How can you play against GMs and IMs on Playchess

28/04/2018 -

Historically, ducats are trade coins which were used in Europe from the middle ages to the early 20th century. Modern ducats are used to pay on the playchess.com chess server: to bet on games, to pay for ChessBase products, to hire strong players for lessons, to play simuls, etc. It is an easy way to transact on the ChessBase and Playchess platform. Usually playing against a GM is very difficult but with Ducats, the chances of them playing are much higher. But one thing did not change over the centuries: the more ducats, the better!

Trisha Kanyamarala leads in under-13, Kush, Lakshana and Nityata aiming for the gold

27/04/2018 -

Tarun and Trisha Kanyamarala continue their coverage of the World Schools 2018 that is currently taking place in Albania. Trisha is currently in the top position with 4.5/6 in the girls under-13 section. For Indians three players are doing really well. They are Kush Bhagat in the under-9 section, Lakshana Subramanian in the under-7 girls section and Nityata Jain in the under-15 girls section. We also have pictures of the event sent to us by Rekha Nahar.  Indians are having a tough time with the food and also being forced to change their rooms, but their morale is still very high! 

Marienbad Open – Playing Chess in a Fairytale Town

27/04/2018 -

The Marienbad Open 2018 was held in the Czech Republic as a part of the Czech Tour. Father and son duo Prashant and Raahil Mullick visited the tournament. Raahil won quite a few rating points and Prashant brings you high quality reporting. Marienbad, known as Marienske Lazne, is a fairy tale town covered white with snow. The festival had eight events - two GM norm tournaments, three IM norm events, one open classical, one rapid and one blitz. A lot of Indians participated. One of India's top female players Bhakti Kulkarni sends us her win over a 2566 GM - Plat Vojtech and we also have for you the interview with Czech Tour director Jan Mazuch. All the information to help you plan your trip for the next Czech Tour. 

9-year-old chess prodigy caught in the visa battle to stay in the UK

27/04/2018 -

Recently the British daily national newspaper based in London, England - The Times, carried the story of the 9-year-old chess prodigy Shreyas Royal, who started playing chess when he was just five years old and in less than a year became the world's youngest candidate master. The nine-year-old star is now revered among the chess community, which has singled him out as the “most promising player we’ve had for a generation”. Celebrated chess players have tipped him to be Britain’s first official world champion. But now he is caught up in a battle to stay in the UK after his father's work visa is set to expire. This is the story of Shreyas Royal:

Alekhya and Sinthia win 30th West Bengal State FIDE Rated Under 11 Chess Championship 2018

26/04/2018 -

For the first time in West Bengal, State Under 11 Chess Championship became a rated event. Alekhya Mukhopadhyay and Sinthia Sarkar won the championship in open and girls category respectively. Alekhya scored 7.0/8 and Sinthia scored 6.5/7 to win the title. There was a four-way tie in the open category for the champion, but Alekhya became champion in State age group for the very first time due to a better tie-break score. Ayush Bhattacherjee, Rachishnu Datta and Swarnoj Saha Talukdar also finished at 7.0/8 and they secured 2nd, 3rd and 4th position respectively. In the girls category, Sinthia won her third State age group title with a full point difference. She is the Silver medal winner in under-10 girls category in Commonwealth Chess Championships 2017. Photo: Sayan Bose

Overwhelming response for the ChessBase India Power Catalan circuit group tour 2018

26/04/2018 -

The Group Tour by ChessBase India Power is a novel concept where players who enroll for it will go to the Catalan circuit 2018 in Spain (a series of six tournaments in Barcelona) with a personal guide. This guide will take care of all your off the board requirements, which will help you to focus entirely on your games. It's been 20 days since we published the initial article and the response has been overwhelming. Almost all of the spots in the ChessBase India group tour have been taken up. In this article we acquaint you with the players who are a part of the group tour and we also answer a few of the FAQs that we have been receiving since the last fortnight. 

Arpan Das wins 2nd Dalmia Cements All India Open FIDE Rating Chess Tournament 2018

25/04/2018 -

Arpan Das scored 8.5/10 and won 2nd Dalmia Cements All India FIDE Rating Chess Tournament 2018. He defeated GM Saptarshi Roy Chowdhury of RSPB in the last round with Black pieces in a must-win situation, won the tournament. There was a six-way tie at 8 points a piece. CM Aronyak Ghosh finished at 2nd position due to a better tie-break score. Kaustuv Kundu and Shrutarshi Ray secured 3rd and 4th position respectively. Top seed IM Arghyadip Das finished at 5th position. Among local players, Priyanka Kumari of Jharkhand finished at 6th position with 7.5 points. We have a detailed report with photos, videos and annotated game by the champion, Arpan Das himself. Photo: Neeraj Kumar Mishra

Powerplay 26: A tale of three mating attacks!

25/04/2018 -

Nigel Short once said, "Modern chess is too much concerned with things like pawn structure. Forget it, checkmate ends the game!" The art of checkmating our opponent is something that we learn when we are young. But once we know what checkmate is all about, we hardly go back to that subject. In order to ensure that you polish your art of pattern recognition related to mating attacks, Daniel King has come out with his latest Powerplay DVD - Powerplay 26. It's named as checkmate challenge - essential knowledge. In order to tell you what this DVD is all about, IM Sagar Shah takes you on a journey of three tales. Three tales of mating attacks by players of three different generations!

Noora - a bestselling book on the thoughts of a blind girl written by a chess player!

24/04/2018 -

Abir Sinha is a International FIDE Rated player with an Elo 1832. Some of his chess achievements include finishing runners-up at the Philadelphia Open (under-2000) and winning the Hawaii Open (under-2000). Recently, he wrote a book on poetry, not related to chess, but about the feelings of a blind girl called Noora. The book smashed all records as it raced up to number 16 position among the four lakh books on Amazon. In this article, Abir tells us not only about the book, but he also shares with us the secret of how chess helped him to write this book.

Record entries at the Gujarat State Rapid and Blitz 2018

24/04/2018 -

Chess is booming just about everywhere in India. Gujarat which would witness around 50-100 entries for the State Rapid and Blitz selection, saw nearly 200 participants fighting it out for the title of the fastest player in the state. The work that Gujarat State Chess Association is doing at the grassroot level is surely bearing fruits. The winner of the blitz event was the young 14-year-old Vrandesh Parekh, while the rapid section was won by the experienced player from Vadodra Maulik Raval. We have the report of this entire tournament that was organized by ChessBase India Power. 

Amruta Mokal's live coaching session (Part III) on Kan with a good cause!

23/04/2018 -

The ChessBase India live coaching by Amruta Mokal on Sicilian Kan is back! Today, 23rd of April, at 9 p.m. IST. Amruta will be talking about the Maroczy bind structure with 5.c4 against Kan. This was the same line that was used by Magnus Carlsen in the World Championship 2014 to fight against Vishy Anand. Anand didn't really have a great position out of the opening, but Amruta has some new ideas to share with you. Apart from this we would urge you to contribute from your end. If you enjoy the lecture or you do learn something of value then do consider donating some money on the links given in the article. This money will be donated fully to deserving talents of Indian chess in a transparent manner. 

FIDE World Schools starts in Albania

22/04/2018 -

The FIDE World School Championships is taking place in Durres, Albania from the 21st-29th of April 2018. Siblings Tarun and Trisha Kanyamarala, who originally hail from India, but now represent the Irish flag are present at the tournament. The Kanyamaralas have been on the road travelling from one tournament to the next in the last four months. Tarun sends us a report from Albania about their travelling experience and also video analysis of his and Trisha's (his sister) first round encounter.

Novendra Priasmoro wins Bangkok Open 2018, Deepan second, Gukesh scores maiden GM norm

22/04/2018 -

The Bangkok Chess Club Open 2018 had many surprises in store. There were ten GMs above the rating of 2500 including some very strong grandmasters - Nigel Short, Hrant Melkumyan, Jan Gustafsson etc. However, the first prize was taken home by Novendra Priasmoro - an Indonesian player, about whom no one knew anything much. The second place was won by India's Deepan Chakkravarthy - we show you one of his blistering wins. And the third place went to 11-year-old D. Gukesh who made his maiden GM norm! Indian talent Rithvik Raja achieved his maiden IM norm. All this and more in our final report from the Bangkok Open 2018.

Praggnanandhaa achieves his second GM norm in Greece

21/04/2018 -

Praggnanandhaa became an IM at the age of 10 years and 10 months. Sergey Karjakin held the record for the youngest GM in the world - 12 years and 7 months. With nearly one year and nine months to go it seemed as if Pragg would break Karjakin's record. However, it was not to be and although the young lad from Chennai crossed 2500 Elo mark, he could achieve just one GM norm. Many people felt that it was the pressure on his shoulders of becoming that youngest GM in the world that was not letting Pragg play his natural game. Now that we are past that phase, Pragg is showing his free flowing game and achieved his second GM norm in smooth style at the 4th Fischer Memorial GM norm tournament in Heraklion, Greece.

India's most celebrated trainer GM R.B. Ramesh turns 42 today!

20/04/2018 - GM Ramesh, one of the most celebrated coaches of Indian chess, turns 42 years old today. He has worked tremendously hard to build Chess Gurukul and currently is one of the best trainers in the world of chess thanks to his untiring efforts. He has helped the Indian team win its first team medal and has trained some of the finest talents in the world like Praggnanandhaa, Aravindh Chithambaram, Karthikeyan Murali, Divya Deshmukh and many others. Recently he published his first book - Logical Decision Making in Chess and Davide Nastasio reviews it and tells you why he thinks the book is a pure masterpiece!