ChessAce

Dream Team of VTU (Part I)

2015-01-06T16:16:00.001+05:30

In this article P Prachura who was the captain of the Viswesvaraya Technological University shares his story of a team that was not the strongest on paper but with great qualities of team spirit and camaraderie, they not only won the South Zone tournament, finished third in National University in 2013 but also won a silver at the World Universities 2014! Truly, an intriguing and enthralling journey!

And that is how we won the South Zone championships!

Oops I jumped to the end! Let's take it from the start!

Not many chess players get to be part of any chess team because chess is basically an individual game and there are hardly any tournaments which have involves a team event.

I was indeed fortunate to be part of a team, a team which performed beyond people’s expectations! The team I am talking about is Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU) Chess Team.

Great words from the founder of the Visvesvaraya University

I would love to share my experience of an amazing year I had being a part of this team. Our team consisted of players from all over Karnataka:

Prachura P.P (Captain) – Bangalore

Gahan M.G – Mangalore

Viani D Cunha – Mangalore

Yashas D – Shimoga

Shreeshan S – Shimoga

Amith A - Bangalore

Team VTU

Every year university tournaments are conducted to decide as to which team gets the tagline of being the best university team of India . The process of selections goes on as follows:

India is divided into five zones namely North, West, East, Central, and South zone.

Our University lies in the south zone. So first we had to participate in the zonal inter university tournaments, and get a top 4 finish to qualify for the Nationals. Our immediate goal was to qualify for the nationals, but who knew what the future had in store for us! None of us could ever imagine our journey travelling the distance it went!

SOUTH ZONE - CHENNAI

As it happens every year, South Zone dates were announced and to our dismay it was going to be conducted in SRM University, Chennai. Wondering why I used the word “dismay”? Well for the past 15 to 20 years SRM University have been the indisputable kings of University chess tournaments. Over the years many top players of India have been part of their team notably GM Deep Sengupta, GM Sethuraman, GM Vishnu Prasanna and GM Shyam Sundar. With the depth of their team and the kind of players they had in their armour, it would be easy for anyone to guess why their team was on the top each and every time for so many years! It was a huge challenge to compete against SRM in their own backyard.

The venue of the South Zone tournament

The day finally arrived when we had to leave to Chennai for the tournament, and we were all very excited as our friends from all over South India were converging at this prestigious event. The journey was comfortable and we had time to get to know our teammates better. Our train had barely reached the outskirts of Chennai, and people started sweating already! We knew we had reached Chennai!

On the first day of the tournament, most of the teams are very anxious to know the team composition of their competitors, and it was no surprise that players gathered around the notice board when the team list along with the composition was put up.

SRM University were seeded first (Team comprising of IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh, IM Prassanna Rao, Abhilash Reddy, Arvind S, and Vishaal Iyer ). Anna University were seeded second (Team comprising of Manigandhan , Uma Bharathi , Bavan Kumar, Pradeep and Uma Maheshwaran), and we (i.e., VTU Team) were seeded third. We then knew who our main rivals were!

The top two boards of SRM had Ramnath and Prasanna who are two of the most talented International Masters in India

When we evaluated both our rival teams we knew that we had a great chance of winning the title because SRM (usually a star studded team with GM’s) had fielded a not so great team with a 1900 rated player being the weak link in their side. We had to capitalize on that and for the next couple of days that was the only thing going on in our mind!

The tournament began as scheduled and the arrangements in the tournament hall were fantastic. The top seeds sailed past the lower seeds as the rounds progressed.

VTU playing against RGHUS

Finally in the 5^th round we were paired to play against SRM University and we knew that the result of this round would definitely play a big part in deciding who would become the eventual champions! As usual the crescendo of team discussions became evident from both the teams as the match time drew nearer. Time was up, and both the team captains submitted their respective board order. The pairing according to the submitted board order was:

Yashas D – IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh
Viani D Cunha – IM Prassanna Rao
Prachura P.P - Abhilash Reddy
Gahan M.G – Vishaal Iyer

First one hour had gone by, and none of the board result could have been predicted since all of them had equal positions. As the clocked ticked down, tension began to mount and I was the first person to crack! In an equal opposite colour bishop middle game, I unnecessarily gave away a pawn in hope to create an attack but it backfired miserably and my King was in trouble soon, resulting in a loss. Before I could come in terms of how I had frittered away an equal position, I realised Gahan also had finished his game which ended in a draw.

With my loss, the team was already trailing 1.5-0.5

Both our games were a telling blow for us because we hadn’t capitalized on scoring points with the weaker players of their team (which was our plan). The senior players in our team had already let the team down. Both of us were very disappointed.

Just when we had lost hopes, IM Ramnath Bhuvanesh, who is usually very cool and calm under time pressure situations, blundered and lost! Score was now 1.5 each and we began to believe again! The decisive game between IM Prassanna and Viani was very unclear, and with each move, we had conflicting opinions on who would come on top. In the end Viani played well and managed to get a material advantage but Prasanna used all his experience and knowledge to hold on for a draw. The end result was a 2-2 draw!

Yashas was surely the hero in our match with SRM

We had mixed emotions after this round. We could have won it if 3^rd and 4^th board had given us more points, but on the other hand we could have easily lost as well. We took the draw and now it was clear that the title would be decided by game points itself. But nobody could predict what followed next!!

The decisive round of the tournament was the 7^th round as it completely turned the tables and shocked many players. SRM were paired against RGUHS team from Karnataka (team comprising of Nihal Manjunath , Suraj M (both rated around 2050) , Srishti Shetty, and an unrated player), and we were paired against Anna university . Anna University had a very strong and similar team when compared to us as their players were almost of equal strength. The shock of the tournament hit us when IM Prassanna Rao uncharacteristically blundered and lost the game against Nihal within 2 hours. Soon after that game, Suraj came up with a fine victory over Abhilash Reddy, and Srishti managed to draw against Vishaal Iyer. SRM had wilted under pressure and their manager was furious! It was a perfect result for us as we managed to blank Anna university 4-0. Tremendous result for us and we rejoiced.

Once the star players of SRM took their foot off the pedal, we zoomed ahead

After this round it was evident that the task ahead was simple and we held our nerves to become the champions after the 9^th and final round. History had been made!!

SRM university had been dethroned, and for the first time in history, VTU had managed to win the South Zone Inter University championship. YES WE HAD WON!

Me (on the right) with Gahan and the beautiful trophy!

Next stop was the National Championship in Rahuri, Maharashtra.

More about that will follow in part II of the article.

About the Author:

Prachura P. Padakannaya has recently completed his Civil Engineering from Dayananda Sagar College of Engineering, Bangalore, affiliated to Visvesvaraya Technological University (VTU), Belgaum, Karnataka. He has been playing chess since he was four and half years, and is one of the leading players from the state of Karnataka. He has several state championships to his credit, and has represented India on a couple of occasions.

Aradhya and Varshini win National under-17

2014-12-14T23:15:00.000+05:30

One of India's top GMs Tejas Bakre kickstarted his chess career by becoming the National champion in 1997. 17 years later his tutee Aradhya Garg became the under-17 national champion. The girls section was won by V Varshini. The girl from Tamil Nadu is creating quite a stir in Indian chess after having played National Premier earlier this year. Priyadarshan Banjan reports for ChessAce.

The city of Patna was host to the 25^th edition of the National Under-17 Chess Championship from 2^nd to 10^th December, 2014. The tournament was organised by the All Bihar Chess Association (ABCA) on behalf of the All India Chess Federation at the Adhiweshan Bhavan at Patna. A report on the tournament with important games.

Chief guests

Inaugration

The time control of the event was 90 minutes plus 30 seconds from move one. This event takes a special significance as the top three finishers in this event qualify to the World Youth Championship, 2015. The tournament was an eleven round swiss with fifty players participating in the boys section and 51 in the girls section from across India.

Tournament in progress

In the Open section, Delhi lad Aaradhya Garg took first place on tiebreak ahead of Prananvananda V. of Andhra Pradesh, with both staying undefeated and scoring 9.5/11. Third place went to Tamil Nadu boy Yogit S., who scored 7.5/11, playing well below his rating.

Aaradhya Garg (Delhi)

Pranavananda V. (Andhra Pradesh)

Yogit S. (Tamil Nadu)

The Open section did not see much fight at the top as the fifth seeded Garg took the lead in the fifth round and held on until the end to clinch first place. At the same time, ninth seeded Prananvananda began to gain steam and stood clearly at second place as he kept his chase on. He finished with four straight wins to catch up with Aradhya Garg, but had to settle for the second position on tiebreak.

Yogit S. had a poor start in accordance with his standards, dropping too many draws to players rated lower to him. He however finished with three victories in the end to finish third.

Aaradhya Garg - according to his coach GM Tejas Bakre - is a precious young talent with an aggressive playing style who played very well to clinch the title.

An elated GM Bakre speaks about the coincidence!

He does not have a sponsor due to which it is impossible for him to play tournaments on foreign soil, which GM Bakre believes is an important stepping-stone to further his career.

According to him, his last round encounter against the top seeded Krishna Teja N. of Andhra Pradesh was the most crucial game that he managed to win.
Let us have a look at this game.

A round in progress

The girls section of the tournament was a clean sweep by the Tamil Nadu girls. 16-year-old V. Varshini won the title by scoring 8.5/11, a clear half point ahead of Mahalakshmi M. and Srija Seshadri who were second and third respectively with 8.0/11.

Varshini V (Tamil Nadu)

Mahalakshmi M. (Tamil Nadu)

Srija Seshadri (Tamil Nadu)

The tournament became interesting when the top seed Mahalakshmi M. took the sole lead after seventh round where she defeated GK Monnisha, the second seed. Monnisha playing white sacrificed a pawn with the hope of sidelining Black’s queen. However, the compensation proved insufficient.

Monnisha Gk (Tamil Nadu)

According to their coach GM RB Ramesh - coach of the bronze medal winning team India at the Tromso Olympiad – Mahalakshmi is a positional player where as Monnisha has a more active approach to the game. This was meant to be a heavy clash.

Meanwhile, Tejaswini Sagar of Maharashtra and Varshini followed Mahalakshmi closely, both at 5.5/7.

Tejaswini Sagar (Maharashtra)

Mahalakshmi cruised along until the ninth round where she increased her lead to a full point. With 8.0/10 at the end of the penultimate round, she still had a lead of half point over GK Monnisha and Varshini V. However, things went haywire for her in the final round.

At the top board, Mahalaksmi lost a better position to Srija Seshadri by blundering (34...Rf8?? See game below) in time trouble while Monnisha lost to Tarini Goyal at the second board. Seeded fifth at the beginning of the tournament, Varshini V. took full advantage of the opportunity to leapfrog them by winning her game. She ended up piping them by half a point to take clear first! We should also note that Srija Seshadri’s victory enabled her to jump over Monnisha to take the third spot and earn a qualification spot for the World Youth Championship. GM RB Ramesh added that even Srija has an active style of play and played riskily in her game with Mahalakshmi.
Although she had a bad position, she managed to activate her Queen sufficiently enough to reach the seventh rank and Mahalakshmi failed to notice the danger that stared at the f7 square -the cursed square as every beginner knows!

Varshini V. hung around the top tables throughout the event and was ready to grab her chance in the final round. Here is her final round victory.

&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;font size="5"&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;lt;/font&amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;amp;gt;

Not everyone looks happy here

Photos courtesy: All Bihar Chess Association

Download all games in PGN here:

Open
Girls

Priyadarshan Banjan is 21-year-old club level player and writes for ChessBase. He has completed Intermediate Chartered Accountancy but dropped out to pursue other interests.

He considers it his good fortune to have learnt chess and intends to dedicate his entire life to learning this beautiful game.

Revisiting Roots!

2014-11-16T19:59:00.004+05:30

At the halfway mark of the World Championship match between Anand and Carlsen, IM Prasanna Rao takes us on a journey to where it all started. In his series of "Revisiting Roots" he intends to cover all the World Champions of the past. So let us begin with the first official World Chess Champion: Wilhelm Steinitz.

After a long hiatus from blogging, I am back with Chessace for the version 2.0. With our core team retained, I hope with the help of you guys, we will go a long way this time around!

After contemplating long and hard on what to write, I decided its time for us to revisit the roots. With the World Championship perched intriguingly at the halfway mark, I decided to have a dive in the history of World Chess Champions!

I, with the help of my teammates, am going to do a series on ex-world Champions that have ever graced the game. How many of you can actually tell the names of all the 20 world champions on the first go? Even if you do, how about in the chronological order? Nothing better than starting with Wilhelm Steinitz who was the first official World Champion!

Wilhem Stenitiz (1836-1900)

Wilhelm Steinitz, born on May 17, 1836 was the 1^st undisputed World Champion from the period 1886 to 1894. He dominated chess for almost 4 decades starting from 1860 to the late 1890s but he was officially crowned only in 1886 . He was known as a tactical genius but in the later stages of his career he started playing positional games and was one of the pioneers of positional play. He lost his title to the succeeding world champion E. Lasker in 1896.

With improvement in technology and the engines we might often tend to neglect the old games, disregarding them as obsolete systems of play. But some of the most brilliant concepts and systems were conceived during that era and Steinitz was at the forefront of that.

Here's an illustration on how studying the old games will still be beneficial in the modern era.
There are two games annotated in depth. One is the game with Dubois which was a tactical masterpiece and the other is against Rosenthal which is well remembered for the positional concepts. Select the games from the drop down menu at the top of the board.

Is writing scoresheet a crime?

We all know that we have to write down the moves while playing a game of chess. Do you think someone can get arrested for writing down the scoresheet? The champion was once arrested as a spy! The police and other notable authorities, assumed that the moves he was making in his correspondence game of chess with Mikhail Ivanovich Tchigorin, were in reality part of a code to communicate war systems!

Steinitz vs God
Another interesting story about the world champion is: How many of you have actually read your obituary? Wilhelm had the unique opportunity to read his own obituary that was published prematurely in New York Times on Feb 23, 1897. (I can't imagine how it feels to read your own obituary!) The title read. "Chess and Brain Disease."

Near the end of the life, it is said that he claimed that he was playing a game of Chess with God, in which he had given him odds of a pawn. Talking about crazy chess players!

How many legends in one frame? Can you name all of them?

The one quote that sums him up perfectly is, "Chess is his very life and soul, the one thing for which he lives."

Stenitiz- Lasker

Stenitiz eventually lost his title to E. Lasker (who kept the World Champion tag for a whopping 27 years) which we will be seeing next in our series!

Cheers! Stay Tuned :)

About the Author

Name- Prasanna Raghuram Rao
Rating- 2447
Tittle- IM
DOB- 28.4.1994

A professional chess player , avid reader , loves music. Follower of Tennis, Football and ofcourse CHESS! Loves Aronian, Anand , Ivanchuk! Loves Economics and technology! Favorite book "Open" by Andre Agassi! Among sportsperson likes Sachin Tendulkar, Roger Federer!

My thought about Sinquefield Cup 2014

2014-11-07T12:20:00.000+05:30

The Sinquefield Cup 2014 was the strongest event the world has ever seen with an average Elo of 2802. Though it's been almost two months since the tournament is over, we think it is appropriate to share the article with you. The reason: the writer of this article K Priyadarshan was there at the venue of the tournament and has some interesting facts, pictures and in depth game analysis to share with you!

"Depressing" when you hear these words from the World Champion Magnus Carlsen, you may think that he is referring to his performance, but he was referring to Fabiano Caruana's play in the Sinquefield Cup 2014, from August 27th to September 7, 2014. This event was held at the Chess Club and Scholastic Center of Saint Louis, in St.Louis, Missouri, which is also known as the Chess Capital of America.

The event was the strongest tournament in the history by ratings and all the 6 players were in the top 10 world rankings. The participants were Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Fabiano Caruana, Hikaru Nakamura, Maxime Vachier-Lagrave and Veselin topalov.

To get this event started in the most trendiest way possible, Fabiano Caruana took the ALS Ice Bucket Challenge in front of the Guinness Record Holding World's Largest Chess Piece, and also with a large number of chess aficionados cheering him as he took on that dare devil act :)

There was an autograph session before the event, and which attracted around 200-250 people, and I was one of them, who managed to get the autographs of all these legends, and this is one of the most valuable memorabilia I have collected in my life so far.

You can look at the detailed tournament reports of this event in various popular chess websites, so I don't want to bore you with another tournament report. I just wanted to share with you, a few key games from this tournament, and my take on every player from the event.

This tournament will not just be known as the strongest tournament in the history, but also for the remarkable feat achieved Fabio "Fantabulous" Caruana, for his initial streak of 7/7, and then ending with 8.5/10, and a 35 point rating gain, cementing his place as the World No.2, and as a direct threat to Carlsen in the future.

World No.2 and the man of the tournament Fabiano Caruana

Carlsen came into this tournament, as the defending champion, and the winner of the first edition of this spectacular tournament last year. Things didn't go as planned for him, and many possible reasons can be attributed to this, and if I can guess the most important one was the controversies surrounding his World Championship Match with Vishy Anand in November 2014. It definitely looked like, that controversy took some of his time, focus, and energy off the chess board. 5.5/10 is a good score for any other player in the planet, except for Carlsen, as he lost 7.2 rating points.

Something is not right! World Champion Magnus Carlsen

Topalov was the oldest player in the field, and this was jokingly asked about how he feels about it in the press conference, for which his comments, were full of wit and intelligence. He started in the worst possible way with 0/2, and rebounded well, to score 5/10, and finish 3rd and pocket $50,000. He said, being older, makes you forget things easily, and that helped him to forget his terrible start, and made it possible for a quick comeback!

I am coming back! The comeback star Veselin Topalov

Aronian is clearly the most charismatic and friendly player in this field, as irrespective of his result, he shook hands with fans, signed autographs, and interacted with fans, showing his sportsmanship! He had a below par performance of scoring 4/10, and in the process, dropped out of the elite 2800 rating club. Aronian pulled of an miraculous draw against Carlsen in the 2nd half of the tournament.

There is always another opportunity to show my class! Levon Aronian

Maxime Vachier-Lagrave aka MVL, the soft spoken French star, was technically the least experienced in this field, as he hasn't played in as many super tournaments as the other participants. He started of well holding the World Champion to a draw, in a crazy Scotch, but he was unable to fight against the mighty Caruana and lost both his games against him. MVL was just stunned by the quality of Caruana's play in the tournament, and during the press conference, he said that, he hasn't seen anyone even Carlsen, make basically no mistakes, combined with an incredible opening preparation. I am pretty sure MVL, would have learnt a lot from this tournament, and would comeback even stronger in the future events.

When the going gets tough! Smile a lot :) Maxime Vachier-Lagrave aka MVL

Hikaru Nakamura, the St.Louis Superstar, and the only American player in the field, would pray to god, to give him short term memory less, so that he can forget his disastrous performance in front of the local supporters, as he managed to score only 3/10, and also lost 18 crucial elo points. Hikaru was trying too hard in few games to win, and it clearly backfired.

Home pressure was too much! Hikaru Nakamura

The organization of the event, was nothing but spectacular, with 3 sets of commentary teams, providing commentary in different places. The online commentary was handled by Yasser Seirawan, Jennifer Shahade, and Maurice Ashley. The commentary in Lesters Sports Bar(I think the only sports bar, in the world, to telecast chess :) )was handled by Ben Finegold and Alejandro Ramirez. Lester's also served as the press room, where various journalists were frantically creating tournament reports, for the various media sites, they represented. The commentary in the World Chess Hall of Fame, was handled by Varuzhan Akobian and Ian Rogers.

There were lot of side events during the tournament, and one of the most important one was the "Burning Candles" during the rest day, which was basically playing chess with burning candles of various sizes being used as pieces, and you have to be alert enough to know, which candle represents which piece. If a candle is completely burnt, you cannot move it anymore. If a candle gets stuck to the square, and if your unable to lift it, that means, that piece is doomed to be in that square, for the rest of the game. The GM were super enthusiastic about this innovative and novel idea.

If I have to mention about the other exciting side events, it would take me another article, so I would like to better not go into them! I would like to conclude my report saying that, I was blessed to watch the chess history in the making by the incredible performance of Caruana unfolding live in my front of eyes, as I live quite close to the St.Louis Chess Club, and I managed to visit the club few days, and saw these superstars live in action, and made me super excited chess! I was not depressed as Carlsen was on Caruana's performance :)

Some random dude named Priyadharshan with the tournament winner Caruana and his coach Chuchelov. Pic Credit:Sabrina Chevannes, to whom I paid 50$ royalty to get this snap :D :D

All the players pictures are credited to Lenart Ootes and CCSCSL

About the author

Name:Priyadharshan Kannappan

Rating: 2460

Title : IM, 2GM norm holder

DOB : 01-12-1993

From :Madurai,TamilNadu

Winner of 11 International Medals.Loves to watch movies and listen to music. The books I read are mainly on History,Detective Novels and Biographies. Follows all the developments in Indian Politics. Studying B.A Marketing in Lindenwood University in Missouri,USA and also the captain of the chess team. You can follow me on twitter and can contact through priyadharshan@ymail.com

A Preview of World Chess Championship Match 2014

2014-11-05T19:32:00.001+05:30

The battle between Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen for the WORLD CHESS CHAMPIONSHIP title will begin from 7th November 2014 in Russia.
Will Anand add a sixth World Championship title to his career or will Carlsen defend? Many questions, many predictions... It is not just the two players, but the entire world, that will join in the action and excitement.

Before the games begin, here's all you need to know about the upcoming World Championship Match.

SCHEDULE

MATCH DETAILS

Format: The match will be played in the maximum of twelve games, the player who scores 6.5 or more will win the title. If the score is equal after twelve games the players will play the tie-break games. For more information on tie-break games, click here.

Venue: The World Championship Match will be held in Sochi, Russia from 7 Nov to 28 Nov 2014.

Time Control: 120 minutes for the first 40 moves, 60 minutes for the next 20 moves and then 15 minutes for the rest of the game with an increment of 30 seconds per move starting after move 61.

Prize Fund: The prize fund of this match is 1 million Euros. The prize money will be divided 60 percent to the winner and 40 percent to the loser, if the match ends within 12 games. In case the winner is decided by tie-break games, the winner shall receive 55 percent and the loser 45 percent.

Official Website: www.sochi2014.fide.com

KNOW THE PLAYERS

Magnus Carlsen - Defending World Champion

Country: Norway
Age: 23
Current Elo Rating: 2863
World Ranking: 1

Carlsen is the current World Champion in all the three formats in Chess - Classical, Rapid & Blitz. Currently ranked number one in the world, his peak rating was 2882, the highest so far achieved by any player. His playing style is very natural and he is often known to achieve attacking prospects and even victories in equal positions. He has a great positional understanding and can exploit even the slightest of advantages. Also one of his major strength is his endgame, wherein with his amazing skills he has turned many games.
With all his youthful energy, confidence and of course the preparation, Magnus will give out the best he can in defending his title.

Viswanathan Anand - Challenger

Country: India

Age: 44

Current Elo Rating: 2792

World Ranking: 6

Anand has won the World Chess Championship 5 times. He qualified to be the Challenger by winning the 2014 Candidates tournament which was held in Khanty-Mansiysk, Russia. His peak rating was 2814 and he has occupied the number one position in the rating list several times between 2007-2011. Anand is the recipient of six Chess Oscars. He has won the World Championship title in all three formats.
Anand's playing style is versatile. One of his greatest strength is his speed, which helps him to calculate faster than most of the players. Also considered as one of the best players in terms of preparation, Anand can leave his opponents surprised over the board early in the game.
With his experience, his spectacular comeback and of course his preparation, Anand will look forward to winning his sixth World Championship title.

PREVIOUS ENCOUNTERS

So far, Anand and Carlsen have met 74 times on the board in various time controls. The first game being played in 2005 and the most recent game was played in June 2014.

First let us take a quick overview.

Total games played: 74
Anand Wins: 15
Draws: 45
Carlsen Wins: 14

The overall results show that Anand is slightly ahead in terms of numbers, but it is also true that ten of his victories were achieved in the period of 2005-2008, when Magnus had not yet reached his true strength. Also we can see from the chart that the percentage of draws is quite high.

World Championship Match 2013: The previous World Championship Match was held in Chennai, India from 9-22 Nov 2013.
Carlsen dominated the Match from the beginning and went on to claim the world title with the score 6.5-3.5 in his favor. The most notable fact is that Carlsen won 3 games, drew seven and lost none.

Post World Championship Match 2013: After the Match in Chennai, Anand and Carlsen have played five games. All the five games were played in this year, the results being 3 draws and one victory each.

A VIEW FROM ANAND'S PERSPECTIVE

Anand has a great experience in Match format unlike Carlsen.
It has been observed that he has been saving his preparation for this match by avoiding to play certain opening lines in other tournaments. This means he has great opening weapons at his disposal.

A lot was being said against Anand's play after the last World Championship Match, but he made an amazing comeback and silenced his critics. Winning the strong Candidates tournament with a round to spare was just remarkable. It is as if he has become stronger than before.
Anand will try to get something from the opening in every game. He will also like the idea of taking the match into tie-breaks, if possible.
And the fact that Carlsen is not playing his best chess this year, will definitely add into Anand's favor.

Anand has started working with his team many months before the actual match, and I am sure now that the time has actually come, he is looking forward to the games. Games that will change the course of history.

A VIEW FROM CARLSEN'S PERSPECTIVE

Carlsen will start the match with a small psychological advantage, the memories of the previous World Championship Match.
Carlsen's strategy worked very well last time, so he will try to repeat it. First, try to avoid getting in Anand's opening preparations. He will try to exploit even the smallest advantage and keep playing. Carlsen would also like to take the game into endgame, his favorite territory and get the point there. Also Magnus will not entertain the idea of short draws.

If the age factor exists in Chess, it is in Carlsen's favor. He is energetic and willing to play aggressive and take risks. Also his fitness level is very high which would give him more endurance, if the game goes on for long hours.

Carlsen is entering the match as a better player on paper. He is the favorite to win the title, and he would definitely want to prove with his game, why he is the number one player in the world.

HOW TO FOLLOW THIS MATCH

There are many ways to follow this match, but here I will give you my suggestions.

To follow the match live with video streaming, you can visit the official website here.
To follow the games live with engine analysis, I would suggest you to visit Chessdom or ChessBomb
To keep yourself updated with news and articles regarding this match, you can visit Chessbase and ChessVibes.
To follow the action easily on your Mobile phone, download the Android App - World Chess Championship 2014. Get the link here.

About the Author

Name: Rucha Pujari

Born in 1994, Rucha is one of the best writers in India. She has been writing regularly for a very famous newspaper in India: The Maharashtra Times and has written over 35 articles in it. Apart from that she is a very proficient chess player with an Elo of 2154 and a WFM title. She also maintains her personal blog.

'Victory has defeated you' - My prediction

2014-11-04T22:00:00.000+05:30

Making bold predictions is something not many titled players are willing to do in chess. The game is so erratic that predictors often have to eat their own words. Yet, readers always look for a definite broadcast rather than diplomatic forecasts. In his open and direct article, IM Narayanan Srinath gives his candid opinion on who he considers to be the favourite in the Carlsen- Anand 2014 match. Have a look at what he thinks.

"Interviewer: What's your prediction for the fight?
Clubber Lang: My prediction?
Interviewer: Yes, your prediction.
[Clubber looks into camera]
Clubber Lang: Pain!" - Clubber Lang on the 2nd match after this:

I am sure it's not hard to imagine Magnus in place of Clubber Lang saying something similar.

I remember reading this article last year and thinking "It'll be nothing like Rocky vs Drago, it'll be more like Bruce Wayne vs Bane"

Indeed, probably nothing epitomises the 2013 duel between Vishy and Magnus better than the fight. Vishy had been invincible in matches until that point, and yet almost everyone predicted that the Tiger of Madras had become older, weaker, while Magnus seemed much more fearsome. One can recount Vishy's words "Carlsen will be ridiculously difficult to play against" The match went on in similar vein as the video, with Vishy getting in a few blows, which barely made an impact on Magnus, and getting so thoroughly defeated in the protagonist's hometown.

At 43, it indeed looked like the ex-world champion's vertebrae had been broken, at least metaphorically. I wasn't an exception - Anand wasn't among my top 3 contenders for the Candidates 2014.

Life isn't Hollywood, and fairy tales aren't usually scripted in real life however, Anand's victory in the Candidates, itself exemplified tremendous resolve and inner strength. If Anand was like Gandalf the Grey before 2014 Candidates, he's probably like Gandalf the White now.

It's not just his victory in the Candidates. The most impressive things in Anand's recent form has been:-

1.Anand's convincing play against Aronian(someone he has always had trouble with)
2.Anand's victory over Magnus in the World Rapid
3.Anand staying undefeated in World Rapid, a grueling event that demands a lot of stamina

While Anand seemed almost reclusive and tense prior to the 2013 match, he appears to be relaxed, and seems to exude a lot of confidence from his tweets.

Want to play want to enjoy ... let the games begin
— Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) November 2, 2014

You only see pieces and variations . Its always this way. You look at your team they look to you. There are jokes music and some dancing
— Viswanathan Anand (@vishy64theking) November 2, 2014

Photo Credits:Maria Emelianova

This is how Vishy looks to me before the match. Cool, calm and composed!

So my prediction...... is something like this:

I think Vishy will win something like 6.5-5.5 or in the rapid tiebreaks. While I can't be completely certain about the margin, I am pretty optimistic about the winner - not because of emotional reasons, but for quite rational reasons. I don't think Magnus's recent slump in form and Vishy's enhanced form is merely a coincidence - I think it's a strong indication of recent trends, and if you want to bet your money, as they say in stock markets, trend is always your friend.

About the Author

Narayanan Srinath is an International Master with two GM norms from India and has a rating of 2461. He has been playing chess since the age of five and has numerous achievements to his credit, the most prominent being the world under-12 champion in 2005. He is a critical thinker and thinks deeply not only about the game of chess but life itself.

World Juniors- Memory of a lifetime!

2014-10-04T21:38:00.000+05:30

World Junior! The very words evoke a sense of enthusiasm and youthfulness in the minds of everyone. After all it is a tournament organized for players who are below the age 20. The World Junior 2014 is all set to be held from 5th October-20th October 2014 in Pune, India. Rakesh Kulkarni takes you on a beautiful journey of the 2013 World Junior, a tournament that he played. It will surely leave you with a smile on your face!

The World Junior Chess Championship!
By Rakesh Kulkarni
William Ritson-Morry came up with this idea in 1951 when the first World Junior took place in Birmingham, Endgland.In 1983, a separate tournament for girls was established.

This is “THE” tournament that a chess player has to play at least once in his/her lifetime! It is like a chess player's dream! A very prestigious tournament! It is the last “WORLD” title, before the Absolute “World Champion’s" title and no wonder, many winners of World Juniors have gone on to win the ultimate prize - The World Championship title!

Boris Spassky (USSR), Anatoly Karpov (

USSR

), Garry Kasparov (

USSR

) and Viswanathan Anand (

INDIA

) are the four players who have won both the World Junior and the World title!

Other Notable Winners of this Championship (Open) include :

Shakhriyar Mamedyarov is the only player who has won the World Junior title twice.

P.Harikrishna and Abhijeet Gupta are the two Indians who have won this title.

Notable Winners in the Girls Section:

Zhu Chen is the only player who has won the girl's section twice.

Koneru Humpy, Dronavali Harika and Soumya Swaminathan are the Indian achievers.

It is the perfect tournament! The top ranked Juniors are out there to win it. Two World Cup Spots (reserved for the Winners) that catapults both of them into the World Championship Cycle.

Just Imagine! All the players are young, dynamic and blood-thirsty! There are no dull or agreed draws! Youthful and vibrant! Fighting for every point and calculating each position till the end! Tirelessly! And only six medals are distributed after 13 long and hard fought games!
Yeah! It is unique! It is special! It is a historic and prestigious Event!

It is the “World Junior”!!

I could go on and on about the importance of this event.
But to give you a better idea here are my experiences of the World Junior Chess Championship 2013 held at Kocaeli, Turkey!

About 196 players flocked to Kocaeli,

Turkey

in September last year to take part in the World Junior Chess Championship 2013.

The Official Hotel of the Event was the Luxurious "Ness Hotel" which boasted of having three outdoor pools! An indoor thermal pool, Turkish Bath, Hamam and gymnasium!
Perfect amenities for a vacation! And maybe also for a tough and long tournament!

Home to the players for the next 15 days – THE NESS HOTEL

This was what all the players were playing for!

In the Open section, defending Champion and local favorite GM Alexander Ipatov of

Turkey

was seeded second! Only behind the mighty Chinese GM Yu Yangyi!

Yu Yangyi (CHINA) was the Top seed and justified his Top Billing.

After the games were over, everyday, most of the players indulged in recreational activities like Table – Tennis, Snooker and Swimming provided to the players by the hotel to relax after their long and hard fought battles!

The usual hangout place for all the players! It had a Snooker Table, a Ping-Pong Table, Analysis Boards (as seen in the background) and a Fussball Table!

Infact, this was the Ice-Breaker room! All the players with their opponents walked into this room after their Games and ended up having more fun after analyzing their games!

Players from all the over the world became friends all because of this place! Analysis of games, long chats over drinks, exchanging tips/advices on the Ping-Pong table! Discussions of any latest chess stuff! Players adding each other on social media! And exchanging phone numbers! You name it!
This was the place to be! To make new friends! To have fun with your country-mates! To learn and speak new languages! And of course how to swear in those languages! :)

This room helped each player to get over their lost game or to celebrate his/her victory with new found friends!

Click on the Link to see how GM Ipatov thinks at Pinball!

For every World Juniors between the 13 rounds, there is a rest day after the seventh round. This is given to help players rest, recover, recuperate and prepare for the forthcoming all important games.

Some players do rest! Some watch a movie! listen to music or catch up on some sleep!

While some others…

Well! This is the Latino style to rest and recover on the night before rest day. (Thank you all for teaching me Spanish)

The night before the rest day, all the interested players were invited to a party organized by the players themselves!
There was dancing! drinking (Optional!) and music by the swimming pools!

Soon, Everyone came! The Europeans also made their presence felt at the Party!

A great night! A real stress buster for me! As before the rest day, I had only scored 1.5/6! And finished strongly with 5/7.
Ending up with a respectable 6.5/13 at 50% with a mid-table Finish!

On the Rest day, there was the customary football match planned!

Turkey

(Hosts) [Players with Florescent Bibs] vs Rest of the World!

And yours truly played a significant role for Rest of the World Team to help them defeated the Hosts 10-11!!

Before the start of the 8^th Round! I decided to put my newly acquired Spanish speaking skills!

So, how is my Spanish??

Not bad eh! With the WIM’s and WGM’s from South America!

(L-R) Belen Matute (Ecuador), WIM Ayelen Martinez (Argentina), Yours Truly, My Favorite! – WGM Paula Andrea Rodriguez (Columbia) and WGM Deysi Cori (Elder sister of GM Jorge Cori) (Peru)

The tournament was heading for a exciting finish!
GM’s Yu Yangyi and Alexander Ipatov had shot ahead and were clear of the field! They were only going to finish top 2!
But, the 3^rd Place! (Bronze Medal) was all up for grabs!

Indian GM Vidit Santoshi Gujrathi rose up to the occasion and came up with the goods!

Vidit! Looking to the side, for a sideline maybe?

He thrashed GM Jorge Cori of

Peru

in a Sideline 4)h4!? of the Grunfeld! After this round, he had to draw Yu Yangyi in the last round! Almost assuring each other their rightful medals!

Things in the Girls Section heated up too. With the lead switching several times amongst the top players, but finally “15” year old Alexandra Goryachkina of Russia emerged victorious! Narrowly edging out “13”-year-old Zhansaya Abdumalik of Kazakhstan!

The most experienced, top seed and “oldie” of 20 years WGM Alina Kashlinskaya of Russia came through with the bronze!

Good friend and GM Alexander Ipatov (Turkey) could have easily said “Shukriya”(thank you in Hindi) to WCH Garry Kasparov! He learnt Hindi as fast as scored an incredible 10.5/13 to win silver!

(L-R) GM Alex Ipatov (TUR) Silver , GM Yu Yangyi (CHN) GOLD – GM Vidit Gujrathi – Bronze

(L-R) 13 Year Old!! WGM Zhansaya Abdumalik (KAZ) Silver, 15 Year Old WGM Alexandra Goryachkina (RUS) GOLD and WGM Alina Kashlinskaya (RUS) Bronze

So, as this World Junior had come to a close! I could just wonder!

What a great and unique experience! A must have for each and every Chess player! Atleast once in his/her lifetime.

So glad to have made new friends! Right from Columbia to Kazakhstan! And from Sweden to South Africa! Easily, the most Memorable Fortnight of my life until now!

And Yes! We of course celebrated our country mate GM Vidit’s Bronze that night! A fitting end to a glorious and memorable 15 days.

An event won by one! But cherished by many! A big thanks to all the players playing there for making this a great and a world event indeed!

On 5th October night, a preview of 2014 World Junior Chess Championships which are going to be held in Pune will be uploaded on this website. So stay tuned!

About the Author :

Rakesh Kulkarni is 21-year-old with a FIDE rating of 2284. He is made all his IM norms. He is not only a Commonwealth Under-20 Bronze Medalist but also Commonwealth blitz Gold Medal winner. His biggest strength however lies in Rapid chess. He has won so many rapids in the city that he is now known as the rapid king of Mumbai!

Little moves of kindness!

2014-10-02T21:23:00.000+05:30

How many of us have thought of doing something good for the world and making a difference in someone's life but never found the time for it? Here is a story of a 20-year-old passionate chess player Sahil Batra that will touch your hearts and inspire you! Sahil is not only contributing to the society in his own little way but in the process he is making use of his favourite game, chess, to make a difference! Read this beautiful story of unhindered kindness.

A heart touching story by Sahil Batra

I'm an ordinary but passionate chess player from Ludhiana, Punjab. My father taught me the moves of the game when I was eight-years-old but I actually developed a keen interest only a few years later .

In the year 2011, when I was in 12th standard, one of my best friends, Chetan, told me that he had planned a visit to a special place and wanted me to come along with him. He took me to this orphanage home named Red Cross Bal Bhawan.

This was the first time that I had visited an orphanage. There were more than 70 children between the age group of two to twelve years old. We distributed refreshments and spent some time with them.

The Red Cross Bal Bhawan Orphanage school in Ludhiana

The environment inside the place was totally different from the outside world. Knowing that these kids have nobody in this world except their fellow orphanage friends and care taker really made me feel sad. Yet the surprising part was that they seemed to be happy with no worries and enjoying life to their heart’s content!

I felt so small that day. I realized my problems were nothing as compared to those orphaned children. It had become a habit for me to curse my situation even on facing little problems. I asked myself: Despite having everything in my life why do I feel unhappy and sad while on the other hand these kids had absolutely nothing yet they were happy, excited and full of joy?
From that day onwards, my perspective towards life changed.

Smile at your problems! say the kids holding the smiley balls in their hands.

After this, I started visiting the orphanage more often. Sometimes I would distribute clothes and sometimes refreshments. But just a month ago in August 2014, I observed that everyone who visited the orphanage would give some materialistic stuff to the kids which they had in surplus. As we saw this, it dawned on me and Chetan (my best friend) that eatables and other things give momentary happiness which fades away pretty soon. We had to give them something intangible that they could carry with them for the rest of their lives and which no one could steal from them. That’s when I decided that I had to share my knowledge with these kids.
As a chess player I thought why not to teach them the basics of chess.

I asked the kids, “Who wants to play chess?" Approximately 40 out of the 70 raised their hand. I was quite surprised by the majority. A handful of them even knew how to play. It would be great fun to teach these bunch of enthusiastic kids, I said to myself. We got four mat chess boards and one wooden. Those who knew how to play opened it and started arranging the pieces.

The chess wave had started at the Red Cross Bal Bhavan!

I knew that I had to start from the scratch. So firstly I taught them to have the white square on the bottom right of their chess board. Next was how to arrange the pieces (black queen on black square and so on!) And then I moved on to the value of the pieces and how they move. By that time many of the little kids had had enough! Learning so many rules for a game was definitely not their cup of tea! But the wonderful part was that I still was surrounded by a dozen odd kids!

The wheat had been separated from the chaff!

Abhishek, a twelve-year-old kid, showed tremendous interest! Almost every minute he had a doubt! His questions were genuine and filled with a thirst to learn the little nuances of the game. With every question that was being asked, I felt more and more confident about my decision of teaching these kids the game of chess!

As days passed by I started teaching them how to open the game with a central pawn, the necessity of development and the importance of king safety. With a basic proficiency level achieved in their game, I started pitting them against each other.

Little kids thoroughly engrossed in the world of 64 squares

All the kids tried to play their best. But there was one who was a cut above the rest. Abhishek (the boy who had asked me innumerable questions) played like a professional. Opening development, king safety, he was applying everything that I had taught them in the past few days. I was mesmerized by his grasping power.

Abhishek holding the knight in his hand! He knows the value of development!

He truly loves this game and takes his time to make a move. He makes sure that he isn’t blundering and places his pieces on good squares. I see a fantastic player in him and I am sure that he will soon surpass me.

The coach with his brightest pupil

The children now practice with a clock and I have started teaching them openings like Ruy Lopez, Sicilian, Caro Kann, Slav etc.

Teaching the tricks of the trade

Practicing with a digital clock

Sahil’s friend, Chetan, also teaches the kids

Being a chess player, if I had proper guidance and training when I was young, I would have made chess my career. These children are young and quick learners. My ambition is to provide them with a good level of training so that they can become winners at state and national level tournaments and can think about pursuing chess as their career.

Times of India recognizes Sahil's efforts

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Sahil Batra is a 20-year-old chess player from India with a rating of1732. He is currently doing his final year in Bacher in Commerce (B.com). He describes himself as a passionate chess player. He loves to dance and he intends to do a MBA in future. He believes in the karma theory and feels that the ultimate purpose of life is "to give".

'F' for Forward

2014-09-30T08:22:00.000+05:30

Writes IM Anwesh Upadhyay: This is my first article for ChessAce and naturally I wanted to give my best. Starting my preparations, I was looking for sharp games in my collection to present it in front of the readers. Without any second thought I looked up for the name 'Shirov'. I found out his game against Kamsky in 1993, and while going through the initial phase I had assumptions this will be a hell of a tactical battle. What unfolded was quite a different story and will surely be a huge surprise for all of you!

ALEXIE SHIROV 2670 vs GATA KAMSKY 2655, Linares 1993

THE GLADIATORS

A Soviet born Lativian grandmaster at present. His name often sparkles memories of strong tactics and surprising finishes in numerous occasions. Known for his aggressive approach and tendency of liking complicated positions he is often compared to the former world champion, Mikhail Tal.

Soviet born American grandmaster and a former rapid world Champion. Having completed secondary education from Brooklyn College, he attended medical school for a year and later graduated in Law from Touro Law Centre in New York. (No doubt, a personal favourite of yours truly as he also shared a brief period in his life as a premed!)

The Protagonists have been introduced and the pieces have been setup! So what are we waiting for?! Let's get the ball rolling!

Adrenaline, the hormone related to fight, fright and flight. However, for an attacking chess player, 'f' always means forward! This game is played between two great masters of this gentle game.

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The extremely reliable Grunfeld Defence has been a tough nut to crack for any white player

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Rc1!? has a weird idea behind it that was invented by GM Polugaevsky

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Kf1!? loses the right to castle but maintains strong chances of launching an attack with h4!?

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The knight retreat is some sort of an undeveloping move. How should White continue now?

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After two wins and two losses with the move 15.f3, Shirov thought it was time to move forward with 15.f4!

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Kamsky is no mug when it comes to defending. But as you know Shirov will go forward!

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White has expanded the maximum he could on the kingside. What do you think was his next move?

Sorry guys if Shirov disappointed you here but such flexibility of a player during the adrenaline rush is rare and worthy of appreciation.

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How should White continue?

White's attack is strong even without the presence of the queens

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Pushing the pawn to h6, in boxing terms would be like a punch that really hurts!

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White is really coming in for the kill. How should Black defend?

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No draw! It's time to move in for the kill

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Should White exchange the rooks?

Of course not! The rook on d7 is way stronger than its counterpart

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White has a winning advantage thanks to his protected passed pawn on h6. Shirov finishes the game off efficiently

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Alexie Shirov: "This was one of the best endings of my career so far!"

I hope that all of you enjoyed this game and learnt a lot from it. Do visit and like the facebook page of ChessAce, so that you can get regular updates of all our articles.

About the Author

Anwesh Upadhyaya is a 22-year-old International Master from India with an Elo of 2366. He was known for his subtle positional style of playing chess until he decided to take a break from chess to pursue a career in medicine. Currently, he is studying at the Bogomolet's National Medical University in Kiev, Ukraine. Maybe, he will be one of the highest qualified International Masters of India.

Super Six for India at WYCC 2014!

2014-09-30T05:31:00.003+05:30

Chess in India is booming and you know it is when the nation returns with two golds, two silvers and two bronze medals at the World Youth Championships held at Durban South Africa from the 19th to 30th of September 2014.
While the bronze medal at the Olympiad in Tromso had shown how strong India has become as a chess nation, this amazing tally of six medals at the World Youth Championships is a clear indication that the future of Indian chess is in safe hands of promising youngsters.

THE GOLDEN DUO!

Have a look at the above picture. This is taken during the under-9 Nationals that were held in Chennai in November 2013. The winner in the boys section was Nihal Sarin and in the girls it was Divya Deshmukh.

And guess what!! Both the under-9, National winners turned out to be the World under-10 champions!!

It was a complete sweep by the Indians in the under-10 category with Nihal and Divya both securing the Gold.

Image source

Nihal, born in the year 2004 already has quite a few accolades to his name. In December 2013, he had won the gold medal in the world under-10 blitz title. In fact the story of this victory was reported in the popular Indian newspaper Hindu. Judging from that article it seems that Nihal comes from very humble background. His father, even though short of financial resources, seems to have put in quite some money so that his son's chess career would come to fruition. And it really has!

Nihal played some fantastic chess and won the tournament inspite of losing the last round. He scored 9/11 and in the process gained 58 Elo points.

According to coach E P Nirmal, Nihal is extremely talented and he says, "I have seen a few prodigies and he is easily the most gifted player I have come across ever!"

Nihal with AICF CEO Bharat Singh Chauhan

Nihal is a gem and the Indian chess community should take care that this young kid receives proper training and sponsorship so that all his potential can be realised.

Sauravh Kherdekar (2195) is a popular player from Nagpur. Today on facebook, he had the following post:

This was before the last round when Divya was on 9.5/10 with a nearly perfect score.

In the last round, Divya split the point and was first with an amazing score of 10/11.

Daughter of two gynaecologists, this little wonder from Nagpur already has a bunch of records and achievements to her credit. Divya became the youngest WFM in the history of chess when she achieved the title at the age of seven years. She won the National under-7 title and followed it up with winning the Asian title in both 2012 and 2013. She became the under-9 National champion and finally she has capped it all with a gold medal at the world under-10 championships.

If you do understand Marathi, then you must definitely have a look at this wonderful youtube video on Divya over here.

Seeing the board from your opponent's point of view! Is this the secret to winning the gold?

Divya is progressing rapidly. In this tournament she added a whooping 142 Elo points to her modest rating of 1607. The day is not far when we shall be seeing her compete with the best in women chess!

The Silver Lining!

IM Aravindh Chithambaram, Silver medal Boys under-16.

What to say about this 15-year-old kid from Tamil Nadu. You know he is a class apart when he beats Alexie Shirov with 1.b3! Aravindh Chithambaram won the silver medal in the boys under-16 category. He might be a tad disappointed though. After all he was the top seed in his category. But the field was quite strong and a silver medal is a fantastic achievement. Aravindh already has three GM norms under his belt and a rating of 2496. However, he lost 20 Elo points in a rating tournament in Andhra Pradesh just a few days ago. He gained nine points over here which takes him to a live Elo of 2485. His GM title should be a matter of time.

GM Vaibhav Suri, Silver under-18 boys.

Vaibhav won the silver in the under-18 boys section with a score of 9/11 . Before I say anything about him, let me show you a small table...

This is a list of the youngest GMs in the history of chess as on 2012. You can see Vaibhav's name on number 27. GM before Harikrishna, Judit Polgar and even the great Bobby Fischer?!! Need I say anything more!

After becoming a GM at the age of 15, Vaibhav has been in the 2500 Elo zone for quite some time now. But I feel he hasn't stagnated. Infact his giant leap is just around the corner and soon we will be seeing him in the 2600 Elo bracket.

THE BRONZE BABIES

Medonca Leon Luke, Bronze, boys under-8

Born in 2006, I dont even know what to write about this little kid! Hasn't he just entered planet Earth?!!

I tried to search for some information on him on google, or some chess website or somewhere. But I just couldn't find anything. And that's when I realized that this boy lets his moves do the talking. I downloaded the games from the official website and found a game played by him on the top board in round nine. From the Black side of Dragon, Mendonca played a brilliant game which completely belied his age! I just couldn't believe that a 8 year old kid could play so well. He was surely better in the game and had he won it, it would have confirmed his gold medal. But it was not to be and finally he had to settle for a Bronze with a score of 8/11. Here's the game:

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R Vaishali, Bronze, Girls under 14.

R Vaishali is proving that she is one of the best players in the world in her age category. In 2012 she won a gold medal in the under 12 girls and now she has followed it up with Bronze in the under 14 section. She has also started beating established players, most notable being IM B S Shivananada. With a rating of 2124, it won't be long before this young girl starts giving a scare to the strongest of GMs.

OTHER SIGNIFICANT PERFORMANCES

We won six medals at the World Youth championships. However there were surely a bunch of other players who played extremely well and made the country proud. Here are a few of them.

Monnisha G K: fifth in the under 16 girls section scoring 8/11 and gaining 58 Elo.

M Mahalakshmi: fourth in Girls under 16 scoring 8/11 and gaining 85 Elo points.

Nandhidaa P V: fifth in girls under 18 with 7.5/11

I have to check accurately but maybe Parnali Dharia is the biggest Elo gainer of the entire event, gaining an astronomical 159 Elo points with a score of 7.5/11 and finishing seventh.

Priyanka Nutakki: fifth in under 12 girls with a 108 Elo increase.

Murali Karthikeyan was in the race for the medals right upto the end but had to be satisfied with fifth place in boys under 16

Unlucky not to win a medal but surely one of India's biggest talents: R Pragnanandhaa who finished fourth in under 10 category and gained 109 Elo points.

Abhimanyu did well to end on eighth place in under 14 boys

N R Vignesh: Ninth in boys under 18.

A few other performances worth mentioning:

Gukesh Dommaraju: fifth in under 8 boys

Aditya Mittal: sixth in under 8 boys

Dhanush Bharadwaj: fifth in under 10 boys

Kushagra Mohan: seventh in under 10 boys

Vantika Agarwal: ninth in under 12 girls

At an age when children are busy running around and enjoying their childhood, these kids practice, train hard and sweat it out for hours at home on the chess board. They make India shine on the global scene and make the entire Indian chess fraternity proud. Let us all give a bow to these young talents.

GM Sahaj Grover added to India's glory by finishing second at the strong Open tournament held simultaneously with the event...

And GM Abhijeet Gupta was third.

My heartfelt gratitude to the organizers and photographers of the WYCC 2014. It was only because of their excellent pictures that I could write this article.
Pictures from facebook page of Chess South Africa.
Official website: WYCC 2014

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About the Author

Name: IM Sagar Shah.

Elo: 2468 with 1 GM norm

I fell in love with the game of chess when I was 10 years old. From being a past time, it has become my full time profession. I love to write about chess and ChessAce is a website which helps me do that! My biggest success in chess has been winning the strong Dresden Open 2014 ahead of many strong grandmasters. I am happily married to the love of my life: Amruta Mokal.

Tactics Time! - Answers

2014-09-28T19:21:00.003+05:30

Judit Polgar is a Hungarian grandmaster and by far the strongest female player in chess history. She is the only woman to surpass the 2700 Elo rating barrier. She is known for her fighting spirit, ambitious nature and determination. Last week we presented some interesting combinations from Judit's games for our readers to solve. Today we provide the answers.

It's not by easy means that you can walk on the path of chess improvement. You have to work hard for it.

If you have not solved these chess combinations yet, we recommend our readers to go through the previous article before looking upon the answers.

Yes, I want to solve - go to the previous article.
I have already solved - verify your solution with the answers given below!

1. Valery Salov - Polgar Judit
Madrid 1997

Black to play

Bishop and two pawns might be good enough for a Rook, but at this particular moment Judit found an amazing continuation which helped her to get more than just a draw.
Black played 1... Rc6! with the idea of 2... Rb5+ 3.Ka4 Rcc5 4.bxc5 Rb1! and after 5. Ka5 Ra1+ 6.Kb6 Rxa8 7.c6 Kd4, the resulting endgame is winning for Black.

White is is zugzwang. Any pawn move on kingside will be answered by 2... Rb5+ as stated above.
Also Rook is immobile as any move on the eighth rank will be answered by 2...Rb5+ 3.Ka4 Ra6#
2. Ra7 loses to Rxc5+ So the only option for White is to play the Bishop.

2. Bf8 any other Bishop move loses the b4 pawn.
2.. Rb5+ 3. Ka4 Rb8!! 0-1 'Attacking' both Rook & Bishop as taking the Rook with 4. Rxb8 is answered by Ra6 mate.

2. Anand V - Polgar Judit
Cap d'Agde rapid, 2003.

Black to play

Black is much ahead in the attacking prospects than the White's activity on the king side. Judit took full advantage of this fact and played 1... Bxd4! 2. Bxd4 Bxa2+! The Bishops show their true potential and sacrifice themselves at the right moment.

3. Kc1 3. Kxa2 is answered by Qa5+ 4. Kb1 (4.Kb3? Nb6 5. Bxb6 Rc3!!+) b3! With the double idea of Qa2+ and Qxd2.

3... Bb3 -+

3. Polgar Judit - Anatoly Karpov
Hoogeveen Essent Crown 2003

White to play

White has a huge attack on the king side, thanks to the Bishop pair. Judit played 1. Bxh7+! Kxh7 2. Qh5+ Kg8 3. Bxg7!! The typical double Bishop sacrifice, the idea which was made highly popular by the former World champion Emanuel Lasker. 3... Kxg7 whenever this double Bishop sacrifice is played, it is necessary to keep in mind the defensive idea of the f-pawn move. But it does not help this time as 3...f5 4. Qg6 +- and 3... f6 is answered by simply 4.Bxf6! 4. Rg3+ Kf6 5. Qg5# In the game Black resigned after Qh5+

4. Tisdall Jonathan - Polgar Judit

Reykjavik op 1988

Black to play

The material is even, but Black can take advantage of the fact that White's king is unsafe.

Judit starts with 1... Nxf3 2.Qxf3 R1h3! Attacking the Queen 3. Qe2 Quite forced or else the Rook on e4 won't be guarded.

3... Qa4+!! White resigned. After 4.Rxa4 Rxa4+ 5. Kb1 Rh1+ followed by mate. A beautiful example that illustrates the exploitation of back rank weakness.

5. Guerrero A - Polgar Judit
41st Olympiad Open, 2014.

Black to play

A very recent game from the Olympiad which was held in Tromso. On the previous move White just played g3 with the view that he had defended the position.

Black proved him wrong with 1.. Rxh2+!! 2. Kxh2 Qd2+ and White resigned in the view of Qh6+ next move.

About the Author

Born in 1994, Rucha Pujari is one of the best writers in India. She has been writing regularly for a very famous newspaper in India: The Maharashtra Times and has written over 35 articles in it. Apart from that she is a very proficient chess player with an Elo of 2154 and a WFM title. She also maintains her personal blog.

Do like the ChessAce facebook page to stay in touch with the articles published on this website.

The Paradox of work

2014-09-25T21:02:00.001+05:30

Progressing in chess is not the easiest thing in the world to achieve. You have to really work hard for it. In this informative and personalized article, one of India's best Junior players, IM Srinath Narayanan discusses the way he used to work on chess and also on how one can become a better player by having the right approach towards it!

"It is when we act freely, for the sake of action itself rather than for ulterior motives, we learn to become more than what we were" - Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi

"Run behind excellence, don't run behind success" - Ranchodas Shyamaldas Chanchad

A few weeks ago, an Indian Grandmaster casually enquired, if I had any suggestions on how to stay disciplined and not get distracted when working on chess. GM Viktor Bologan expressed in his autobiography, "The hardest thing in sports is to force yourself to work - to discipline yourself". Thus, the question of how to motivate oneself to work, has been something that has plagued players of all levels,from the beginner to the grandmaster.

This made me ponder and reflect upon my work ethic at various stages of my career. I would like to offer the readers an alternate perspective to the concept of 'work' and 'how we look at work'. Let's take a ride through my pensieve[1]

My 6 year old self (Year - 2000)

Being at an age of innocent and excitement, and only recently introduced to chess, my everyday routine consisted of going to school from eight in the morning to three thirty in the evening, come home, eat something and spend the entire evening on chess and school home works. The week ends were reserved for various category rapid events, of which are in abundance in Chennai. Interestingly, what would be described as 'work' today was seen as sheer fun and enjoyment in those years. Overall, I felt good and happy, and there was no place I would've rather else been.

My 14 year old self (Year - 2008)

This was a time when I was fortunate to have some sponsors. My routine involved waking up, working at home for a couple of hours, having lunch and then working with GM R.B.Ramesh from two in the afternoon to eight at night. I had just begun to work with the coach of the historic bronze winning Indian Olympiad team. He is a fantastic chess coach and clearly the times spent working with him were some of the more enjoyable times of my life. In a 6 month interval, my rating shot up from 2203 to 2412, jumping ahead of a few thousand chess players.

My 16 year old self (Year - 2010)

With the sponsorship ceasing to continue due to economic recession in 2008, and with effectively no coaching, this was a time when somehow I had forgotten many of the good habits and good things learned over the past. One thing that remained with me was 'work long hours and results will come'.

While I tried to adhere to this wisdom that seems to be as common as the stairs that mount the capitol, there did seem to be a difference. What once flowed, was now forced. This approach towards work also coincided(or is it?) with some of the impoverished times of my life. Impoverished not in an economic sense, but in every other sense, experiences, rating and the 'feel good factor'.

Based on the above 3 samples, we can note certain consistencies:-

1.Enjoyment during work seems to correlate with good results.

2.Forcing oneself to work either by self or through an external source, not just in chess, but in other spheres as well, seems to lead to a drop in efficiency and thereby productivity.

Thus, we eventually arrive to the point where I can pose the questions I wanted to pose from the beginning:-

If we enjoy the game so much why is it so difficult to spend time on something we enjoy so much? And why has work acquired such a bad reputation?

The answer to this question seems to largely based on psychology. One possible hypothesis could be that, the cultural stereotype that 'work is boring' is so deeply rooted in some of our minds that, it could possibly supersede the fact that we actually feel good when indulging in goal directed work. For example, the experiences described by our chessace author IM Sagar Shah, on 'chogging' can be found here. Do you think we got more happiness and fulfillment from this or from the activities indulged during leisure?

"Tired and exhausted yet happy after my first successful attempt at Chogging"

The second possible hypothesis is that, many chess players don't compartmentalize thoughts from various areas and let themselves form a lot of 'mental traffic' with harmful thoughts about past losses, their performances, and how others are performing. This mental ailment seems to affect many chess players, and I myself have been a victim of this many times. These depressing thoughts might perhaps have a role in people becoming frustrated, and thereby affecting their enjoyment process. With so many such distractions, it's impossible to focus on something or think clearly.

Isn't it easier and happier to simply enjoy the present?

Should work on chess be done following a rigid schedule or should it be a more laissez faire process?

The answer to this question seems to be more in grey, rather than black and white. While the usefulness and importance of discipline cannot be underestimated, work is also much more efficient and productive when the desires comes from within, with intrinsic goals rather than extrinsic goals. While Gary Kasparov came out of a very systematic and disciplined school, Magnus Carlsen's approach seems to be lean more towards the laissez faire approach, although I don't really believe the World Champion works on chess only 2 hours a day :) it's of course possible that his perspective of 'work' is completely different from ours.

Magnus Carlsen:I learned an enormous amount, but there came a point where I found there was too much stress. It was no fun any more. Outside of the chessboard I avoid conflict, so I thought this wasn’t worth it. (on training sessions with Kasparov)

To give you an example of how the perspective of work can differ among people, I would like to give you an example: I was having an informal conversation with GM Van Kampen around July 2012, and GM Anish Giri had recently won the Dutch-Championship with a score of 6/7 and a phenomenal rating performance of 2898. I was in awe at his meteoric rise, and asked Van Kampen about the tournament, in which he had lost his sixth round against Giri. While expressing no doubt about what a supercalifragilisticexpialidocious (well, I guess it's just not Joey who uses a thesaurus to appear smart :P) player he is, he also told me he had a bit of luck going his way. For example, before their game there was a rest day, and Giri had revised this line in Catalan because he was 'bored'(guess what variation Giri defeated Van Kampen in, in that tournament?) I remember being very surprised at this, as at that time, I don't think this would be the way I would've spent my rest day, and I am pretty sure I wouldn't have revised Catalan when I was bored.

GM Anish Giri #12 in the world with much more to come

Conclusion: After a lot of thought and retrospection, it seems to me that finding the right attitude towards work might well be one of the major differences between people who progress rapidly and those who seem to stagnate. I feel that the happiest moments in our lives were experienced when we undertook some voluntary effort that stretched us, either physically or mentally, rather than when relaxing at some leisurely state of mind.

To conclude, if we can find a way to go back to that state of mind when we completely enjoyed doing anything related to chess, without letting ourselves brainwashed by any cultural stereotype or distracted by mental disturbances, I think this will pave the path to not only progress in skill, but also towards happiness and good being. I hope this article will serve as a reminder to never forget about the 'fun' aspect of working on chess.

Have you been through such phases? Feel free to share your thoughts in the comment section below...

About the Author

Narayanan Srinath is an International Master with two GM norms from India and has a rating of 2443. He has been playing chess since the age of five and has numerous achievements to his credit, the most prominent being the world under-12 champion in 2005. He is a critical thinkers and thinks deeply not only about the game of chess but life itself.

Tactics Time!

2014-09-22T19:39:00.000+05:30

Judit Polgar announced retirement in August 2014, after the Chess Olympiad which was held in Norway. Known as the strongest female chess player ever, she is the only woman to surpass the 2700 Elo rating barrier. She is known for her fighting spirit, ambitious nature and determination.

Today we have selected five combinations from Judit’s games and we invite our readers to try solving them.

Tactics Time!

By Rucha Pujari

Judit Polgar is a Hungarian grandmaster and by far the strongest female player in chess history. She achieved the title of grandmaster at the age of 15 years, at that time, breaking the record of World champion Bobby Fischer. She is the only woman to surpass the 2700 Elo rating barrier.

Greatest female chess player ever: Judit Polgar (Image source)

Judit learnt to play chess looking at her sisters, Susan and Sofia play. Her elder sisters played chess at home and took lessons, hence Judit was naturally exposed to chess atmosphere since the very beginning.
Her progress since the early years was extraordinary, but Judit attributes her success to hard work than mere talent.

In her career she has beaten the likes of many top-level players such as Magnus Carlsen, Levon Aronian, Vishwanathan Anand, Anatoly Karpov, to name a few. I admire her personally because of her ambitious nature and fighting spirit. I have been growing up following her example, and hence it is a little hard to accept the fact that she won't be competing in tournaments anymore.

Right now as I am writing this, I remember a book that I have for over many years and the one which I do read from time to time. It's called 'Breaking Through' and it's about the three Polgar sisters and their career. I recommend you to go through it at least once because it is very inspiring.

Judit's father believed in the thesis that "geniuses are made and not born..." And it is presumed that to prove his thesis correct he taught his daughters to play Chess. Looking at the exceptional achievements of Polgar sisters, we all can believe that a genius can be brought up. With hard work and determination, it is possible to achieve the impossible.

Imprinting their names on the globe: the Polgar sisters, Sofia (L), Susan and Judit (R) (Image source)

The announcement of Judit's retirement marks the end of an era. But it is also equally true that Judit Polgar was, and will continue to be a source of inspiration to all of us.

Suggested Further Reading:
Judit Polgar: the greatest prodigy ever
The Grandmaster Experiment
Judit Polgar - Wikipedia

Today I have selected five combinations from Judit’s games. Try solving them and see if you can get all the answers!

1. Valery Salov - Polgar Judit
Madrid 1997

I came across this position in the book 'Breaking Through' which is all about Polgar sisters. Let us take a look at the position below. Bishop and two pawns might be good enough for a Rook, but at this particular moment Judit found an amazing continuation which helped her to get more than just a draw.

Black to play

2. Anand V - Polgar Judit
Cap d'Agde rapid, 2003.

In this game Judit is facing one of the strongest player with black pieces. Even in rapid time control she was able to play very accurately and obtain an advantage. Can you calculate what she saw?

Black to play

3. Polgar Judit - Anatoly Karpov
Hoogeveen Essent Crown 2003

In the position given below, white has two dominating Bishops looking at the Black's king side. This position illustrates one of the typical attacking ideas.

White to play

4. Tisdall Jonathan - Polgar Judit

Reykjavik op 1988

Judit was twelve years old when she played this game. White has just played 31. Nf3, suggest the best continuation for Black.

Black to play

5. Guerrero A - Polgar Judit
41st Olympiad Open, 2014.

And to conclude, here is a combination played by Judit from the recently concluded Olympiad. Judit was part of the Hungarian Open team, which went on to win the silver medal. Simple yet beautiful combination!

Black to play

-- Note to the readers: Please do not comment the answers. Solutions to these combinations will be published on Sunday. So Stay tuned! --

Captain Courageous: R B Ramesh.

2014-09-10T11:55:00.000+05:30

He is definitely the man of the moment. One of the best coaches India has ever produced. With an ever increasing list of achievements of his students, coach R B Ramesh has added another feather to his cap. A huge feather I must say! He was the coach of the Indian team that won the Bronze medal at the Tromso Olympiad just a few days ago.

The Indian players acknowledge the contribution of coach R B Ramesh in their victory!

Amidst his busy coaching schedule which take away nearly 8-10 hours of his day, I was able to catch him and have a detailed chat over the phone where he gave some wonderful insights into the Olympiad bronze journey.

Sagar Shah: What were your expectations when you left for Tromso ?

R B Ramesh: My approach is simple. I don’t want to go to a tournament with too many expectations but I also don’t want to be in a situation where we are not looking forward to something. So, I try to keep it in balance. We have to give our best and focus on that part alone. But concretely, I thought top ten would be a good finish.

SS: How well did you know the players in the team?

RBR: We knew the team well in advance and the same team has played a few months before in Iran in the Asian Nations Cup. Personally I knew four players in the team very well. I had worked with Adhiban and Sethuraman when they were young. In 2013, I had been to South Korea with Sethuraman for Asian Indoor games. With Sasikiran and Negi, I have played many tournaments and also been to many team events. So I had a fairly good idea about everyone except Lalith Babu. He is a young player and I haven’t played in a tournament since last eight years. So, whatever I knew about him was through others.

It's great news for the team when the coach bonds well with the players

SS: The board order strategy that you formulated was phenomenal. Negi on one, Sethu on two, Sasi on three, Adhiban on four and Lalith on five. How did this come about?

RBR: The Asian Nations cup that was held in Tabriz, Iran in May 2014 proved to be quite important. Over there I and Sasi were discussing that we should give the opportunity to the youngsters to take responsibility on the top board. Sasi should drop down to either two or three. Because he was the most experienced player in the team and we didn’t want all the pressure to be on his shoulders. What if we put him on the top board and the team doesn’t perform well on the lower boards?

So putting Sasi on three was a good idea. This meant that things were much easier for him. In the past team events when Sasi was sick and would want to take a drop, I would ask him to continue because we needed him so badly. And he would do it. Here on board three he had a little less pressure as he met players rated 100-150 points below him.

Always Mr.Dependable: That's Sasikiran for you

The million dollar question was: Who should take the top board? Negi plays well against good opposition. He plays at his full strength when he is playing 2600-2700 players than against 2300-2400. So we decided to put him on the top board. As for Adhiban, he has been winning many big events. For eg. the very strong Biel Open. His rating has been steadily increasing, he is a great fighter, has excellent home preparation, superb tactician and even in difficult positions doesn’t give up so easily. We need fighters in team events. When some other player gets into trouble the whole team will feel very nervous but when Adhiban gets into trouble then nobody takes tension! (laughs). Because he has the capacity to come back into the game. So we thought with such fighting qualities, Adhiban will be perfect on the fourth board.

Tremendous fighting qualities made B Adhiban an ideal candidate to play on board four.

Sethuraman has been doing excellently recently. Even in the Asian Nations cup he came close to beating Le Quang Liem. He was never awed by his opponent's rating. His preparation as well as his temperament was good. So we decided to put him on board two. Thus the board order was formed.

SS: Was this the biggest achievement as a coach of your life?

RBR: I personally do not prefer to compare one success with another. When one of my young student comes to me with his first trophy, I am equally pleased. The achievement might not be too huge but for him that victory means a lot and is very special. And for me, everything that is special to my students is special for me. Sometimes a student is struggling for a long time and he gets a breakthrough, increases his rating or makes a norm or qualifies for something. Sometimes someone is losing to a specific player many times and if he is able to beat him once, that is also very special. Or if our opening preparation works out well then too I am very happy. So for a coach all these are moments of happiness. But on paper, this achievement has to be the best. Nothing can come close to it.

Every little achievement by his students is special to Ramesh.

SS: One thing I have always wondered is : All the players in our Olympiad team are so strong and talented. How exactly do you help them? What is the role of a coach in such events?
RBR: These people are all professionals and everyone is higher rated than me. So there is not much that I can teach them in terms of chess things. They have all gone through a lot of stuff as chess players. Even though four of them were young, their experience is equivalent to that of a veteran. But, not at the highest level. Sasikiran has been a veteran in the 2650+ bracket now for quite some time. However others are just entering the 2600 zone. Sasikiran and Negi have played a lot of team events before so they know what they have to be doing. They tell me which openings they are thinking to play the next day and usually they make a good choice thanks to their experience.

I would like to give you an example of Negi’s maturity. Against Caruana he was black and played the Berlin. Fabiano played a great game and Negi lost. In the next round we were facing Cuba and on the top board we had black again. Lernier Dominguez is a world expert against the Berlin. And Negi’s main weapon against e4 was the Berlin. So he himself suggested that he would take a drop. This is experience. They know that certain things must not be tried in team events. If it were an individual event, he would have maybe tried the Berlin again but not in an Olympiad!

Parimarjan Negi: He is just 22-years-old but his maturity belies his age.

I was mainly working with Sethuraman. It was the first time he was playing in an event of such magnitude and also because I knew that if he plays reasonably well on board two, our team would perform well. He would be facing players near the rating of 2700 in almost all the games. It was important that at any moment he did not feel inadequate or start thinking that this task was beyond his capacity. He should have always the positive feeling that yes, I have a fighting chance or I can do it! I also noticed that he wasn’t eating or drinking well before or during the game. So I would bring for him tea and biscuits to keep him hydrated and not let him get tired by the fourth hour of play. And as Sethu’s results kept improving during the event, not only his morale but the morale of the entire team was lifted.

Backing up Sethuraman. That was his key role!

In his game against Akopain, Adhiban wasn’t sure whether to play Najdorf or Taimanov as black. He had already played Taimanov twice before in the tournament. But in Najdorf he had some problems in one of the lines. I had personally done some work on it before. We checked the line and he stopped at one point saying that he didn’t like the position. I deepened the analysis and suggested another pawn sacrifice with the move…b5!?. This was leading to unfathomable complications. Adhiban was happy with it and decided to play the Najdorf. Our preparation worked out really well and without much ado Adhiban drew with Akopian.

The combined preparation of Adhiban and Ramesh proved a tough nut for Akopian to crack!

In individual events players usually go for the most uncompromising setups. But in team events you have to see what others are going to play. If Sasikiran is going to play risky and try on third board, there is no point in going all out on the top board. So, taking all these decisions regarding the opening, was one of my key task.

Apart from that, keeping the player’s morale high and not letting the pressure get to them and at the same time preventing them from relaxing were some of my main roles as the coach.

SS: In team events, the players can ask the captain regarding the decisions of offering or accepting draws. Where there any interesting instances?
RBR: Against Germany, Sasikiran had already struck gold on board three against Nisipeanu. Negi was drawing comfortably against Naiditsch. And on the last board Adhiban had come out of his troubles and had a good position against Baramidze. So it all had narrowed down to Sethuraman’s game against Meier. If Sethu would draw against Meier, we would win the match. From the opening Meier equalized as black and it felt to me from outside that Sethu was a bit nervous. Though around the 40^th move Sethu was better, I wanted him to offer a draw because it would seal a victory for us. Just as I was about to call the arbiter who would then tell Sethu to offer a draw, Meier himself offered a draw. And when Sethu asked me what to do! I just told him to take it! (laughs)

Another very interesting incident was our match with Canada. Negi was playing on the top board with Kovalyov. He had sacrificed a pawn for unclear compensation. I was quite tensed about the game. Slowly and steadily Batu (Negi’s nickname) started to fight back. And around the 30^th move, the opponent offered a draw. Batu asked me what to do? I didn’t want to ask him to continue because I didn’t know how he was feeling. At the same time I didn’t want him to take a draw because the position was tricky and Negi loves such positions and plays them really well. So I told him,” I leave the option to you”. After some thought Negi avoided the repetition, continued playing and his opponent blundered and he won! If I would have asked him to take a draw, we wouldn’t have got that extra half point.

Only a person with a cool mind can take the right decision in such crucial moments

SS: So not taking a decision at the point and leaving it upto the player was actually a great decision!
Tell, us which was the most crucial match in the entire tournament for Team India?

RBR: Every match was crucial but one game which gave us a lot of momentum and made us feel really good about ourselves as a team was the win against Canada with a score of 3.5-0.5. Canada was not super strong but they had reasonable players on all boards. But we beat them like a very weak team and this gave us the confidence that all the players were in excellent form.

In last round against Uzbekistan, even if we would have won 3-1, it would not have been enough. We would have been pushed out of the medals. 3.5-0.5 win against them was crucial.

The final sprint against Uzbekistan in the last round sealed the bronze medal for Team India

The win against Germany was crucial. We were the underdogs in that match but I think we had a fair chance as Nisipeanu was out of form and Sasikiran had beaten him before.

And against Armenia, Negi drawing against Aronian was important. And somehow Sasi worked up his magic in the time pressure against Movsesian to draw in a totally lost position.

Sasi is concentration personified in his key duel against Sergei Movsesian

SS: Was the Indian team a tad lucky that they played Uzbekistan in the last round and not some strong team like Russia or China?

RBR: Yes, we were pretty lucky in the last round to play against Uzbekistan and not one of the top teams. But in all other rounds we were playing in the top ten boards but the international media didn’t seem to notice that.

SS:The Chinese team convincingly won the gold medal. You must have been watching them closely. What was so special about them?

RBR: Chinese team is the perfect illustration of team spirit. They did not have the best players in the world. Like the absolute elite, but as a team they were wonderful. They bonded together so well. Even in 1996, when I was playing for India in the Yerevan Olympiad, I saw the Chinese team doing the same. Their players were just rated about 2500 but they gave all the top teams a run for their money. I think it is important for the teams to meet a few days prior to the event or as in our case, the team members should have played a few team events together. The players in the Chinese team always stood up for each other. If someone is not playing well, they would support him rather than isolating him.

It was the first time that an Asian country had won a gold medal at the open section of the Olympiad!

SS: A hypothetical question: If by some magical means Anand and Harikrishna play in the next Olympiad, do you think we will have a chance to better the Tromso performance?

RBR: I don’t know what will be the team composition in the next Olympiad, who will be the coach etc. But just from a hypothetical situation and an outsider’s point of view, I think that having the best players in the team is not the most important factor. Russia had all the top class players in the team yet they couldn’t do so well. The crucial factor is whether the players play together as a team. For eg. In Iran when I was the coach for the team at Asian Nations Cup and Adhiban used to get bad positions quite regularly. I would be pretty tensed. But then Sethuraman came upto me and said, “Anna, Don’t worry, this is how Adhiban plays!” Other players were kind of not getting affected by Adhiban’s board. They knew he would fight back. This is very important because in team events many times, the players see their team mate losing and they over-push in their own game and then they blame the loss on the other player. But in our team, the players knew each other so well that there was perfect co-ordination. So these factors are as important as having great players in the team.

Maybe with Anand, Hari and Sasi, we will have a good chance to go for another medal.

If these two guys do play for India in Azerbaijan 2016, who knows, we could keep the Olympiad Gold in Asia!

(Picture taken from here)

SS: This interview would not be complete if I didn't ask you about the win of your student Aravindh Chithambaram against Alexie Shirov just a few days ago. Can you tell us something about it?

RBR: At the beginning of the tournament in Riga, Latvia, Aravindh’s laptop crashed. Now no one spoke english there and it was very difficult to get the laptop in working condition. Luckily, the organizers helped and the laptop started working. But Aravindh has never really believed in working much on the openings. He just plays what comes to his mind. Of course, this has created a lot of issues in the opening stage of the game for him in the past but recently he has started working in this area and has become better. He knows now that he cannot just bluff against the best players in the world.

He came on Skype before the game and I told him that he had already made a GM norm irrespective of his result against Shirov. So we were discussing what he should play. Recently I had seen Richard Rapport playing 1.b3 and I found it to be interesting. I had prepared the opening and gave it to my students. I had also given it to Aravindh, so I asked him whether he wanted to try it. In fact Aravindh also plays 1.a3. So he had an option between 1.a3 and 1.b3 (laughs). Finally, he decided to play 1.b3.

Before parting he asked me whether I was sure that he had made the GM norm. I said, “It seems so but ask your mother to confirm it with the arbiter.” To which he replied, “I don’t care about the norm, I just want to beat Shirov!” I put this on twitter and it immediately became viral!

"Dont care about the norm- just want to beat Shirov today" - says a 15 year old :) Pray he keeps this attitude ever.
— Ramesh RB (@Rameshchess) August 24, 2014

SS: WOW! And what was Aravindh's reaction after the game?

RBR: Before the Riga event, we (I and his mother) tried to curb his habit of watching movies during the tournament. He had promised that he wouldn’t watch a movie while the tournament was on. So once he had beaten Shirov and the event was over (as that was the last round), he came into the room and started watching some movie! (laughs!!)

Aravindh Chithambaram is a HUGE talent. I saw this last year when I met him in Chennai. His coach @Rameshchess is doing a great job! #phenom
— Susan Polgar (@SusanPolgar) August 24, 2014

When a former world champion writes something like this, you can be rest assured that the lad has a great future ahead of him!

SS: So the kid just beat Shirov and the first thing he wanted to do was watch a movie!

RBR: Apparently yes!! (laughs)

That's how the relation between a coach and a student should be!

SS: My final question! And the big one! You were the commentator of the world championship match between Anand and Carlsen in 2013. What do you think will happen in 2014 and how will the match be different from the previous one?

Ramesh got excellent reviews as a world championship commentator

RBR: My personal opinion as a player can be divided into two parts:

Psychological preparation: Prior to the 2013 match, Anand did not have good results with Carlsen. That was playing a role in Anand’s mental setup for the match in 2013. If Anand has a chance to beat Carlsen in 2014, then it all depends on how he prepares himself psychologically to forget these negative results.

Chess Preparation: I think Anand should play critical lines as White against Carlsen in their next match. Carlsen’s style of play is that he will take you to positions which are non-theoretical and then try to press. While this is possible as White, doing this with Black entails serious risk. It is very difficult to find unusual setups with black which are not risky. So, Anand, when he has white must go for aggressive and dynamic setups even if it doesn’t give him an advantage. Like he did in the ninth game of the 2013 match. What will happen then is that Carlsen will have to play one game in aggressive and dynamic fashion as Black and a very quiet and solid game as White. This is something like left hand, right hand combination in cricket. It is very difficult for a bowler to bowl against this. So this constant change in style requires a lot of experience which Carlsen lacks in match play. At the same time, Carlsen’s performance recently has not been very good. He has lost to quite a few players. So, this always gives us hope. If others can do it why not Anand!

SS:So according to you Anand will have better chances this year than the last world championship match?

RBR: Yes, this I will definitely agree. I am much more hopeful of a positive result in this match!

SS: It was wonderful interviewing you. I didn't have to push you for any answer! You were so open and gave a detailed answer to my every question. Thank you very much.
RBR: It was my pleasure! All the best for your GM title!

Collection of my favourite Ramesh pics!

One thing that I would love to imbibe from this man would be to : "Never lose the childlike innocence in life! :) "

R B Ramesh's official website.

Pictures taken from the facebook page of Ramesh and Gopakumar Sudhakaran.

About the Author

Name: IM Sagar Shah.

Elo: 2468 with 1 GM norm

I fell in love with the game of chess when I was 10 years old. From being a past time, it has become my full time profession. I love to be in the chess world and ChessAce is a website which helps me do that! My biggest success in chess has been winning the strong Dresden Open 2014 ahead of many strong grandmasters. I am happily married to the love of my life: Amruta Mokal.

The Magnus Effect!

2013-11-22T23:34:00.000+05:30

"As another World Championship comes to an end, here is what it meant to me..."

Bharathi Ramaraj tells us about the Anand - Carlsen World Championship Match, as it took place in her hometown, Chennai. Here you can read about Chess, media, players and much more. A personal report.

The Magnus Effect

By Bharathi Ramaraj

THE HYPE :

It was made sure every Chennaiite knew about the upcoming match. The news coverage , the back-to-back tournaments, the decorations ,the Giant Chess Board on the Marina…well, it rained chess and I gladly soaked in it!

PRESS CONFERENCE:

My least favourite part.

The press conference, it was more entertaining than informative. The players tried to be polite,but they had their limits. Sarcasm , fun , hilariousness and plain stupidity were the adjectives tied to the press conferences.

Just a word :No sportsman would be worried about Sachin’s retirement or on promoting the game when he had had double losses and just lost his Crown.

Do not tease a wounded tiger. Humanitarian reason : It is simply cruel to do that. But , factually, its not wise. A tiger is a tiger.Its been wounded not dead. Don’t be surprised when it retaliates.

COMMENTATORS :

Watching GMs Susan Polgar and RB Ramesh and the IMs Lawrence Trent and the Indian chess queen as she is often called , Tania Sachdev , was fun. Analysing the game , guessing the moves , getting surprised or being shocked after a move along with the commentators was a part of the deal. For a non-chess player , it would have been a complete course on what chess was and is to the GMs.

TWITTER and FACEBOOK:

I cannot not mention the growth in twitter and facebook activity during the course of the match. Players sharing their views , moves and opinions : it was like another commentary team, only something that consists of most of the best in the world. Sometimes , when the games were slow I had more fun reading the tweets and posts by the players and their arguments! What will I do now?

BLOGS , ARTICLES , yada, yada….

Millions of articles , news scripts , blogs, posts bloomed. But then few of them were a part of the match deal for me . Reading through GM Parimarjan Negi’s satirical articles or Sagar Shah’s appealing posts, it was always a pleasure. When the games got boring , you could trust on these to keep us interested : the former to entertain; the latter to beautify .

To add to the gala, Susan Polgar’s and IM Saravanan’s inside scoop on the world championship…well..who can say no to this? Cheeky quotes, behind the scenes, moment of the day…You got it all

Finally , THE GAMES ….what can I say? Really…what can I say?

Before game 1 , Magnus wasn’t the only one biting his nails in anticipation. The mystery of the opening choice , of the strategies to be used, of the style of play was intriguing.

And then the games began.

First two games were short draws. A little disappointing but who cared. Still ten rounds left.

Next came Game 3. Anand gained the upper hand leading to an interesting game which unfortunately ended in a draw again, but again, no one cared.Beecause, now the World Championship had really begun.

Then came the GAME : Game 4. Magnus’s guts made everyone go awe , so did Anand’s resourcefulness in defending. On twitter this was what was happening :

GM Hammer : Guts (Bxa2), calculation (a5) and technique (g6). Game on, Vishy!
IM Saravanan : Challenge (Ne2), Resourcefulness (Nb5) and Fightback (Rc4) - Ofcourse, Magnus!
And ofcourseGM Giri : Nerves (Rf4+), nerves (Rf8), nerves (0.00).

The game which had me glued to the screen. Hailed by many , praised by all, the level of play just set a different standard of expectation.

Then came game 5 and 6 : A completely disappointment for Anand’s fans but a joy as always to watch Magnus’s precision. He is World No.1 after all.

Game 7 and 8 were short draws. First reaction , if I were Anand , I would have been more aggressive. But then , I would probably lost my third game in a row. After all, he’s the genius here, not me. Better trust his judgment . The guy did hold his title for five years.

Then Game 9. It was good start. Anand was doing good.It was a great game and then Nf1!! Was ready to believe anything from Transmission Delay , hallucination , to Carlsen hypnotizing Anand ( I did think of it for a second ) than accept that Anand actually played it. A monumental disappointment. Then, realization struck.

It was time. The wind had changed directions. Anand’s time on the throne was up. It was time for the younger Challenger to face the responsibility.The Crown was being passed with/without his choice from Anand to Carlsen , like Peter Pevensie to Prince Caspian , like Great Master Yoda to Young Luke Skywalker , like Elrond to Aragorn.

Then Elrond and Galadriel rode on;
for the Third Age was over and the Days of the Rings were passed and an end was come of the story and song of those time

Game 10: A Sicilian, Finally. And then, well, Magnus plays for a win. It becomes interesting. Magnus’s calculation precision is wow-ed and then , the end. A draw.

Magnus Carlsen had officially won the Championship. What I felt :

I wish it need not have happened in my time,” said Frodo.“So do I,” said Gandalf, “and so do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us.”

The Crown has passed hands. The King dethroned. A New King raises to take the throne.

Above all shadows rides the Sun ,
and Stars forever Dwell,
I will not say the Day is done,
nor bid the Stars farewell

As I think about writing this article , my college bus passes the Hotel Hyatt Regency. If Chennai is Chess’ Mecca , then right now, Hyatt is the Shrine. Tears fell in respect because it was here that history was made!

For like a shaft, clear and cold, the thought pierced him that in the end the Shadow was only a small and passing thing: there was light and high beauty for ever beyond its reach.”

Retreat!

2013-03-02T11:55:00.000+05:30

"Play Chess, listen to music, read, eat, sleep, work... Some time, visit the Countryside!"
says Arun Karthik who brings us a very interesting article to read and enjoy.

Please Note: The article is written in English and Tamil.

Retreat!
By Arun Karthik

ஹாய் !
I often say this! When ever I travel down south of my state, I always get this ‘feeling of belonging’!

Recently I went to தஞ்சாவூர் (Tanjore) with my CSE A (and E) classmates for a wedding. Mr.A___ (yeah, "Mr." from now onwards; well and truly!) tied ‘the knot’ on February 14 – no no, it was an arranged marriage!

The function was fun in the sense that we classmates all got to meet once again - possibly the beginning of many similar events! Also had a chance to catch a glimpse of the “Big” temple in the centre of the city amidst heavy rain! Yeah real rain, not like the ones in Madrasapattinam.

What is always impressive to my monitor-looking, bus-sleeping eyes is the unhurried pace of lives in the not-so glamourous towns of the south. True, Tanjore is not yet ready, it just looks foot-in-mouth for the oddly placed Maruti Swifts, Taveras and SX4s – the roads are too tiny to accommodate the huge cars. Strangely, there are a surplus number of buses on roads – the buses are mostly half-filled or empty. The vehicles never cross 3^rd gear and I am sure of this – when our car went above 3^rd and 4^th, it was chased by dogs! Proof enough, the animals were not used to such speeds! And then there is the more-than-convincing pleasant-looking ‘Vegetarian’ restaurants; something that I am personally very happy about! Being a veggie and finding a good place to eat in any street is always a good thing!

நாங்கள் கல்யாணம் கண்டு களித்து விட்டு பெரிய கோவில் சென்றோம். Nature started blessing us with water-drops, progressively becoming heavier.
"என்ன டா பசங்களா! என்ன feeling-U?" (வாய்ஸ் from heaven)
We were running a little behind schedule. We had to reach Chennai on 14th night to catch up for office the next day. You see, 'Leaves' are worth more than gold in the Corporate world. They will be available but you cannot use them.
"Lay-offs are easy;
day-offs aren't so!"

We weren't prepared to leave without visiting the shrine! And we did just that.
Most of us were thinking what to do in the next 5 years or so with our lives... It wasn't easy. Some of us had jobs, some of us didn't, some wanted, some didn't; it's harder than semester exams to decide...
On the way back to our hotel rooms, we got the 'privilege' of getting this guy's auto.
And திஸ் is what happened... (we were three of us in the auto, with the driver in front)
Autoguy (AG): "எந்த ஊர் தம்பிங்களா?"
"சென்னை "
"படிக்கறீங்களா ?"
"வேலை ல இருக்கோம் "
(2 minutes silence)
AG: "இன்னிக்கு பெப்ரவரி 14. தனியா வந்து இருக்கீங்க?" (chuckles. He looked to be around 60-70)
"friend கல்யாணத்துக்கு வந்தோம் "
"ம்ம் ஹ்ம்ம் ... நானும் டிப்ளோமா படிச்சிருக்கேன்! வெல்டிங் வொர்க் பண்ணிருக்கேன், ஒரு 3 வருஷம்! ரொம்ப புழிஞ்சு எடுத்தாங்க. வேலை ய விட்டுட்டேன்! பிச்சை எடுத்திருக்கிறேன். accident ல கால் damage ஆய்டுச்சு! அதனால பிச்சை எடுக்க முடியல . ஏதோ இந்த ஆட்டோ வ வாங்கிட்டேன்!"
(எனக்கு வயிறு கலக்க ஆரம்பித்தது! "who is this guy???")
He continued...
"எல்லாரும் நைட் தான் தண்ணி போடுவாங்க! நான் காலை ல கூட போடுவேன்! full தண்ணி தான்! எப்பவுமே தண்ணி ல தான் இருப்பேன்!"
(Dude! Watch the road!)
"சரீ, சாப்பாட்டுக்கு என்ன பண்றீங்க ?"
"அதுக்கு என்ன! இங்க எல்லாம் அப்பப்போ கோவில்ல அன்ன தானம் பண்ணுவாங்க! வரிசை ல நின்னு வாங்கிக்கலாம்!"
"அப்போ, சாப்பாட்டுக்கு பிரச்னை இல்லை! ஹ்ம்ம் ..." (may be we are struggling too much after all!)
My friend intervened... "அண்ணே! steady ஆ தானே ஓட்றீங்க , அப்றோம் என்ன!"
"அதெல்லாம் ஓடும் பா! அவ்ளோ ஏன் இந்த ஆட்டோக்கு RC book, registration கூட கிடையாது! "
(That's ok!)
"எனக்கு லைசென்ஸ் um இல்லை! "

(what??? I started to analyze... No license, no RC, no insurance, PLUS watered! Will I reach home alive? Forget home, atleast our hotel room??? It was raining; clouds dim; vehicles whizzing past... it all seemed so 'perfect' for an anti-climax or something untoward of that sort! :D)
"போலீஸ் கேக்க மாட்டாங்களா?"
"யார் தம்பி இதெல்லாம் கேக்கறா! இது என்ன சென்னை யா???" (smiles, all along!)
-----
After we got down, he asked "5 ரூபா எக்ஸ்ட்ரா தாங்க பா!"
Yeah, right! Value addition for our lives! :)
This man doesn't really portray my sense of belonging, but definitely, the 'takeaway' from this - is not that you can get drunk and drive...BUT
"Life goes on"
இப்படிப் பட்ட மனிதர்களும் வாழ்கின்றனர் !

"தொங்காதே"!

போராடு!

Play Chess, listen to music, read, eat, sleep, work...
Some time, visit the Countryside!

Moscow Open - As I see it!

2013-02-23T22:45:00.000+05:30

This isn't a tournament report stating who won the tournament. Neither is this about the tournament by an IM or a GM. It’s all about what it meant to me - Moscow Open and all that is related to it. Bharathi R tells us about her experience of playing in Moscow Open and presents us some interesting positions towards the end of this article.

Moscow Open - As I see it!
By Bharathi Ramaraj

Let me start from the related stuff! First and foremost, the weather at Moscow. I can safely state that it was one of the coldest climate any Indian especially a Chennaitan can find herself in. It had been snowing for a couple of days, and so, the ground had a thick layer of snow and ice on it. The snow was a treat (we don’t get to see so much snow here) as well as an inconvenience (believe it or not but quite a number of Indians slipped and fell). The white background was pleasing like in wonderland and depressingly monotonous at the same time. I think the few photos posted would give the reader a very good idea of the climate there.

(Snowing. You can see the snow on the rooftops, over cars and on the ground)

(Walking through the snow can be quite difficult – with CA author WFM Rucha Pujari)

The second thing about Moscow is the company I was in.I had a wonderful time with my roommate WFM Rucha Pujari , IM Srinath Narayanan and GM Vidit Santhosh Gujarathi. Rucha has quite an interesting collection of interesting things! Beware of them as they are capable of keeping you occupied for several hours without any progress towards the actual result! (I had the misfortune of experiencing it. )

(At the Moscow Airport with other CA authors -IM Srinath Narayanan , GM Vidit Santhosh Gujarati and WFM Rucha Pujari )

And last but definitely not the least is the tournament itself. Where do I start?!!

The Moscow Open 2013 “Category A“tournament is one of the strongest tournaments I have ever played, probably the strongest! Not because it had Ian Nepomniatchi (FIDE Rating: 2703) as the top seed and certainly not because all the opponents that I played against were higher rated. It was because everyone in that tournament fought harder, harder than I have seen in my whole career. It is said that for Fischer every game was a matter of life or death. At Moscow, every player was a Fischer that way. The tournament was tougher and more tiring yet delightful. Because you can’t just not not-enjoy a week-and-a half of competitive chess.

Here, every game was a tough battle; every win an achievement. Every draw accepted with grace and every loss regretted with a sigh!

While the top rated players battled out on the grounds of opening novelties and technique, the lower boards came up with their own share of interesting positions.

People look for higher rated games to study and learn. And I am sure all of us have seen various articles discussing the games played by grandmasters in the Moscow Open 2013. But dear readers, watch out for the lower boards too! They can surprise you !

One such game is by CA author WFM Rucha Pujari.

The game as a whole was interesting from the beginning. But the particular position which actually stymied a couple of players is:

Solovjev,Nikolay – Rucha,Pujari

Black to play and Draw

Rucha who was playing black played 41...Rxe4 and lost the game. This position, later, was analyzed using the engine which showed the correct variation. See if you can find it.

It is interesting to note that the position can actually be equated to a study.

The next one is my own game. It’s a very elementary! But I missed it against a 2655 GM! Too bad uh? Here it is!

Bharathi,R – Khismatullin,Dennis

White to play

Simple! So that’s even more terrible! Anyways the simple winning move was: 38.Ng4 Bd2 39.f4 h5 40.Qg6 and its absolutely winning!

The next game is also Rucha’s : Rucha,Pujari – Tlepstok,Ruslan - White to play

Black has messed up the opening plans combining a number of plans which finally resulted in this position. And finally in this position Ms.Pujari played 21.Rc1! The threat here being 22.Nc7. So black replied with 21...Re7. Seems like black has defended right? But not so! Because white plays 22.Nc7 anyways 22...Rc7 23.Bb6 and black loses the exchange by force! That was something wasn’t it?

Ageichenko,Genaid – Monnisha,Gk

White to play

Monnisha’s opponent missed this mate. Its a simple one though! So just try and find the correct variation though.

This was Moscow open for me.By the way , for the record GM Savchenko won the Category A tournament with a last round victory. Talking about GMs, here is one game which I liked :

Stupak,K – Khairullin,I

Black won this ending. I liked it .But am not going to say how he did. Check it out yourselves guys! And Have fun with chess!

Note: The answers for Solovjev,Nikolay - Rucha Pujari and Ageichenko,Genaid - Monissha,GK would be posted soon, if you are able to find the answers please post it as a comment under this article.

My experiences in US Amateur Team North

2013-02-20T10:05:00.001+05:30

"There is no 'i' in team but there is in win." these legendary words were said by Michael Jordan on working as a team! Through this article I would like to share my experiences in playing the US Amateur Team Championship North which was held in Schaumburg, Illnois from 15-17 Feb 2013. Read more.

My experiences in US Amateur Team North
By Priyadharshan Kannappan

Lindenwood University where I study, sent two teams with 4 players in a team under the team names "Lindenwood" and "Lions" for this prestigious tournament. I was appointed the captain of the "Lions" team which had IM Levan Bregadze on board 2, Zach Stuart on board 3 and Micah Losee on board 4, the team average rating was 2172 which was well under the 2200 USCF rating regulation for this tournament. The other team was captained by Kostya Kavutskiy with WGM Anna Sharevich playing on board 2 and Calvin Parnon playing on board 3 with Josh Cardenas finishing the lineup playing on board 4. This team's rating average was only 1981 because Josh Cardenas didn't have an USCF rating but by real strength I would rate this team to have a strength of around 2080 USCF.

We left the Lindenwood Campus at 10 am on 15th with half sleepy faces in a big van with our assistant coach Matt Barret driving the vehicle to Schaumburg, which is 5 hours journey by road. The whole journey was enjoyable as we were playing many mind games like word builder, 21 questions etc.

The first round was scheduled to start at 7pm on the 15th and we arrived at the playing venue/staying hotel, The Hyatt at 2 pm and was all ready for the game by 7pm.

The Lions were seeded 4th, so we faced a weak team named "Kings and Queens" whom we crushed 4-0 but the biggest upset of the round was the Lindenwood team which faced the top seed "The Gorlok Express" which in other words should be called a super strong team from Webster University compromising of GM Anatoly Bykovsky, GM Denes Boros, IM Vitaly Neimer and Paul Truong. The Lindenwood team crushed the Gorlok Express 3-1, though they were outrated by more than 300 points on every single board. The best game of that match and I believe of the tournament was between Calvin Parnon and Vitaly Neimer, the game is analyzed for you by the winner Calvin Parnon in Youtube. A funny gossip that was going around after this game was there was some computer chip in Calvin's crutches which helped him to play such a flawless game!

The one in orange jacket is Calvin, one in pale green is Zach Stuart, with Levan Bregadze standing on the right of the pairings board and our coach Matt Barrett wearing a black t-shirt and the girl with the bag being Anna Sharevich

The 2nd round on the following day was also filled with surprises as another strong Webster team under the name "Oppan Gorlok Style" lost to a weaker team named "The Rachel's Knights" and the Lindenwood continued their hot winning streak this time scalping the much higher rated X-men by the margin 2.5-1.5, my team the Lions managed to win the team full of tiny tots under the name "We have a dream" by a margin of 2.5-1.5 with me being held to a draw by Zach Kasiurak and Zach Stuart from my team losing his game to a young girl but the winning punch being delivered by Levan and Micah.

Micah Losee(left) and Josh Cardenas(right), board 4 of the Lions and the Lindewood team respectively!

After the end of Rd 2, we were dreaming of becoming the champions as two of the strongest competitors, the teams from Webster in the event have already been eliminated from the title race as they both faced upset losses and there were only very few strong teams left with full points but we received a shocker in Round 3, when we played against the University of Chicago "A" as Micah went down very quickly to his higher rated opponent in board 4 and Zach being in a dubious position right from the start but then had good chances to salvage a draw but failed to capitalize those chances and losing his game. I and Levan won our game with not much trouble but with some pressure as we had to draw as a team at any cost as losing would completely hamper our chances for a stake at the title. The "Lindenwood" team which was in roaring form was once again very close to upsetting the eventual joint winners "TMCC:Mating Specialists" but luck was not in their side as Calvin missed a simple win to settle for a draw and also the team had to settle for a draw as a result of that game.


Lions battling it out against the University of Chicago A in round 3

The final day was out there on the 17th the Sunday, we had a quick breakfast at the Einstein's Bagel, where I tried a very unorthodox bagel sandwich of Chocolate Chip bagel with Spinach,Eggs and Tomato as my teammates looked so weird at me, as I was eating that unorthodox combination!

Kostya and Zach at the breakfast table! in the Einstein's

The Lions faced the team from Michigan under the name of "Attackamania III" we were very confident before the game, that we would be tearing apart our opposition in this game and we came very close to it as I drew my game against National Master Kevin Czuhai and Levan continuing his hot streak winning his 4th game on a trot but Zach suffered his 3rd straight defeat in the tournament and Micah playing out a clearly better position but in the time scramble he completely misplayed it and managed only to get a draw and thusby we made another draw as a team and thusby all our chances for the title being killed by this result. In the meantime the Lindenwood team was defeated by the strong "WI Chess Academy team".


Lions facing the Attackamania III team in Rd 4!

As all our title chances was done, I felt really dejected and demotivated to play my 5th and final round game but as it was very much obligatory I went to the board to face Alex Ding from the University of Illnois, who played for the team "Illini Illusionists" before the game, when I was talking to my teammates, I said guys, I am going to go out and have fun playing 1.a4 but all of them completely were kinda not agreeing about my funny idea, so I had to settle for a less inferior opening than that, I played the 1.e4 c5 2.Na3 and after 5 moves a funny thing happened the former Women World Champion Susan Polgar, the coach of Webster Team, who was looking at the games was really intrigued to see a completely unorthodox position on the board by move 5 in my game!

I managed to outplay my opponent and Levan continued his great run by winning his 5th game too to end with a score 5/5, whereas Micah was outplayed by his opponent in an endgame and Zach's game being complicated all through till the end and finally it ended in a draw and thusby we won the match 2.5-1.5 and managed to finish joint 3rd in the standings.

The Lindenwood team which played a team titled "One Brother and the Other" was down 2-1 with Anna Sharevich also playing in a worse position but which was completely drawn, her opponent refused to give a draw and played out a really long game which lasted 200 moves and more than 6 hours thusby disrupting all our plans of heading back quickly to campus :( Anna got frustrated by his opponent's no draw attitude and blundered in the end also her result was anyways inconsequential to the final results.

In the end the winners of the prestigious US Amateur Team North being shared between "The Illini Schmakelers" and "TMCC:Mating Specialists". Congratulations to both teams for their deserving title win.

Overall, it was a big learning experience for the Lindenwood players as this was our 2nd team championship after the Pan-American Collegiate Championship and more or less every player found some of their weaknesses exposed in this championship, which they have all started working to rectify it!

I would like to end this article, with the weirdo final round game that I played against Alex Ding in this tournament

External Links
Report of this tournament in the US Chess Webpage
Official Tournament Site
Calvin Parnon's win over Vitaly Neimer

A Page from my Diary

2013-02-16T18:54:00.000+05:30

As Chess players, we all have enjoyed victories as well as suffered losses. But have you gone through a phase so bad that you lost all your hopes? Rucha Pujari shares with us her experiences of how she dealt with such things and learnt to become better in the process. Must read.

A Page from my Diary

By Rucha Pujari

15th February 2013: Just back from Moscow. It feels great to be home after such a long time. It’s only February and I have already played three tournaments since New Year. For us, chess players, travelling to different places is sort of an everyday routine. True Chess players do have a nomadic life! Anyways, so I was looking back at my recent performances and I can say that I was going through a really bad phase; losing something like a hundred rating points is only a statistical indication.

It’s like I was walking on a smooth road, humming a tune and enjoying the breeze. And the next moment out of nowhere I fell into a pit. Because while I was walking, I did not consider that there would be a pit on such a smooth road. Down & down I fell with a crash. And unlike Alice, I didn’t end up in wonderland. Far from it.

So as I was playing tournaments and more tournaments, and my form became bad and then worse. I had just no idea what was happening. It was not about losing a game. But it was about losing hope.

I can see the beautiful World above me – sun shining, birds singing. But I only blinked at the blue sky up above, totally unsure how I’d found myself in this situation.

There are two types of people in every Sportsperson’s life:

1. Those whose attitude depends upon your performance.

They praise when you win. They make you feel like you are on top of the world.

But again they don’t hesitate to criticize or blame you when you lose.

2. And then there are those whose attitude does not depend upon your performance.

Like your parents, who only want to see you happy. Or your brother, for whom whatever happens whether you win or lose, you will always be his little sister, no matter what. And some of your friends.

Then, when I calmed down a little, I realized that I have to help myself. If I will not try I will never get out. So I got up to see what I can do.

In Chess, as in life, you have to struggle.

In Chess, as in life, you have to ambitious.

And then I realized that it’s not about falling down a hundred times, but it’s about getting up every time you fall. Life is a journey. And we all have a destination to reach. But that doesn’t mean that we should not learn on the way. There will be ups & downs, highs & lows. It is all about maintaining the momentum.

Progress consists not in replacing an incorrect theory with a correct one, but in replacing an incorrect theory with one which is also incorrect but more exact.

Even though Chess is an intellectual game, the most successful players are those who not only depend on their brains but their hearts as well. You have to enjoy the game.

You never know how strong you are, until being strong is the only choice you have. So with all the courage I didn’t know I had until then, I started climbing up. Slowly but surely I was making progress.

I asked God to give me the strength to stand tall, daring to take risks, faith to keep going and motivation to take new challenges. But I am improving. I have still not reached my maximum. So, there is scope and I believe I can do it. Yes, I laughed and I cried. I lost and I learned. But that is very much essential for growth. I am growing as a Sportsperson. Now I can handle defeats as well as victories.

Miracles do happen, but never expect them to happen.

So I was climbing up by grabbing onto roots and creepers. Now I can see the blue sky. I was just there.

So initially I had mentioned that I just came back from Moscow. So let me tell you how I played there. Moscow Open is a really strong tournament. I was very much determined to play my best there. So, I was playing for my final WIM norm, which was objectively possible considering that I only wanted half point in my last game. So, with full confidence I went to the game. I had the black pieces and I started the clock. Ten minutes – Fifteen minutes – Twenty minutes – Thirty minutes. No, my opponent did not come and I was given a point by default. I was very much disappointed because games which are not played, are not counted for the norm. I would not have felt bad if I would have played & lost, but I was upset because I did not get any opportunity to play and prove.

And with much effort I came out. I wasn’t hurt but shocked. I went on my way. The sun is still shining and the birds are still chirping. But I learned a new lesson. I cannot be so sure that I will not fall again. I may, I may not. But now I know what I should do in such a situation.

I want to thank all the people who have made a difference in my life, knowingly and unknowingly. I have so many tournaments to play ahead in my life!! I just have to keep enjoying Chess as I always do. I always want to do the right things. It is all about believing in yourself and never losing hope. And I want to know how far I can go. Wish me luck!!

Rucha

Philosophical side of Chess III (off the board!)

2013-01-23T21:36:00.000+05:30

Do you get afraid or nervous when you face a higher rated opponent? We all do. But the question is how to deal with it.

Sagar Shah shares with us his personal experience of facing a strong opponent. Written from a chess player's perspective, he tells us how he overcame this challenge.

Philosophical side of Chess III (off the board!)
By Sagar Shah

I get up at 6 in the morning!

I am playing the Mayors Cup international chess tournament 2009 which is held in my hometown, Mumbai.

The game is to begin at 10 AM but I am not able to sleep.

The Reason: My 3^rd round opponent is the extremely strong Russian GM Vladimir Belov 2628.

While preparing against him on the previous day, I saw that he hardly had lost a game to players rated lower to him. After all to reach a rating of 2628 you have to be consistent.

With my paltry rating of 2268, I had mentally given up the hopes of beating my esteemed opponent.

And when I came to know that he had been a second of the super famous Alexander Grischuk, that was the last nail in the coffin!

How can a player who is just another bloke in the sun (i.e myself) challenge a product of Russian chess school. More importantly what quality did I possess that would be superior to his?

His opening knowledge would definitely be world class as he has worked for Grischuk, He must definitely have seen more middlegame patterns and well even a 12 yr old Russian boy would play better endgame than me!

I left my home with this “I give up” attitude. It was definitely a David vs Goliath encounter!

I reached the Railway station to catch a train for the tournament hall. And while I was on the bridge I saw the train was approaching the platform.

I made a dash a for the train! My eyesight was fixed on the train as it approached the platform.

Thoughts like, “I would be late for the game if I didn’t catch the train, a 10 min deficit against Belov is like rubbing salt to the wounds etc etc!” started to bombard my mind.

BAMMM!In my haste I hadn’t noticed a stone that was lying in my path and I fell. It wasn’t a bad fall, I got up instantly but I had lost enough time to not be able to catch the train!

I waited for the next train to come. While I was waiting, I tried to think about what had just happened.

There were two forces interacting in the situation when I wanted to catch the train:

The train and Myself.

I had absolutely no control on how the train would behave.

But I had full control on my body, on my legs and on my speed. I should have been focusing on how I could maximize my running speed, on how I could have dodged the obstacles in my path and given my best.

But what I did was to watch the train. Secretly I was hoping that my gaze would be powerful enough to slow it down!

Add to that my mind which was producing negative emotions. How in the universe was I to focus on the job at hand.

As I reached the tournament hall, I had formulated an important hypothesis:

In many situations of life there two forces interacting with each other.

1. Forces that are in our control.

2. Forces that are out of our control.

In such a situation it is important to completely block out the forces which are not in our control and focus with all the energy on what is in our hands. For if we give our best and still can’t achieve the job, you need not be upset because there was nothing more that you could have done about it.

But what we definitely should not be doing is to waste our precious energy on things that we cannot influence.(like the train)

Thus the Moral is : Train your mind to always focus and give 100% on the things that you can influence. If you do that you will never feel guilty that you didn’t give your best!

EPILOGUE:

As for my game with Vladimir Belov,

I reached my board a few minutes late but I was calm. My mind was focused at the work on hand, to make the best moves! It was as if I didn’t even care who was sitting opposite me.

We played a hard fought game, And Believe it or not , after 4 hours I was able to beat him!

Since that day David has grown and with that so has his confidence and self belief!

Zugzwang!! A Poem

2013-01-20T23:30:00.001+05:30

Can you relate Chess to your life?

All of us, chess players can relate our lives to Chess in some way or the other. Here the author tries to do so, through a very beautiful poem.

Zugzwang!! A Poem

By Niranjan Navalgund

Before your life ends up in Zugzwang

Learn to pin, Devoid of sins!

Skewer your thoughts,

Hope against odds.

Maneuver your troops and forces

Plant outposts and seal victories

Remember-

Numbered are your moments,

To post your deserving achievements!

Plan, Work Sail and Prevail

This is the way you must trail.

Chess is timing, so Is Life!

Move with a purpose, Have High aims!

Face the gale when

Defence is the demand

Hold on! Take charge and command.

Do the best and Leave the Rest

To God!

And he will save your position from the Critical Zugzwang!

- Niranjan Navalgund

My life at SRM, "Chennai"

2013-01-12T19:55:00.000+05:30

The intriguing prospect of writing for SRM university and with articles written on Lindenwood University ( Priyadarshan), on BITS (Aditya) and from Princeton (Akash) it looked like an herculean task from the outset. But things started to flow once I started to write this article.

My life at SRM, "Chennai"
By Prasanna Rao

The symbolic SRM statue!

Unlike my other contemporaries who underwent a rigorous IIT-JEE training for 2 years most of them landing in one of the best colleges in India and IIT ofcourse. During that time I was away for almost 1.5 year globe trotting completing my IM title requirements and came back in almost September end for the preparations of the “HSC”. Nothing extraordinary and passed HSC. SRM came along with that.

Without any huff and buff I got into SRM one of the top ten engineering colleges in India (leaving aside IITs) because I am a chess player (Advantages of being a chess player and believe me there are many)

Oh yes its huge and this is 1/4th part of the campus!

I began my hostel life ( I have to give credit to chess that it was “ok” for me to be away from home as I was habituated to it) at Room NO 401 H- Block. Eager to embark on this exciting odyssey I started my first semester.

Celebrating aka "hostel style"

The most obsessive part of the SRM is the wonderful (to the mildest term I use it here) hostel life. Right from peeing in front of the warden’s room ( I hope none of the professors are reading these!) Bursting crackers and throwing a bucketful of water when someone is sleeping at 3am ( It happened to me too!) it was a journey to be remembered. (And yes baby we are only 6 months old in hostel life). The moment of anguish, desperation when someone does that to you but when you reflect back it puts a small smile across your face. And keeping all the things aside I learned to take care of myself and the most important thing never ask a HOSTELITE whether he is hungry? If you are staying in hostel YOU MUST BE HUNGRY ALL THE TIME.

Keeping all the fun things aside, I learnt some new important lessons. TAKE CARE OF YOUR OWN. You lose something you need to pay for it from your pocket-money (And believe me guys that hurts, hurts to the core) There is no mom to look after you. Wake up on your own, wash your own clothes (Most importantly before someone comments that you stink), eat the messy food which you get in mess (GULP IT, DRINK IT, DO WHATEVER but EAT that bloody food). After 6 months I can say that hostel life has given me the freedom but equally it has made me more responsible.

In the 6 months I would have attended college for 4 months, went back home for like almost 4 times (Another leisure you can afford if you are a chess player ON DUTY) played tournaments and still had one of the most awesomest moment of my life till now. And my ATM card usage agrees with that
(A personal tip! Hide the money wherever it is possible in your wallet where your friends and seniors cant have a look :)

To be frank enough I thought SRM as a place swarming with nerds, oil-combed hair (Yes you can expect that in Chennai) carrying books in one hand sweating due to freaking 40 degrees (Here the weather goes from hot, hotter and hottest) and discussing the evolution of the science and related stuff in their linguistic tone which will normally frighten a “sadhu” human being like me. But I was glad to be surprised. The place is more dominated by the North Indians with almost 60% accounting for them. And with girls you know can only ask the SRM people how they are enjoying it ( I know it’s a international platform to speak on but come on guys you cant be straight if you are not thinking about the girls!). And my roommates are from Delhi and Assam. Speaking about diversity!

To sum it up of my "6 months stay" I explored new adventures, developed new skills and made some great(Ofcourse they are my friends). Personality being developed (I hope everyone here understands the sarcasm) after attending all the PD lectures :P I am sure more interesting things will pop up as time flies by. The TIME has come to change. To get out of your own comfy zones and a take a step towards the big-daddy world.

Magnus Carlsen, we bow down to you

2013-01-01T00:00:00.000+05:30

Magnus Carlsen breaks Garry Kasparov’s 13 year old record for reaching the highest FIDE rating ever achieved by any chess player. Srinath Narayanan takes a look back at Magnus Carlsen's journey. A brief yet informative article.

Magnus Carlsen, we bow down to you
By Srinath Narayanan

Chess since Gary Kasparov

Happy New Year everyone! Now, Vishy has already announced his plans to make 2013 his year by playing much more tournaments. Now if you think 2013 is going to be your year, you would be in sync with both Vishy and myself!

Initially, this article was supposed to be in the form of a report about Magnus Carlsen breaking Garry Kasparov’s 13 year old record for reaching the highest FIDE rating ever achieved by any chess player, but those things have come in all the chess blogs already, so who wants to hear more of that?

So lets go back to 1999, when i had just started to play chess. Back then, it was just Kasparov. Kasparov was winning just about every tournament he played during this period. Despite that setback in the match against Kramnik in 2000, he went on to win almost every single tournament he played at that time except when he slowed down a bit in the 2003-04 period just prior to his retirement. After Gary retired, Veselin Topalov played some top class chess, had a 30 point lead on occasions over the 2^nd placed player in the rating list for a while, but there was no sustenance. It can be safely said that there was no player actually dominating the chess scene during this interval. It’s true that Viswanathan Anand proved himself to be the best player, but it was nowhere near the kind of dominance that Gary displayed when he was at the top.

I think after a short gap, we have a new leader. Magnus is not yet a World Champion officially, but we haven’t seen a 50 point lead at the top ever since Garry retired, and since 2011, Magnus has finished in the top 2 in every single event, except Tata Steel 2011, where he finished 3^rd. I think it can be safely said that in this period, Magnus has been without doubt the strongest chess player in the World.

Let us assume, after the first 13 undisputed FIDE World Champions, the 13^th being Kasparov, if Kramnik is the 14^th and
Anand is the 15^th(Topalov’s 2005 triumph being not counted because Kramnik didn’t take part and because of the Prague agreement), if Magnus becomes World Champion next year, he would become the 16^th. As pointed out by Garry Kasparov already, it’s interesting to note that this would be a continuum of Steinitz(1^st Champion) Botvinnik(6^th Champion), Fischer (11^th Champion) with a revolution accomplished by every 5^th Champion.

Apart from his chess accomplishments, Magnus also modelled for G-Star's Autumn-Winter advertising campaign apart from appearing in various outlets of the media, mostly recently appearing in the American TV Series 'The Colbert Report'

While he astonishes everyone with his results, what really boggles me is his highly unusual style of winning from certain positions where others won’t even think of trying. Here are a few examples:-

And this one against the No:2 ranked player in the World:-

To conclude, here is a video of Magnus Carlsen defeating fellow teen wonder Sergey Karjakin in the World Blitz Championship in Astana

Life at Lindenwood!

2012-12-23T12:34:00.000+05:30

Hey Guys, It's change of location and change of life for my words!!! Yeah, yours truly is writing from St.Charles, Missouri this post. I am pursuing my undergraduate degree in marketing combined with chess in LindenwoodUniversity. Priyadharshan writes about his experiences.

Life at Lindenwood!
By Priyadharshan Kannappan

Saying more about Lindenwood, it is a 185 year old institution located near the Missouri river and since 1990 this is the fastest growing university in the Midwest of the USA. The international student body consists of 942 students from 92 countries, with 21% of the students in the Lindenwood Athletic Programs being International Students.

Lindenwood Lions logo

Lindenwood University is like a magnet in attracting athletes to the school, as the Lindenwood Lions has a total of 49 sports team, making it one of the largest college athletic departments in the United States in the terms of sports offered.

Chess Team of Lindenwood was formed on Fall 2012 semester, with the initial batch of players consisting of notable names like myself :) , IM Levan Bregadze from Georgia, WGM Anna Sharevich from Belarus(team captain), WGM Carla Heredia Serrano from Ecuador. Our Coach is the legendary GM Yasser Seirawan and he being assisted by Matt Barrett. We have also had lot of visiting coaches in the past 4 months including GM Varuzhan Akobian and GM Alejandro Ramirez.


Sharing a lighter and funny moment with our Coach Yasser Seirawan, From left:Zach Stuart, Nolan Hendrickson, Yasser Seirawan, Levan Bregadze, Priyadharshan Kannappan and Micah Loosee

After coming here, there has been lot of positives to my chess, including a 18 point fide rating gain and also having produced some great performances including, Champion of the St.Louis District Championship thusby qualifying for the 2013 Club Championship, Champion in 2 on 2 Team Championship, Joint 2nd in Thanksgiving Open, Join 2nd in the 3rd CCSCSL GM Invitational Tournament. The best performance of me came in the US Chess League, where I was the board 2 for the local team St.LouisArch Bishops, before delving deeper into the performance. I would like to say that we were predicted in the pre-season preview by IM David Pruess in Chess.com that we were not even strong enough to finish the last place in the league, we were completely written off. Those words were the source of inspiration for me before the season. We have nothing to lose, I said to myself and the end result was I scored 8.5/10 in the regular season with a rating performance over 2700+ and also capturing three USCL awards including the Most Valuable Player of the 2012 season(there was also a record set by me, capturing the award by most point difference from the No.2 player in the whole league) also capturing the Board 2, Team 1 All Star player and also being awarded the Rookie of the Year in the 2012 USCL for the best debut of the season. The another record that I created in this season was, I was the first player to capture 3 Individual awards in a single season.

Playing against GM Robert Hess of Yale University during the 10 board online friendly match.

Though it was a very painful finish for me in the season, as I lost my first game of the season in the quarterfinal playoff, where just a .5/2 was needed to qualify for the semis we couldn't do it, though I was having a clearly better position against IM Lev Altounian. Though it was disappointing, am really happy that I and the St.Louis team had so many positives in this year.

So far the Lindenwood chess team has an unbeaten record, as we defeated the Washington University of St.Louis by a 6-4 margin and also defeating the Ivy League School, Yale University 5.5-4.5, which was a major upset as we were outrated more or less on every single board.

Lindenwood Chess Team after defeating Yale

The next tournament, that I am playing representing Lindenwood is the Pan-Am National Collegiate Championship, where if my guess is right would be given the initial seeding of 7th as a team and it would be a herculean task to finish in the top 4 and qualify for the "Final Four of Collegiate Chess", The tournament is going to be held at Princeton University, New Jersey from Dec 27-30 and Lindenwood is sending two teams to the event, with the "A" team consisting of myself,Levan Bregadze, Anna Sharevich and Nolan Hendrickson and the "B" team consisting of Micah Losee, Zach Stuart, George Krasnopolskiy and Justin Grimes.

That's the Lindenwood's top 3 board players, from left:Priyadharshan,Levan Bregadze and Anna Sharevich

Now, it's time to focus on studies, the other part of my life! The first semester is done and things have gone great so far! I have a 4.0 GPA out of 4.0 in the first semester and a interesting tidbit is that the chess team has the highest GPA of all athletics teams in the campus! That's something to savor. Lindenwood mainly specializes on business courses and we have lot of interesting courses in the business field like Sports Management in the UG level!

So far, I have never regretted the decision I made to switch base to the States and I hope that I would never regret this life changing decision! Praying to the Almighty and wishing you all a Merry Christmas and a crackling 2013.

I would like to finish my article with a good win of mine against GM Pascal Charbonneau in the SPICE CUP

Signing off is

Yours Truly

P-Diddy

External Links

St.Louis Arch bishops

Lindenwood University

Lindenwood Chess Team

My USCL bio

My article for the St.Louis Beacon Newspaper

St.Charles County Journal Interview on me

Commonwealth galatta!

2012-12-22T10:39:00.001+05:30

Commonwealth Championships 2012 – ‘When it’s Chennai, it’s fun!’

Hi all, Congrats to all of you for making it through Dec 21, 2012!

As you are all aware, the Commonwealth Championship happened for the first time this year in the city of Chennai. The names of the players are not mentioned in any of the games just for fun! It doesn’t take away anything from the quality of the games! We show here some of the most interesting games. In between, you will sometimes get positions to ponder about.

Commonwealth galatta!
By Arun Karthik

NUMBER ONE.
White to move.

Black is attacking f2. If White defends it with the rook, Black takes on f2 anyway – thanks to White’s weak back rank. In the game, White played 22.Qf3.

How can Black continue the initiative?

NUMBER TWO.
White to play.

Here, White could have simply castled kingside with an equal or slightly worse position. Unfortunately, White tried to be a little fancy! (கொஞ்சம் "different ஆ " ட்ரை பண்ணா ... Chess doesn't always allow you that luxury!)

10.¢f1 This isn’t such an attractive move at all. Things like "Complete the development" always hold good!

10…¤bd7 11.¦b1 Another fancy move. White’s position is deteriorating.

11...¥c5 and Black did not look back! The game ended in under 30 moves.

12.¤b3 0–0–0 13.¤xc5 ¤xc5

Black’s position looks overwhelming. White did not succeed in finding the best moves. However, it's hard to blame White here. In positions like this, it’s particularly hard to play for EQUALITY with WHITE pieces... and that too, so soon! Just 13 moves have been played.

14.¥a3 ¦he8 15.£c2 ¤e6 16.£b2 ¦d7 17.¥d6 ¤g5 18.¦g1 ¤g4 19.¥xh3 £xh3+ 20.¢e1 £xh2 21.¦f1 £g2 22.¤d1 ¤f3+ 23.exf3 exf3+ 24.¤e3 ¤h2 25.¥e5 ¤xf1 26.¤f5 b6 27.d4 £g1 28.¤xg7 ¦xe5+ 0–1

NUMBER THREE.

We have all looked at classical games where White has an isolani on d4 and attacks kingside, finishing with a sacrifice! Time and again, they keep appearing in tournament play.

In this position, White does not have an isolani of course, but the pieces are well-poised to finish the game.

Enjoy! This position will definitely remind you of games played in the early part of the 19^th century!

How can White continue?

NUMBER FOUR
“Misfortunes never come single!” (துன்பங்கள் தனித்து வருவதில்லை)

You might have heard of this somewhat clichéd phrase if you had read a good number of chess books. Here I give you an example from 2012. This has happened to players right from the days tournament play came into existence!

The position was in balance till Black’s previous move – 14…c6.

This move has seriously weakened some dark squares on Black’s queenside. Now watch the next move…

White played 15.0-0-0 and Black played

15…Qd7

This move simply walks into White’s 16.Na4.

Black was frustrated and lost without a fight…

16...cxd5 17.¤b6 £e8 18.¤xa8 d4 19.¤b6 dxe3 20.¤xc8 £xc8 21.¤xf5 £c7 22.fxe3 ¤e8 23.¤xg7 ¤xg7 24.¦hf1 ¦xf1 25.¦xf1 ¤c5 26.¥f3 ¤ce6 27.¥d5 1–0

NUMBER FIVE

Rook endings are always complex. In most of the cases, it’s so easy to blunder and that’s what makes it all the more intricate…

White has just played 55.f6 in this position. All Black had to do was just wait. A move like 55…Ra8 or even 55…Rc7 would have drawn. In this position, Black’s a-pawn is not really significant.

Instead Black played 55…Kg6?? Black wasn’t a weak player. It’s just that sometimes it doesn’t ‘come off’!

White happily played 56.Rg4+ and won soon…

56... ¢h7 57.¢f5 a4 58.¦h4+ ¢g8 59.¢g6 a3 60.¦b4 ¦a8 61.¦b7 ¦d8 62.¦g7+ ¢f8 63.¦h7 ¢e8 64.¦h8+ ¢d7 65.¦xd8+ 1–0

NUMBER SIX
Blind spots! (கண் இமைக்கும் நேரத்தில்!)

It’s very normal in contemporary openings to temporarily sacrifice a pawn and regain it a few moves later. It happens usually with c2-c4 (White) and …c7-c5 (Black)

However, be careful when you take the pawn back. Chess is not always simple mathematics!

(as in the previous position, here too, Black happens to be a strong player!)

Here Black played 19…Nxc5;

Only to resign a few moves later!

20. Bxc5 Qxc5 21.Rd8+ (Just twenty one moves!)

1-0

NUMBER SEVEN
Blind spot 2! (அதே மறுபடியும்!)

White just played 16.Nd4. Clearly, Black has to take as there’s no option; there are double threats – Nf5 and Nxc6.

Black played 16…exd4.

17.e5.

Instead of accepting the inferior position after 17…dxe5 18.Bxc6 Rc8 18.Bd7+ Nd7 19.Ra4, Black played

17…Bxg2

And resigned after 18.exf6!

1-0

NUMBER EIGHT
A series of unfortunate events! (சொதப்பல் காட்சிகள் !)

Sometimes, this also happens to chess players. It doesn’t matter how high rated you are!

Have a look at this position.

Black is definitely better here. A pawn up, Black simply has to bring the queen into play with 27…Qd6 and I am sure Black could have won.

Instead, Black played 27…Ngf8. “Why?”

28.Nf5. Here, it is +=.

28…e3?? Oh no!

29.Qb2 and it’s all over.

29…f6

30. Qa2+

1-0

Show is over! (கதை முடிந்தது)

Until next time,

Merry Christmas!

Happy holidays! :)

மீண்டும் சந்திப்போம்! :)

(Continuations for positions 1 and 3 will be published soon)

ChessAce

Dream Team of VTU (Part I)

Aradhya and Varshini win National under-17

Revisiting Roots!

My thought about Sinquefield Cup 2014

A Preview of World Chess Championship Match 2014

'Victory has defeated you' - My prediction

World Juniors- Memory of a lifetime!

Little moves of kindness!

'F' for Forward

Super Six for India at WYCC 2014!

Tactics Time! - Answers

The Paradox of work

Tactics Time!

Captain Courageous: R B Ramesh.

The Magnus Effect!

The Magnus Effect

THE HYPE :

PRESS CONFERENCE:

COMMENTATORS :

TWITTER and FACEBOOK:

BLOGS , ARTICLES , yada, yada….

Finally , THE GAMES ….what can I say? Really…what can I say?

Retreat!

Moscow Open - As I see it!

My experiences in US Amateur Team North

A Page from my Diary

Philosophical side of Chess III (off the board!)

Zugzwang!! A Poem

Before your life ends up in Zugzwang

Learn to pin, Devoid of sins!Skewer your thoughts,Hope against odds.

Hold on! Take charge and command. Do the best and Leave the Rest To God! And he will save your position from the Critical Zugzwang!

- Niranjan Navalgund

My life at SRM, "Chennai"

Magnus Carlsen, we bow down to you

Chess since Gary Kasparov

Life at Lindenwood!

Commonwealth galatta!

Learn to pin, Devoid of sins!

Skewer your thoughts,

Hope against odds.

Hold on! Take charge and command.

Do the best and Leave the Rest

To God!

And he will save your position from the Critical Zugzwang!