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Important decisions made at AICF's Central Council meeting

22/12/2018 -

The AICF Central Council Meeting was held on 22nd of December 2018 at the Hyatt Regency in Chennai. This is the meeting where all the important decisions and changes with regards to the administration in Indian chess are taken. The AICF Central Council came up with some crucial decisions like a grant of Rs.50,000 each to 12 states to organize FIDE rating tournaments, A grant of Rs.50,000 each to 12 states under the project Smart Girl to boost women's chess in our country. There were further decisions made with regards to rating category tournaments in India, the boarding money of official players for national championships, Chess in Schools Project and much more. The below article are the points sent to us by AICF after the meeting ended.  

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Krishna Teja scores his maiden GM norm with a round to spare at Sunway Sitges 2018

22/12/2018 -

Sunway Sitges has turned out to be an amazing event for a lad from Andhra Pradesh - IM Krishna Teja. Rated just 2340, he had already beaten big names like Beliavksy and Vincent Keymer. In round 8 he scalped another big fish when he got the better of GM Nihal Sarin. It was a street fight where Krishna Teja was worse out of the opening but did not give up. Nihal tried hard to create some imbalance in the position, and Krishna managed to play sublimely in the endgame to get the full point. With this performance he made a GM norm with one round to spare. In this article we tell how GM norms are calculated and also show you a brilliant position from the game of Soumya Swaminathan.

What did this 10-year-old play here?

22/12/2018 -

Creating a brilliancy for a chess player is a joy that surpasses everything. True, the medals, trophies and prizes are important, but once you create a brilliancy over the board it stays for a lifetime. Your friends can look at the game and learn and so can your competitors and what's more it stands the test of time. Our 10-year-old expert annotator at ChessBase India Juniors Arhan Anand had a similar opportunity recently when he played at the All India under-15 tournament in Mysore. His opponent was Sara KR (rated 1131) and after 27 moves Arhan had a chance to play one of the best moves of his life! The young boy did it and calculated some mind boggling variations. We now invite you to do the same. Mind you, there's also a prize to be won! 

Can Gukesh still become the youngest GM ever?

21/12/2018 -

The Sunway Sitges that is currently taking place in Barcelona, Spain is the tournament which houses the biggest chess talents of India. You have Nihal Sarin, Praggnanandhaa, Gukesh, Raunak Sadhwani, Vaishali, and many more. Add to it the experience of Sasikiran and Soumya Swaminathan and this tournamentevent is definitely something that you should n't be missing out on. There's also the excitement of Gukesh becoming the youngest GM ever in the history of the game. So, how are our players faring at this tournament. Seven out of the ten rounds have come to an end and this is how things look.

Mitrabha Guha wins 27th The Telegraph Schools' Chess 2018

20/12/2018 -

Mitrabha Guha won his maiden title in 27th The Telegraph Schools' Chess 2018 in his final appearance at the longest running school level chess tournament of the country. Mitrabha scored 8.5/9 and finished half-a-point ahead of the runner-up Koustav Chatterjee. Rajdeep Sarkar scored 7.5/9 and finished at 3rd position. Mitrabha also won the Parimal Mukherjee Trophy for the Best Game prize against Rajdeep Sarkar from their round 8 encounter. He was the spearhead for his school team, South Point's another championship run at the Best School prize. We bring you photos, interviews, games and an annotated game by the champion himself. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Aravindh Chithambaram is the Indian National Champion 2018

20/12/2018 -

In the year 2016 Aravindh finished runner-up at the Nationals, in 2017 runner-up once again. Was the 19-year-old from Chennai really incapable of winning the national title? Aravindh didn't think that way! He tried once again in 2018, gave it his all and this time emerged victorious. He not only won the title of the National Champion, but also gained a spot in the World Cup 2019. At the same time he won Rs.5,00,000 - the highest prize money ever won by an Indian at a National Championship. Second place went to IM CRG Krishna, third place was won by untitled Srijit Paul ahead of several GMs. In all five norms were made at the event - Stany made a GM norm, Niranjan, Ritviz, Srijit and Harshavardhan made IM norms. A detailed final report from the National Championship 2018.

ChessBase India Power is the official partner of Aeroflot Open 2019

19/12/2018 -

Aeroflot Open 2019 is considered as one of the most important tournaments in the calendar of an ambitious chess player. All the top players have played the Aeroflot Open at least once in their life, be it Carlsen, Caruana, Karjakin, Hou Yifan and many others. The tournament is divided into three categories (A, B, C). Category A is for players above 2550, Category B is for players from 2300 to 2550 and Category C is for players below 2300. ChessBase India is now the official partner for the Aeroflot Open 2019. The organizers have offered a special discount for Indian players and at the same time you save yourself from the hassles of making a foreign remittance. In this article IM Sagar Shah also recounts his experience of playing at the Aeroflot Open 2016, which will help you to understand how good the tournament really is. 

Padmini Rout is the new Women's Asian Continental Champion!

18/12/2018 -

Padmini Rout comfortably clinched the title at the Asian Continental Chess Championship by splitting the point in her final round game against Wang Jue. At 7.0/9, Padmini was caught in the pole position by WGM Gong Qianyun of Singapore at the conclusion of the final round but a better tiebreak score gave the Indian the title. In the open segment, GM Surya Ganguly slipped down to the fourth spot after losing his final round game to Le Quang Liem. Nevertheless, he remained the only Indian in the open group to finish in the top 5 and book himself a berth in the 2019 FIDE World Cup.

27th Telegraph Chess 2018: Mitrabha takes sole lead heading into the final round

18/12/2018 -

Mitrabha Guha emerged as the sole leader after the conclusion of the penultimate round in the 27th edition of The Telegraph Schools' Chess 2018. Mitrabha defeated the previous round leader Rajdeep Sarkar to gain a half-point lead. A pack of four players Koustav Chattejee, Sanket Chakravarty, Praloy Sahoo and Ayan Pal are trailing behind the leader at 7.0/8. In the seventh round, Rajdeep was unable to extract a win against Sanket, whereas Koustav and Mitrabha accepted draw meekly. Praloy and Ayan won their both round 7 and 8 games to get into the title picture. Despite Mitrabha being in the lead, he must win in the final round to secure the championship whereas draw means anyone can become champion. The report contains photos, videos and games from round 7 and 8. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

CBIJ #12: To the children, for the children, by the children!

18/12/2018 -

ChessBase India Juniors (CBIJ) began in March 2018 with its inaugural article. 13-year-old Avathanshu Bhat has worked hard in the last nine months and we have reached the 12th edition of CBIJ, which celebrates the achievements of the juniors of Indian chess. From being alone, Avathanshu's team has doubled as Arhan Anand, a youngster from Bangalore now annotates games in his inimitable style. In this article you can find the magic of both these youngsters as they bring to limelight the dark knights of Indian chess - Kushagra Mohan, Jeet Shah and Rautela brothers. There's a section on Sparkling titans and not to be missed is Editor's Pick at the end. We also have a Trivia this month with three months of ChessBase Premium Account at stake for the one who is able to annotate a chess game in the best possible manner.

Can Aravindh do it in 2018 what he couldn't do in 2017?

18/12/2018 -

Aravindh Chithambaram has played an excellent tournament at the National Championship in Jammu. After 12 rounds he is on 9.5/12, half a point ahead of the field. In round 12 he played a wonderful game to beat GM Karthikeyan Murali from the black side of the Sicilian Dragon. Exactly a year ago Aravindh had a chance to become the National Champion 2017. He had lost his nerves and his chance of winning the tournament. If he is able to keep his nerves today he can become the national champion for the first time in his chess career, win Rs.5,00,000 and a spot in the World Cup 2019. Do you think he can do it? The final round has begun at 9 a.m. and Aravindh faces CRG Krishna. You can watch the game live here!

27th The Telegraph 2018 round 6: Rajdeep, Mitrabha, Koustav and Sanket are in the lead

17/12/2018 -

All top four seeds, Rajdeep Sarkar, Mitrabha Guha, Koustav Chatterjee and Sanket Chakravarty are in perfect sync with a score of 6.0/6. Koustav Chatterjee was the first one among all of them to score his victory. Swapnil Priyadarshi is the only player from Odisha who is half-point behind the leaders. There are 22 players who are at 5.0/6. Tomorrow's round 7 will be interesting as all four leaders will face first real challenge of the tournament as Rajdeep faces Sanket and Koustav faces Mitrabha respectively. This report contains photos, games and videos from round 6. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Nationals 2018 Round 10+11: Stany or Aravindh?

17/12/2018 -

Usually after achieving a norm or title, players lose their game. That's because they tend to get a bit relaxed after their achievement. However, that was not the case with Stany who played a fine game after becoming India's 58th GM to beat Deep Sengupta. Stany is now one of the leaders with 8.5/11. Aravindh Chithambaram played a good game to beat Vaibhav Suri in eleventh round and join Stany at the top. On 8.0/11, we have a group of five players which include Vaibhav Suri, Deepan Chakkravarthy, Tejas Bakre, Karthikeyan Murali and CRG Krishna. An illustrated report with some interesting games from round 10 and 11.

Asian Continental Championship: Ganguly and Rout continue to lead

16/12/2018 -

GM Surya Shekhar Ganguly, following his loss in the previous round, came back with strongly with a win over the top seed of the tournament, Wang Hao, while the number of tournament leaders dropped from eight to two. The other leader to retain his lead going into the penultimate round was Iranian GM Amin Tabatabaei who defeated SP Sethuraman on board four. Meanwhile, Vidit Gujrathi agreed to a short draw against GM Nodirbek Abdusattorov and slipped down a spot on the leaderboard. In the women's group, Padmini Rout continued her stronghold over the event despite her quick draw. With just two rounds to go, she continues to lead by a full point. Round 7 report.

Samriddhaa survives two massive scares at 27th The Telegraph Schools' 2018

16/12/2018 -

Reigning West Bengal State Women's champion and 6th seed of the tournament escaped from the brink of loss against Soumyajit Das of Aditya Academy school in round 5. In round 4 also she narrowly escaped a loss when she miscalculated a tactic. Top four seeds remained unscathed and they are in the lead along with six other players at 5.0/5. Biggest upset of round 4 was, former WB State sub-junior girls' champion Sudipa Haldar blundering a checkmate against Debargha Basu and Mortuza Mahathir Islam (BAN) lost against Srihaan Poddar (PHI). In the fifth round Srihaan caused another upset by defeating Soyamsree Mohanty of Odisha. The report contains photos, videos and games from round 4 and 5. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

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