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We are nearing the half way mark at the 1st leg of the FIDE Grand Prix held in Sharjah. After four rounds we have two leaders in the form of Maxime Vachier Lagrave and Shakhriyar Mamedyarov. While this reports gives you the results and pictures, the highlight definitely is the in-depth annotations by world class trainer and author Efstratios Grivas. Check out his analysis and improve your understanding of chess.
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It was a happy day for Indian chess fans (and Harika's grandmother) as she took a step towards the title of the world champion. Harika defeated Nana Dzagnidze of Georgia after the latter blundered just before making the time control. Joining Harika is Muzychuk with a win over Stefanova. Tania Sachdev is our guest analyst today and she has an instructive look at the big fight.
What does it take to create a world class grandmaster? Few coaches in India can claim to know the answer to this question. And of them is the coach of Dronavalli Harika—Mr. N. Ramaraju. As Harika battles it out against Dzagnidze in the World Championship Quarters, read end enjoy this exclusive interview with the Hyderabad-based trainer by Hinduja Reddy.
The Frenchman Vachier-Lagrave showed superb form as he completely outclassed Rapport with black to score a second win. Yesterday's loser Ding Liren bounced back with a win over Saleh Salem who failed to find a way to stop the Chinese player's massive attack. Azeri player Mamedyarov was the third winner of the day, defeating Tomashevsky in 37 moves. The day might have seen four wins had Li Chao converted his dead won endgame against Hou Yifan, but instead let her escape.
The pre-quarterfinals have come to an end. The tiebreakers saw a second set of 10-minute rapid games in all the mini-matches. Padmini, who had won a fantastic game in the very first match lost the return game and also the first game of the 10-minute tiebreak allowing the Chinese player Tan Zhongyi to qualify. Harika Dronavalli, meanwhile, did not let her missed win in the second tiebreaker affect her as she destroyed Sopiko in the 10-minute rapid. Joining them were Ju Wenjun and Alexandra Kosteniuk.
The second game of the third round ended in draws for both Harika and Padmini. Harika has by now grown used to this - this will be her tiebreaker! In the second game Sopiko was pretty solid and never really let the grandmaster from Andhra get an advantage. Padmini, on the other hand, seemed to have a slight pull from the white side of the Berlin, but practically very difficult to convert into something tangible. She agreed to a draw quickly, which means that on 19th February we will see both the girls in the tiebreaks. Detailed analysis by IM Sagar Shah.
The Sharjah Grand Prix took off from the 18th of February 2017. In a very interesting field the top players include MVL, Aronian, Nakamura and four more players above 2750. This is the first of the four legs in the Grand Prix cycle. Each player has to play three events out of the four and qualify for the Candidates. Although Harikrishna isn't playing here, he will be in action in the other three. We have the round one report which had three winners: Adams, MVL and Rapport.
Round three was a fighting round for the Indian players. Both the games lasted nearly five hours. In the end Harika and Padmini both drew their games, but quite in contrasting styles. Harika was clearly better and close to winning, while Padmini was under pressure and losing at one point. Although Harika won't be happy with the draw, in the second game both the Indian girls will have white pieces to try for a win. We have detailed analysis by reigning Asian Champion WGM Bhakti Kulkarni.
Harika played a good positional game with the white pieces to beat Dinara Saduakassova and advance to the third round of the championship. It remains to be seen if she sticks to her strategy of drawing the classical games in the next stage as well. Padmini fought bravely with the black pieces but had a bad position until her opponent blundered. Report.
Harika had begun with indecisive play but it seems she has upped the ante in the second mini-match — she drew both her games right out of the opening. Padmini also drew her game, but her's was a Evans Gambit! Both the Indian stars will now fight in the tiebreaker.
At the age of five years when little kids are trying to get to grips with basic stuff that has to be learnt in life, Kush Bhagat was busy winning medals at tournaments like Asian School. The boy is now seven years old and he achieved the title of Candidate Master (CM) thanks to his excellent performance at the 1st Western Asian chess Championship in UAE in December 2016. He is the youngest CM in India and one of the seven in the world. Get to know more about this prodigious young talent.
This article was originally published in 2009, but it still beautifully captures Anand's career until 2009 in a gist. Anand has had several achievements after 2009 as well, and today, 47, he is still at the top of the chess world. But here is an article where he shares his most memorable moments until 2009 when he turned 40.
It was quite a boring round from the Indian perspective, to be precise. Harika drew in just 15 moves, which is surprising because she had the white pieces. Padmini had to defend against the London System and she did so and drew. Report.
14th of February is celebrated all over the world as the Valentine's Day. While many of the chess players prefer sitting at the board and enjoying with the tactics and strategy of this royal game, there are the few romantics! In this article, that was sent to us by Praful Zaveri, we acquaint you with a beautiful love story written by Eduard Gufeld. He tells us the tale of how he fell in love with Bellochka. Read on and embark on an emotional journey with the ultimate chess romantic.
It was close but as Capablanca once said, good players are always lucky. However, in the first rapid tiebreaker, Harika used the legacy and technique of another world champion — Anatoly Karpov. Know what happened and learn some really great methods to handle opposite coloured bishop positions in the middlegame, and also, how to use the computers in our master analysis of the day.
