Vidit Gujrathi suffers first defeat
India suffered a double blow, losing its third and fourth round matches to Europe and top-seeded China by similar 1.5-2.5 margins, on the second day of the FIDE-Chess.com Online Nations Cup on Wednesday. Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand came up against a strong opponent in Ding Liren and the two agreed to sign peace in 54 moves. P Harikrishna held higher-rated Yu Yangyi to a draw while long-time rivals Koneru Humpy and Hou Yifan drew their game.
India's R Vaishali crashed through the defenses of former World champion Mariya Muzychuk of Ukraine to move to 3.5 points after the fourth round of FIDE women's Grand Swiss, a part of the World Chess Championship cycle.
Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi scored his fourth victory on the trot and gave India an early lead in the match against Serbia in the fourth round of the ongoing 45th Chess Olympiad.
With Georgia likely to post a victory against overnight leader Kazakhstan, it seemed that the Indian eves were likely to regain the top position and become the firm favourites for the gold medal again.
The Indian men's and women's chess teams won silver medals at the Asian Games in Hangzhou on Saturday.
'It is not just D Gukesh, Arjun Erigaisi, Praggnanandhaa and Vidit Gujrathi.' 'There are another 20 players just behind them. Nobody imagined this was possible 5 years ago.'
Krishnan Sasikiran guided Indian men to a 2.5-1.5 win over Czech Republic but the women's team suffered a shocking 1-3 defeat against Hungary in the eighth round of the 43rd chess Olympiad, in Batumi, on Tuesday.
Grandmaster D Gukesh will face his first major challenge since becoming world champion when he begins his campaign in the Tata Steel Chess tournament, which starts on Friday in Wijk Aan Zee, The Netherlands.
Anand did not quite re-work his energy and lost to Carlsen in the first game of the third day and then made a draw with compatriot Vidit Gujrathi.
India became only the third country to win both the men's and women's gold medals at the same Chess Olympiad.
Vidit Santosh Gujrathi got off to a flying start, quickly winning her first round match in the World Junior Chess Championship, which commenced at Hotel Hyatt, in Pune, on Monday.
Five-time world champions Viswanathan Anand and Magnus Carlsen played out a draw in the top duel of the opening day as the second edition of the Global Chess League began with players from around the world squaring off in London on Thursday.
Anand needs to finish in a minimum sixth place in Kolkata, in order to qualify for the grand finale
Highest rated Indian P Harikrishna crushed Max Illingworth of Australia to virtually book a second round berth in the World Chess Cup now underway in Baku, Azerbaijan.
Former world champion Viswanathan Anand hailed the young GM's achievement.
Viswanthan Anand got back into the reckoning by defeating compatriot M Shyam Sundar in a one-sided affair in the Isle of Man International chess tournament on Wednesday. On a good day for Indians, former World junior champion Abhijeet Gupta tamed the highly-regarded Liem Le Quang of Vietnam.
Defending champion Ding Liren says the in-form Dommaraju Gukesh is the big favourite to win their World Chess title showdown in November.
Carlsen continued his dominating run as he took his lead to an almost unassailable five points.
The US team fought back brilliantly after being trounced in Round 1 by India to win the second and the Blitz tie-break 4.5-1.5, emerging victorious in an exciting semi-final in the FIDE Online Chess Olympiad on Tuesday.
The coin toss gave the Alaskan Knights the white pieces, with 20 minutes per player on the clock -- 40 minutes are alloted a match.
Overjoyed by India's remarkable dual triumph at the Chess Olympiad, five-time world champion Viswanathan Anand said that while this marks a promising beginning, there is still much work to be done for women's chess in the country.
'The Indian Open team was extremely well prepared and motivated to win the gold medal.' 'With two players in the world top 10 club, and four players with over 2,700 ELO points (GMs Arjun Erigaisi, D Gukesh, R Praggnanandhaa, all below 20) and Vidit Gujrathi and P Harikrishna, it was a solid team.'
Interestingly, all of R Praggnanandhaa's victories have come at the expense of the Indians so far in the tournament.
Indian Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi has a word of advice for World Championship contender D Gukesh ahead of his clash against China's Ding Liren -- just focus on your preparation and don't count yourself as a "huge favourite" going into the title showdown.
The image of a smiling D Gukesh standing with outstretched hands will forever be embossed in the memory of a nation of billions.
With his third victory in the event, Anand came back within striking distance of the leaders. His tally of six points out of ten is only one point less than Holland's Anish Giri, Norway's Magnus Carlsen and Azerbaijan's Shakhriyar Mamedyarov, all who have seven points apiece.
Grandmaster S P Sethuraman continued with his dream run and played out a fighting draw with higher ranked Anish Giri of Holland in the first game of the third round of World Chess Cup in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Magnus Carlsen concluded the first nine rounds with an impressive 6.5 points out of a possible 9.
India went down to Rest of the World 1.5-2.5 in the second round of the FIDE-Chess.com Online Nations Cup. Earlier in the opening round, India split points with USA with Humpy posting a win over Anna Zatonkish while the legendary Anand drew with the highly-rated Hikaru Nakamura.
It has bolstered the home team's medal chances at the 14-day event, which is expected to see massive participation from more than 150 countries.
Reigning world champion Magnus Carlsen of Norway steered clear of the field with another dominating victory over Jan Krzysztof Duda Poland.
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand played out an easy draw with black against local star Anish Giri but slipped to joint second spot after the sixth round of Tata Steel Chess tournament, in Wijk Aan Zee, on Saturday.
India played out a 2-2 draw against Europe in Online Nations Cup chess tournament in the eighth round, a setback after their first win in the event notched up against the Rest of the World. Vidith Gujrathi ended his barren spell with a win over Levon Aronian of Europe with white pieces while Jan-Krystozf Duda beat P Harikrishna to level the scores in the match on Friday.
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.
Playing chess all year round can take a huge toll on the physical and mental aspects of a player and Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa acknowledged that sometimes he has to completely take his mind off the sport to prepare for the upcoming challenges.
High-flying with his superman-cap, overnight joint leader Grandmaster Gupta ran out of steam and surrendered to Nakamura on a day when B Adhiban also did well to hold Levon Aronian of Armenia to a creditable draw.
The game incidentally was an old Sicilian where Shirov tried an unconventional ninth move.
Five-time World champion Viswanathan Anand continued to struggle with his form as he lost to 16-year old International Master Benjamin Gledura of Hungary in the seventh round of the Masters section of Gibraltar International Chess festival
Grandmaster Arjun Erigaisi pipped Rinat Zumabayev of Kazakhstan in the fifth round to share the top spot.
