Magnus Carlsen beats Anish Giri for the first time in 11 years at Tata Steel Chess

17/01/2022 -

Over the years, Magnus Carlsen has etched his name in a lot of statistical records, however one thing he has not done in eleven years, is beat Anish Giri in a Classical game at Tata Steel Chess. That fact changed as the world champion humbled the Dutch no.1 in the second round of Tata Steel Chess 2022. The only time Carlsen had beaten him earlier was in Playoffs back in 2018. Vidit and Praggnanandhaa drew their respective games against Caruana and Duda. Arjun Erigaisi won against Max Warmerdam and Surya Sekhar Ganguly drew with Lucas van Foreest in the Challengers section. Round 3 starts today at 6:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022

New: The Scotch Game by Svitlana Demchenko

16/01/2022 -

The Scotch Game (1.e4 e5 2.Nf3 Nc6 3.d4) is a great repertoire addition for any player looking for a solid yet active opening, which relies more on understanding rather than pure memorization. The popularity of the Scotch rose exponentially after Garry Kasparov employed it in the World Championship match against Anatoly Karpov in 1990, and the opening has stayed in style ever since. It is a good opening to learn if you play 1.e4. Even if you don't, it is always good to learn a sharp opening which can be used as a surprise when the time feels right to unleash it. WIM Svitlana Demchenko explains all about Scotch Game. Photo: ChessBase

Tata Steel 2022 R1: Vidit beats Shankland after a six-hour grind, now World no.20

16/01/2022 -

Vidit Gujrathi started his Tata Steel Chess 2022 campaign with a victory over Sam Shankland. Although he could have finished the game a bit earlier, a six-hour-long grind and a win definitely makes his day. Praggnanandhaa managed to hold his own as he passed the Anish Giri test quite well. The Dutch no.1 prepared a seeming novelty which Pragg handled quite well. Arjun Erigaisi drew with Lucas van Foreest, Surya Sekhar Ganguly defeated France's youngest GM, 14-year-old Marc' Andria Maurizzi. It was a good day for the Indian contingent as they scored 3.0/4. Round 2 starts today at 6:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Lennart Ootes/Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022

Aaryan Varshney wins Om Banna Memorial Lakecity Rapid Rating Open 2021

15/01/2022 -

16-year-old FM Aaryan Varshney started the tournament with eight consecutive victories. Thus, a last round loss did not deter his chances of winning Shri Om Banna Memorial Lakecity Winter Rapid Rating Open 2021. Five players - Aaryan, Kushal R Jani, Harish Sharma, FM Sauravh Khherdekar and top seed of the tournament FM Vinay Kumar Matta scored 8.0/9 each. They were placed first to fifth according to tie-breaks. The tournament had a total prize fund of ₹300000 with the first prize being ₹30000 cash and trophy, ₹20000 for second and ₹15000 for third. This is Aaryan's first All India Rapid Rating Open triumph since December 2019. He is also the reigning Delhi State Open champion. Photo: IA Deepak Chavan/Chess in Lakecity

Vidit, Praggnanandhaa, Arjun Erigaisi and Surya will be in action at 84th Tata Steel Chess 2022

15/01/2022 -

The first major chess event of the year 2022 is 84th Tata Steel Chess which is well-known as the 'Wimbledon of Chess'. It starts on Saturday 15th January 2022. Vidit Gujrathi and Praggnanandhaa will be seen in action in the Masters section along with Carlsen, Caruana, Giri, Mamedyarov, Rapport, Duda, Karjakin, Dubov, Esipenko, Shankland, defending champion Jorden van Foreest and Nils Grandelius. Arjun Erigaisi will make his debut in the Challengers section. He will compete against 13 more players, including Surya Sekhar Ganguly. Round 1 starts today at 6:30 p.m. IST for both Masters and Challengers section. Photo: Jurriaan Hoefsmit/Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2022

Hrithickkesh P R clinches 5th Adith Paulson Memorial Don Bosco Rating Open 2021

14/01/2022 -

Top seed of the tournament, Hrithickkesh P R, scored 8.0/9 and finished a half point ahead of the competition to win 5th Adith Paulson Memorial Don Bosco Rating Open 2021. Three players - Marthandan K U, Chandar Raju and 40th seed Aadithya Pradeep scored 7.5/9 each. They were placed second to fourth according to tie-breaks. The tournament had a total prize fund of ₹300000 with the first prize being ₹30000 cash, ₹20000 for second and ₹15000 for third. This is Hrithickkesh's first All India Open triumph since 2017. It was the first FIDE rating tournament to take place in Kerala since the Covid-19 pandemic began. Photo: FA Peter Joseph

Integral Coach Factory reclaims All India Railway Team Championship 2022

13/01/2022 -

There are two secret chess tournaments that take place in Indian chess. One is between the Petroleum board and the other one is among chess players of Indian Railways. It goes without saying that both are strong events. To understand how strong the field was, a total of 17 teams comprising 84 players including 8 GMs and 19 IMs took part in the event, i.e. 32% of the participants were IMs or above. Integral Coach Factory won the 33rd edition of All India Railway Team championship. Eastern Railway secured the second place and defending champion Metro finished third. IM Vignesh N R of Southern Railway won the individual event, IM P Shyam Nikhil and GM Visakh N R of ICF secured second and third place respectively. Photo: Sureshkumar Janardhanan

Mounika Akshaya becomes the latest Woman International Master of India

12/01/2022 -

Mounika Akshaya scored her final WIM-norm with two rounds to spare at 33rd Roquetas Chess Festival International Open 2022 in Almeria, Spain. She scored 5.0/9, performed at 2244 to become India's latest Woman International master. She scored her first WIM-norm at 17th Delhi International Open in January 2019. The second norm was earned at Vezerkepzo IM group in September 2021, and she crossed 2200 in the live ratings at the same event in Budapest, Hungary. Check out her games from the events where she made norms and also thoughts of her trainers GM FT Swayams Mishra and GM ShyamSundar M. Photo: Rupali Mullick

Laxman R R wins 1st Vellore Rapid Rating Open 2021

11/01/2022 -

Top seed of the tournament, GM Laxman R R of Integral Coach Factory, scored an unbeaten 8.0/9 along with IM Srihari L R at 1st Vellore Rapid Rating Open. Laxman won the tournament due to better tie-break score, Srihari secured second position. Five players - WIM Michelle Catherina, IM Praveen Kumar, CM Daakshin Arun, Sachin Sangamesh R and Dhanasekar M scored 7.5/9 each, They were placed third to seventh according to tie-breaks. The tournament had the total prize fund of ₹100000 with the first prize being ₹15000 cash and a trophy. This is Laxman's third consecutive tournament in 2021 which makes it a hat-trick of tournament wins for him. Photo: IA Soundaramurthy D

Lalit Rohit victorious at Vergani Cup January 2022

10/01/2022 -

GM Lalit Rohit started the year 2022 in the exact same way as he ended 2021, by winning Vergani Cup January 2022. He played solid throughout the event, only in the last round, he underestimated IM Nurgyul Salimova (BUL) who had a phenomenal event. Somehow he made a lucky escape and won the tournament on tie-breaks as GM Hans Niemann (USA), GM Vitaliy Bernadskiy (UKR) and Nurgyul, all four finished with the same score 7.0/9. Lalit won €2500 (approx. ₹2.10 lacs) cash as his first prize, Hans and Bernadskiy got €1500 and €1200 each respectively. Nurgyul and Bharath scored GM-norms, Bharath Subramaniyam H became India's latest Grandmaster. Photo: Rupali Mullick

Time to learn the Grunfeld from a World class GM?

09/01/2022 -

Sometimes bad performance at a tournament can spur you into action. It can make you have a close look at the holes and weaknesses in your play. This is exactly what happened with our reviewer Aanjaneya Phatak. 20-year-old Aanjaneya, who works on chess without a coach, decided to go to the MP Masters Chess 2021. He lost 47 Elo point making his rating fall from 2212 to 2165. But from that experience he realized that he needed to add new openings to his arsenal. That's how he got his hands on Markus Ragger's latest Fritztrainer for ChessBase on the Grunfeld Defence. In this article Aanjaneya narrates his experience of working with Austria's first ever 2700+ GM.

Lalit Rohit moves closer to win the Vergani Cup 2022

09/01/2022 -

GM Lalit Rohit and IM Nurgyul Salimova (BUL) are the only two leaders 6.5/8 heading into the final round of Vergani Cup January 2022. They will face each other in the ninth round. While Lalit scored a clinical victory against M Amin Tabatabaei (IRI), Nurgyul defeated the legend, Nigel Short. The Bulgaria no.2 is in top form as she scored four consecutive victories, including two against GMs in the last two games. Lalit must win the final round to clinch the championship as a draw means, his fate might get decided by other players' results. GM Iniyan, GM Arjun Kalyan, IM Bharath Subramaniyam and IM Rakesh Kumar Jena are at 5.5/8 each. Round 9 starts today at 2:00 p.m. IST. Photo: Rupali Mullick

Epic Catalan Battle

08/01/2022 -

The most exciting and talked about game of the FIDE World Championship 2021 was Game 6. Statistically, the sixth game of a World Championship match has yielded more decisive results than any other game. This one proved to be no exception, as records kept tumbling. The game had various layers of action and consequences borne due to the new time control introduced in this match. The man of encyclopaedic and impeccable knowledge, GM Sundararajan Kidambi explains the game arising out of Catalan opening and various references of previous games including comments from Kramnik during his live commentary. Check out his enriching article. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Rathanvel VS clinches R Hanumantha Memorial Cup All India Open Rapid and Blitz Rating 2021

07/01/2022 -

MPL scholar IM Rathanvel VS won both Rapid and Blitz Rating event at R Hanumantha memorial Cup All India Open. He scored 8.0/9 in the Rapid event, edged past IM P Saravana Krishnan and FM Aradhya Garg on tie-breaks, both finished with the same score. They were placed second and third respectively. Rathanvel's only loss in the Rapid event was against Saravana. In the Blitz event, Rathanvel made a dominating start 8.0/8. A last round draw was enough for him to win the tournament as he had a full point lead heading into the last round and that's what he did. IM Pranav V, Abhishek Das and IM Ratnakaran K scored 8.0/9. They were placed second to fourth according to tie-breaks. Photo: Madhuri N/Mandya Chess Academy

Prakhar Bajaj and Cera Dagaria score 100% to win Madhya Pradesh State Sub-Junior 2021 Boys and Girls

06/01/2022 -

Prakhar Bajaj (Katni) and Cera Dagaria (Indore) scored 100% in the Boys and Girls section to become Madhya Pradesh State Sub-Junior Boys and Girls champion. They scored 7.0/7 and 6.0/6 each respectively. Ayush Sharma (Khandwa), scored an unbeaten 4.5/5 to win the Madhya Pradesh State Junior title. Navya Goyal, Madhvendra Pratap Sharma and Kavyansh Agrawal scored 6.0/7 each. They were placed second to fourth based on tie-breaks. Avika Panwar (Indore) and Siya Kushwah (Ujjain) secured second and third place in Sub-Junior Girls. Top four finishers of each group won ₹2000 and a trophy each. Total 40 prizes were given to the top ten finishers of each category. Check out a pictorial report of the tournament. Photo: IA NI Sunil Soni

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