Nihal Sarin closes in on final Grandmaster norm
Former World champion Viswanathan Anand and India cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal among others took part in an online chess charity event, raising Rs 8.8 lakh for the waste pickers' community fighting the coronavirus pandemic. "Chess For Charity", held on Saturday on chess.com, saw India No.1 Anand, No. 2 Vidit Gujrathi, Grandmaster Nihal Sarin, Woman Grandmaster Tania Sachdev and Croatia's Antonio Radic take on a team of comedians comprising Biswa Kalyan Rath, Samay Raina, Abhishek Upamanyu and Aakash Mehta.
Summary of sports events and persons who made news on Tuesday
R Praggnanandhaa's ability to defend seamlessly in pressure situations and the deductive mind to quickly gauge his opponent's weakness is the hallmark of a world class player, national coach GM M Shyam Sundar said on Tuesday.
The Armenians protested for a long time delaying the start of the second round of matches before withdrawing following rejection of their appeal.
Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi pipped Rinat Zumabayev of Kazakhstan in the fifth round to share the top spot.
India's top player and Asian Games gold medallist Koneru Humpy, who had come back into medal contention after a modest performance on day two, had to settle for the sixth place though she logged eight points.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
For a long time, Viswanathan Anand was the lone flag-bearer of Indian chess, taking the world by storm with his exploits.
Apart from a place in the Candidates to be played in April next year in Canada, Vaishali got richer by US$25000 (Over Rs 20 Lakhs) while Vidit took home a whopping prize purse of US$80000 (Over Rs 66 Lakhs).
After six draws in a row, Praggnanandhaa was relieved after the victory, a result of Gupta's blunder under time pressure.
The day produced four decisive games and it was again the youngsters who provided most of the entertainment.
India and Russia were on Sunday declared joint winners of the 2020 Online Chess Olympiad after the final was marred by internet disconnection and server malfunction. This was the first time FIDE, the international chess federation, was holding the Olympiad in an online format, due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
Asked if the teenaged GM from Chennai needs to tone down on his aggression, Ramesh said, "I don't think so. That is one of his strengths. But, he must also learn every aspect of the game, not just aggression..."
Alireza Firouzja remained in joint lead with Caruana on 5.5 points and these two are now ahead of Wesley So of United States and Jorden Van Foreest of Holland.
It took Gujrathi 40 moves to outwit Benjamin and now he shares the lead with six others. The fourth Indian to cross the 2700 ELO rating barrier, Gujrathi will face American Grandmaster Aleksandr Lenderman in the fifth round.
S L Narayanan, a regular visitor to Pune for the Maharashtra Chess League, has a reputation for shocking seeded players. On Thursday, in the fourth round of the LIC World Junior Chess championships, at the Hotel Hyatt, the teenager from Kerala played true to his reputation and stunned Polish Grandmaster Kamil Dragun.
Anand firmly believes that India has enough talent to produce the next Chess World Champion
'It will be special. Looking forward to going to a world championship match without the tension of playing. I am a chess fan too and hope it will be a good match'
It was on move 21 that Giri thought he was out of trouble and proposed a draw.
The second day of the Tech Mahindra Global Chess League witnessed the debut of Magnus Carlsen, the strongest chess player in the world. C
Six-time world champion Viswanathan Anand will be a part of the Indian team for the Chess Olympiad to be held in Georgia later this year after he accepted the request from the All India Chess Federation.
Four draws and two wins on Under-20 boards helped India pull off the victory against the Chinese.
Indian Grandmasters Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Adhiban Baskaran registered wins in the first game of the two-game mini match in the second round of the FIDE chess World Cup in Sochi on Thursday.
With the Indian teams doing well so far, they can run into one another in the competition.
In 2019, World Champion Magnus Carlsen was asked to guess the nationality of the reigning world champion in 2050. He responded: 'India will have had many by then!'
Vaishali, sister of the Indian chess prodigy and GM R Praggnanandhaa, scored impressive victories over Mariya Muzychuk (Ukraine) and Russia's Valentina Gunina on the opening day of the Blitz championship.
Fabiano Caruana of United States made sure of his maiden title after beating Jan-Krzysztof Duda of Poland.
His semifinal match against Giri went up to 2am and a few hours later, he had to be at his school to take his 11th-class board examination.
Carlsen had previously indicated he would not consider the record truly broken until after two more games as he was not prepared to count two wins he had in the Norwegian league.
Nakamura secured four wins and five draws to stay as the sole leader after nine rounds.
The Serb set up the breakaway PTPA on the eve of the US Open in September and resigned as head of the player council but last month he confirmed that he had been nominated by his fellow professionals for the current elections which he accepted.
"I practice chess based on what I think is a priority, and what I feel like doing. I also read some chess books -- 'Saying No to Chess Principles' by Evgeny Bareev and 'Life and Games of Mikhail Tal"
India chess captain Vidit Gujrathi shared a memory of beating the legendary Viswanathan Anand for the first time and termed it as a special moment of his career.
The announcement was made by Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin on his Twitter page
Viswanathan Anand was held to a draw by Vladislav Artemiev of Russia in the eighth and penultimate round, ending the Indian challenge in the Isle of Man International Chess tournament on Sunday.
A summary of sports events and persons who made news on Thursday
Grandmaster B Adhiban finished tied third at the Chess.com Isle of Man International tournament after beating the highly-regarded Michael Adams of England in the ninth and final round, in Isle of Man (UK) on Monday.
Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa is just 13 years old but the boy is already going places and this was his second win against a 2700 Grandmaster.
Lesser-known Indian players continued to impress, while the fancied struggled to score, even as overseas Grandmasters took charge in the third round of the World Junior Chess Championships, being played at Hotel Hyatt, in Pune, on Wednesday. S L Narayanan was one of the early finishers, holding second seed and super GM Robin Van Kampen (2641) to a draw, while 10-year-old Nihal Sarin's impressive display again won him many admirers after he held Balazs CSonka (2409) to a draw to remain unbeaten after three encounters against opponents rated higher than 2400.
