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Last round results can make or break your events

16/03/2019 -

Last rounds are extremely important. An entire event that was played well can spiral downwards if you lose the last round. At the same time a mediocre event can become the best if you manage to win your final game. At the World Team Championships team India's fate was spoiled by the last round loss to Russia. We had to settle for the fourth place without a medal. At the Prague Chess Festival both Harikrishna and Vidit were on 4.0/8 before the last round. Harikrishna lost his game to Gelfand and finished seventh out of ten players. On the other hand Vidit won the last round against Navara and finished second! Talk about last round result making or breaking an event!

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World Teams 2019: India misses out on a medal, Adhiban and Ganguly win individual gold

15/03/2019 -

India's solid performance in first eight rounds was not good enough for a medal as the team slumped to a 2.5-1.5 loss to Russia, and were pushed to the fourth position. Russia took the gold medal, England surprised everyone with the silver and China had to settle for the bronze. Although India couldn't get a team medal, Adhiban and Ganguly both won individual golds on boards one and three respectively. Adhiban performed at an Elo of 2828, while Ganguly's rating performance was 2850! In the women's section China won the gold, silver went to Russia and Georgia took home the bronze. Indian women's team didn't have the best of events, finishing sixth. A detailed final report from Astana, Kazakhstan. 

Breaking through stagnation - The story of how Manush Shah reached 2405 Elo

15/03/2019 -

"Nowadays, when you're not a grandmaster at 14, you can forget about it." - Viswanathan Anand. Today we have grandmasters that are 12, 13, and 14 years old. But does that mean that you quit playing if you are not young enough for the title? Akiba Rubinstein started when he was 16, Mikhail Chigorin at the age of 17 and there are so many examples around. 22 years old FM Manush Shah believes that age is just a number and anything is possible in life if you put your sincere efforts to make them work in your career.  In this article, he shares with us his interesting story to which most of the players can relate and how he managed to get 2405 ELO (+389 rating), 2 IM norms in 1.5 yrs with K-factor 20. Manush has also annotated his favourite games for the readers of ChessBase India.

Planting the seeds of talent: Tattva Chess Academy

14/03/2019 -

"The Tattva Chess Academy was formed with the primary purpose of creating talents at State, National and International levels." These are the words from the Tattva Chess Academy founder Durgesh K. The academy has worked hard to increase the chess playing strength in Bangalore, with 120 students and growing. Officially known to the chess world in 2017, Durgesh K, Arvind Shastry and Manjunath Jayaram have all worked tirelessly to live up to their vision. A helping hand for the chess community's growth is always appreciated, and Tattva has done this in a fascinating way. The following report gives a detailed account on the Tattva Academy, its star students, Komal Srivatsav and Kaushik Iyer, as well as a few words from Durgesh himself.

Can India win the silver at the World Teams 2019?

14/03/2019 -

Indian team is currently in second place at the World Team Championships 2019. It has gone through some serious ups and downs, but has managed to not lose even a single match. In just about every match a different player has taken the responsibility to ensure that the team does well. Adhiban has been rock solid on board one with 5.5/8. But the monster scorer has been Surya Sekhar Ganguly who is on 6.5/8 with a rating performance of 2863! Sethuraman has done his job on board four with 5.0/7. Sasikiran has been off colour in the event with 2.5/7. He has been rested for the last round against Russia. The Russian team with 14.0/16 match points have already won the gold, but for India the match is extremely important. A win here would ensure a silver medal.

Dvorkovich: “FIDE has a direct income from its first sponsor Russian Railways"

13/03/2019 -

On the opening day of the World Team Championships 2019 FIDE President Arkadij Dvorkovich was in Astana. Yannick Pelletier, who is the press officer for the event, was alloted a few minutes for an interview with the FIDE President. The new FIDE administration has been in power for just about four months, but already they brought some huge changes in the World Championship cycle, the qualifying events and more. FIDE now also has officially its first sponsor - the Russian Railways. How will this money be used for the growth of chess? In this interview Dvorkovich speaks about all of these points and we also get to know his stance related to the Grand Chess Tour.

Live games from World Teams 2019

13/03/2019 -

Team India looks forward to maximize their opportunity of getting double wild cards at the World Teams 2019. Adhiban B, Sasikiran Krishnan, Sethuraman S P, Aravindh Chithambaram and Surya Sekhar Ganguly form the men's team and the women's team comprises of Soumya Swaminathan, Tania Sachdev, Eesha Karavade, Bhakti Kulkarni and Padmini Rout. Both teams have a huge potential to cause many upsets and grab a podium finish. Catch all games live and commentary by GM Evgenij Miroshnichenko and WGM Anna Burtasova. Last round begins at 11.30 a.m. IST. Photo: ChessBase India archives

Balancing chess and education - Sai Agni is Telangana's sixth IM

12/03/2019 -

How does one become an International Master? For all of you who are unaware about the process - for an IM title you need to make three IM norms in three different tournaments. This basically means scoring a certain amount of points against titled and untitled players and you need to achieve a rating performance of over 2450. Once you have performed over 2450 in three tournaments against the required opposition (titled players, foreigners etc.) then you must raise your ELO to 2400. And then you have it! The letters IM in front of your name. But is it really so easy as it sounds? Read this article to know more about the latest IM of India, J. Sai Agni Jeevitesh, his struggles and his unflinching dedication to excel at chess and how he became the sixth IM from Telangana.

Gukesh gets a lucky win, Wang Hao takes sole lead after round 8 in 9th HDBank International 2019

12/03/2019 -

Top seed of 9th HDBank International Open 2019 GM Wang Hao defeated the overnight sole leader GM Stanislav Bogdanovich of Ukraine after the latter blundered an exchange in a Rook-Knight vs. Rook-Bishop and few pawns endgame which was seemingly equal. With this win, Hao jumped into a sole lead and he will be looking forward to win the HDBank title for the second time since his first triumph in 2016. Gukesh was completely lost against GM Anton Demchenko of Russia, however Demchenko made a terrible blunder which turned the result into Gukesh's favor. Photo: Shahid Ahmed 

Ice cool Praggnanandhaa beats Fire on Board Alexei Shirov at Prague Challengers 2019

12/03/2019 -

From a slow start at the Prague Challengers 2019, Praggnanandhaa has picked up pace and scored two back to back victories to catapult himself into the leaders group with 3.5/6. Pragg's win against Ju Wenjun was a fine technical effort, while his sixth round victory against Alexei Shirov was a game where the 13-year-old's opening preparation and lack of opening knowledge for Shirov led to a dominant position for Praggnanandhaa in just 15 moves. Rest of the game was all about how well Pragg could convert his edge. Although Pragg was not 100% clinical, his technique was good enough to get the full point. The Masters section had a rest day so Vidit and Harikrishna will be back in action from the 12th of March.

9th HDBank International Open Round 7: Bogdanovich maintains lead, Divya beats a GM

11/03/2019 -

GM Stanislav Bogdanovich maintains half point lead by beating the defending champion GM Sandro Mareco after the former trapped his opponent's Queen at the center of the board. Wang Hao went for Keres Attack against Dutch GM Loek Van Wely and managed to win the Rook-Knight endgame when Van Wely mistimed the Knight exchange. Iturrizaga made his third consecutive draw, this time against the hometown favorite Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son in just 16 moves. Among Indians, WIM Divya Deshmukh had a great day when she defeated GM Tu Hoang Thong. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Praggnanadhaa beats Women's World Champion Ju Wenjun in Prague

11/03/2019 -

Ju Wenjun is the current Women's World Champion in Classical and Rapid chess. She was also instrumental in China winning the gold medal at the Batumi Olympiad 2018 by playing on board one. At the Prague Challengers Wenjun was leading the tournament with a score of 3.0/4 with wins over David Paravyan (2627) and Peter Michalik (2565). It was clear that she was in great form. On the other hand Pragg had had a slow start to his event. He lost to Bartel in round one and then three draws against Jiri Stocek (2592), Nguyen Thai Dai Van (2546) and David Paravyan (2627). Clearly he wasn't the favourite when facing Ju Wenjun in round five. But the 13-year-old prepared his opening to perfection, played the middlegame with care, and the endgame like a machine to bring home the full point. Complete analysis of this interesting encounter.

Bogdanovich takes sole lead after round 6 in 9th HDBank International Open 2019

10/03/2019 -

GM Stanislav Bogdanovic of Ukraine drew with overnight leader GM Eduardo Bonelli Iturrizaga of Venezuela in round 5, after Iturrizaga defended the endgame well despite being down by an exchange. In the following round Bogdanovic defeated GM Ivan Cheparinov of Georgia and took sole lead in 9th HDBank International Open 2019. Cheparinov went for a wrong chain exchange in Giuco Piano and his position became worse. Eventually rectifying that mistake cost him the game eventually. Among the Indians, IM Leon Mendonca Luke and GM Karthik Venkataraman are the most impressive so far. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

World Teams 2019 Rounds 3-5: The unbeaten team India

10/03/2019 -

Five rounds have been completed at the World Team Championships 2019. India has faced some really strong teams like China, Iran, England, but we haven't lost a match. Before the rest day team India is on 7.0/10, two points behind Russia, in the second position. The nice thing to see is that in each match a different player is coming up with the goods. For example against China it was Ganguly who beat Yu Yangyi and equalized the score, while against England it was Sethuraman who beat Gawain Jones for 2-2 tie. Adhiban has been in great form on board one with 4.0/5. In the women's section China is leading with a score of 10/10. Indian women's team with 6.0/10 have a chance to fight for the bronze medal, but need a strong finish in the last four rounds. 

Eduardo and Bogdanovich are in joint lead in 9th HDBank International 2019

09/03/2019 -

GM Iturrizaga Bonelli Eduardo and GM Stanislav Bogdanovich defeated GM Gukesh D and GM Sandipan Chanda respectively to take joint lead at the conclusion of round 4 in 9th HDBank International Open 2019. Gukesh's pawn sacrifice went wrong, things slowly started to get out of hand and eventually the game. Sandipan made a tactical error which cost him an exchange and the position became difficult. Leon and Laxman drew with GM Nguyen Ngoc Truong Son and GM Tranh Tuan Minh. The report contains selected games, photos and interviews. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

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