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GCT Leuven Day 2: Anand continues to struggle with form

14/06/2018 -

On the second day of the Leuven Grand Chess Tour Rapids, Wesley So continued his dominance over the field scoring two wins and a draw yet again. The American number two is now up to 10/12, two points ahead of his nearest rival, Levon Aronian. Viswanathan Anand finally won his first game of the event on day two beating Fabiano Caruana in the sixth round. However, in his very next game, Anand blundered inexplicably in a drawn endgame against Maxime Vachier Lagrave. An illustrated report with games.

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Harikrishna leads 2-1 against Navara at the CEZ Trophy in Prague

14/06/2018 -

It was going to be a 12 game rapid match between David Navara and Ding Liren in the capital of Czech Republic - Prague. However, Ding Liren met with an accident and injured his hip at the recently concluded Norway Chess. The organizers found a last minute replacement in India number two Pentala Harikrishna. Hari has recently shifted his base to Prague after marriage. On the first day, the Indian was clearly the better player as he scored a win and two draws to lead the match by a score of 2:1. We have the pictures, games and analysis in this report.

Leuven Grand Chess Tour Day 1: Anand's shaky start puts him at the bottom of the leaderboard

13/06/2018 -

Day one of the Grand Chess Tour Leuven Rapids turned out to be a disaster for the Indian ace, GM Viswanathan Anand. Out of his three games in the day, Anand lost the first two and drew in the third. In the very first round, Anand suffered a shocking defeat at the hands of Shakhriyar Mamedyarov who conducted a brilliant attack on Anand's king to take home the full point. Against Anish Giri in the second round, Anand, even though a pawn down seemed comfortable but mishaps in the rook endgame

Farrukh Amonatov wins Mumbai Mayor's Cup 2018

13/06/2018 -

The final event in the circuit of three major tournaments in India ended with the 11th Mumbai Mayor's Cup 2018. The tournament was keenly contested, and quite a low scoring affair. The winners were GM Farrukh Amonatov from Tajikistan and Roeland Pruijssers from the Netherlands. Both of them scored 8.0/10. Three norms were made at the event - Rithvik Raja and Kiran Manisha Mohanty scored an IM norm, while Divya Deshmukh scored her final WIM norm becoming a WIM at the age of just 12 years and 6 months. A detailed pictorial report, with analysis and loads of videos. 

Praggnanandhaa misses a shot at his final GM norm in Schaakweek Apeldoorn

12/06/2018 -

After scoring his second GM norm, a couple of months ago at the Heraklion Fischer Memorial GM Norm tournament in Greece, IM R Praggnanandhaa continued his quest for the GM title at the 1st Schaakweek Apeldoorn closed round robin in the Netherlands. Unfortunately, after five rounds, the Indian wunderkind has lost his chance to score a GM norm. Out of his five games, Praggna has lost four and won one. We take an in-depth look at his performance so far. | Photo: Henk Vinkes/Schaakweek Apeldoorn

Sarthak Deshpande is the new youngest rated player of India

11/06/2018 -

On 1st June 2018, 5-year old, Sarthak Deshpande of Pune broke Nivaan Khandhadia's record of youngest rated player in India, exactly after one month. Sarthak broke the record at just 5 years and 11 months, few days shy from him turning 6. He hails from Pune just like Nivaan. Sarthak is trained by Mrunalini Kunte at Kunte's Chess Academy. Currently his world ranking among under 6 players is 11. He got his rating from Late Bharatbai Halkude Memorial 2nd All India Below 1600 Tournament in May 2018 held in Pune, by drawing with a two kids of ten and eleven years old, rated 1188 and 1178 respectively. In this report, we will get to know about little Sarthak and how he got his name into the record books of Indian chess. Photo: Deepa Deshpande

Judges in Canada are sentencing juvenile offenders to chess and the results are interesting

10/06/2018 -

In Alberta’s University of Lethbridge, an alternative initiative sees youth who commit non-violent crimes sentenced to 25 hours of chess instruction. Interesting!? On 24th of May, 2018 one of the world's emerging independent, not-for-profit media outlet "The Conversation" has published a very interesting article on youth offenders from Canada who are sentenced by the Judges to learn and play chess. All youth offenders who are involved in the criminal justice system are attending what’s known as the Chess for Life Program at Alberta’s University of Lethbridge as part of their sentence.

IM Anup Deshmukh wins Khasdar Chashak Nagpur District Open 2018

09/06/2018 -

International Master Anup Deshmukh won the Khasdar Chashak Nagpur District Open FIDE Rating Chess Tournament 2018 by scoring 8.5/10 points and remaining unbeaten throughout the event. Vaibhav Jayant Raut and top seed FM Thakur Akash also scored 8.5/10 points each but were placed 2nd and 3rd respectively on the basis of tie-break score. Gurupreet Singh Maras was very close to winning the title, but in the end lost the final round to Akash Thakur and was relegated to the fourth spot. IA Swapnil Bansod, who was also the Chief Arbiter of the event, sends us photos and a detailed summary of what happened at the tournament.

Altibox Norway Chess: Caruana wins in a thrilling finale!

08/06/2018 -

The final round of the Altibox Norway Chess was as action-packed as it could get! After the initial quick draws in the between Carlsen and MVL, and  Aronian and Nakamura, Indian ace Vishy Anand ensured that if there was going to be a playoff, it will be between not four but five players. Beating Sergey Karjakin in a fascinating tactical battle, Anand had caught up with the leaders. But then, Wesley So, under a bit of pressure against Caruana, went for broke sacrificing two pawns and a rook eventually and ended up losing! This made Caruana the title winner while Anand, along with Nakamura and Aronian. Report.

Mumbai Mayor's Cup 2018: Martyn Kravtsiv or Farrukh Amonatov?

08/06/2018 -

The Mumbai Mayor's Cup 2018 is at a very interesting stage. There are two players, both above 2600 Elo, on 6.0/7. Farrukh Amonatov and Martyn Kravtsiv. They will face each other in the eighth round. A decisive result there will most probably determine the winner of the tournament. Behind these two GMs, we have 14 players on 5.5/7! The most vibrant performer of this tournament from an Indian point of view is Raja Rithvik who is on 5.5 points and has remained undefeated. He might well get his GM norm if he continues in the same vein.

Karpov Poikovsky 8+9: Vidit finishes fourth; Jakovenko takes the title

07/06/2018 -

In the final two rounds of the Karpov Poikovsky International, Vidit Gujrathi scored a point and a half to finish fourth on the final leaderboard. In round eight, he defeated Anton Korobov and drew against Vladimir Fedoseev to complete his unbeaten run with a score of 5.5/9. Even though this isn't the best Vidit could have achieved, it's a commendable performance given that it was his first big closed event. Meanwhile, Dmitry Jakovenko cruised to the title prize with two tepid draws. A report on rounds 8 and 9.

Norway Chess R8: Caruana beats Anand; joins Carlsen, So & Naka in lead

07/06/2018 -

After a splendid win in the previous round, Viswanathan Anand suffered a tragic loss at the hands of Fabiano Caruana in the eighth round of the Altibox Norway Chess. With just one round to go, Anand barely has any time to recover and win the event. His only hope lies in winning the next game and praying that the top two boards end in draws so he could catch up with the leaders. Hikaru Nakamura also joined the leaders beating Sergey Karjakin in the penultimate round. The other two games finished peacefully: Magnus Carlsen was held by Mamedyarov while Wesley So drew against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave. Round 8 report.

The place where Vishy Anand won the National title in 1987, is hosting the under-7 Nationals!

07/06/2018 -

Tumakuru, or better known as Tumkur, is a town situated around 75 kilometres from Bangalore. It will be the centre of attraction of Indian chess as some of the brightest under-7 talents of our country will fight it out with each other from 16th to 24th of July 2018. The organizers, Mandya Chess Academy, are doing this event very tastefully and bringing in some innovations that will make it memorable for the participants. In this article you will find all the details related to the tournament and you will also get a small dose of Indian history. Do you know what is the relation between Vishy Anand and Tumkur? 

Norway Chess R7: Anand joins the leaders beating MVL!

06/06/2018 -

After six straight draws, the Tiger from Madras, Vishy Anand has finally scored his first win of the tournament, and that too with the black pieces! Against Maxime Vachier-Lagrave, Vishy gave a hint of his vintage style essaying the Open variation of the Ruy Lopez. Another quick sparkle was seen in Caruana's game against Nakamura where the former sacrificed a rook on his 20th turn but this soon fizzled out into a draw. The other two games of the day were short draws. With Carlsen having a rest day in round 7 and So drawing Mamedyarov, Anand has joined stepped up to the joint first place in the tournament with this victory! 

Maharashtra's biggest talent: 7-year-old Jaivardhan Raj

06/06/2018 -

7-year-old prodigy from Mumbai Jaivardhan Raj won the prestigious Maharashtra U-7 State Championship held at Kolhapur from 24th - 27th May, with an impressive score of 7.5/8 points. He started the tournament as a 3rd seed behind top seed Shourya Khadilkar of Mumbai and 2nd seed Nivaan Khandhadia of Pune and went on to play rock solid chess to cement his position for the title by remaining unbeaten throughout the event. In this article we let you know more about this young talent, who is sure to make it big in the chess world in the years to come!

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