Nihal Sarin bags clear second at 1st Al Sayyah Blitz

18/08/2018 - Having earned his Grandmaster title recently, Nihal Sarin is making it clear that this is only one of the early milestones of his illustrious career. After his wonderful run in Abu Dhabi, the 14-year-old from Thrissur was seen matching his wits at blitz chess with some very strong grandmasters at the 1st Al Sayyah International Blitz in Dubai. Scoring 7.5/9, Nihal finished clear second, ahead of strong GMs like Salem Saleh, Gabriel Sargissian and Ahmed Adly. 

For the 53rd GM of India Nihal Sarin the journey is more important than the destination

18/08/2018 -

People are predicting a very bright future for Indian chess. One of the main reasons for the same is Nihal Sarin (the other one is Praggnanandhaa). Nihal became a GM at the age of 14 years, 1 month and 1 day when he achieved his final GM norm at the Abu Dhabi Masters 2018 with one round to spare. This makes the young boy, the 12th youngest GM in the history of the game. In this article we tell you all about the people who have helped Nihal to become the chess player that he is. At the same time we analyze two of his most recent games (from 2018) and show you why he is a technical and positional monster. Nihal's restlessness earned him the title of "the boy who never sits"! Well, we have now officially changed it to "the boy who never stops"!

Trash talk, mate in one, and entertainment galore at Ultimate Moves 2018

17/08/2018 -

Having witnessed an unhealthy number of 145 games over 5 days, and before the exciting Sinquefield Cup starts on Saturday the 18th August, the Saint Louis Chess Club had a breather of fresh air and laughter in the form of a fun event, ‘Ultimate Moves’ at the club on Thursday. It also marked the day when World Champion Magnus Carlsen arrived at the venue, energetic and smiling, with his characteristic sense of humour and confidence in tow, to the large bunch of Grand Chess Tour players who probably were already bored of each other after the Saint Louis Rapid and Blitz. ChessBase India correspondent V. Saravanan who is present present at the venue in USA to cover the Sinquefield Cup 2018 sends you a detailed picture of what took place in the special edition of Ultimate Moves 2018!

Scholarship of one year of free training to the deserving candidate

17/08/2018 -

There is a lot of talent in Indian chess. Young kids often show skills in the game which impress experienced players and coaches. At such moments it is important that the right training and guidance is given to these young kids. But when a chess parent from a humble financial background is thrown into the competitive chess world, they realize that pursuing their child's chess dream is a tremendously stressful affair. For such kids, who have the talent, but are unable to afford chess training, Chess Guru Academy, a chess institute in Mumbai has launched a one-year scholarship of free training at their academy. They would like to focus on the selection of the student and mould him/her to be the next under-7 or under-9 national champion of India.

Abu Dhabi Masters: Two GMs and a ton of norms!

16/08/2018 -

The Indian contingent finished off with a bang at the Abu Dhabi Masters, this year. Even though none of the players made it into the top 10 on the leaderboard, India grew richer by two Grandmasters in Nihal Sarin and Arjun Erigaisi. Furthermore, Harsha Bharathakoti and P Iniyan also scored their Grandmaster norms and are heading strongly towards the title. Among IM norm scorers, Muthaiah AL and Sankalp Gupta scored their norms with a round to spare, while VS Rathanvel scored a quick draw in the finale to make the feat. Amid all this, Daniil Dubov and Salem Saleh caught up with Anton Korobov in the top spot in a nail-biting final round. After the tiebreaks were applied Dubov was declared the winner.

A huge report on how Nakamura won the St. Louis Rapid And Blitz 2018!

16/08/2018 -

After a lot of dramatic and exciting chess it was Hikaru Nakamura who came out at the top by winning his first Grand Chess Tour event on home soil. On the last day of the event Nakamura started steadily and scored 5.5/9 winning the 2018 St. Louis Rapid and Blitz. He was under pressure by Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, who has been in great form recently and the MVL, who is famed for his rapid and blitz chess. But in the end Hikaru was just too strong as he strolled to the finish line with some power packed chess. V. Saravanan, who is present at the venue in Saint Louis sends you a detailed picture of what took place in the 3rd,4th and 5th Day. T his one of our longest reports!

ACL 1st Super League 2018: DBCA and PKCCE are the finalists in Rating 1800-2200 category

16/08/2018 -

Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy of Kolkata, West Bengal and Punjab Kesari Centre of Chess Excellence of Punjab are the finalists in ACL 1st Super League 2018 in Rating 1800-2200 category. Sumit Kumar and Ram Prakash each won their both semi-final matches in emphatic manner to propel them into the finals. DBCA defeated d'pawn Chess Academy in both matches with a score of 3-1 and 4-0 respectively. PKCCE drew their first match with Orange City Rockers 2-2, however they bounced back in the second one and scored 3.5-0.5 to advance to the finals. DBCA and PKCCE will face each other in the finals on 22nd August 2018. Photo: DBCA/Sayan Bose

Abu Dhabi Masters: Nihal Sarin is India's latest GM!

15/08/2018 -

The penultimate round of the Abu Dhabi Masters witnessed a major turnaround on the top of the leaderboard. GM Anton Korobov managed to bring down the ever creative Hungarian GM Richard Rapport in a Queen's Indian Defence. But this was thoroughly overshadowed by a rather tepid game. IM Nihal Sarin had held IM Teymur Kuybokarov to an easy 21 move draw. But this was more important because, with this draw, the 14-year-old Sarin had scored his final GM norm and had become the country's 53rd Grandmaster! Another player on the hunt for a GM norm is the Telangana based IM Arjun Erigaisi. With a score of 5.0/8, Erigaisi needs a win in his final round game to clinch the norm. 

The ChessBase India Independence Day Sale!

14/08/2018 -

ChessBase India has been working day and night to popularize chess in India. It has brought a lot of products to the Indian chess market at discounted prices. But one product remains extremely close and special to our heart and that is the ChessBase India T-shirts! With a unique design that makes every Indian chess player proud, the T-shirts are the first products manufactured completely in India by us. This Independence Day we want you to be the proud owner of these T-shirts for absolutely no cost. Check out this amazing offer in which you can buy your favourite ChessBase and Quality Chess products that have been on your wishlist for a long time and get the ChessBase India T-shirts free of cost! 

La Liga football meets chess in Kochi

14/08/2018 -

Six top players of India took on Champions of Spain and Girona FC footballers part of Toyota Yaris La Liga World international preseason football tournament in Kochi between 25th and 28th July 2018. David Anton, Ivan Salgado, Miguel Santos, Sabrina Vega, Ana Matnadze and Marta Garcia were representing the Spanish team along with coach David Martinez. Indian team consisted of S L Narayanan, Abhimanyu Puranik, Diptayan Ghosh, Harshit Raja, Soumya Swaminathan and Kiran Manisha Mohanty with coach Vishal Sareen. The friendly camp took place in Kochi Marriott Hotel. Photo: LaLiga4Sports facebook

ACL 1st Super League 2018: MCA and DBCA are the finalists in Rating 1400-1800 category

14/08/2018 -

Matrix Chess Club of New Delhi and Dibyendu Barua Chess Academy of Kolkata, West Bengal are the finalists in ACL 1st Super League 2018 in Rating 1400-1800 category. Anirudh Jain of MCC and Souhardo Basak of DBCA were the spearheads as they scored two victories each in the semi-final matches. MCC won both of their semi-final matches against Innovators Chess Academy of Bengaluru, Karnataka with a score of 2.5-1.5 and 3-1 respectively. DBCA defeated Matrix Chess Academy in the first semi-final with 3-1 and drew the second one 2-2 to advance to the finals. They both will face each other on 18th August 2018 in a best of two match finals. Photo: MCC/Prasenjit Dutta and DBCA/Sayan Bose

Abu Dhabi Masters: Young Indians shine!

14/08/2018 -

With the finale drawing closer, Murali Karthikeyan and Aravindh Chithambaram scored two big upsets beating Vladimir Fedoseev and Martyn Kravtsiv respectively to take joint second spot on the leaderboard. The two are only half-a-point behind the leaders at 5.5/7. Nihal Sarin, while also being in contention for the title is also inching closer towards his final GM norm. In round 7, he drew effortlessly against Constantin Luplescu to come upto 5.0/7. Arjun Erigaisi also moved closer to his GM norm with a quick draw white against GM Amin Bassem. 

The boy who is in a hurry to become a GM - Arjun Kalyan

14/08/2018 -

Arjun Kalyan is a 16-year-old who hails from the chess capital of India - Chennai. The boy was somewhere in the 2300-2350 zone towards the end of 2017. He quickly scored two IM norms, studied for his 10th grade examinations, aced it with a score of 93%, came back to the chess board, scored his 3rd IM norm in Benasque Open 2018, became an IM and then as if all of this progress was not enough, he scored his maiden GM norm at the Biel Chess Festival 2018. Arjun's performance speaks for itself. But for us it was important to understand Arjun the chess player as well. For this we have four games annotated by the young lad himself. This article gives you all the information about this fastest growing 16-year-old in Indian chess right now! 

Caruana maintains lead in a day of typical Rapid heartbreaks

13/08/2018 -

An unpredictable day 2 at the Saint Louis! After becoming the first person to start any Grand Chess Tour rapid event with a perfect score Caruana drew all of his games on 2nd day at the Saint Louis to still lead the tourney with 9 points. There are four players with a score of 7 points that includes MVL, Mamedyarov, Karjakin and Nakamura. There were many pieces thrown everywhere in the three rounds and all of these exciting moments are analyzed in this report. IM V. Saravanan, who is present at the venue sends us a detailed report.

Abu Dhabi Masters R4-6 Four Indians in a tie for fourth

13/08/2018 -

Scoring two wins and a draw apiece in their last two games, Nihal Sarin and SL Narayanan have made it into the 16 way tie for fourth, after six rounds at the Abu Dhabi Masters. GM Murali Karthikeyan and Aravindh Chithambaram are also in this 16-player-group with a score of 4.5/6. Meanwhile, Anton Korobov and Daniil Dubov emerged as tournament leaders winning their sixth round games. Three rounds still remain to be played and with all players revving up their engine, the spectators have every reason to look forward to some thrills.