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Raunak Sadhwani: The strongest under-16 player in the world

11/11/2021 -

Raunak Sadhwani gained 7 Elo points at the FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss 2021. This pumped up his Classical rating to 2616, thereby surpassing Gukesh and Praggnanandhaa to become the strongest 2600 in the world. The 15-year-old, who will turn 16 this December, is growing in strength every day and in this article you get to know some of the reasons why Raunak is constantly improving as a player. The boy has a single minded focus on his ambition and has built a strong core team of trainers and individuals who are helping him towards his eventual goal - to become the World Champion.

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The First and Last Game of Mikhail Tal

11/11/2021 -

There is no chess player in the world that does not know or have never heard about Tal. He is genuinely famous for the absurd and miraculous queen sacrifice that he made out of nowhere. He had such a unique style of playing the game that at that time it was quite remarkable and to some extent, revolutionary. It had changed people’s perspectives. In this modern era, many people are attracted to the game only because somewhere they came across Tal’s game or seen his signature move, which is the queen's sacrifice. It was Tal's 85th birth anniversary on 9th November 2021. Ragib Shahriar writes on the maestro's first and last game. Photo: Ron Kroon/Anefo

Indian kids win 15 medals at Asian Youth 2021

10/11/2021 -

Indian kids shined brightly at Asian Youth Championships 2021. IMs Bharath Subramaniyam H and Pranav Anand, Pooja Shree R and Susmita Bhowmick are the Gold winners. Ananya Rajan P, WGM Divya Deshmukh, IM Aditya Mittal, and WFM Saina Salonika secured the Silver. Bronze winners are - Samhita Pungavanam, A Aarav, Ananya Raman, Atharav Singh Naruka, CM Bhavesh Mahajan, FM Aaryan Varshney and IM Anuj Shrivatri. India won the overall medal tally in the Girls section, while in the Open section, India finished second behind Vietnam. Check out the article for detailed rankings and games of the event. Photo: Amruta Mokal

Breaking News: Mitrabha Guha becomes India's 72nd Grandmaster

09/11/2021 -

20-year-old Mitrabha Guha scored his final GM-norm at GM Third Saturday Mix 220 as he defeated GM Nikola Sedlak (SRB) in the penultimate ninth round at Novi Sad, Serbia on 8th November 2021. He had already crossed the 2500 in the live ratings when he beat FM Aradhya Garg in the second round of the tournament. 13-days after scoring his second GM-norm at Sheikh Russel GM tournament in Bangladesh, Mitrabha became India's latest Grandmaster. He becomes Kolkata and West Bengal's ninth GM, the second ever from his childhood school South Point. Let's take a look at Mitrabha's journey towards the GM title. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Astounding Arjun Erigaisi finishes third in Lindores Abbey Blitz, now World no.31 in Blitz

09/11/2021 -

Kirill Shevchenko (UKR) made a strong comeback after losing three games in-a-row including two against Fabiano Caruana (USA). The Ukrainian finished the event 14.0/18, a half point ahead of the competition to win Lindores Abbey Blitz in honor of Mikhail Tal's 85th birth anniversary. Both Caruana and Arjun Erigaisi scored 13.5/18. The former once again secured second position, just like in Grand Swiss 2021. The most spectacular performance was of Arjun's as he started the event with nine consecutive wins, including two wins over Aronian, Howell, Mamedov and Korobov. He beat Caruana once and drew the duel. Arjun gained a massive 107 Elo rating points to become World no.31 in Blitz. Photo: Mark Livshitz/FIDE

Harikrishnan and Neelash win Pursue your Chess Scholarship-3, get Rs.50,000 each

09/11/2021 -

On 7th of November 2021, India got its 71st GM in Sankalp Gupta and on 9th of November 2021 India got its 72nd GM in Mitrabha Guha. The country has a lot of youngsters who are extremely talented, but do not have the funds or the means to single mindedly achieve their dream of becoming a GM. That is where the HelpChess Foundation has been helping the youngsters. One of the long standing scholarships of the foundation, which is into its 3rd edition is Pursue your Chess Scholarship instituted by Ashwin Subramanian. This year the amount of Rs.1,00,000 is split between two young IMs of the country Harikrishnan and Neelash Saha. Read on to know more about this scholarship and the recipients.

India and Asia no.1 in under-11: Mayank Chakraborty

08/11/2021 -

From 1838 in August 2021, Mayank Chakraborty has gained 347 Elo points in the last couple of months when he travelled to Europe, to reach 2185. He is now India and Asia no.1 and world no.6 in the Elo rankings of boys born on or after 2009. The 11-year-old from Assam is a pure natural talent, as all that he achieved in chess has been done without individual training. In this article you get to know the youngster better. You also get to see a couple of his games annotated by the lad himself. This will give you a better understanding with regards to his playing style. 

Fiery Firouzja clinches FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss 2021, Qualifies to the Candidates with Caruana

08/11/2021 -

Alireza Firouzja drew his final round game against Grigoriy Oparin to win FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss 2021. He has qualified to the FIDE Candidates 2022 along with Fabiano Caruana who also drew his game and finished second. The third to eighth place finishers secured their place in the FIDE Grand Prix. They are - Oparin, Yangyi, Keymer, Vachier-Lagrave, Predke and Shirov. GM Tingjie Lei was already the winner of the first Women's Grand Swiss. Elisabeth Paehtz secured second position, by winning her last round game, she became a Grandmaster, more than a decade after securing her first GM-norm. WGM Jiner Zhu was placed third. Harika and Nihal are the highest placed finishers among Indians. Photo: Mark Livshitz/FIDE

Breaking News: Sankalp Gupta becomes the 71st Grandmaster of India

07/11/2021 -

18-year-old Sankalp has scored his final GM-norm at Arandjelovac, Serbia. He secured three GM-norms in just 24 days by playing three tournaments consecutively, and in all three events he performed at 2599 and above. He became Nagpur's second, Maharashtra's tenth and India's 71st Grandmaster in history. Sankalp started playing fantastic after winning his first Classical Open tournament in Bangladesh. He scored his final GM-norm and crossed 2500 in the live ratings at the same event GM ASK 3 at Arandjelovac, Serbia. Here is a  quick look at the 18-year-old boy's journey towards the coveted Grandmaster title. Photo: Rupali Mullick

Grand Swiss R10: Firouzja is back at the top and World no.4 once again

07/11/2021 -

Firouzja survived the trial by combat against David Howell (ENG) who was having a fantastic run until the penultimate round of FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss 2021. The game had everything one could ask for. In the end, the France no.1 won the game in the endgame to reclaim his sole lead and World no.4 position. He will face Grigoriy Oparin (RUS) in the final round who beat the newly crowned Russia champion Nikita Vitiugov with a remarkable opening preparation. Firouzja needs a draw to secure his Candidates place, Caruana must win the last round to guarantee his spot in the same event. Round 11 starts today at 5:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Anna Shtourman/FIDE

Off the Board Tales #16 - Himanshu Kumar

06/11/2021 -

'Off the Board Tales' is a series by ChessBase India, where the premise revolves around people who are passionate about chess despite it not being their career. An emotional and short story is what you're up for, so read on for tales of joy, tales of aspirations, tales of sorrows, and tales of success. Himanshu Kumar is the President of Strategy and Key Initiatives at ValueFirst. He played chess competitively till 2004, before pursuing his education. He still plays online and is in touch with the chess world.

Srihari L R becomes the latest International Master of India

06/11/2021 -

15-year-old Srihari L R scored his final IM-norm at Vezerkepzo GM Oct-Nov 2021. He scored 5.0/9, performed at 2451 to become India's latest International Master. He scored his first IM-norm in January 2020 and crossed 2400 in the same month. The Covid-19 pandemic delayed him an opportunity to play over-the-board tournaments. However, that did not stop him from getting stronger and improving his game. He played his first over-the-board tournament in almost 18 months. After taking a tournament to get himself adjusted, he scored two IM-norms in consecutive tournaments. The Tamil Nadu lad's quest towards the coveted GM title continues in his next tournament, First Saturday GM November 2021 which starts today. Photo: Shahid Ahmed

Grand Swiss R9: Caruana ends Firouzja's unbeaten run, Howell joins the three-way lead

06/11/2021 -

World no.3 Fabiano Caruana (USA) ended Alireza Firouzja's (FRA) undefeated run in the ninth round of FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss 2021. David Howell (ENG) scored his fourth consecutive victory to join the three-way lead along with Caruana and Firouzja at 6.5/9. The former world championship challenger has beaten both Firouzja and Howell. Sasikiran bounced back from his defeat as he defeated Pavel Eljanov (UKR) with a beautiful knight maneuver, punctuated by a nice combination in the end. Raunak also played well to beat Aleksey Dreev (RUS). Harika beat IM Alina Kashlinskaya (RUS) to end her five-game draw streak. Round 10 starts today at 5:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Anna Shtourman/FIDE

Grand Swiss R8: Firouzja beats Sasikiran, extends his sole lead and now World no.4

05/11/2021 -

Alireza Firouzja (FRA) continues to play fantastic chess as he got an advantage out of the opening against Krishnan Sasikiran in the eighth round of FIDE chess.com Grand Swiss 2021. The France no.1 became World no.4 in the live ratings after he won his game. He now has a full point lead 6.5/8 over his competition. Ten players are at 5.5/8. Harikrishna, Sasikiran and Nihal are at 5.0/8 each respectively. Harika also has the same score in the Women's event, followed by Vantika and Vaishali at 4.5/8 each. Sethuraman, Vaishali and Padmini were the only three victors among Indians. Round 9 starts today at 5:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Anna Shtourman/FIDE

Arghyadip Das clinches All India Open Rapid Rating at Vijayawada

04/11/2021 -

Top seed of the tournament IM Arghyadip Das scored an unbeaten 8.0/9 to win All India Open Rapid Rating Tournament at Vijayawada, Andhra Pradesh. He earned ₹21000 cash as the first prize. Untitled Nikhil M also finished with the same score. However, he had to settle for second place due to less tie-break score. He won ₹15000. Eight players finished at 7.5/9. IM Ravi Teja S had an identical score as the eventual champion till the penultimate round. A draw in the final round cost him the championship, and he was placed third as he had the best tie-breaks among the group of eight players. He received ₹10000 as third prize.

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