Recently we published an article entitled "Who will be India's 50th grandmaster?" In it we made a strong prediction that IM M.S. Thejkumar has the best chances to become India's 50th and Karnataka's first grandmaster. He recently won the 8th Kandy Open in Sri Lanka and gained valuable 6.40 Elo points. He took his tally to 2498.3 and is now just 1.7 Elo points away from the GM title. A short report on the event by C.K. Muralidharan.

Two-time National Challengers Champion, Asian Continental Champion 2016, Commonwealth women's gold medalist, Commonwealth U-18, U-20 gold, Asian U-14, U-18, U-20 gold, two times National Junior champion, World school U-17 gold - sounds like the achievements of a few players, right? Just that these are the attainments of a very talented 25-year-old from Goa! The current National Challengers Champion Bhakti Kulkarni. C.K. Muralidharan interviewed Bhakti after her tournament victory and the girl has bravely proclaimed that her aim is to become the World Champion soon!

A pawn was hanging on a5. It looked very juicy, but was poisonous. Soumya couldn't hold herself back and went to grab it, only to realize that it was a trap set up by her opponent Bhakti Kulkarni. The queen was trapped and Bhakti leads the tournament with 8.5/10. With the final round to go, the contest for the eight qualifying spots at the tournament has become intense. While Bhakti and Mary indulge in the title fight, the rest of the girls have to ensure a good final round result to qualify for the national premier. Penultimate report from Mysore.

C. Lakshmi's dream run at the 44th National Challengers 2017 was brought to a halt by WGM Bhakti Kulkarni ater the latter scored a marathon victory with the black pieces. On the second board Soumya Swaminathan beat P.V. Nandhidhaa. This meant that Bhakti and Soumya now jointly lead the tournament with 7.5/9. You can say that the tenth round clash between the two is the most important game of the entire tournament. The winner most certainly has great chances of becoming the champion. Mary Ann Gomes is the only player on 7 points, followed by ten participants on 6.5.

You remember that on the first day of the National Women Challengers 2017 we published the report entitled "1485 rated player beats 2016 Asian Champion!" Well, that Asian Champion not only put the loss behind her, but has scored 6.5 points in the last seven rounds. Bhakti Kulkarni joined top seed Soumya Swaminathan and C. Lakshmi as the leader after eight rounds. Soumya wasn't able to break through the defences of Lakshmi, while Bhakti managed to score a fine win over Nisha Mohota. Analysis of the two crucial games.

After seven rounds at the National Women's Challengers 2017 we have one expected leader and one completely unexpected! Top seeded Soumya Swaminathan is on 6.0/7 and she is joined by 30th seed of the event Laskhmi C. The girl from Tamil Nadu is already gaining 117 Elo points! Mind boggling indeed. The experienced players are back at the top. Kiran, Manisha Mohanty, Nisha Mohota, Mary Ann Gomes, Bhakti Kulkarni and Meenakshi.S are all on 5.5/7. Round eight will witness top board fight between the two leaders Soumya and Lakshmi. As of now here's the round seven report from Mysore.

There's a famous saying "No one has ever won a game by resigning!" 100% true, we would like to add, "No one has ever won a game by offering a draw!" While both statements absolutely obvious, a lot of chess have been guilty of committing this error. In the sixth round it was WGM Kiran Manisha Mohanty who did that against Mahalakshmi by offering a draw in a completely winning pawn endgame. We have the analysis. Top seed Soumya Swaminathan is the sole leader with 5.5/6 with a pack of five players behind her on 5.0/6. Report from Mysore by C.K. Muralidharan.

Every round of the National Women Challengers witnesses a huge upset. In the fourth round it was the in-form, Commonwealth Champion Swati Ghate who had to bite the dust against the 18-year-old Divya Lakshmi. Soumya Swaminathan registered a clinical win and so did K. Priyanka. Divya Lakshmi, Soumya and Priyanka now lead with 4.0/4 with a horde of seven players right behind them on 3.5 points. Report from Mysore with pictures, analysis and more.

Seven players including top seeded Soumya Swaminathan are in the lead with a perfect score after three rounds at the National Challengers 2017. Two rounds were played on Saturday and we witnessed huge number of upsets. Seasoned players like Nisha Mohota, Swathi Ghate, S. Meenakshi, Michelle Catherina and many others found the going tough against upcoming talents. We have round two plus three report, rich with pictures, analysis, results and also an interview with the top seed. "We must have more women tournaments in India and a grandmaster coach", says Soumya.

What a start to the 44th National Women Challengers 2017 in Mysore. Right in the first round we had the former Asian Champion and India's top player WGM Bhakti Kulkarni getting checkmated by V. Rindhiya! We have the complete analysis of the game. Our author C. K. Muralidharan not only brings you all the action from round one in Mysore, but he also interviewed former National Champion Mary Ann Gomes. Interview, pictures, analysis, results and much more in our round one report.

Soumya, Mary, Vaishali, Swati, Nisha, Bhakti - so many big names of Indian chess are taking part at the 44th National Women Challengers 2017. Eight spots are at stake for the National Premier 2017. In this article, our author from Mysore C.K. Muralidharan gives you all the information you need to get warmed up for this event. Who do you think will win this event? As always ChessBase India has a contest, with a chance for you to show your forecasting skills!

The Late Sri. Prof. S. K. Ananda Thirtha Memorial All India FIDE Rapid Rating Chess Tournament was held in the historic city of Mysuru, Karnataka on the 1st and the 2nd of July, 2017. It was a strong rapid event with three IMs and three FMs taking part. In the Open section, IM Dinesh Sharma from Uttar Pradesh won with half a point lead over nearest of his rivals. Karthik Venkatraman finished second and Ram.S. Krishnan third. A report sent to us by the organizer of the event C.K. Muralidharan.