World Youth 2018: Can India win a medal?

27/10/2018 -

The World Championships for under-14, 16 and 18 are being held in Greece from the 20th to the 30th of October 2018. 25 Indians have participated in this event. Seven rounds have been completed and the Indian players who are in top ten places are Sankalp Gupta, Kushagra Mohan, Tejaswini Sagar and L. Jyothsna. There are a few players like Divya Deshmukh and Mrudul Dehankar who have a good chance for a podium finish if they play well in the last four rounds. Indian chess faces a grave problem in such youth tournaments that the best players of the country do not participate in the World Youth Championships. Hence, the chances of us winning medals is significantly reduced. In this article we try to touch upon this problem and hope that a solution is found. 

ACL Challengers League 2018 begins

27/10/2018 -

ACL Challengers League 2018 started on 20th October 2018 with 15 teams from various states across the country. 25 games were played in Round 1 between. In the unrated section, the first round winners are, Bangalore Chess Academy-1, Maestro Chess Academy Attackers, City Chess Club Bhuj and Maestro Chess Academy Strikers. Among the rated, the victorious teams are, d'pawn Chess Academy, Intermezzo and Royal Knight Chess Academy. Best game of round 1 winner's name is also announced. In this report, we bring you photos and the best games from round 1.

Isle of Man Masters: Nakamura beats Abhijeet Gupta to take shared first

26/10/2018 -

Top seeds have begun gathering around the top spots after the sixth round of the Isle of Man Masters. While Wang Hao and Jeffery Xiong concluded their faceoff in a fighting draw, Hikaru Nakamura, Radoslaw Wojtaszek and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave won their games to join in on shared first. Nakamura defeated Abhijeet Gupta on the second board, thereby bringing the Indian GM off the top spot on the leaderboard. Meanwhile, Vishy Anand climbed up to the shared second place after his win over Daniel Fridman. On board 6, Adhiban effortlessly held Aronian to a draw with the white pieces while D Gukesh also scored a major upset defeating former Women's World Champion, Alexandra Kostenuik. Round 6 report.

Kavitha JE bags the Homepreneur Award 2018

26/10/2018 -

Former U-10, U-12, U-15 and U-18 National Champion, Asian Sub-Junior Bronze medalist and Asian Junior Silver medalist WFM J.E.Kavitha wins the Homepreneur Award 2018. The Award is a unique initiative introduced by "Brand Avatar" to provide platform to recognize and celebrate the women who have chosen to pursue their passion through entrepreneurship from home. This year the total number of registrants were 6500 and out of which 150 were shortlisted and interviewed by an eminent jury. In this article we try to dig in and learn about Kavitha's experience in being a part of this initiative and in the end winning the prestigious award.

Live and best games from the Isle of Man International 2018

26/10/2018 -

This page is your ultimate guide to the Isle of Man International 2018. You have the live games to follow here. Every day the round begins at 7 p.m. IST. Apart from the live games we also have the overview of Indian performance at the end of the article which gives you a bird's eye view of how the Indians are performing. Lastly we also have the game of the day section where we select one best game of the round and it is analyzed by IM Sagar Shah. Enjoy this amazing event where we have so many Indian players right from Vishy Anand to Vidit Gujrathi to Adhiban to Nihal Sarin and Praggnananadhaa! A total of 35 Indians have made their way to the Isle of Man International 2018!

India wins the 3rd India China Summit

25/10/2018 -

In the fourth round, China had convincingly defeated India to level scores in the 3rd India China Chess Summit in Bhubaneshwar, India. In the next four rounds, the Indian team did fabulously well to win round six and hold China to draws in the other three rounds to emerge as the winners of the summit. This was the third India-China summit. In the past two editions India had lost to China. This is the first time that the Indian team had emerged victorious! In this report, we bring you all the action with pictures and games.

Isle of Man Masters: Abhijeet Gupta takes joint first

25/10/2018 -

Abhijeet Gupta's Superman cap seems to be really working its charm. After defeating Le Quang Liem in round 4, the Delhi based Grandmaster scored his second straight upset beating Vidit Gujrathi in the fifth round. On the top board, Wang Hao and Arkadij Naiditsch slowed their pace and agreed to a solid 36 move draw. This meant that Gupta had now joined the leading duo at 4.5/5. Jeffery Xiong also scored a fine tactical win against Richard Rapport to join the leaders. An illustrated report on round 5.

CBIJ #11: What it takes to become a national champion?

25/10/2018 -

This weeks edition of CBIJ brings to you some important news! Manish Anto Cristiano is one of the many shining stars of Indian Chess. He was the under-11 national champion in 2016 and in his bid to qualify for the World Youth Championships in India in 2019 he played the U-17 Nationals, being just 13 years old! He was so close to a podium finish but in the end he had to settle for the fourth spot. Irrespective of that, he has his own special journey to share! Do read that, and don't miss out on his games, annotated by the boy himself!The Bournvita Chess Tournaments were a big hit in their time; read about one man's vision to revive it with a bang! Lastly, try your hand at this week's very interesting Trivia. Enjoy! 

Saravana Krishnan wins Tetrasoft Open 2018

24/10/2018 -

As in other spheres of business and economy, Chess in India too is growing at an unbelievable pace, thanks to the support coming in from corporates around the world, who have recognized the importance of associating with one of the greatest games on the planet. It's turning out to be a win-win situation for all concerned - for corporates, it enhances their brand value and fulfills their CSR role. For chess players it offers an opportunity to participate in a world class event and claim huge prizes. One such event is the Tetrasoft Open at Hyderabad, which has just put forward its 2nd step but is all set to take a quantum leap forward by generating tremendous enthusiasm among the chess fraternity of India. This year the event was conducted at the 5-star hotel, Marriott - a first of its kind in the country from 19th September 2018 till 23rd September 2018. FI Praful Zaveri send us a detailed report of the event.

10 reasons why you will fall in love with Vidit Gujrathi

24/10/2018 -

When you look at him, you feel that he does justice to the term - chess is a royal game! Always well dressed, soft spoken and at the same time thoughtful about all that he says, Vidit Gujrathi is the perfect ambassador for the upcoming boom of Indian chess. Today he turned 24 years old and has already spent a good 14 months in the 2700+ zone! While India has had many talents and strong players in the past, Vidit has proved that he has it in him to go the extra mile. He holds his own easily against the best in the world. In shorter formats he has scored wins over legendary players like Aronian and MVL. What makes him so special? We try to find out in this article. Also in the article is a contest where you can win Vidit's ChessBase DVD autographed by Vidit himself.

Isle of Man Masters: Two leaders remain

24/10/2018 -

After four rounds, only two players have managed to retain a 4/4 score -- Arkadij Naiditsch and Wang Hao. While Naiditsch defeated Tregubov in round 4, Wang Hao drew blood out of stone in his game against Erwin L'ami to join Naiditsch in the lead. On the top board, Jeffery Xiong avoided the Najdorf against MVL and managed to sign the truce against the French number one. In one of the biggest upsets of the round, GM Abhijeet Gupta managed to bring down GM Le Quang Liem in a razor sharp Sicilian. Meanwhile, Vidit Gujrathi had no problems defeating Praggnanandhaa after the latter mishandled the opening. Vishy Anand also won his game against Shyam Sundar to score his second victory of the event. Round 4 report.

Pouya Idani wins the 1st Goa GM International 2018

23/10/2018 -

It is the second time that an Iranian came to India and won a major GM open event. The first one was by Parham Maghsoodloo at the Mumbai IIFLW event in January 2018 and now it was Pouya Idani who won the title of the 1st Goa GM international 2018.  Pouya started as the fifth seed in the event and played a very smooth tournament to emerge as the champion with a score of 8.5/10. In fact, he was completely winning in the penultimate round, but missed his chance. He had to settle for a draw. But in the last round he played his heart out, beat Karthik Venkatraman and won the event. In this report we have all the excitement of the final round, but also a lot of interesting pictures, and interviews to give you a complete feel of this chess extravaganza.

Isle of Man Masters: Pragg wins the day!

23/10/2018 - In the third round of the Isle of Man Masters, GM Vidit Gujrathi, who was one of the tournament leaders after two rounds, agreed to a mere 16 move draw against compatriot Vaibhav Suri to slip down to the joint second place. Vishy Anand's game against Svane Rasmus wasn't much different either; the two signed peace after 24 moves. But the game that really stood out in the round was the one between R Praggnanandhaa and Pavel Eljanov. In a complex Sicilian Defence middle game, Pragg sacrificed his queen to come out on top the highly entertaining battle. In another exciting battle, GM Abhijeet Gupta and Boris Gelfand had spectators on the edge of their seats until the very end when the game finally petered out into a draw. Round 3 report. 

Isle of Man Masters: Another tough day for Anand

22/10/2018 -

Viswanathan Anand found himself in trouble once again in the second round of the Isle of Man Masters in Douglas. This time he was caught off guard in a French Defence by American GM Robert Hess. Although Anand's position looked precarious in the endgame, the Indian ace managed to hold ground and drew after 78 moves. Meanwhile Vidit Gujrathi, once again, played the game of the day. Sacrificing his queen, Vidit annihilated Debashis Das' king in merely 25 moves. Harsha Bharathakoti also won a fine attacking game against SP Sethuraman to reach 2.0/2. We have an illustrated report with games.

Isle of Man Masters: Raunak Sadhwani gives Vishy a major scare in the opening round

21/10/2018 -

In its fifth year, the Chess.com Isle of Man Masters has become the strongest open tournament ever! Headlined by six of the world's top ten chess players, the field boasts of as many as 20 Grandmasters rated above Elo 2700. However, as the opening round of the event came to a close, almost half of them were held to draws. Sundararajan Kidambi held Vladimir Kramnik on board four; just one board ahead, CRG Krishna signed the truce against Wesley So. Viswanathan Anand was also on the brink of losing against IM Raunak Sadhwani but the Madras Tiger found his way out and won after 74 moves. Round 1 report.