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.
FIDE Master Girish A Koushik of India shot into the joint lead with Armenian Grandmaster Robert Hovhannisyan, with seven points, after defeating GM Nils Grandelius of Sweden in the eighth round of the 50th World Junior Chess Championships in Chennai on Wednesday. With this victory, Koushik earned a nine-game GM norm from the event and is well-placed to annex the title.
International Master Divya Deshmukh maintained a slender half-point lead after defeating Norman Kseniya of Russia in the eighth round of the World Junior Girls' chess championship in Gandhinagar on Monday.
On Tuesday, the 20-year-old Woman Grandmaster was among the quickest finishers in Round 2 of the World Junior Chess Championships at the Hotel Hyatt, in Pune.
Sachin Tendulkar marvelled at India's rise in newer disciplines, while Abhinav Bindra paid tribute to all those who "silently carry the athletes forward" as the two icons offered their views on India's sporting growth on National Sports Day.
Abundantly talented but more significantly, incredibly cool in crunch situations, that's how India's 88th Grandmaster and World Cup winner Divya Deshmukh was described by her formative coach Srinath Narayanan, who feels the 19-year-old chess wizard's composure is comparable only to cricket great Mahendra Singh Dhoni.
Erigaisi may have had to work harder but the Indian youngster, who is currently World number four, was never quite away from winning his game.
GMs S S Ganguly and Harikrishna finished eighth and ninth respectively.
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.
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!'
'You need hard work along with talent to reach exceptional heights.'
'The championship was well fought this year.' 'Ding played better than expected. Gukesh was below his level, but good enough to beat Ding.'
Divith's journey to the top was a rollercoaster ride, showcasing resilience and tactical brilliance.
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.
India's chess legend Viswanathan Anand was on Sunday elected deputy president of FIDE, the international chess federation, while incumbent president Arkady Dvorkovich was re-elected for a second term.
Lesser-fancied Indians again stole limelight in the LIC World Junior Chess Championships, being played at Hotel Hyatt, in Pune, on Friday. Nandhidhaa PV created a sensation in the fifth round, upsetting IM Meri Arabidze of Georgia, who is rated and titled higher than her, while 15-year-old Maria Ivana Furtado shocked Nguyen Thi Mai Hung to emerge joint leaders.
Real Madrid teammates Eder Militao, Eduardo Camavinga, and Aurelien Tchouameni praised him on social media, calling him the "best player."
Padmini Rout's unbeaten run was halted by top seed Aleksandra Goryachkina in the eighth round of the LIC World Junior Chess Championships, at the Hotel Hyatt, in Pune, on Tuesday. After a day's rest, the girls' section was dominated by the higher-rated Russians in the fray, with Daria Pustovoitova defeating Anna Iwanow of Poland. Both the Russian girls and Anna Iwanow of Peru jointly lead the girls' section in the 77-player event with 6.5 points each.
Yuzvendra Chahal and Dhanashree Verma's wedding album has brought great joy to the cricketing fraternity.
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.
Anand firmly believes that India has enough talent to produce the next Chess World Champion
India's Padmini Rout scored an impressive victory with plenty of fireworks to maintain her joint lead in the Girls section but favourite Viddit Santosh Gujrathi suffered a shock loss in the sixth round of the LIC World Junior Chess championship in Pune.
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.
The coin toss gave the Alaskan Knights the white pieces, with 20 minutes per player on the clock -- 40 minutes are alloted a match.
Defending champion Viswanathan Anand will start his campaign with black pieces against Magnus Carlsen of Norway in the first game of the 12-round World Chess Championship in Chennai on Saturday. After declaring the 'FIDE World Championship Match-2013' open, Tamil Nadu Chief Minister J Jayalalithaa picked the photograph of Anand from the first bowl and a 'black piece' from the other during the draw of lots for the match, to be held at Hyatt Regency hotel.
The announcement was made by Tamil Nadu chief minister M K Stalin on his Twitter page
'The Indian earthquake in Toronto is the culmination of the shifting tectonic plates in the chess world.'
Former under-10 world champion Sahaj Grover completed the formalities to become a Grandmaster defeating Jorge Cori of Peru in the ninth round of the World Junior Chess Championship in Athens, Greece.
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..."
It's been seven years since a chess player got the Arjuna award and the iconic Viswanathan Anand is hoping that India's triumphant campaign at the online Chess Olympiad will change this when the national sporting honours are announced next year.
Junior national champion Aravindh Chithambaram, pulled off a big surprise by defeating compatriot and GM Deep Sengupta in the 4th Mayor's Cup International Chess Tournament in Mumbai on Saturday.
Deep Sengupta and Kruthika Nadig won the boys and girls' titles respectively in the first National Sub-junior chess championship.
Chess master-turned-cricketer Yuzvendra Chahal went back to his old passion, headlining an online blitz event organised by chess.com, and said the sport taught him to be patient on the cricket field. A former national Under-12 chess champion, India cricketer Chahal has the distinction of having represented the country at the World Youth Chess Championships, and is listed on the World Chess Federation (FIDE) website. His Elo rating is 1956.
Kasparov leads the six-game Man versus Machine contest by half a point.
Armenian GM Robert Hovhannisyan halted giant-killer Girish Koushik's winning spree in the ninth round on a day when Fide Masters VAV Rajesh of Chennai Kerala's SL Narayanan and local lass Michelle Catherina obtained their International Master norms with strong positive performances in the ongoing World Junior Chess Championships.
Shakhriyar Mamedyarov and Gu Xiaobing lead the boys and girls' sections respectively in the World junior chess championships.
Indian men's hockey team captain Harmanpreet Singh said the honour is a recognition of his "fascinating" journey in which he still has plenty more to achieve.
Viswanathan Anand may not quite have an heir yet among Indian chess players, but the country has youngsters with the highest aspirations.
