Delhi Chess: Gukesh becomes World’s 2nd Youngest GM

New Delhi: Chennai's Gukesh D. made his third and final Grandmaster norm in the penultimate round of 17th Delhi International chess tournament now underway here. 

Gukesh has secured 7 points in nine rounds  to become the second youngest grandmaster in chess history, behind Sergey Karjakin of Russia but ahead of Javokhir Sindarov of Uzbekistan. He won his game in the ninth round against Dinesh Sharma rated 2303.

Meanwhile Grandmaster Pantsulaia Levan of Georgia stayed ahead of the field after defeating overnight leader Mosadeghpour Masoud of Iran. Kerala’s Grandmaster S. L Narayanan outwitted Odisha’s Debashis Das to take his tally to 7.5 points. 

The Rs. 35 Lakh tournament will come to an end on Wednesday. The tenth round will witness clash of overnight leaders Pantsulaia Levan and S.L Narayanan. 

Local hopeful GM Abhijeet Gupta has a chance to finish in top five if he can win his last round game against Gukesh D. However, the young Chennai prodigy is in top form here. 

There were norms galore at the tournament.  International Masters Gukesh D and Visakh NR secured GM norms while Aditya Mittal, Saurabh Ananad, Bharat Kumar Reddy and Neelash Saha scored IM Norms respectively.

Pairings for final round: http://chess-results.com/tnr393175.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=10&fed=IND&turdet=YES&flag=30

Read more »

Delhi Chess 2019: Masoud pulls ahead

New Delhi: Twenty-two years old Iranian Grandmaster Mosadeghpour Masoud pulled ahead of the field with a finely crafted victory over Tran Tuan Minh of Vietnam in the eighth round of 17th Delhi International Grandmasters Tournament underway here on Monday. 

Playing with white pieces in Sicilian Najdorf Bg5 variation which lasted 33 moves, Masoud, rated 2517  got better of Grandmaster Tran Tuan Minh, rated 2541. Tran obtained a small advantage after making exchange sacrifice of his rook for knight on the 23rd move. Later he landed in a piece-down position, prompting him to resign.  

With his sixth victory in eight games, Masoud took his tally to a whopping 7 points out of a possible eight and emerged as sole leader with a half-point lead over nearest rivals. Just two rounds are remaining in this Rs. 35 Lakhs prize money tournament. 

Among other important games of the day, Indian Grandmasters Debashis Das and Diptayan Ghosh played out a quick draw to inch up to 6.5 points while Grandmasters Erigaisi Arjun and Stupak Kirill signed peace treaty after a tense struggle to also reach 6.5 points. 

Seven players are closely trailing behind the leader.  

Category ‘C’ tournament which boasts participation of more than 1500 players came to the half-way stage with 56 players scoring 4 points out of 4 rounds. Six more rounds are remaining in this 33 lakhs prize money event. Total prize of the 17th Delhi International Grandmasters Tournament is One Crore One Lakh Rupees. 

Pairings for round 09: http://chess-results.com/tnr393175.aspx?lan=1&art=2&rd=9&fed=IND&turdet=YES&flag=30

Read more »

Delhi International Chess Festival: Rs 1 cr Prize Fund

One Crore prize fund for the first time in the country

29 Grandmasters compete in premier group ‘A’

Local star Vaibhav Suri starts as the highest ranked Indian in the biggest ever Indian open that kickstarts in the National capital on Wednesday.

With 29 Grandmasters in the fray in a field of over 300 participants, the premier event promises all the excitement for the chess buffs. Making it an open event for everyone this year means that the tiny tots will also get a chance to match their wits against much accomplished names.

However, it is not the premier event alone that is generating most of the buzz. The excitement also lies in the B and C group that has a rating cap for below 1899 and 1499 players. With list is growing with over 900 participants in the B group while over 1200 players have already registered for the “C” group that starts after four days.

This means that the Delhi open is actually set to breach the 3000 entry mark and might be referred to as the biggest open festival of the world. There is no other tournament across the globe where so many competitors participate.

The total prize pool that exceeds a 100000 Rupees over the One Crore mark is the biggest attraction this year and clearly the think tank lead by Delhi Chess Association President Bharat Singh Chauhan who also doubles up as the Secretary of Indian Chess Federation have made it the biggest extravaganza of 2019.

Grandmaster Farrukh Amonatov of Turkmenistan, a former winner here, starts as the top seed and rating favourite in the premier section but surely he will face stiff competition from the likes of Levan Pantsulaia of Georgia, Alexandre Predke from Russia and another Indian star Abhijeet Gupta.

There will be host of opportunities for the players seeking their International norms and talented youngster like D Gukesh can hope to become the next Grandmaster from India.

Apart from the main chess tournaments the organisers have planned many extra activities not only for the participants but also for visiting parents and accompanying persons with several players.

There will be sessions on parenting done by some of the best in business and a training camp for wannabe chess coaches is also planned. The lectures on parenting and making your child ready for the future will be done by, among others, Paarth Ashok Narang, a life coach.

The training for coaches will be imparted by super coach R B Ramesh along with FI Praful Zaveri and Vishal Sareen.

The icing on the cake will be of course the simultaneous displays in which the young players will get a chance to compete with India’s youngest ever Grandmaster R Praggnandhaa and former Asian queen Tania Sachdev. In another simul, GM K Priyadharshan will also give an opportunity for the young kids to have a go at him!

“We believe in creating opportunities and that’s what we are trying to do here. I had dreamt of a One Crore Prize Fund Chess festival about 30 Years back and here we are living the dream of every chess player in the country. Hopefully we will see many such events in the future in the country”, said Bharat Singh Chauhan on the eve of the beginning of the mega event. 

Read more »

Young Chess Star Nihal Sarin may Write for Chessable!

India's young chess superstar Nihal Sarin is considering turning his hand to writing about the game.

The 14-year-old, who became India’s 53rd grandmaster after bagging his third GM norm at the Abu Dhabi Masters on Tuesday, is understood to be talking to Chessable about a possible openings book for youngsters.

Chessable is a learning site designed to help players learn chess openings, chess tactics and chess endgames and several GMs and IMs have written courses specially for its format.

Nihal's current ELO rating is 2556 and he is the twelfth youngest grandmaster in chess history.

He was immediately congratulated by India's top Grandmaster, former world champion Viswanathan Anand, who took to Twitter to congratulate him.

“Congrats and welcome to @NihalSarin ! The boys are on a roll!” he tweeted.

Nihal is part of a cohort of young stars alongside Chennai-born Ramesh Praggnanandhaa. In June, Praggnanandhaa became the world’s second-youngest grandmaster, and India’s 52nd, aged 12 years, 10 months and 13 days.

Read more »

Wazir Chess Movie Teaser Video with Amitabh Bachchan, Farhan Akhtar

"A dangerous game is about to begin."

Remember the last time megastar Amitabh Bachchan played a schemer in Aankhen? It's about to happen again in Bejoy Nambiar's upcoming film Wazir.

The first teaser of the film, which released on December 19, shows Big B and co-star Farhan Akhtar engrossed in a precarious game of chess. However, their game is not limited to the chess board, but spills to real life.

Mr Bachchan, who is wheelchair-bound, takes on the role of a scheming 'wazir,' making moves that have a domino effect on Farhan's life, who is seen grappling with reality.

The film is written by Vidhu Vinod Chopra, who also co-produces with Rajkumar Hirani. Wazir is scheduled to release in 2015.

Watch:

Read more »

Magnus Carlsen Retains World Chess Title with Game 11 Victory

SOCHI: Magnus Carlsen asserted his supremacy over Viswanathan Anand for the second year in running as the Norwegian retained his World Championship title after defeating the Indian Challenger in the 11th game on Sunday. 

The Norwegian world champion closed the 12-game match with a 6.5-4.5 scoreline, courtesy his win in the penultimate game. 

While this may have been closely fought in the eyes of the experts, the fact remains that Anand lasted only one extra game compared to the 2013 match at Chennai when it was all over in the tenth game of the match itself. 

For Anand, there were a lot of lessons to be learnt and it is clear that the five-time world champion will probably like to get another shy at the title during the next Candidates tournament. 

Anand knew that a draw would keep him in the match but expectedly the Indian ace was not hooked to the idea of staying on till the last game of the 12-game match, and tried to complicate when he got the first opportunity. 

When Anand went for the real complications the opinion of the experts was pretty divided out of another Berlin defense game. While the opening discussion continued, Anand was the first to deviate from earlier games in the same opening and in the opinion of Ian Nepomniachtchi, a former second of Carlsen, Anand went for unwarranted complexities. 

In the 11th game too, Anand made fewer mistakes than Calrsen and some even opined that the Indian had better chance. As it happened in the game, Anand came up with an exchange sacrifice when according to Grandmaster Peter Svidler, 'he felt he ought to be doing something'. 

As things became clear, the exchange sacrifice was probably not the best of solutions for Anand in a seemingly equal situation and this was what eventually plotted the downfall for the Indian, Anand however regretted his decision to sacrifice a rook for a minor piece. 

"It was a bad gamble, and I got punished," he said. Carlsen on his part remained the calculation machine he is known to be and his super judgment on the position was the critical factor to seize the initiative. 

Anand was pretty sure that the position was equal before that but while he was playing objectively till a certain point but took a nervous decision in the match. Anand could have drawn this and gone on in the 12th game of the match in a must-win situation. 

Anand conceded after the match that Carlsen's nerves held better in this match. But for the experts, it was clear that Anand had his chances which he did not capitalise. 

"Taking in to account that all things considered he did better. I did not something better and some things worse," Anand concluded at the post-game conference. 

Magnus Carlsen v/s V Anand 11th Game of World Chess Championship 2014: 

1. e4 e5 2. Nf3 Nc6 3. Bb5 Nf6 4. O-O Nxe4 5. d4 Nd6 6. Bxc6 dxc6 7. dxe5 Nf5 8. Qxd8+ Kxd8 9. h3 Bd7 10. Nc3 h6 11. b3 Kc8 12. Bb2 c5 13. Rad1 b6 14. Rfe1 Be6 15. Nd5 g5 16. c4 Kb7 17. Kh2 a5 18. a4 Ne7 19. g4 Ng6 20. Kg3 Be7 21. Nd2 Rhd8 22. Ne4 Bf8 23. Nef6 b5 24. Bc3 bxa4 25. bxa4 Kc6 26. Kf3 Rdb8 27. Ke4 Rb4 28. Bxb4 cxb4 29. Nh5 Kb7 30. f4 gxf4 31. Nhxf4 Nxf4 32. Nxf4 Bxc4 33. Rd7 Ra6 34. Nd5 Rc6 35. Rxf7 Bc5 36. Rxc7+ Rxc7 37. Nxc7 Kc6 38. Nb5 Bxb5 39. axb5+ Kxb5 40. e6 b3 41. Kd3 Be7 42. h4 a4 43. g5 hxg5 44. hxg5 a3 45. Kc3 1-0.

Read more »