Chess train runs Oct 11-15: Prague - Carlsbad - Cesky Krumlov - Brno - Trencin - Prague

Medieval pearls by Chess Train 2019: Chess train, a unique project of Prague Chess Society and Czech Railways, will take place again! The Chess Train 2019 will run from October 11th to 15th on the route Prague - Carlsbad - Cesky Krumlov - Brno - Trencin - Prague. On the train, a 11round tournament in rapid chess will be played.

As it is clear from the itinerary, this year the real medieval pearls are waiting for the participants of the event - beautiful cities of the Czech Republic and Slovakia with picturesque historical centers. And two of the cities have the extraordinary chess tradition also. Rembember famous tournaments Carslasbad 1907, 1911, 1923 and 1929 or Prague Olympics 1931. In the capital of the Czech Republic was born the 1st World Chess Champion Wilhelm Steinitz and in the present days there live several top-class grandmasters of different chess federations – David Navara (Czech Republic), Pentala Harikrishna (India), Sergey Movsesian (Armenia), Pontus Carlsson (Sweden) or Maxim Rodshtein (Israel).

If you want to attend this extraordinary event of the Chess Train 2019 and meet chess-tourists from around the world, do not hesitate to book a place on prazska.sachova@gmail.com. The number of seats on the train is limited. The ticket to the Chess Train and the tournament fee cost 199 Euro, the ticket for a non-playing partners costs 149 Euro. Accommodation can be booked by the organizers in the selected hotels in 3 categories (3*, 4* and 5*hotels), or you can arrange for it yourself.

Details of the Chess Train 2019 can be found here.

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CCBW u20 Chess: Prithvvi 1st on tiebreak; Himmika best Girl

Lucknow,  seedJune Top23:  and reigning state u13 champion Prithvvi Singh (1669) won the CCBW (Chess Club Black and White) Junior Rapid Chess Championship 2019 on tie-break at a city hotel on Sunday. 

(From left) Tanishq Gupta, Prithvvi Singh, Harshit Amarnani, Himmika Amarnani, Myra Agarwal. (More photos on Facebook)

This was Lucknow's strongest-ever u20 chess championship as it also included current state U15 and U17 champion Tanishq Gupta (1660) as second seed and third strongest rated Lucknow junior Harshit Amarnani (1522) as third seed.

Complete media coverage collated on Facebook.

The three-way tie of six points each occured after a very interesting series of results: Harshit beat Tanishq in round 4,  Prithvvi beat Harshit in round 5 and Tanishq beat Prithvvi in round 6!

Prithvvi grabbed an early centre pawn in a 1.d4 game then followed it up with excellent technique for his win over Harshit.

In the top clash, Tanishq vs Prithvvi, Tanishq played Colle system of Queen pawn opening. In the middle game, Tanishq grabbed a pawn and steered the game into a minor piece ending with pawn majority scoring the crucial win.

In Tanishq vs Harshit, Tanishq playing white opened with the Zukertort variation of the Colle system.
The game was somewhat complicated in the middlegame and then harshit went for a pawn sacrifice,vwhich if accepted by Tanishq would have allow Harshit to gain material with a piece  superiorposition.Tanishq eventually accepted the sacrifice and lost.

The seven-round, 15 0 time control tournament witnessed an even closer finish in the girls' section.

Top-seed Himmika Amarnani (1181) could win best girl prize only on tiebreak. Also a state-level tennis player, Himmika used her attacking 1.e4 games for successive wins.

The four-way tie for first saw unrated Myra Agarwal perform way above her strength to claim second. Simran Sadhwani continued her steady play to score ahead of second seed Jusfica Lilium Lobo (1032) for third place. Simran, is also a state-level player, who has improved considerably over the last year winning district championships in girls. All four scored 4 points each.

Six-year-old Pranav Rastogi surprised everyone by coming first in the u7 category on tiebreak ahead of state level player Aryan Sadhwani and district U7 champion Devaagyh Dixit who stood third. Aryan showed amazing calm to climb back from his losses to nearly snatch first place. Aryan will be representing UP in the Nationals in his section.

The tournament had players come in from Banda and Kanpur as well.

Former state champion, senior international player, Dr Junaid Ahmad was tournament director and senior international player Pawan Batham was the chief arbiter. Participants said they always find chess tournaments organised by those who are players themselves as far better in facilities and fairness of conduct of play as compared to other tournaments.

Chief guest renowned orthopaedic and diet expert Dr Gopal Goel (also felicitated by state government for welfare work in aiding and rehabilitatiom of physically challenged) spoke about nutrition specifically to suit chess players  For improving brain power, he suggested daily intake of at four walnuts twice a day, handful of almonds once (soaked overnight) and curd twice a day along with regular exercise and yogasans like dandawat pranaam for brain power.
He warneda indiscriminate eating of bread, packaged chips and even milk. He mentioned the importance of taking vitamins as required without assuming that "vitamins" are only for senior people.

*Results*

Open Section 1-6th: Prithvi Singh, Tanishq Gupta, Harshit Amarnani (all 6 points), Anupam Dutta, Meetansh Dixit, Atharva Rastogi (all 5 points).

Girls section 1-6th: Himmika Amarnani, Myra Agarwal, Simran Sadhwani, Jusfica Lilium Lobo (all 4 points), Vartika R. Verma 3, Saanvi Mehrotra 2.

U7 1-3: Pranav Rastogi, Aryan Sadhwani 2, Devaagyh Dixit 1.5

U10 1-3: Akshin Srivastava, Vyom Ahuja, 3 points, Arsh Hussain Naqvi 1.5

U13 1-3: Sarthak Singh Basera 3.5, Shaan Garg, Enaith Singh Habibullah 3 points

U15 1-3: Nikhar Saxena 4.5, Adarsh Pal, Aman Goel 4 points

U20 1-3: Anubhav Singh 4.5, Shaishav Srivastava, Tanmay Mishra 4 points

Consolation: Aditi Mohan, Akshat Abhinav, Priyam Khandelwal, Vasav Rastogi, Aniket Mohan, Utkarsh Dixit, ADSV Prasad. 

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French Toast: How India No. 2 Harikrishna fries 1... e6

India's number two chess player, the in-form Super GM Pentala Harikrishna, is offering a unique chance to have training time with him.

The 2730-rated grandmaster has launched a competition to win a place in one of two group lessons focusing on one of his opening systems.

Harikrishna, aged 33, recently released his first chess instruction course, an anti-French repertoire titled French Toast: How Harikrishna fries 1... e6, through the online training platform Chessable.com.

The course has a points leaderboard to show who has studied the most, and Harikrishna will host a lesson with the top 5 each week.

Harikrishna, from Guntur, Andhra Pradesh, has been in sparkling form this year and narrowly missed out on top spot at the elite Shenzhen Masters earlier this month

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Yugina Chess Art: Chance to Buy Talented WFM's Paintings

Maria Yugina (Mariya Yughina) seduces her fans with bold shapes and vibrant colors weaving her passion for romance, travel and the royal game of chess into her paintings.Maria is a talented artist from St. Petersburg, Russia.  She is also an accomplished chess player with a women’s fide chess master title and elo of 2183. She is married to Romanian chess grandmaster Mihail Marin. The two of them travel the world competing in chess tournaments and showcasing Maria’s chess themed collection of work.

She is quickly taking the world by storm with her flirty and whimsical cubism style. Before now, her paintings have been sold primarily through word of mouth. This alone has resulted in her selling close to 15 pieces of work a month in over 8 countries!

She has now partnered with chess marketing company OFF da ROOK Entertainment to expand her reach and brand YUGINA ART as a household name.  Original art can be found for purchase at  yugina.com.

To kick things off, Jennifer Vallens, founder of OFF da ROOK Entertainment and a huge fan of Yugina’s work, will have a YUGINA ART table set up at the International Chess Festival in Las Vegas June 14 and 15, 2019.  Exclusive YUGINA ART poster art will be available for sale.  Stop by and say hello and get your limited print!

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World Fischer Random Chess Championship okayed by FIDE

Arne Horvei and Jøran Aulin-Jansson received FIDE President Arkady Dvorkovich a few weeks ago in Oslo.

Oslo, April 20, 2019—The World Fischer Random Chess Championship is now officially recognized by FIDE and will start on Chess.com.

This historic event will feature an online qualifying phase on Chess.com, beginning April 28, and is open to all non-titled players. Qualifiers for titled players begin June 30. The finals will be held in Norway this fall, with a prize fund of $375,000 USD.

The International Chess Federation (FIDE) has granted the rights to host the inaugural FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship cycle to Dund AS, in partnership with Chess.com. And, for the first time in history, a chess world championship cycle will combine an online, open qualifier and worldwide participation with physical finals.

“With FIDE’s support for Fischer Random Chess, we are happy to invite you to join the quest to become the first-ever FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Champion” said Arne Horvei, founding partner in Dund AS. “Anyone can participate online, and we are excited to see if there are any diamonds in the rough out there that could excel in this format of chess,” he said.

"It is an unprecedented move that the International Chess Federation recognizes a new variety of chess, so this was a decision that required to be carefully thought out,” said FIDE president Arkady Dvorkovich, who recently visited Oslo to discuss this agreement. “But we believe that Fischer Random is a positive innovation: It injects new energies an enthusiasm into our game, but at the same time it doesn't mean a rupture with our classical chess and its tradition. It is probably for this reason that Fischer Random chess has won the favor of the chess community, including the top players and the world champion himself. FIDE couldn't be oblivious to that: It was time to embrace and incorporate this modality of chess."

The 2019 FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship features chess superstars such as World Champion Magnus Carlsen, Hikaru Nakamura, and Fabiano Caruana. Wesley So, Alexander Grischuk, Ian Nepomniachtchi and Peter Svidler are also confirmed to play. This historic event will feature a qualifying phase open to all players beginning April 28. Players can enter at www.FRChess.com, and the qualifying rounds will be hosted by Chess.com.

"We are thrilled to be the organizing partner for the 2019 FIDE World Fischer Random Chess Championship," said Daniel Rensch, chief chess officer of Chess.com. "We're excited to be teaming up with Dund AS to provide an accessible path to stardom for players around the world!"

Non-Titled players may register for qualifiers here

Titled players may register for qualifiers here

About Dund AS:
Dund AS organized the 2018 unofficial Fischer Random (FR) world title match between classical chess champion Magnus Carlsen and recognized Fischer Random ace Hikaru Nakamura, who won the final Mainz tournament in the discipline in 2009. The enormous interest generated by the event, which stole nearly two million Norwegian television viewers away from the national obsession of the Winter Olympics, showed that the world was ready for more FR chess.

About Chess.com:
Chess.com is the world’s largest chess site, with a community of more than 27 million members from around the world playing millions of games every day. Launched in 2009, Chess.com is the leader in chess news, lessons, events and live entertainment. Visit Chess.com to play, learn and connect with chess—the world’s most popular game.

About FIDE:
The Fédération Internationale des Échecs (FIDE) is the governing body of international chess competition. Founded in 1924, it was one of the first institutions of its kind and it is now one of the largest, with a total of 190 affiliated national chess federations.

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Aryan Singh wins Speed Chess on Running Lucknow Metro

GIANT LEAP FOR CITY: SPEED CHESS ON LUCKNOW METRO: Lucknow took a giant leap in chess awareness Sunday morning (April 7, 2019) with several chess whizkids in the age-group of 8-15 playing a speed tournament on the Lucknow Metro from the IT station to airport – a revolutionary concept, which is the first in India and only organised in tube rails in Europe.

Fourteen-year-old Aryan Singh of Jaipuria School won the Chess Club Black & White (CCBW) Speed Chess trophy and Himmika Amarnani, city’s top-rated Under-14 player was awarded the Best Girl trophy. Lucknow’s youngest FIDE-rated girl player Sanvi Agarwal also participated in the tournament. The event was supported by the Lucknow Metro Rail Corporation with CS, PRO, Pushpa Belani accompanying the team through the entire stretch.

Morning Metro commuters were in for a surprise when they saw boys and girls playing speed chess with a three-minute time control in twin Metro coaches. An added draw was the youth members of the Ilyas Khan group playing guitar and playing Bollywood songs to cheer the players on.

The speed of the chess moves on the 64 squares matched the speed of the Metro skimming through the city skyspace. “If you love chess, you can play it anywhere, anytime. And like the Metro, chess resonates in the history, art and culture of Lucknow. We wanted to tell Lucknowites to come out and play,” said Dr Junaid Ahmad, CCBW director and former UP chess champion.

LMRC CS, PRO, Pushpa Bellani said, “I was impressed by the confidence and focus of the children despite the tournament happening in the Metro. LMRC is happy to have supported the tournament.”

Urdu poet and chess lover Anupam Srivastava, who was the chief guest, said he was impressed by the quality and sharpness of the chess moves by the kids in such an environment. Usually chess tournaments are organised in quiet halls. FIDE arbiter Hemant Sharma pulled off an acrobatic feat by balancing the laptop in one hand and conducting the parings in the moving Metro.

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