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India's first IM - Manuel Aaron turns 83 years old

30/12/2018 -

Who is the first titled player of India? Was it Mir Sultan Khan? Well, back then they did not have chess titles. Is it Vishy Anand? Anand was not even born when India got its first IM. So who was this person? It was none other than Manuel Aaron, who became an IM in the year 1961 and dominated Indian chess like no one else before. He won the national title for a record nine times and went on to represent the country at several Olympiads and also the prestigious Interzonal tournament in Stockholm in 1962. Today 30th of December 2018, is the 83rd birthday of the legend. This article is a dedication to all the work he has done for Indian chess. You will also find an hour long interview conducted with him by IM Sagar Shah in January 2018.

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Daniil Dubov and Ju Wenjun are the new World Rapid Champions

29/12/2018 -

In the open group, the 2018 King Salman World Rapid Championship seemed wide open at the close of day 2. It would not have been unlikely if more than one player had remained in the lead after the final round. In fact, three players could have joined Dubov at the top had they won their final round game but since none of them managed to pull out a victory, Dubov, being clear first by score, was crowned as the world rapid champion. Vishy Anand had his chances to contend for the big prizes but drawing all of his games on the final day, he finished 20th on the leaderboard with a score of 9.5/15. In the women's group, Ju Wenjun cruised to victory, conceding draws in her last two games. Among Indians, Harika Dronavalli was the top scorer. With 8.0/12, she finished 14th in the final standings. Koneru Humpy remained half a point behind Harika and finished 20th.

Who is Srijit Paul?

29/12/2018 -

17-year-old Srijit Paul shocked the entire country with his phenomenal performance at the National Senior Open Championship at Jammu early this month, when he finished ahead of many grandmasters and became the only untitled player to be in top 15. Srijit started 2018 by winning the 26th Telegraph, then he led his school team to a monumental victory by ending 11-year championship reign of South Point at 12th Chessmate. He finished 4th in WB State Junior. Srijit scored his first IM norm at World Junior 2016 and the second one in Badalona, Spain 2017. This article contains an interview with Srijit where you get to know more about him. Photo: Swati Biswas

Coach GM Srinath Narayanan speaks about India's silver at World Youth Olympiad 2018

29/12/2018 -

GM Srinath Narayanan started the year 2018 with an Elo of 2527. In 12 months, he has managed to reach a career high Elo of 2572. While he is personally growing as a chess player, he has also involved himself with multiple roles which go beyond just playing. He helped Team India at the Olympiad as one of the seconds. He came to Tata Steel Chess India 2018 as a coach cum friend of Nihal Sarin and he capped off the year with a silver medal for Team India as the coach and captain for the World Youth Olympiad 2018. Having a coach like Srinath boosted the morale of the team. In this article Srinath talks about his role in the team, what he thinks about the players and also what he learnt from this experience.

World Rapid Championship: Anand closes in on the tournament leaders going into the final day

28/12/2018 -

After ten rounds, the open segment of the King Salman World Rapid Championship remains wide open with seven players leading the pack at 7.5/10. If that wasn't enough, ten others -- with the defending champion, Vishy Anand among them -- are breathing down their necks at 7.0/10. Anand had kicked off well but stumbled in round eight as he lost to GM Ivan Saric. Regardless, he pulled off two more wins to compensate for it and reached within striking distance of the tournament leaders. Ju Wenjun continued her dominion in the women's group and has moved a full point ahead of the field going into the final day. Meanwhile, Koneru Humpy remains India's best hope. Having scored 5.5/8, she is placed 14th on the leaderboard.

How Padmini "Routed' the competition and became the Asian Champion 2018

28/12/2018 -

At the recently concluded Asian Continental Championship, the eighth seed of the tournament, IM Padmini Rout dominated the field from start to finish. In the end, she finished with an impressive 7.0/9, easily winning the Asian title. After the event, ChessBase India caught up with her to discuss some of her games, know about her training before the event and chat about her experience overall. With this interview we would like to give you a peek into the mind of Padmini, as to what she was thinking when she had some of the most critical positions on the board. It's been years we have been calling her the Princess of Indian chess, but with her list of growing achievements - four national titles and now Asian champion she is surely on path to becoming a queen! 

World Rapid Championship: Tough day for Carlsen

27/12/2018 -

Day 1 of the King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Championship turned out to be a horrible day for Magnus Carlsen. In round 1, he lost on time against Adam Tukhaev while in the very next round, he suffered another bitter defeat due to a blunder in a clearly better position. Vishy Anand, in the meanwhile, finished undefeated with 3.5/5 as did Pentala Harikrishna. In the women's group, Ju Wenjun took sole lead in the tournament winning all of her four games of the day. India's Koneru Humpy mustered up 3.0/4, scoring two wins and two draws in her first four games. Day 1 report.

King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2018 Inaugurated

26/12/2018 -

King Salman World Rapid and Blitz Championships 2018 inauguration ceremony was held in Saint Petersburg, Russia on 25th December 2018. World Champions Magnus Carlsen and Ju Wenjun drew a Black and White Pawn respectively in drawing of lots to determine the color for their respective Open and Women's section. Carlsen will be the top seed in the Open section while former World Rapid Champion Anna Muzychuk who has never lost the title will be in the Women's section. Harikrishna and Anand will lead the Indian camp along with Vishnu Prasanna, reigning National Blitz champion D K Sharma and debutant young Nihal Sarin at World Rapid and Blitz. Harika Dronavalli and Koneru Humpy will spearhead the Women's section for the Indian contingency. Photo: Lennart Ootes

What did this 10-year-old play here-Solution!

25/12/2018 -

Three days ago we published an article entitled "What did this 10-year-old play here?" It was a beautiful move executed by ChessBase India's expert annotator Arhan Anand in his game against Sara KR from under-15 All India rating tournament held in Mysore. We received a lot of answers. Those who found the move truly appreciated Arhan's capabilities as a chess player. An experienced IM from Odisha said, "Finding such moves over the board is not at all easy. Kudos to the young champion!" In this article we show you the solution to the problem and also treat you to the 10-year-old boy's in-depth analysis. We hope that you will enjoy it and be inspired to play such brilliancies in your games as well.

Your last chance to play with the best in Indian chess!

25/12/2018 -

The Vishy Anand 49 online blitz will be held on 25th of December at 8 p.m. IST on Playchess. We have kept the entries open until 2 p.m. today. These are the last two hours that you have to register for the tournament. Already 160 players have confirmed their entries and as many as 16 GMs and 16 IMs have confirmed their entries. In this article we ask the players who have already registered to take care of some steps to ensure that they have a smooth tournament! The World Rapid and Blitz will begin from tomorrow 26th of December where we will have Vishy Anand looking to defend his world rapid title. This online tournament tonight is the perfect way to get into the groove for this huge event!

Stany GA: “My only regret is that I could not become a Grandmaster when my father was alive”

25/12/2018 -

The 2018 National Chess Championship came to a close in Jammu earlier this week on Tuesday with Chennai lad, Aravindh Chithambaram clinching his first National title along with a ₹500,000 cash prize. But besides the crowning of a new national champion, the event also witnessed India get its 58th Grandmaster in GA Stany. In the ninth round of the event, Stany signed peace against Chithambaram in a 53 move long battle on the second board to score his final grandmaster norm. Since Stany had already breached the 2500 rating threshold in January 2017, he had completed all requirements for the GM title with this final norm. After the event, ChessBase India caught up with Stany to talk about his achievement.

150th edition of monthly chess tournament conducted at Hyderabad

24/12/2018 -

Have you heard the story of Dashrath Manjhi- The Mountain Man, how slowly and steadily he carved a road through the hills with only a hammer and a chisel. It's a story of persistence and dedication and one which shows consistent work, even on a small scale can move mountains. In chess circuit of India as well an amazing feat was achieved on 10th November, 2018 by a Hyderabad based chess coach, arbiter and organizer Mr. Jonnalagadda Subrahmanyam. 12 years ago, he had a vision - the vision was to give an opportunity to local players to play in a chess tournament. He named it the Brilliant Trophy Monthly chess tournament, and completed 150th edition of it a few days ago. In this article we try to cover the feat that was achieved by Mr. J. Subrahmanyam and his journey to it.

City Chess Club Bhuj and Telugu Chess Warriors wins ACL Challengers League 2018

23/12/2018 -

Maestro Chess Academy Attackers needed to win with a margin of 2.5-1.5 against Dark Knight Chess Academy. However they lost by 1-3. That opened the window of opportunity for City Chess Club Bhuj. CCCB defeated Maestro Chess Academy Strikers 4-0 and became the ACL Challengers League 2018 champion in the unrated category. In the rated category, Telugu Chess Warriors played with only three members as Sarath Chandra was unable to recover before the finals. Still they played fantastic and beat much stronger team on the paper, d'pawn Chess Academy by 3-1 to clinch the title. The report contains the final round games, best game prize winners list, photos and many more.

Karjakin's youngest GM record still stands

23/12/2018 -

Two Indians came very close to breaking Karjakin's record of the youngest GM in the world at the age of 12 years and 7 months. They were Praggnanandhaa and Gukesh. While Pragg missed the target by three months, Gukesh had a highly realistic chance if he made his third GM norm at the Sunway Sitges International 2018. The youngster was very close, but in the end missed out on the train. We tell you what happened in the ninth round. More good news from Sunway Sitges is 11-year-old Bharath Subramaniyam making his first IM norm. The last round will be played today at 2 p.m. IST and the exciting pairing is Praggnanandhaa versus Nihal Sarin.

An explosive line-up for Vishy Anand 49 online blitz 2018

23/12/2018 -

When was the last time you saw Adhiban, Karthikeyan Murali, Aravindh Chithambaram, Vaibhav Suri, Deepan Chakkravarthy, R. Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi, Abhimanyu Puranik, Diptayan Ghosh, Swapnil Dhopade, Thejkumar, Laxman, Gukesh, Raunak Sadhwani and many more playing in the same tournament? That's right, it's not easy to recall. They will all be seen in action on Tuesday 25th December at Playchess server in Vishy Anand 49 online blitz tournament. So far 11 GMs and 6 IMs have confirmed in what is shaping up to be the strongest online blitz tournament in the final week of 2018. The first prize is ₹12500 and the total prize fund is ₹49000. That's not all. Best Junior and best woman player will receive signed copies of Anand's ChessBase DVDs. The last date for the registration of the tournament is 24th December 2018. What are you waiting for? It's your chance to fight against the best players of our country!

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