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FIDE Moscow GP: Quarter-final begins with four draws

20/05/2019 -

The second round of the Moscow Grand Prix began with four draws on Monday, though there were several pitched battles. Since the Grand Prix is using a knockout format, all competitors will face each other on Tuesday in the second half of their mini-matches. If those games end in draws, then the players will proceed to faster tie-breaker games on Wednesday to decide who advances to the semifinals of the tournament. One feature of the quarterfinals of the Moscow Grand Prix is that there are four Russian players facing two American players, one from China and one from Poland. It has the same format, inadvertently, as the Russia vs. the World match in 2002 (and before that, the U.S.S.R. vs. the World matches in 1970 and 1984). Photo: World Chess

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The Problemist Diary Part III

20/05/2019 -

Solving chess problems is similar to solving tactics in that you have to familiarize yourself with certain patterns and themes. We have already come across the very important interference theme Grimshaw in our previous articles. In today's article we delve deeper into it and mainly examine it through three-movers. Earlier we kept our discussions limited to mostly mate-in-2s, today we will see how increasing the length of the problem by just one move enhances its complexity and richness of play.

FIDE Moscow GP Round 1 Playoff: Nakamura and So advance to the Quarter-finals

20/05/2019 -

Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So, the two Americans, beat Teimour Radjabov of Azerbaijan and Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland, respectively, in two-game rapid playoffs after their first-round matches had been tied in regulation. In both playoffs, Nakamura and So had White in the first games and won and then drew the second games in order to advance. They now join the other six players who had already qualified for the second round in mini-matches that will begin on Monday. The Quarter-finals match up will be four Russians will be facing the rest of the world to secure a spot for each of themselves at the Semi-finals. Photo: World Chess

Chess Coaching for Presidency Correctional Home inmates in Kolkata

19/05/2019 -

For the first time in Kolkata, West Bengal, a chess coaching program is launched for the inmates of Presidency Correctional Home. On 13th April 2019, a selection tournament had taken place between 40 inmates to determine which 20 of them will be trained by the various trainers of West Bengal. The facility has art and cultural programs among the inmates, football and kabaddi teams also. The correctional facility office had approached the governing body of chess in the state, Bengal Chess Association which they gladly accepted and Kolkata District Chess Association took the entire project. In this pictorial report, we will see what transpired things. Photo: Atin Sengupta

FIDE Moscow GP: Giri, Mamedyarov, Aronian and Karjakin get eliminated

19/05/2019 -

At the conclusion of round 1.1 in FIDE Grand Prix 2019 Moscow, three players were on the brink of elimination. They are Mamedyarov, Aronian and So. They were in a must win situation to head for Playoffs. Two of them could not surive - Mamedyarov and Aronian. Both of them lost their round 1.2 game which caused elimination. However So bounced back and defeated Duda to head for Playoffs. Dubov played an impressive attacking game to knock Giri out of the tournament. Aronian got eliminated by Nepo after the former blundered a pawn in the opening. Vitiugov and Jakovenko failed to score in a must-score game to get eliminated from the tournament. Photo: World Chess

Nielsen on 10 years of Mexico 2007 (R08): Anand draws against Gelfand, maintains his lead

18/05/2019 -

Anand became the undisputed World Champion for the first time in 2007 at the World Championship event held in Mexico. We are celebrating this occasion with inputs from his second Peter Heine Nielsen. We have reached the 8th round of the tournament. After round 7 Anand was leading with a half point gap, followed by Boris Gelfand. In the eighth round it was an all important duel between Gelfand and Anand. Vishy played a new idea in the Catalan that involved moving his bishop twice and taking his queen to what seemed like a passive square. But Vishy and Nielsen had worked out all the details and Anand effortlessly held the draw. Let's go over this game with analysis by Peter Heine Nielsen.

Moscow Grand Prix Round 1.1: The Poles have a great day!

18/05/2019 -

The Grand Prix series 2019 which will determine two spots in the Candidates 2020, has revamped its format. Instead of the round robin or swiss format which it followed in the last few years, we are witnessing a World Cup like knock out event. As there are world class players taking part, this knock-out event is going to attract a lot of eyeballs. The first leg of the Grand Prix began in Moscow on 17th of May. Out of the 8 games that were played, three were decisive. Both the Polish players won their games with Duda getting the better of So, and Wojtaszek beating Mamedyarov. The other decisive game was Nepomniachtchi scoring a win against Aronian. So, Shakh and Lev had their task cut out on day two to win at all costs in order to avoid being knocked out.

Gaining 100 Elo points with one book!

18/05/2019 -

By reading this book you will increase your chess skills, not only in attack and defence but also it benefits your level of calculation. This book has 13 chapters out of which 1-8 are about attacking chess and 9-12 are about defensive techniques. The Attack part starts with Levon Aronian and Vishy Anand's game from Wijk aan Zee 2013. If you are an Anand fan then you have that game at the tip of your tongue! The Defence section begins with quite an unseen game between Vallejo Pons and Aronian from Bilbao 2012. There are games like these before the beginning of each of the chapter, which give us the taste of the puzzles ahead. A review of Jacob Aagaard's book Attack and Defence from the GrandMaster Preparation series by Aajaneya Phatak.

Shashikant and Jennitha win All India Open for Physically Disabled

17/05/2019 -

Top seed and the favorites of the tournament, IM Shashikant Kutwal of Maharashtra and WIM Jennitha Anto K of Tamil Nadu, win All India Open Championship 2019 for Physically Disabled held at Trichy, Tamil Nadu on 4th and 5th May 2019. The event was a selection tournament for 19th IPCA World Championship which will take place in Slovakia next month. Both Shashikant and Jennitha remained undefeated throughout the tournament as expected. Jennitha finished at 100% score of 5.0/5, Shashikant made a draw in the final round and finished with 4.5/5 to clinch the title. Here is a pictorial report of the tournament. Photo: Baskaran

Isuru Alahakoon - Four time Sri Lanka National Champion

17/05/2019 -

Sri Lanka’s Olympiad gold medalist (Category D in 2014 Tromso, Norway) and four times national champion (2012-2014 and 2018) Isuru Alahakoon (rated 2092) was able to obtain his first chess title FIDE Master with a score of 6.0/9 in the recently concluded Asian Zonal 3.2 in Dhaka, Bangladesh. Prior to that, he had participated in Commonwealth Championships 2018 in open section where he finished at 25th position with a score of 6.0/9. The 31-year-old chess player and trainer who has represented Sri Lanka four times at the Olympiad and several times in Commonwealth and Zonal tournaments shared his long journey and experience of playing chess in an interview with Marlon Fernando. Photo: Marlon Fernando

Chess Bonanza in Tamil Nadu

16/05/2019 -

A Chess bonanza in Tamil Nadu is awaiting the chess lovers. It is a well known fact that Tamil Nadu dominates the chess field in India – be it the number of top players it has produced, the effective chess administration, leading the field of arbiters (three A grade arbiters out of seven in India) and so on. What is the secret behind the extraordinary growth in chess? The simple fact is that Tamil Nadu conducts more tournaments in all levels than most of the other states. The players are immensely benefited out of these tournaments to enhance their quality and rating. Photo: Tournament circular

Indian chess players raise Rs.33121 in 'Let's Rebuild Odisha' fundraiser tournament

16/05/2019 -

The Indian chess community came through and raised ₹33121 in just four days to contribute towards the Chief Minister's Relief fund to help rebuild Odisha after the devastation caused by the cyclone 'Fani'. India's latest GM Swayams Mishra who is a regular in ChessBase Online Blitz tournaments is also a native from Odisha. He contributed and participated in this event. Laxman made his contribution and played the tournament. India's second youngest GM R Praggnanandhaa was also among the contributors and participant. Reigning National Women's champion WGM Bhakti Kulkarni and Pune lad Aditya Samant's father made the biggest contribution of the event of ₹5000 each. Pranav Venkatesh won the tournament, just hours after finishing 2nd in National under-13 open 2019. A report by the tournament director and coordinator Shahid Ahmed.

Vidit tames Hungarians at the IMSA mind games 2019

15/05/2019 -

The IMSA world mind games is an important event in a calendar year. Mainly because chess is one of the many other mind sports played at the festival. Chess gets excellent exposure among other mind games like Go, Bridge, Xiangqi, and Droughts. 16 players in the open section and 16 in the women are fighting it out in rapid and blitz format. Indian representation is made by Vidit Gujrathi in the open and by Humpy and Harika in the women's section. Vidit is on +1 after eight rounds with wins against two Hungarians Rapport and Leko. Humpy has had a dismal event and is on 2.5/8, while Harika too hasn't really fired is on 3.5/8. We bring you a detailed report after day two. 

Padmini finishes joint first at Sydney International Open 2019

15/05/2019 -

IM Padmini Rout finished joint first at Sydney International Open 2019 with a score of 7.0/9. FM Raymond Song of Chinese Taipei also scored 7.0/9 and he was declared champion on tie-breaks as he defeated Padmini in round 4. The only other Indian to play in the tournament was GM Abhijit Kunte who scored 6.5/7 and finished at 3rd position. Kunte's biggest feat of the tournament was to defeat the eventual champion in round 5. Padmini finished ahead of three GMs with a performance rating of 2501. She also increased her rating by 16 points, making the total increase in her Australian tour by 21 points. The report contains games and photos from the tournament. Photo: New Zealand Chess News

Peter Heine Nielsen on 10 years of Mexico - We are restarting the series!

15/05/2019 -

In 2017 we had started a series "Peter Heine Nielsen on 10 years of Mexico 2007". It was exactly 10 years since Anand had become the undisputed World Champion and in order to celebrate this occasion we had published seven articles from rounds one to seven of the World Championship 2007. These articles had insights by Anand's second at the event Peter Heine Nielsen. IM Sagar Shah had interviewed Nielsen in Lithuania in 2017 and the videos were filled with great insights into how Anand won his second World Championship title. It's been nearly one and a half year since we started the series in 2017. In this period the following of ChessBase India has grown humongously and we think this is the right time to restart the series of articles. For all those who had missed the first seven articles, here's a recap.

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