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The Tata Steel Chess Tournament is all set to begin in Wijk Aan Zee

11/01/2020 -

The first round of Tata Steel Chess Tournament 2020 - Masters and Challengers - will begin at 6 p.m IST in Wijk Aan Zee, Netherlands. The two-week long event taking place from the 10th to the 26th of January is featuring all the elite players of the world including Magnus Carlsen, Fabiano Caruana, Anish Giri, Wesley So, and Viswanathan Anand. This is the 82nd edition of the popularly hailed "Wimbledon of Chess" which in its 82-year-old tradition has witnessed the participation of all the great players of the past - from Smyslov, Spassky, and Tal to Karpov and Kasparov. In this article we present a brief curtain-raiser to the event.

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18th Delhi GM Open 2020: Muthaiah Al shines on day 2

11/01/2020 -

Eleven players share the lead at the conclusion of round 3 of 18th Delhi International GM Open 2020. On day 2, Al Muthaiah stole the show by defeating Delhi Open defending champion GM Levan Pantsulaia and GM Visakh N R in consecutive rounds. GM Karthik Venkataraman scored a fantastic win over reigning Commonwealth champion GM Abhijeet Gupta. Among the leaders, GM Ziaur Rahman, GM Hesham Abdelrahman, IM Himal Gusain and FM Niranjan Navalgund scored fine victories in round 3 to finish the day with 3.0/3. Two untitled players 15-year old Ishvi Agarwal and 14-year old Rudrashish Chakraborty are among the leaders with a perfect score of 3.0/3. A detailed report of round 2 and 3. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Program Day 3: When to calculate and when not to

11/01/2020 -

The work on the openings is in full swing at the Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Training Camp. The breaks are getting shorter, the time of completing the sessions are being pushed back. Everyone is working hard - the trainers as well as the students. When you sit in the classroom and spend some time as a student, you realize that although the camp is meant for openings, it is not just openings that are being discussed. In fact so many middlegame positions are carefully being analyzed, so many endgame techniques are being shown. Yes, the major emphasis is on the opening, but when players like Kramnik and Gelfand are training you, they take the entire game as a whole and not some fragmented bits. In this article you learn when it is important to calculate and when not to, Gelfand's approach towards opening and Kramnik's art of mini-schemes! 

18th Delhi GM Open 2020: G B Joshi stuns Harsha Bharathakoti

10/01/2020 -

The biggest open tournament in the country started its 18th edition on 9th January at Indira Gandhi Stadium, New Delhi. The tournament was inaugurated by Managing Worker and Chairman of Sahara India Pariwar, Subrata Roy. In the opening round, Harsha suffered the same fate as last year, as he again started with a loss, this time against Delhi's seasoned veteran G B Joshi. Harsha made an inaccurate sacrifice which his opponent had no trouble punishing. Dhananjay held Bhopal GM Open 2019 winner Nodirbek Yakubboev and Aashna Makhija held Chilean GM Rodrigo Schroeder to a draw respectively. The tournament boasts a total prize fund of ₹11100000. It was announced that next year it will be increased to ₹12500000. Photo: Niklesh Jain

Ju Wenjun scores the first win in FIDE Women's World Championship Match 2020

10/01/2020 -

The defending champion Ju Wenjun scored the first victory of FIDE Women's World Championship match 2020 against her challenger Aleksandra Goryachkina, after the latter offered an inaccurate bishop exchange. Ju seized the opportunity and went into a winning Queen endgame. When the time was right, Ju liquidated it into a winning King and pawn endgame which was just a matter of technique for her to convert into a full point. Only two games remain to be played in Shanghai, China, after that players will move to Vladivostok, Russia to play the remaining six games. Friday 10th January is a rest day. Game 5 will resume on 11th January at 3:30 p.m. local time, 1:30 p.m. IST. Photo: Zhang Yanhong / FIDE

Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Program Day 2: To become a good chess player, just chess is not enough

10/01/2020 -

"If you can keep improving your chess skills each day, you will become one of the best players in the world". While this is an extremely logical statement to make, I would say it is incomplete. Chess improvement involves much more than simply chess! And top players know it the best. That's the reason why at the Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Training camp special emphasis has been placed on matters beyond the chess board as well. The food that is being consumed by the players and the trainers is being carefully prepared by expert chefs. An expert yoga instructor visits the premises each day to make sure that the day begins with physical as well as mental fitness. Check out this article to find out how in order to become a good chess player, just chess is not enough!

Liam Vrolijk conquers 57th Groningen Chess Festival, Mary magnificent

09/01/2020 -

17-year-old IM Liam Vrolijk of Rotterdam, Netherlands won his maiden Groningen Chess Festival in the 57th edition after finishing tied first, second place in the previous edition. Liam also scored his second GM-norm in the process. Three players Liam Vrolijk, GMs Shant Sargsyan and Hagen Poetsch also finished at the same score. Liam clinched the championship, Shant and Hagen were placed second and third according to their tie-break scores. WGM Mary Ann Gomes with her no-draw approach played some fantastic chess by beating top seed Sergei Tiviakov and Russian GM Evgeny Gleizerov. She finished shared seventh, tenth place with a score of 6.0/9, gaining 13 Elo rating points. Photo: Harry Gielen

Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Program Day 1: Fire and Ice!

09/01/2020 -

When two world class players are working with talented Indian youngsters in two different groups, the question that naturally comes to mind is - how is one trainer different from the other! On day one of the Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Training Program, IM Sagar Shah spent quite some time in both the sessions of Gelfand and Kramnik and came to the conclusion that it was like Fire and Ice! Gelfand was like Fire and Kramnik like Ice! Why does the author say so? What were the openings and positions discussed on day one of the training camp? Find out in this article! A first hand view of the biggest training camp taking place on Indian soil ever!

Ju's missed opportunity in Game 3 of FIDE Women's World Championship Match 2020

09/01/2020 -

Game 3 was a hard fought draw which lasted for over five and a half hours, but the most important part is Goryachkina got an edge out of QGD Semi-Tarrasch opening. She couldn't manage to capitalize, instead presented Ju with an opportunity to make a comeback. Unlike previous game, this did not require Ju to take any unnecessary risks, it was a simple calculation. It is evident that the pressure of World Championship is making the defending champion miss these. Ju managed to defend well and in the end the game ended up in a drawn Rook and Pawn ending. A draw was agreed after 85 moves. Game 4 will take place on 9th January. Photo: Lewis Liu / FIDE

Sandipan Chanda wins EKA IIFL wealth GM Open 2019-20

08/01/2020 -

The 5th EKA IIFL Investment Managers Grandmaster Chess Tournament ended in a tie between Sandipan Chanda and Deepan Chakkravarthy both of whom finished with a score of 7.5 points at the end of nine rounds. However Sandipan, who managed to remain unbeaten and impressively won all his games in the last six rounds, became the champion overtaking Deepan in the tie-breaks. Vaibhav Suri, Kirill Stupak, and Rishi Sardana scored 7.0/9 each and took the third, fourth, and fifth places respectively. The event therefore came to a conclusion with the Indians dominating as the top three prizes were all clinched by the host country.

Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Program Day 0: The syllabus of the training

08/01/2020 -

Kramnik and Gelfand arrived in Chennai. Vladimir arrived a day earlier on 6th, Boris on the 7th. In the evening on 7th of January a press conference was held where over 20 reputed journalists from all across Chennai visited the venue. Questions were asked to Kramnik and Gelfand about their plans for the camp, what they were going to teach, how were the groups of 14 kids going to be made, what is the potential they see in these kids and much more. We bring you a complete summary of what happened on day zero, one day before the camp is about to begin. A pictorial report by Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal from the Coastal Paradise, on East Coast Road (ECR) in Chennai.

Suvankar Maity clinches 4th Kharagpur Chess Classic 2019-20

08/01/2020 -

Starting out as the top seed Suvankar Maity scored 8.0/10 to win 4th Kharagpur Classic 2019 and received ₹10000 cash prize along with a trophy. His only loss was against the eventual runner-up Jodunath Biswas of Bangladesh who also finished at the same score. 11-year-old Srihaan Poddar of Philippines also finished at 8.0/10. He was placed third according to tie-break score. Total 137 players from three federations - India, Bangladesh and Philippines took part in this six-day ten-round Swiss league event from 26th December 2019 to 1st January 2020, making the biggest chess tournament in Paschim Medinipur history and also the first international FIDE rated event. Total ₹60000 prize fund was distributed among the prize winners. Photo: Yuva Chess Academy

Your Spanish is Fab! Part 2

07/01/2020 -

Throughout our lives, we humans aim for perfection in whatever field we are good in. However, only a selected few tend to reach anywhere near the levels of the Gods. As far as chess is concerned Fabiano Caruana is one of the exalted minority who have for years given the chess world new ideas and beautiful games. It is wonderful to see Fabiano deciding to take it to the grassroot level this time, with over 16 hours of dedicated coverage of one of the most ancient and classical openings of chess - The Ruy Lopez. Tanmay Srinath reviews the 2nd part, and comes out amazed, yet again! Photo: David Llada

FIDE Women's World Championship 2020 Game 2 - A shorter draw

07/01/2020 -

After a grueling game of 97-moves which nearly lasted for almost six hours, both players were obviously not in the mood for another long fight. Game 2 witnessed Ruy Lopez Berlin Defence where Ju could have taken her chances with aggressive play but she didn't. Thus the game resulted in a relatively shorter draw with a threefold repetition in just 40 moves. As per the event regulations minimum 40 moves must be played before a draw can be agreed, players repeated the moves four times before making a draw.They head to their first rest day on 7th January 2020. The Game 3 will be played on 8th January with Goryachkina having the white pieces. Photo: Zhang Yanhong / FIDE

The Enigmatic Logic of Chess Moms!

07/01/2020 -

We have all had those moments where our parents who only wish the good for us tend to get on our nerves! There's always those infamous 'mom's logic' moments which no one but they will understand! It truly is undecipherable, and one cannot understand the point that is being made. Unfortunately, the law requires that one not question mom's motives, so here are some of those moments that we honestly cannot explain or get behind! Avathanshu Bhat, the ChessBase India Juniors editor-in-chief and the author of this article is just 14 years old, but the lad has some excellent observational and imaginative writing skills. From what he has witnessed in his own life, at chess tournaments, and using his imagination, he has penned down this article! Go on and check if you can spot yourself somewhere in there! 

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