Live Games and Updates of Team india from Batumi Olympiad 2018

Koneru Humpy played her first tournament game after a break of nearly two years. How would she play was the question on everyone's mind. Well it seems as if she picked up from where she had left and played some excellent chess to beat New Zealand's Helen Milligan. The Indian women's team blanked the Kiwis 4-0. Tania was in trouble but managed to survive. Anand took rest for the first round against El Salvador in the open section. India scored 3.5-0.5 with just Sasikiran drawing his game. It has been a good start for Team India, but we are just beginning here. It will be interesting to see as the rounds progress as to how we hold up. Check out this detailed report with pictures from Amruta Mokal and Niklesh Jain and in-depth analysis of Humpy's game by GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly.

Round two was an excellent one for India at the Batumi Olympiad 2018. In the open section our boys were able to demolish the decently strong Austrian team 3.5-0.5 and in the women's section the girls were extremely clinical to beat Venezuela 4-0. The news of the day was Vishy Anand making a comeback to Olympiad and making his first move after a gap of 12 years! Anand played a nearly flawless game to beat the very strong Markus Ragger with the white pieces. In this report Surya Sekhar Ganguly analyzes that game in depth. Coach Jacob Aagaard provides us with an overview of the Indian women's team performance. We also have post game video interviews with Vishy Anand and Vidit Gujrathi. Don't miss this power packed report from Batumi, Georgia.

The third round at the Batumi Chess Olympiad 2018 was a mixed day for India. In the open section we played nearly flawless chess to beat Canada with a score of 3.5-0.5 but in the women's section team India was stopped by Serbia with a score of 2-2. In this article we bring you all the photos of the round, videos of Vishy Anand's victory over Eric Hansen, coaches Ramesh and Jacob Aagaard speaking about their respective teams and also of the happenings in the initial minutes of the round. Apart from this we have extremely and instructive analysis sent to us by GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly talking about Harikrishna's game. Do not miss it.

Indian teams were up against two teams from South America. The men took on Paraguay and the women's team was up against Argentina. Both the matches were one sided and India managed to score 3.5-0.5 victories in both of them. Anand led from the front as he beat Neruis Delgado with the white pieces, Humpy had no difficulty in overpowering Carolina Lujan. In this report you can find four interviews with Adhiban, Harikrishna, Jacob Aagaard and R.B. Ramesh. Also you will be able to enjoy the excellent annotations of GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly and his take on the game Anand - Delgado. In the sixth round India takes on Russia and the women's team is up against USA!

The sixth round of the Batumi Olympiad 2018 saw some extremely exciting chess from both the men and women's team of India. While in the men's section we were able to hold Russia to a draw, in the women's section USA managed to survive after we had a 2-0 lead. Anand was struggling against Nepomniachtchi, but he drew the game, Adhiban was pressing against Jakovenko, but couldn't breakthrough. Tania and Humpy played excellent games, while Harika and Eesha got outplayed by their opponents. We have Harika's loss annotated by GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly who explains how Harika could have maintained the equality and given India a win.

विश्व शतरंज ओलंपियाड में भारत को अपनी रफ्तार पकड़ने का वक्त आ गया है राउंड 7 के बाद भारतीय टीम दोनों ही वर्गो में पदक की दौड़ में बनी हुई है पर अगर भारत को इतिहास बनाना है तो अब आने वाले चार राउंड में भारत को कम से कम 3 जीत दर्ज करनी होगी । बात करे पुरुष टीम को तो अमेरिका के खिलाफ हार और रूस के खिलाफ ड्रॉ के अलावा टीम नें 5 मैच में जीत दर्ज की है और 11 अंको के साथ टीम वाकई पदक की बड़ी दावेदार बनी हुई है सभी खिलाड़ी अच्छी लय में है और टीम किसी भी एक खिलाड़ी पर पूरी तरह निर्भर नहीं है । हालांकि आनंद का टीम में होना टीम के लिए एक प्रेरणा का काम कर रहा है हरिकृष्णा , विदित , शशिकिरण और अधिबन सभी अच्छी लय मे है । महिला वर्ग की बात करे तो भारत पदक का दावेदार तो साफ तौर पर बना हुआ है और अब तक भारत नें एक भी मैच नहीं हारा है टीम नें अब तक 4 जीत और 3 ड्रॉ के साथ टीम 11 अंक लेकर शीर्ष की टीमों मे शामिल है । पर टीम को अपने तीसरे और चौंथे बोर्ड की कमजोरी से उबरना होगा । हम्पी , तनिया और हारिका नें अब तक अपनी भूमिका टीम के लिए अच्छी से निभाई है जबकि ईशा और पदमिनी का अच्छा खेलना टीम के लिए बेहद जरूरी है । पढे यह लेख  

It is not straightforward and a lot of results have to go our way, but if they do, then India has a realistic chance of winning a medal at the Batumi Olympiad 2018. India is playing against Poland in the last round and firstly we must win this match. After that we should hope that USA beats China and that the second board match between France and Russia ends in a 2-2 draw. If this happens, then winning a silver is very realistic. But if these results do not happen, then we can still fight for the bronze. In case if USA and China draw the match on top board and France or Russia beat each other, then our chance for the medal is lost. All of this is explained in much better depth in the article. We also explain to you how Sonneborn Berger is calculated so that you can have a better idea of how the tiebreak will work when the match points are the same between two teams.

It was an easy round for the Indians against the Egyptians, but it turned out to be extremely dangerous. Vishy Anand was held to a quick draw by Bassem Amin and Vidit Gujrathi who was pressing throughout the game suddenly landed in a bad position. The onus was now on Harikrishna and Sasikiran to deliver. And they did! India managed to win with the narrowest of margins, but as coach R.B. Ramesh said after the match, "A win is a win!" In the women's section Georgia 1 is one of the strongest teams in women's chess out there. The Indian girls fought bravely and managed to hold their own against the Georgian women players. Full report with analysis by GM Surya Sekhar Ganguly and videos of coaches of Indian teams.

The fifth round of the 2018 Batumi Chess Olympiad witnessed India lose its first match of the event by the slimmest possible margin. Playing against the top-seeded United States, the team fell short by a point, losing the game by a score of 2½ - 1½.  While three games finished peacefully, Vishy Anand made an unfortunate blunder on the top board against Fabiano Caruana and lost in merely 26 moves. In the Women's segment, the team scored an emphatic 3-1 victory with wins by Harika Dronavalli and Tania Sachdev. Round 4 report.

Round 9 of the Batumi Chess Olympiad turned out to be a disastrous one for India. In the open segment, India lost to the eighth-seeded  Armenian team after Sasikiran's loss against Haik Matirosyan on board 4. In the women's group, Tania Sachdev lost her second straight game, this time against the much lower rated Marina Brunello. Harika Dronavalli helped even out the scores with her win over Elena Sedina but this draw meant that the Indian team is out of contention for a podium finish. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

Chess gives you an ability to travel across the globe. There are tournaments held all over the world and one of the perks of being a chess player is that you can visit them and also play your favourite sport. But everything is not so rosy! Planning an international trip is never easy. There are always financial constraints, but even if you were to overcome them there are logistical issues, right from visas, to tickets to accommodations to paying the entry fee. It's exactly to do away with all such problems we introduced the concept of the ChessBase India Power tour! Apart from ensuring the logistical support, Ankit Dalal, who heads ChessBase India Power, accompanied the players from India to Barcelona and stayed with them for 50 days - the entire duration of the trip! What was his experience as a tour manager and how did he manage to ensure that Indian players came back with a rich haul of 4359 Elo points? Let's find out! 

A few months ago ChessBase India came up with the innovative and at the same time enterprising idea of the ChessBase India Power Tour to the Catalan circuit in Barcelona. Young kids always need their parents to travel to tournaments. Many of the times the parents lose a lot of their time and money in accompanying their kids to the tournaments. In order to make it more efficient, we started with the ChessBase India Power Tour, where the parents could send their kids with a capable tour manager. The thought was that people would save money and also could continue with their daily work, while their children pursued their passion. While all of this happened, the benefits for the kids were much more! Travelling alone made them confident and self-sufficient. Kavisha Shah, one of the participants in this trip, sends us her account. 

The 1st Gujarat Grandmaster Open kicked off on Friday, October 5, 2018. The first two rounds of the event saw some intense action: upsets were abundant, games were exciting and there were some opening debacles too! In this report, we bring you games, pictures and some off the board accounts of sportsmanship from the first two days.

The eighth round encounter between India and the Czech Republic had gone neck to neck until the conclusion of the first two games. On the top board, Vishy Anand was held to a draw by David Navara. Adhiban was the first to finish his game against Zbynek Hracek. The two signed peace in merely 17 moves. Meanwhile, Krishnan Sasikiran showed some fantastic middle game play to bring down Jiri Stocek on board 4 and put his country in the lead. Vidit had the better position but was held to a draw in the end. In the women's group, losses on the first and the third board led to a disastrous loss for India against a lower rated Hungarian team. Round 8 report. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

The Quality Chess books have been received by great enthusiasm by chess lovers all over India. When the books arrived in the ChessBase India office towards the end of March, we quickly ran out of stock of the most popular titles within a few days. We did not anticipate this, so the next order took some time to come to India, but now it's here! Over 3,000 high "quality" chess books have arrived in Mumbai. Right from Shankland's small steps to giant improvement to Tikannen's Woodpecker Method to Jan Markos' under the surface we have all the books! And this time we also have hardbacks. Check out the latest books in this article and get them to your address in India without any shipping cost! 

It's a historical moment for Indian chess. For the first time we will be hosting a super tournament in India - the Tata Steel Chess India 2018. It will be held in Kolkata from the 9th to the 14th of November 2018. India's best players Anand, Harikrishna, Vidit and Ganguly will fight it out against world stars like Aronian, Karjakin, Nakamura, Mamedyarov and Wesley So. We also have two of our best young talents playing in this tournament Praggnanandhaa and Nihal Sarin. India has had a five-time World Champion, we have 55 grandmasters, we have over 70,000 players registered with FIDE, the big thing that was missing until now was a super tournament of this stature! This will be an excellent exposure for all our young talents to play against these world stars.

A very interesting article has been published earlier this week by the Livemint, an Indian financial daily newspaper. In this article Anand shares with us how managing money is similar to handling chessboard, the key is to study past dealings and apply knowledge to new transactions. It gives you interesting insights into the mind of one of the best chess players and how he thinks about finances. Anand has won five World Championships, done various advertisements and endorsements, has a permanent sponsor in NIIT. Naturally he makes good amount of money and needs to manage it well. Read the full article to learn money managing tips from the Tiger of Madras.

Sports Illustrated is one of the best sports magazines in the world. Recently they have begun with Sports Illustrated India where they have tried to maintain the same level of quality for their monthly magazines. The September issue of Sports Illustrated is very special for chess players. It has the cover story of one of the greatest India sportsperson ever - Viswanathan Anand. The magazine has given a generous space to cover Anand's life story right from childhood to his decision to play for Team India at the Batumi Olympiad 2018. In this article you get a glimpse of the contents in the magazine and some high quality pictures. Our recommendation is to buy the magazine, read it and then preserve it, so that you can get Vishy's autograph on it, on the day you meet him!