3/10/2015 – As reported in a
previous article the recently concluded Indian National Team Championships
fielded super-strong players. During the event our reporter in Goa, Sagar
Shah, did something unique: he asked top players to select a special
moment from their games and explain what had gone through their minds at that point.
Their thought processes are provided as video commentary.
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How grandmasters think
Report from Goa by Sagar Shah
The 35th Indian National Team Championship and the 13th National Women Team Championship were held from the 20th to 26th of February in Panaji, Goa, located on the western coast. Goa is the smallest state of India, however, in terms of per capita GDP the richest state in the country.
As reported in my previous article the National Team Championships were won convincingly by the Petroleum Sports Promotion Board (PSPB) in the Open as well as the women section. The Open team had an amazing rating average of 2616 and included super strong players like B. Adhiban, Surya Shekhar Ganguly, Vidit Gujrathi , Abhijeet Gupta and Murali Karthikeyan. The PSPB women’s team too had two stars in former World Junior Champion WGM Soumya Swaminathan and innumerable times National Champion IM Nisha Mohota.
After the tournament was over we did something unique. The players were asked select one of those moments from their game which was crucial according to them. They were then asked to explain their thought process during that position and how they made a specific decision.
These positions are now presented to you and the answers to them in the form of videos analysis of these players. This was done with the sole intention of getting the readers of ChessBase to know how these great players think during the game. The best way to benefit from these videos is to think over a given position for a few minutes, get acquainted with it, and then listen to the protagonists speak.
Surya Shekhar Ganguly
A voracious calculator on the chess board, Surya Shekhar Ganguly has been amongst the best players of the country for a long time now. He was a member of Vishy Anand’s team for many years and helped him to defend World Championship titles against Kramnik, Topalov and Gelfand. Ganguly has also scored wins against strong players like Svidler, Aronian, Wojtaszek, Naiditsch etc.
Ganguly vs Akshat Khamparia White to play
Your task is to come up with an effective idea for the White side. Once you have done that you can view the meticulous way in which Ganguly analyses.
Dubbed as the most talented youngster in India, Adhiban is just 22 years old but already flaunts a rating of 2630. He has won many international events, most notable being the Sants Open in Barcelona in 2013 and Biel Open in 2014. Just a few days ago he beat Wei Yi, who is the youngest player to have crossed the Elo of 2700.
B. Adhiban vs P. Karthikeyan White to play. Adhiban asks the readers to come up with a plan for White.
What exactly must White do here in order to gain the initiative?
Apart from being an International Master Nisha Mohota is an extremely lively person. In her inimitable style she shows you a position in her game against a 1800 player where she botches up a very simple win. There is a wonderful message that Nisha wants to convey through this endgame that she shows.
Nisha Mohota vs C. Sunyukhta White to play and win
You can use ChessBase 12 or any of our Fritz compatible chess programs to replay the games in PGN. You can also download our free Playchess client, which will in addition give you immediate access to the chess server Playchess.com.
Sagar ShahSagar is an International Master from India with two GM norms. He loves to cover chess tournaments, as that helps him understand and improve at the game he loves so much. He is the co-founder and CEO of ChessBase India, the biggest chess news portal in the country. His YouTube channel has over a million subscribers, and to date close to a billion views. ChessBase India is the sole distributor of ChessBase products in India and seven adjoining countries, where the software is available at a 60% discount. compared to International prices.
This was great! I used these as training excercises and learned a lot!
Thank you!
APonti 3/13/2015 04:22
How _deep_and accurate can you calculate, that´s the question !Speaking of Ganguly´s game, wow, this is not a tree of variations... it´s a hole forest!
dysanfel 3/10/2015 11:42
Do more of these!!!!
snooper 3/10/2015 05:52
Great idea, Sagar, this is indeed useful and unique. Thanks for your patient work to make these videos possible.
Karbuncle 3/10/2015 04:27
Here's how GMs think: "I go here, he goes there, I go here, he goes there, I go here, he goes there" and so on.
KOTLD 3/10/2015 12:05
I really like the idea of these videos, I just wish we could have a clearer view of the board, since the low camera angle makes it a lot harder too see all the pieces.
jassisingh64775 3/10/2015 11:46
Sagar Shah Great way to Inspire who less Understand Chess and Very Good Analysis by All Players
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