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Shenzhen 2019 Round 5: Harikrishna's hattrick - Rapport, Ding Liren and now Yu Yangyi!

22/04/2019 -

Beating Rapport was not easy, but Hari managed it. Defeating Ding Liren was even tougher but Harikrishna achieved that as well. But what he did in round 5 was just extra special. Why? Because he had the black pieces! Against a world class player like Yu Yangyi (2751), when you reach an equalish position like Hari did in the game, you would more often than not agree to a draw. But Harikrishna is in phenomenal form. Just like Magnus Carlsen, Hari is also grinding down his opponents in a royal manner. That's exactly what he did to his Chinese opponent. The game against Yu Yangyi had some special moments which we analyze in this report. With this third win in a row the Indian GM is now the sole leader as we move into the rest day.

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Grenke 2019 Round 1: 14-year-old Vincent makes Carlsen toil for 6.5 hours for the full point!

21/04/2019 -

When you sit opposite the World Champion it is already a difficult feeling. You know that man is the best chess player on the planet and when he gives it his all, he is able to perform at an Elo of 3000 like he did at Shamkir just a couple of weeks ago. But for a 14-year-old such statures and titles do not matter. Youngsters are fearless and that is what Vincent Keymer showed in round one of the Grenke Masters 2019. He fought for nearly 6.5 hours against Magnus Carlsen and made the World Champion stretch for the full point. In fact the position was even until move 67 but then Keymer blundered. This was the only decisive game of the day. Vishy Anand playing MVL with black drew easily with the Caro Kann. Full report.

Shenzhen 2019 Round 4: What it takes to beat the most solid chess player in the world!

21/04/2019 -

Ding Liren is one of the most solid and objective players in the chess world. It is not without reason that he had an unbeaten streak of 100 games. In November 2018 he had reached an Elo of 2816. After Carlsen and Caruana he is currently the number three player in the world. How do you beat such a formidable opponent? Well, Harikrishna did this seemingly impossible task by playing some phenomenal chess at the fourth round of the Shenzhen Masters 2019. He played an off beat opening, kept posing his opponent small problems in the queenless middlegame, and finally took advantage of Ding Liren's minute errors to register an emphatic victory. Full analysis by IM Sagar Shah.

Spend 15 minutes with GM Swapnil Dhopade!

20/04/2019 -

We spend a lot of time of our chess preparation in trying to work on positions where there are specific tactical elements. However, when you sit at the board, no one is going to tell you - "Wait! Now is the time to think!" This is exactly the reason why one must try hard and develop an ability to calculate candidate moves and go deep in just about any position. In this article we have brought to you the 15-minute challenge with GM Swapnil Dhopade. Swapnil shares one of the positions that he has in his training database. He tells us "No one until now has been able to solve this correctly!" So there you have it. The challenge is to setup a board, cut yourself off from all distractions, think on this position for 15 minutes and then write you answer in the comments section below. The best answer wins a special prize.

Shenzhen 2019 Round 3: Harikrishna beats Rapport at Shenzhen Masters 2019 and reclaims his India no. 2 spot

20/04/2019 -

"Excited to play my first super tournament of the year. Hope to play some good games!" That's how Harikrishna felt making his way to Shenzhen in China for the Shenzhen Masters 2019. It's a six player round robin event with the top two seeds begin Ding Liren and Anish Giri. Harikrishna is clearly in fighting mood. After three rounds he is on 1.5/3, and all three of his games could have been decisive. In round 1 he was clearly worse against Jakovenko but salvaged a draw. Against Anish Giri, Hari was outplayed and the Indian GM lost his second round. But after the defeat Hari bounced back by playing a clinical game to beat Richard Rapport. With this win Hari reclaimed his position as India no. 2 in the live ratings.

Arpan Das wins 1st Tripura Open 2019

19/04/2019 -

Arpan Das of West Bengal became the champion of the 1st Tripura Open 2019 by scoring 7.5/9 points. It was a four-way tie at the top with IM Ramnathan Balasubramaniam, GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury and WIM Chandreyee Hajra taking the second, third and fourth spots respectively. The event took place in the beautiful Shahid Bhagat Singh Youth Hostel, Khejurbagan, Agartala and Matrix Chess Academy organised it. A total number of 209 players took part with five titled players in this 5-day event, which ran from 26th to 30th March 2019. In this final pictorial report of the event, we have an interview with the champion and also his best game from this tournament annotated by himself.

Grenke Chess Classic 2019 curtain raiser: Will Carlsen inch closer to 2900 Elo?

18/04/2019 -

The year's third major closed event, the Grenke Chess Classic, is poised to a spectacular start, featuring a fierce field that blends experience, youth and promise. Magnus Carlsen will be the top seed of the event while Fabiano Caruana, his erstwhile world title challenger, will take second on the starting rank. Other big names from the field include Levon Aronian, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Peter Svidler, etc. Viswanathan Anand, the only Indian in the fray, will begin as the third seed and would be eyeing his first big win of the year after lukewarm results at the Tata Steel and Shamkir. The field also features Vincent Keymer, the 14-year-old German IM who stunned the world by winning the title in the open last year. If all of this wasn't enough, Carlsen and Caruana will be seen crossing swords across the checkered board for the first time since their World Championship Match here in southwest Germany. Here's a peek into this exciting event.

Telangana and Maharashtra dominate National School 2019

18/04/2019 -

National School championship takes place every year in six different age group categories. This time it took place in Raipur, Chattisgarh from 3rd-7th April 2019. Total 926 players participated from 23 different states and 2 union territories across the country. While Telangana won the maximum number of podium finishes (6) in the entire tournament, Maharashtra won the maximum number of categories - 2. The tournament was inaugurated by R P Dubey, Chancellor of Dr CV Raman University and the Chief Guest of Prize Distribution Ceremony was D V Sundar, Honorary Vice President of FIDE. Ayush Sharma of Madhya Pradesh was the highest rated player in the entire event having the rating of 2051. Photos: Vasanth B H

Two Indians play non-stop blitz for 53 hours to create a World Record!

18/04/2019 -

Everyone loves to play blitz! But two guys from Himachal Pradesh Hansraj Thakur and Hitesh Azad decided to take this a notch higher. They played non stop blitz for 53 hours, 17 minutes and 49 seconds and 303 games to create a world record for the longest period of playing non stop blitz chess games. They bettered the total time of Jacek Gajewski and Wojciech Waruga who had played a total of 514 blitz games in 50 hours. Hansraj and Hitesh sat across each other in Mandi, Himachal Pradesh and played chess for over 53 hours as a part of endeavour to spread awareness about the upcoming Loksabha elections in the country. In this article FI Praful Zaveri tells us all about this new world record. We also have all the 303 encounters, just in case you would like to check the quality of the games.

Jan Gustafsson wins 19th BCC Open 2019, Deep finishes joint first

17/04/2019 -

GM Jan Gustafsson of Germany made a quick draw with GM Swapnil Dhopade in the final round to win the tournament. GM Deep Sengupta also finished at 7.5/9 by defeating IM Pascua Haridas in the final round to become the joint winner, thus the champion's prize money got shared and both of them received 170000 Baht each. However, due to a better tie-break score, Gustafsson was declared champion and he received the champion's trophy. GM Karthik Venkataraman finished at 7.0/9, due to a better tie-break score, he edged ahead three other players who also finished at the same point to secure 3rd position. IM Vijayalakshmi Subbaraman scored 6.5/9, finished at 13th and she received the Best Woman prize. The Challengers section was won by Ric Portugalera of Philippines. The report contains photos, positions, games and interviews. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

High on talent, low on funds - Sreeshwan needs your support

17/04/2019 -

Sreeshwan Maralakshikari, a 2462 rated boy hailing from Hyderabad, is on an all-time high. Everything about his chess is increasing: his performance as well his success rate. In January 2019, he scored his two IM norms. Recently at the Asian Youth held in Sri Lanka he won the gold in the under-14 section. For kids born in 2006, he is the second strongest in the world, only behind D. Gukesh. Sreeshwan showed the chess world that he can be a giant killer when he beat the world class GM Vassily Ivanchuk in just 26 moves at the Sunway Sitges Chess 2018. The talent is obvious, but for things to materialize in the right direction and move towards the GM title, Sreeshwan needs funds. This is a story of a boy who is high on talent, but low on funds. Sreeshwan needs your help.

Indian kids shine bright at Asian Youth 2019

16/04/2019 -

India won 8 medals in Asian Youth 2019 Standard. Thus taking the total medal tally of Indian contingent to 27 combining all three events in Asian Youth 2019.  FM Sreeshwan Maralakshikari and Moksh Amit Doshi are the Gold medal winners in under-14 and under-16 open category, the Silver medal winners are Mayank Chakraborty, Mahendra Teja Mekala, Sankalp Gupta and WFM Harshini A in under-10, 12, 14, 16 open and under-18 girls respectively. Jaivardhan Raj and FM Mitrabha Guha won Bronze in under-8 and under-18 open category. Team India won Team Gold in under-8 open and under-16 open category. The report contains photos and annotated games by the medal winners. Photo: ChessBase India archives

Can you win the Dubai Open 2019 like P. Iniyan?

16/04/2019 -

Winning a tournament like Dubai Open, which has 31 GMs participating in it, is never easy. India's latest GM P. Iniyan performed admirably at the 21st Dubai Open 2019, scoring 7.0/9 and finishing joint first. After the event ended Iniyan sent us some wonderful annotations to his favourite games with insightful comments. So, in this article we put you in the shoes of Iniyan, where you have to find the critical moves that he found during his 7th round game against Mareco Sandro (2651). After you have thought for 25 minutes for the two positions, you can have a look at the solution with notes by the champion. There was more good news for Indians from Dubai as Raghunandan scored his maiden GM norm, while youngster Bharath Subramaniyam achieved his second IM norm. 

The friendship and rivalry between India's first two GMs - Vishy Anand and Dibyendu Barua

15/04/2019 -

Back in the early 80s the biggest question on the mind of Indian chess fans was - Who would become India's first GM? There were many strong and senior players who were already IMs or close to IM strength and were attempting to break this barrier. But in came two youngsters - Vishy Anand born in 1969 and Dibyendu Barua born in 1966, who took the Indian chess by storm. Their rivalry was intense as they blitzed past all their competitors to become two of India's strongest chess players. In 1987 Vishy Anand ended the drought by becoming India's first GM. Four years later Barua achieved the feat in 1991. Anand and Barua were India's first two GMs. Deputy editor of Hindu Rakesh Rao sat down with both Anand and Barua together at the Taj Bengal, Kolkata and took them back down the memory lane to talk about their friendship, rivalry and more!

A life for chess - T.K. Joseph Tharappel

14/04/2019 -

Born in 1939, Kerala's former State Champion T.K. Joseph Tharappel passed away on 1st of April at 5 p.m. at the age of 79. Apart from being a strong chess player, he was also an excellent writer and his chess books have been appreciated all across Kerala and India. He was a pleasant personality who was easy to approach and always motivated young talents. In this article we have Dr. Sarin (father of Nihal Sarin) who writes about the contribution of late Mr. Joseph Tharappel towards Nihal's chess career. We also have an eulogy by Ummer Koya, former AICF Secretary, who knew TK Joseph very well. Finally we show an attacking gem from his chess career and tell you about how strong a chess player he was. TK Joseph is no more, but his writings, games and memories live on.

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