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Nikolic Predrag wins 80th Noteboom Old Masters 2020

19/03/2020 -

Bosnian GM Predrag Nikolic won the 'Old Masters' section of the 80th edition of Noteboom, organized by Leidsch Schaakgenootschap (Leidsch Chess Society) from 28th February to 1st March at Leiden, Netherlands. Nikolic beat Timman twice and Karpov once in the double round-robin event. Total 270 players participated combining Group A, B and C. The tournament is organized in memory of Daniel Noteboom who was a contemporary of the only World Champion from Netherlands, Max Euwe. A report of the 'Old Masters' section with a couple of games from the event. Photo: Harry Gielen

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Candidates 2020 R02: Elbowshakes, long thinks and Grischuk's humour!

19/03/2020 -

If there is one man who is facing no real jitters at the Candidates 2020 - it's Fabiano Caruana! Bold openings, no long thinks, accurate calculations, he is in his element. Ding Liren is suffering big time and is on 0/2. As Grischuk mentioned, "He seems to have been poisoned in his quarantine!" While Caruana won his game against Alekseenko, MVL beat Ding Liren right out of the opening. Grischuk was very close to getting a big advantage against Nepo and Wang Hao botched up a completely winning game against Giri. Check out this round 2 report where we bring you not just detailed analysis, but also player interviews, pictures and more!

Decoding the queen versus rook ending that Nepomniachtchi played to perfection

18/03/2020 -

Ian Nepomniachtchi's brilliantly instructive handling of a queen versus rook endgame from the very first day of Candidates 2020 was much talked about throughout the chess world. Karthik Rangarajan, who is a former National Junior Champion of India and an avid endgame enthusiast, did an in depth study of the same, and in this article he breaks down his analyses and takes the readers through all the nuances in an easy to understand but insightful manner. Spend an hour or two with Karthik working through the details and you are sure to come out equipped with some very handy techniques of the endgame.

Candidates 2020 R01: Ian Nepomniachtchi shows his class

18/03/2020 -

After all the tension and drama related to whether the tournament would take place or not, the eight gladiators finally sat down for the first round of the Candidates 2020. Things were not the same though. There were no spectators allowed in the venue, and the players were given an option as to whether they would like to shake hands or not with their opponents before and after the game! But once the games began we witnessed full-fledged fights in all four encounters. At the end of round one very few would have actually imagined that there would be two wins, both with the black pieces. It was Ian Nepomniachtchi who played an absolutely delightful game to beat Anish Giri. And Wang Hao who took advantage of nearly every slip made by his opponent Ding Liren to take home the full point. Caruana had his chances against MVL and so did Grischuk against Alekseenko, but both the games ended in draws. 

Romancing the helpmate with Grandmaster Christopher Jones

17/03/2020 -

The genre of helpmate is much ignored by over-the-board chess players but for the open-minded out there, who really wants to care, it can truly become a perennial source of joy. Helpmates are immensely satisfying to both solve and compose, and perhaps no one can tell this better than Grandmaster Christopher Jones. Now 68 years old, Christopher started off by solving helpmates from the magazines of the British Chess Problem Society and then went on to compose, over a course of more than thirty years, thousands of helpmates of his own. In this article we bring you a revealing interview with Christopher and of course also, a small collection of some exquisite helpmates! 

GM Laxman invites you to play March Masters Rs.50,000 Online Blitz on 29th March

17/03/2020 -

India's 20th GM Laxman Rajaram is a regular at ChessBase India Online Blitz events. He loves playing blitz and he has also been a multi-time National Blitz Champion. Due to the Corona virus threat, online tournament is the only way one can participate in chess tournaments these days. GM Laxman decided to make sure a mega blitz event takes place this month by contributing ₹15000 to the prize fund of ₹50000 in March Masters ChessBase India Online Blitz event which will take place on 29th March 2020. The event is FREE for all GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs. For everyone else, entry fee for the ChessBase Premium Account subscribers is ₹300, while for Non-Premium subscribers the entry fee is ₹600. Photo: Amruta Mokal

Russian Ministry of Sports cancels all sporting events, but Candidates is still ON!

17/03/2020 -

The Russian Sports Ministry made a statement that no international sporting events should be held in the Russian Federation starting from the 16th of March. However, things went ahead without any change in plans at the Candidates 2020. The player's meet, press conference and the opening ceremony was held on the 16th of March and all the players were seen present. 14th World Champion Vladimir Kramnik has spoken out against the organization of the event at this period. FIDE President Arkadij Dvorkovich in his speech assured everyone that sufficient measures have been taken. If everything goes as per the plan, we are just a few hours away from round 1 of the Candidates 2020. We bring you the opening ceremony report.

Wanna battle with Gukesh, Visakh, Laxman and others in ChessBase Online Blitz Tournament?

16/03/2020 -

India's youngest GM Gukesh D, GM Visakh N R and GM Laxman R R along with nine IMs and a WIM will feature in this Saturday's Online Blitz tournament presented by ChessBase India. Total ₹10000 prize fund is up for grabs for the top three finishers. That's not all. This is the first of five weekend blitz tournaments which will take place every Saturday at Playchess server. For the first time we have opened it to the world, so even if you are outside of India, you can still participate and win the prizes too. The best finisher after five Saturday Blitz event will win an extra ₹10000 cash prize. Hurry up and register fast. Entry is FREE*, however an active ChessBase Premium Account subscription is mandatory for all players.

The ChessBase India Candidates Contest 2020

16/03/2020 -

Whenever we have a major event, ChessBase India has a contest with an exciting giveaway! This time we have raised the stakes by quite a big margin! We have the Fritz 17 and Mega Database 2020 DVDs signed by two legends of the game - Vladimir Kramnik and Boris Gelfand. But at the same time the contest is not at all easy! Your task is to not only guess the final standings of all the players of the tournament, but also get the points that they would score right. Winning the Candidates is not going to be easy for the players, and winning the ChessBase India Candidates contest is also not at all easy! But greater the struggle, greater is a glory. Last date is 17th of March before the round begins.

Caruana's "Navigating the Ruy Lopez" - Review by IM Roven Vogel

16/03/2020 -

Roven Vogel won the World Youth under-16 Championship in 2015. At the beginning of this year, he qualified for the next Tata Steel Challengers Tournament in Wijk aan Zee, Netherlands by winning the Qualifiers in Wijk. To get a better understanding of how the best players study and work, he took a close look at Caruana's DVDs about the Ruy Lopez which he considers to be entertaining and helpful for chess players of all levels. What better way to delve into Caruana's mind before the Candidates, than by studying about Ruy Lopez, straight from the former World Championship Challenger's voice and analysis. Photo: ChessBase

Candidates 2020! It's really happening!

16/03/2020 -

It is risky, and it's true that Coronavirus threat has cancelled just about every major event in the world in the month of March. Yet, for a chess fan, who is at home and is unable to travel to tournaments, there could not have been a better news. Candidates 2020 taking place as planned means you get 20 days of high quality chess filled with drama, action and more. In this article let you know about the journey of all the participants in reaching Yekaterinburg, the venue of the event. We also bring to you the details of the coverage planned by ChessBase India during the duration of the Candidates 2020. It includes daily live updates, live show, detailed reports, best game of the day analysis videos and much more! Game 1 begins on 17th of March, 4.30 p.m. IST.

The Anand Files Part I - Jorden van Foreest

15/03/2020 -

FM Michiel Abeln recently wrote a very interesting book named "The Anand Files" that has been published by Quality Chess. It deals with Anand's three World Championship matches from 2008 to 2012 against Kramnik, Topalov and Gelfand. The book not only deals with the analysis of the games, but also with inputs by Vishy's seconds and you get a complete insight into how top level chess preparation looks like. At the beginning of the year, Abeln was present at the Tata Steel Masters tournament in Wijk Aan Zee. He managed to speak to some of the top players in the world, who had already read his book. In this article we begin with the review of GM Jorden van Foreest, rated 2671 and member of Team Anish Giri for the Candidates 2020. 

ChessBase India presents five Saturday online Blitz events starting from 21st of March

15/03/2020 -

Since all tournaments in India are cancelled until the 15th of April as per AICF and Government of India instructions due to the Coronavirus Outbreak, we decided to hold five weekly blitz tournaments starting from the 21st of March 2020. Each weekend on Saturday until 18th of April there will be a blitz tournament having a total prize fund of ₹10000. The first one takes place on 21st March 2020 at 8 p.m. IST and the subsequent one on the next Saturdays. If you have a valid ChessBase Premium Account, these tournaments are completely free for you. We have special points for everyone who finish in top 10. The scores at the end of these five tournaments are totalled and the winner gets a mega special prize.

Meet Pranesh M, the 13-year-old who has become the country's latest IM

14/03/2020 -

We at ChessBase India always try to cover the up-and-coming chess talents of the country on a regular basis. The country's future in the sport after all rests on the shoulders of these young players who are growing stronger by the day and are proving their mettle in tournaments all over world. This new crop of talented youngsters is also the reason that is making legends like Vladimir Kramnik see unprecedented potential for chess growth and excellence in this part of the world. So dear readers, today in this article we talk about one more youngster whose performances have shown huge promise lately. We talk about Pranesh M, the 13-year-old lad from Tamil Nadu, who recently made his final IM norm at the prestigious Aeroflot Open in Moscow and became the latest International Master of the country.

Interview with the youngest ever Aeroflot Open winner - Aydin Suleymanli

14/03/2020 -

The Aeroflot Open has a great history. All of the current top players including Carlsen, Karjakin, Mamedyarov etc. have played at this prestigious event at some point of their chess career. Every youngster usually takes it as an opportunity to get exposure and improve his game. The same was the case with 14-year-old Aydin Suleymanli, who came to Moscow as the 71st seed and with the ambition of scoring his second GM norm. What happened next was quite unbelievable! The new beast from Baku, as everyone likes to call him, performed at an incredible 2791 Elo and won the tournament ahead of 63 grandmasters. IM Sagar Shah contacted Suleymanli after the event ended and brings to you an interview with the next big thing in Azerbaijan chess. 

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