Are you a chess fanatic looking to upgrade your chess skills? Or an enthusiast wishing to have someone to play against without the hassle of actually seeking out a worthy opponent? Or a fan just interested in looking at games played by famous chess masters from history? Maybe you’re playing a match against a rival and want your supporters across the globe to be able to follow it from their devices. All this is now possible on a physical board that you can touch and feel right in front of you. How? With an electronic version of the age-old chequered board. In this article, Paras Gudka compares five specific electronic chess boards.

From 66 GMs in India, a single educational trust is responsible for the creation of 9 grandmasters! Velammal Education Trust has done a yeoman service to the sport of chess. Adhiban, Sethuraman, Shyam Sundar, K. Priyadharshan, Karthik VAP, Karthikeyan Murali, Aravindh Chithambaram, Praggnanandhaa and D. Gukesh are nine GMs that have studied in Velammal school. Apart from them the school also boasts of having players like Leon Mendonca, Arjun Kalyan who will soon become GMs and also strong female players like Vaishali, Rakshitta, Savitha Shri, Varshini and many others. How is one single trust able to create so many chess champions? We decided to dig in a bit and reveal to you the secret of Velammal's success!

Born in September 2006, Aditya Mittal became an IM at the age of 12 years and 5 months when he achieved his final norm at the Aeroflot Open 2019. Even though it's just been seven years since Aditya started playing chess, the story of his achievements from a beginner to a master is worth narrating. ChessBase India author Paras Gudka made his way to Aditya's home in Mumbai and sat down with the boy and his family to know about one of India's brightest chess talents. Aditya's life is a story of grit and determination. In spite of innumerable obstacles, the boy overcame each one of them and has emerged victorious. A famous Indian GM made a prediction in 2016 that Aditya is so talented he would become a GM in six years. The way he is progressing, we think it might just take him three!

The quantum of grandmaster opens in India have been increasing but the number of norms haven't been proportionately growing. That's because a lot of lower rated players participate in the GM events and reaching the average rating for the norms becomes impossible. However, at the IIFLW 2018-2019 tournament in Mumbai, the organizers made a strict restriction for players below 2100. This resulted in only 120 entries, but we are sure that there will be quite a few norms coming out from this tournament. Simultaneously with the GM open you have the highest prize money under-13 tournament in the world with the first prize of Rs. 2,00,000 and a total prize fund of Rs.10,00,000. The favourite is 12-year-old D. Gukesh, who has a live rating of 2466!

The IIFL Wealth Juniors is just around the corner. But before the tournament kicks off on the 30th of this month, its organizers decided to ensure that players from all corners of the country got an opportunity to showcase their talent at this world-class event. To this end, eight regional qualifiers are being held in several parts of the country. The title winners not only get free entry plus accommodation into the tournament but also a unique opportunity to interact with the chess legend Vishy Anand. In its first regional qualifier that concluded on December 3 in Delhi, Aryan Varshney and Navya Tayal won the title prizes in the boys' and the girls' category respectively and confirmed their tickets to Mumbai. We have an illustrated report with pictures and games.

Ugandan chess became popular after the movie Queen of Katwe was based on one of its top players Phiona Mutesi. In July Uganda’s WFM/FI/FA Christine Namaganda (rated 1565) played in Delhi at the Commonwealth Championship 2017. She was the only player from East Africa. The 30-year-old chess player, trainer and arbiter, who has represented Uganda twice at the World Chess Olympiad and several times in zonal and continental tournaments in Africa, spoke to Kenya’s IA Paras Gudka about her experience of playing in India.