Kathmandu Open 2018 Day 1: Inauguration Ceremony & Preview

12/04/2018 -

Nepal is hosting the first international chess tournament in the nation's capital, Kathmandu. Total 199 players including 9 GMs and 11 IMs are participating from 17 different countries. This tournament will give a huge boost to the Nepali players as for the first time they will get exposure to play against strong foreign chess players in their home soils and get an opportunity to make their mark. The tournament will take place from 12th to 17th April in Park Village Resort with total prize money of Nepali Rupees 6 Lacs. Team ChessBase India is present at the venue and they will bring you detailed coverage of the tournament.

Sauravh Kherdekar wins 2nd Holi Cup 2018

12/04/2018 - Sauravh Kherdekar of Railways won the 2nd edition of the Holi Cup Lakecity Open Rated Tournament which was organized by chess in lakecity under the aegis of All Rajputana Chess Association and All India Chess Federation. The event was held at Bhandari Darshak Mandap, Chetak Circle, Udaipur. 40 years old FM Sauravh Kherdekar remained undefeated, scored 7.5/8 and became champion in a very convincing manner. Top seed of the event IM Rahul Sangma scored 7.0/8 and finished 3rd. Vikas Sahu, who is the secretary of Chess in Lakecity, sends us a detailed summary of what happened at the event.

WIM Bhagyashree Thipsay wins the Aavhan 2018!

11/04/2018 -

The Aavhan 2018 is one of the finest rapid tournaments in India. Its latest event ended with a bang, with the winner of the tournament as WIM Bhagyashree Thipsay, scoring 8 points out of 9, with no losses. Even at her age, while rapid not being her forte, and pitted against Mumbai's seasoned Rapid players, it is truly a success story. A detailed report of the Rapid and Blitz event by Avathanshu Bhat.

Grenke Chess Classic: Caruana wins in style

10/04/2018 -

In the final round of the Grenke Chess Classic, Fabiano Caruana shut down all possibilities of a possible tiebreak beating Nikita Vitiugov with a surprising novelty in the Petroff. With this win, Caruana remained a full point ahead of his nearest rival, world champion Magnus Carlsen. Carlsen was pitted against his former challenger Vishy Anand in the finale and had to satisfy himself with a draw. The remaining games, even though exciting, also ended peacefully. We have a report with pictures and games.

China vs The World: China lifts the trophy

10/04/2018 -

The final day of China versus the world match featured some amazing miniatures, inspiring comebacks and also a few incredible blunders! While the World team failed to overcome their two-point deficit on the final day, they came close and made sure the Chinese did not declare victory without breaking a sweat. Day 2 report and games.

India dominates Asian Youth 2018 with 35 gold medals!

10/04/2018 -

What an amazing event it was! India won 35 gold medals in Team and Individual combined in all the three formats Classical, Rapid and Blitz to stand out as the most powerful chess country in Asia as on today. And we were miles ahead of the second placed Vietnam team which won 17 gold medals. This was a fantastic team effort with AICF making sure that all the qualified players get their expenses covered by the Government of India, the parents and coaches supporting the players in every possible way and the players fighting it out with everything that they have on the board! India shining! A detailed report with pictures and analysis of winners' games.

Kaustuv Kundu wins Sonargaon International FIDE Rating Chess Tournament 2018

09/04/2018 -

Kaustuv won his third tournament of the year when he scored 8.0/9 with a performance rating of 2482, edged ahead by 0.5 point in Tie-break 2. Kaustuv's first tournament win of this year is New Year Open 2018. Bangladesh no.1, GM Ziaur Rahman was adjudged as the first runner up of the tournament as he missed the championship due to the earlier mentioned reason. FM Mohammad Fahad Rahman scored 7.0/9 and finished at 3rd position due to a better Tie-Break score, ahead of IM Abu Sufian Shakil and FM Uddin Md. Saif, who also scored the same points. The tournament took place in Sonargaon Royal Resort in Sonargaon, Narayanganj in Bangladesh from 20th to 24th March 2018. We bring you photos and an annotated game by the champion himself. Photo: Bangladesh Chess Federation facebook

Grenke Chess Classic R8: Three contenders remain

09/04/2018 -

In the penultimate round of the Grenke Chess Classic, Fabiano Caruana held Levon Aronian to a draw to retain his half point lead over the rest of the field. Magnus Carlsen had a good chance to catch up with Caruana after this draw but his opponent, Nikita Vitiugov defended stubbornly and succeeded in splitting the point after 65 moves. In another interesting battle, Arkadij Naiditsch tried to generate a strong attack against Vishy Anand's king with the 6.e5 variation of the Giuco Piano. But the Madras Tiger was well prepared and gave the Azeri GM no chance to break through. Round 8 report.

China vs The World: The Dragon Dominates

08/04/2018 -

From April 7th to 9th, China's National team is taking on five representatives of the 'Rest of the World' in a ten round match with a rapid time control of 10 mins + 10 seconds. At the conclusion of Day 1, Team China finished with a two-point lead over the World scoring three wins, a draw and two losses. There were plenty of interesting games and we bring you a report on all the action from Liaocheng, China. 

Grenke Chess Classic: Caruana takes sole lead

08/04/2018 -

With just two rounds to go, Italian American GM Fabiano Caruana has taken sole lead after the seventh round of the Grenke Chess Classic. In his round-7 game, Caruana defeated co-leader Maxime Vachier-Lagrave to take a half point lead over the rest of the field. In another decisive game of the round, Magnus Carlsen defeated Arkadij Naiditsch to retain his second spot. Vishy Anand came close to both victory and defeat in round 7. While his enterprising exchange sacrifice against Meier gave him good chances to win, a slip in the follow-up brought him on the brink of defeat. But Meier, too, failed to find the best continuation and peace was signed. Round 7 report.

Vishy Anand to record training lectures for Run Adam platform

08/04/2018 -

Every chess student has a dream - the dream is to learn chess from the finest chess players in the world. Let's say some like Vishy Anand. But the problem is that these players are just very busy and even if they get time they are too expensive to learn from. However Run Adam, a sports management company, has made the dream of every chess player come true. They will be recording twelve videos of Vishy Anand, where the five-time World Champion speaks about his 12 most memorable games of chess, and this six hours of content will be absolutely free for chess players all over the world.

Miro chooses Mumbai for his two day camp on 11th and 12th of April

08/04/2018 -

A day ago we wrote about GM Evgenvy Miroshnichenko. The Ukrainian GM is in India for a "secret training session" with two highly talented youngsters from the 1st to the 10th of April 2018 in Kolkata. On 11th and 12th Miro will be in Mumbai at the Chess Guru Academy in Bhandup, Mumbai. It's a training camp where you can learn from a former 2700+ rated grandmaster and the fees are also pretty affordable (Rs.7200 for 12 hours). The topics that will be covered are types of mistakes, organizing the calculation process, finding unsual moves, endgame and opening training and more. 

Grenke Chess Classic R6: A big upset for Anand

07/04/2018 -

Round 6 of the Grenke Chess Classic brought an unfortunate defeat for the former five-time world champion, Viswanathan Anand. Playing against Matthias Bluebaum, Anand played some strange moves in the opening and then again miscalculated in the middlegame to give away the full point to his German opponent. The only other decisive game of the round also ended because of a blunder. Georg Meier, who was playing against Arkadij Naiditsch had been under some pressure all through the game but after the position seemed to have equalised, he threw it all away. All the other games of the round were drawn. Vitiugov, Caruana and MVL still remain the joint leaders. Report with game analysis by WIM Angela Franko Valencia.

Live Games: Vidit takes on China!

07/04/2018 -

A very unique rapid Scheveningen match is currently in progress in Liaocheng China - World vs China. Five strong Chinese players Ding Liren, Bu Xiangzhi, Yu Yangyi, Wei Yi and Li Chao take on five players from the major countries in the world. The World Team consists of Vidit Gujrathi from India, Krzysztof Duda from Poland, Etienne Bacrot from France, Samuel Shankland from USA and Daniil Dubov from Russia. It will be a double Scheveningen system Rapid format of ten rounds with the time control being 10 minutes + 10 second increment. Follow the live games as Vidit looks to conquer China!

ChessBase India Live coaching - Amruta Mokal continues her series on the Sicilian Kan

06/04/2018 -

"My aim is to offer a black repertoire for players all over the world against 1.e4," says Amruta Mokal. All her life she has played the Sicilian Kan and gathered some great experience in the line. She has employed it against some strong grandmasters and has many intricacies to share. The first part, which was an introduction to the opening, was a big success as more than 100 people tuned in at the same time on Youtube to learn this sharp opening. The second lecture in the series will be held on 7th of April at 6 p.m. IST. Amruta will cover the 5.Bd3 lines. In this article you get to know more about what exactly transpired in the first live coaching session.