship-2019 along with a short interview of the winner.

Anish Giri - The Indian connection

05/02/2019 -

As per Wikipedia, Anish Giri is a Russian born Dutch Grandmaster. But by his name, he sounds curiously Indian. Also, he holds a connection to India keeping in mind his work with Vidit Gujrathi in recent times and he had also been a second to Viswanathan Anand during his World Championship match against Veselin Topalov in Sofia, Bulgaria. After the Tata Steel came to a close, Anish, in a brief interview with Aditya Pai, spoke about his Indian roots, his work with Anand and Vidit, the current boom in Indian chess and his prospects of playing in India.

ChessBase India Calendar: The place to get all tournaments around the world

05/02/2019 -

We all wish to play a certain tournament when we read the report about it, but we often wonder how do they get to know about it? Which site to follow to know about all upcoming tournaments, be it small, major or official tournament? Well we are now ready to answer all those questions with one single solitary answer, that is ChessBase India Calendar. That's right, the Calendar tab which you have seen for all these years is now going to be the place for all tournaments around the world including our very own country. As a player, it will be easy to access to all tournaments at once, but as an organizer too, you can submit your tournament and make sure people all over the world get to know about your tournament. Read the article to know how to make the most out of it, as a player, coach, parent or as an organizer.

Anand on Wijk: "It's a bit like coming home"

04/02/2019 -

The Tata Steel has been one of Vishy Anand's very favourite tournaments. He has played there nineteen times thus far and has bagged five tournament titles. This year, he completed 30 years since his maiden appearance there, scoring a solid 7½/13. After his final round game, Aditya Pai caught up with the Indian ace for a brief interview in the press room at Wijk aan Zee to talk about his journey. | Photo: Alina L'ami

IIFLW 2018-19 - Where quality prevailed over quantity

03/02/2019 -

There are many norm tournaments taking place in India these days. However, there is a catch here. Even in the A-category events players with extremely low rating are included so that they get a chance to compete in the same events as grandmasters and best players of the country. While this is an excellent thought for the lower rated players, for the higher rated players, this turns out to be a huge bane. Making norms when facing such lower rated opponents becomes next to impossible. However, IIFLW 2018-19 decided to conduct a tournament with a difference. In the A-category, Indian players above the rating of 2100 were only allowed. The result? Five players made their norms. In this article IM Nisha Mohota thanks the sponsors IIFLW and organizer Praful Zaveri for keeping a strict cut-off. 

Reviewing the new-look ChessBase Magazine

03/02/2019 -

Daily training to improve and keep us in shape has to be fun as well as intellectually enlightening. We need to keep up our interest in order to perform well in tournaments. Reviewer DAVIDE NASTASIO likes to do that by engaging with a variety of learning tools. This time he turns his training eye on the new ChessBase Magazine. CBM encompasses different training methods covering all areas, from theoretical opening articles, to tactical and endgame training with video feedback. CBM 187 is a great way to translate your training time into practical success. Here's an overview with examples.

Trekking towards the GM title: The story of how G.A. Stany reinvented himself

02/02/2019 -

"Personal fitness, ability to concentrate, stubbornness, “sitzfleisch”, creativity – all these are the aspects which influence your game more than the newest deviation in the Najdorf on move 29 or a 14 move combination you couldn’t calculate."- Thomas. If you are following chess closely than you might have come across players who have crossed the required Elo rating for a long time but still don't have the IM/GM Title, just because of a missing norm or in some cases, have the required number of norms but need to cross the rating barrier. India's 58th Grandmaster G.A. Stany had a similar experience. For a long time he was couple of norms away, having completed the 2500 Elo requirement. In this article he take us through his journey of how he overcame his weaknesses and also shares with us some very important part of having success in chess which is often neglected. Thumbnail photo: V. Saravanan

Indians at the Gibraltar Masters 2019

01/02/2019 -

The Gibraltar Masters 2019 had 26 Indians playing at their event. Karthikeyan Murali was our best performing player as he not only finished second and gained 24 Elo points, but went back home richer by £20,000. Lalith Babu was another top performing Indian who finished eighth and gained 27 Elo points. Youngsters Gukesh and Raunak Sadhwani had a fine event as both of them gained rating points. Although India's top women players Humpy and Harika did not get a prize, they performed well holding their own against the best of grandmasters. The Gibraltar Masters is one of the best open tournaments in the world, and through this comprehensive round up article we give you the feel of the entire atmosphere on the rock!

Game Changer: Revitalizing the attack

31/01/2019 -

AlphaZero became a worldwide sensation when it defeated the world's strongest chess engine in a long match just hours after being fed the rules of the game. At the time, Garry Kasparov said that it had shaken chess to its roots. In the opinion of Matthew Sadler and Natasha Regan, the authors of the book 'Game Changer: AlphaZero's Groundbreaking Chess Strategies and the Promise of AI' this all-new silicon monster developed by DeepMind has helped us discover that there is lots of fresh potential in chess. ADITYA PAI spoke with the authors about their book, the impact AlphaZero has (and will have) on our royal game and whether chess will be solved one day in the light of such technological advancements.

33 Indians will travel to Aeroflot Open 2019 fully sponsored by the Government

31/01/2019 -

We can say that Indian chess is in safe hands when we know that we have a strong administration in the form of AICF and the government of India supporting the sport. 33 Indians will be travelling to the Aeroflot Open 2019 on 18th of February 2019 sponsored completely by the Government of India. It includes both male and female players in senior, junior and sub-junior category. These players will have absolutely no cost as the sports authority of India will take care of not only flight and accommodation, but also visa costs and also give the players a daily allowance. Aeroflot Open has three sections: A (above 2550), B (2300 to 2550) and C (below 2300). One of the Indian GMs will be the top seed in the B section. Can you guess who he is?

For which level of players is the Vishy Anand camp aimed at?

31/01/2019 -

Vishy Anand will be having a training workshop at the PYC Gymkhana, Pune from 9.30 a.m. to 4.30 p.m. on the 16th and 17th of February. Anand will be joined by India no.3 Vidit Gujrathi as a co-trainer. This is your unique chance to learn from two of the greatest chess players that our country has ever seen. A common question that we have been receiving is - for which rating level of players is this camp useful. In this article IM Sagar Shah tries to explain how the camp would be useful to just about any ambitious player with the help of his favourite Vishy Anand game - Ivanchuk vs Anand, Linares 1992.

How strong is GM Arjun Erigaisi?

31/01/2019 -

When people talk about the youngsters of Indian chess they usually speak about Praggnanandhaa, Nihal Sarin, D. Gukesh, Raunak Sadhwani, Prithu Gupta and so on. But there is one lad, slightly older than the rest, born in 2003 and 15 years old, who is taking the chess world by a storm. He is none other than Arjun Erigaisi, Telangana's first GM. At the recently concluded World Youth Olympiad 2018 in Turkey he performed at an Elo of 2678 and beat three strong opponents - Abdusattorov Nodirbek of Uzbekistan, Andrey Esipenko of Russia and Viktor Matviishen of Ukraine. In this article you can go through all the three games and two of them have been annotated by Arjun himself. This is the perfect way to know how strong Arjun really is.

Exciting chess in first three rounds of Velammal-AICF WGM Round Robin

30/01/2019 -

While strong male players are constantly being churned out from the country, women's chess has been a matter of worry for the current administration of AICF. In order to set this problem straight they have decided to seriously invest in bringing world class international players to India and give a chance to the young talents to fight it out against them in Round Robin format. The six Indian girls who have got a chance in the Velammal-AICF WGM Round Robin tournament are Michelle Catherina, Varshini, Divya Deshmukh, Aakanksha Hagawane, Saloni Sapale and Chandreyee Hajra. The international players are Nakhbayeva, Munguuntuul, Osmak, Uuriinuya, Babiy and Franco. Olga Babiy from Ukraine is leading the event with 3.0/3. On her heels is India's future in women's chess WIM Divya Deshmukh. An illustrated report with pictures from Chennai by Niklesh Jain.

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