Grandmaster R Praggnanandhaa opened his campaign in the FTX Crypto Cup, the American finale of Champions Chess Tour, with a 2.5-1.5 win over the world's top junior player Alireza Firouzja in Miami.
The Indian teams made winning starts in the Open and women's sections of the 44th Chess Olympiad in Chennai on Friday.
Indian chess players failed to finish on the podium in the individual events
Mumba's only win came on the prodigy board. Jonas Bjerre of American Gambits launched an all-out attack against Raunak Sadhwani, even sacrificing a piece.
In the women's event, Koneru Humpy and D Harika posted wins in the fifth round after a below par showing on the second day of the competition on Monday.
Young Indian Grandmaster D Gukesh finished fifth while his illustrious compatriot Viswanathan Anand could only manage a tied seventh place in the third leg of the 2023 SuperUnited Rapid and Blitz chess tournament.
Since 2012, 44 Indians have been anointed as grandmasters -- the highest achievement in chess, points out Arvind Subramanian, economist and former chief economic adviser to the government.
'We need more support from states to back budding talents from not-so-affluent families.'
Former women's World champion Susan Polgar feels that the rising strength of Indian players makes them favourites to grab three out of the six medals at stake.
'The win will change a lot of things in Praggu... the confidence in his potential will be one of them. The win has ensured a lot of visibility which will give him a lot of opportunities.'
World chess champion Magnus Carlsen said on Monday he believed Hans Niemann had "cheated more - and more recently - than he has publicly admitted", adding he no longer wanted to play against the American and any rivals who repeatedly cheated in the past.
Carlsen and Praggnanandhaa had drawn their previous three encounters in this format.
Gukesh had an exciting match against Nepomniachtchi out of a Catalan opening game on Tuesday.
Indian Grandmaster Viswanathan Anand posted his second win on the trot, defeating Bulgarian Veselin Topalov in the Classical section to take the lead at the Norway Chess tournament.
Chess will crown a new world champion when Ian Nepomniachtchi and Ding Liren begin their battle on Sunday.
Arjun Erigaisi briefly reached a career-high live rating of 2771.2 earlier this week and is the only Indian since Vishwanathan Anand to do so.
IDE, for the very first time has instituted the torch relay, which is part of the Olympic tradition but was never done in the Chess Olympiad.
Indian chess icon Viswanathan Anand placed with nine points from seven rounds of Rapid (involving two mini-matches) and 14 rounds of Blitz.
Arjun also remained unbeaten through all the nine rounds and finished half a point ahead of Uzbekistan's Javokhir Sindarov.
The Gashimov Memorial tournament this year is being played as a rapid and blitz chess tournament.
India face competition from Saudi Arabia, Qatar and Turkey, who are positioning themselves as strong contenders to host the 2036 Olympics.
The second game of the Chess World Cup final between Rameshbabu Praggnanandhaa and Magnus Carlsen ended in a draw after 30 moves.
Indian GM was impressive against a fancied and higher rated opponent
Anand showed impressive form with a victory over Carlsen to lead the standings after the fifth round but was outgunned by Mamedyarov
The source also said Khadem's relatives and parents, who are in Iran, had also received threats, without giving further details.
D Gukesh and R Praggnanadhaa played out their eighth draw in as many games at the Sinquefield Cup.
He finished 11th in the standings with 19 points with the top eight going through to the knockout phase at the ongoing Airthings Masters.
Chess great Magnus Carlsen is launching a world Freestyle Chess tour as the variant of the game, also known as Chess960, is gaining in popularity, the world number one announced on Friday.
Bibek Debroy was one of the very few economists not bound by any single area of expertise and was simultaneously curious about economics and politics, myths and maths, chess and chemistry, and what not, remembers Laveesh Bhandari.
This was the second time this month that the Norwegian has surrendered games or pulled out from a tournament which also featured Niemann.
The champion was ultimately decided in a series of sudden-death blitz games where the decisive outcome came in the fourth game.
Russian chess great Garry Kasparov has expressed hope that his "little joke" on Indian politics does not pass for "advocacy or expertise" after his cheeky social media post on Congress MP Rahul Gandhi's love for the game went viral.
'The Indian earthquake in Toronto is the culmination of the shifting tectonic plates in the chess world.'
The All India Chess Federation (AICF) on Saturday said it will be bidding to host the 44th Chess Olympiad later this year after the prestigious event was moved out of Russia following its invasion of Ukraine.
Over the past few months, the overall interest in chess is reported to have doubled, with more players than ever coming together to participate in chess events that are being increasingly held through online platforms
Anand firmly believes that India has enough talent to produce the next Chess World Champion
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.
Arjun Erigaisi is in joint lead with 4.5 points from five rounds along with World No. 1 Magnus Carlsen and Vladimir Fedoseev after holding the Norwegian superstar in round five.
China would have been among the top medal contenders in the Olympiad and their absence would brighten India's chances.
If one has to analyse Ashwin the cricketer, it is very difficult to ignore Ashwin, the person, who had a very independent mind and a brain that probably ticked 24x7. He believed in de-construction of his art and became craftier one ball at a time.
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