12/2/2019 – The Tata Steel Chess India 2019 was held from November 22nd to the 26th, 2019 in Kolkata, India. It was truly a trailblazing event being the strongest tournament ever to be organized on not just Indian but Asian soil. IM SAGAR SHAH reflects on the ten things that according to him made the Tata Steel Chess India special. A photo / video retrospective.

11/30/2019 – He started as the seventh seed, but finished as the winner with a rating performance of 2752, gaining 23 Elo points and scoring 9.0/11 to become the World Junior Champion 2019. His name is Evgeny Shtembuliak. Originally from Ukraine, the youngster now lives in the United States and is studying on a full scholarship at the Texas Tech University. His feel for positional chess is outstanding and at the age of 20, he is already rated 2600. Being the World Junior Champion, we are sure to see him in action in many important events in the coming months. IM SAGAR SHAH got in touch with Evgeny after his World Juniors victory in Delhi for an interview. In this article you get to know everything you wanted to about this genial champion.

11/28/2019 – Vladimir Akopian had almost all the ingredients to become one of the best players in the world. He was fearless, he had phenomenal talent, he understood the game excellently. But he lacked one ingredient: the will to work hard. And that's what stopped him at the final hurdle. This is the story of the life of one of the finest grandmasters in the world. Welcome to Part 2 of the interview with Vladimir Akopian. | Photo: Amruta Mokal

11/27/2019 – Tata Steel Chess India, the penultimate event of the Grand Chess Tour 2019, came to an end with Magnus Carlsen showing his best ever GCT performance, scoring 27 points out of a total 36. He will be joined by Ding Liren, Levon Aronian and Maxime Vachier-Lagrave in the tour's final event the London Chess Classic starting next week. IM SAGAR SHAH brings you the detailed report of the action on the final day from Kolkata.

11/26/2019 – Watch Day 5 Blitz | The blitz event is much more intense than the rapid. You have to play nine games in four and a half hours. It was fairly obvious that the players were quite tired, thus they made a lot of errors. However, you could also see a lot of brilliant moves being played. Magnus Carlsen once again set the tone with a 6½/9 performance. He is now the overall leader by a gap of five points over the nearest contender. For Indian fans the main goal would be to see Vishy Anand qualifying for the Grand Chess Tour Finals to be held from November 28th in London. In this report we bring you some of the best and most interesting games, selected tactical positions and mating attacks!

11/25/2019 – Watch Day 4 Blitz | Magnus Carlsen performed at an astronomical Elo of 3027 at the Tata Steel Chess India 2019 Rapid. He scored 15.0/18, with six wins and three draws. According to Magnus, this was his best performance ever in rapid format. He gained 36.8 Elo points, taking his rapid rating to 2885. He also overtook MVL and thus became World no.1 in rapid. Hikaru Nakamura took the second spot with 11.0/18 and Wesley So was third. The tournament has not yet ended of course — we've moved to the blitz section with 18 more rounds to be played. The cumulative score of both the formats will determine the winner. A detailed day three report from the National Library in Kolkata.

11/24/2019 – Magnus Carlsen does not cease to impress. This time it was not just on the chess board! He was called as the guest of honour along with Vishy Anand to open the day two of the cricket test match between India and Bangladesh. In between rounds four and five, he entertained one and all with his football skills. Last but not the least, he was an absolute monster on the board as he completely outplayed Hikaru Nakamura and Anish Giri. His last game for the day was a draw against Vidit Gujrathi. Magnus now has a lead of three points with 10.0/12. He is followed by Hikaru Nakamura and Wesley So. In this report we bring to you detailed analysis, pictures, videos from the National Library in Kolkata.

11/23/2019 – Chess is spread all over the city of Kolkata! Amidst the hoopla of the opening ceremonies, IM SAGAR SHAH managed to do a small quiz with the World Champion Magnus Carlsen, Anish Giri, Vidit Gujrathi and Erwin l'Ami. The quiz dealt with the best games of Anand's chess career (because the players were in India and Vishy will turn 50 in a few days!) and the players had to guess Anand's best move and also the opponent in the game. Magnus Carlsen impressed one and all with his memory! Check out how he and the others fared!

11/23/2019 – The strongest ever tournament on Indian, in fact Asian soil, kicked off on the 22nd of November 2019. Three rounds of rapid chess were played on day one. Six years ago, on this very day Magnus Carlsen had become the World Champion by beating Anand in Chennai. Carlsen continued from where he left and now leads the tournament with 5.0/6. He is followed by Nakamura on 4.0/6. We bring to you the game analysis of all six decisive games of day one and also pictorial impressions and videos from the venue. Not to be missed is Anand's win against Wesley So, Vidit's Houdini like escape against Ding Liren and Nakamura's positional squeeze against Giri.

11/18/2019 – The European Club Cup came to an end with the fourth seeds Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova in the Open and third seeds Nona in the Women's tournament winning the title. The most important feature of both the teams was consistent performance by all the team members en route to wininng the title. In this article we bring you some of the most interesting moments from the event and also pictures from the closing ceremony.

11/15/2019 – The European Club Cup is witnessing some fantastic games. Five out of seven rounds have been completed and the Italian team of Obiettivo Risarcimento Padova is leading with a perfect score of 10.0/10. In the women's section there is a tie between the Georgian team Nona and the Ukrainian Kyiv Chess Federation. IM SAGAR SHAH reports on the results and the performances with a special focus on the amazing game between Ivan Saric and Aydin Suleymanli.

11/14/2019 – A lot of young talents like Praggnanandhaa, Sindarov, Abdusattorov, Gukesh etc. have tried their best to break Sergey Karjakin's record of becoming the youngest GM in the world at the age of 12 years and 7 months. But they all missed it by a small margin. Who has the best chance to break this record now? Well, it's a 10-year-old American boy of Indian origin who lives in New Jersey. Meet Abhimanyu Mishra, the youngest IM in the world. The youngster achieved this feat on November 8th 2019, at the age of 10 years 9 months and 3 days, thereby eclipsing Praggnanandhaa's record of the youngest IM by 17 days. Learn more about the youngster through this article and have a glimpse of his chess skills through the annotated game that he has sent us!

11/11/2019 – The European Club 2019 is taking place in Montenegro from the 10th to the 16th of November 2019. Team Alkaloid is the top seed in the open section and Kyiv Chess Federation is the strongest team in the women's section. Altogether 66 teams in the open and 14 teams in women have taken part. The first round was quite an easy one for all the top seeds. We acquaint you with the teams and also tell you about what you can expect in the next rounds.

10/28/2019 – Wrapping up our coverage of the World Junior Championship, we bring you all the pictures from the closing ceremony as well as photos of the 17 norm makers. Reporting from one last time are the intrepid team of Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal. | Pictured: Volodar Murzin and Praggnanandhaa — future world title contenders? | Photo: Amruta Mokal

10/27/2019 – The World Junior Championships officially came to an end on October 26th 2019 when players from over 50 countries left for home. Two new World Champions were crowned: Evgeny Shtembuliak in the Open section and Polina Shuvalova in the Girls' section. The silver and the bronze medal in the Open section went to the Armenians, Shant Sargsyan and Aram Hakobyan respectively. In the Girls' section it was Mobina Alinasab from Iran who won the silver and Elizaveta Solozhenkina who won the bronze. We take you to the moments of the final rounds where the six medals were decided in a huge report from New Delhi by Sagar Shah, Amruta Mokal, Niklesh Jain and Angela Franco. | Photo: Niklesh Jain

10/24/2019 – He read the Zurich Interzonal 1953 book written by Bronstein and Gelfand's Positional Decision Making to improve his positional understanding. He goes to the gym and swims every day to stay fit. He is the sole leader in the open section with a score of 7½/9 and has a performance rating of 2783. She won the under-18 world championship 2019. She's sure to go the gym every morning, and she enjoys each and every moment she spends on the chess board. She has an Elo performance of 2585 and is leading the girls section at the World Junior with 8.0/9. That's Evgeny Shtembuliak and Polina Shuvalova for you! These two youngsters are looking unstoppable at the World Juniors 2019.

10/23/2019 – Polina Shuvalova is on fire at the World Junior 2019. After her pretty queen sacrifice at the World Youth 2019 that went viral, the Russian youngster yet again sacrificed her queen, this time at the World Junior. This one wasn't as deep or beautiful as what we saw in Mumbai in her game against Afonasieva, but to beat a player like Assaubayeva with a queen sacrifice is never easy! In the open section we have two leaders: Shtembuliak drew his game against Shant Sargsyan. This let Miguel Santos Ruiz catch up. The Spaniard beat Praggnanandhaa in pretty fashion to join Shtembuliak at the top. IM SAGAR SHAH brings a detailed report from New Delhi.

10/22/2019 – In 2018 we had Parham Maghsoodloo who made a dash towards the finish line at the World Junior Championships. He won the event with one round to spare. In 2019 it seems like Evgeny Shtembuliak is going to take the honours. Although there are still four rounds left to be played, the Ukrainian GM has beaten some of the strongest opposition in the tournament. In round seven he got the better of GM Aram Hakobyan in a tense encounter. Shtembuliak leads with 6.0/7. He is followed on 5½/7 by Miguel Santos Ruiz alone. In the girls section Mobina Alinasab remained in the lead after her draw against Stavroula Tsolakidou, but she was joined at the top by Polina Shuvalova as well. IM SAGAR SHAH brings you detailed round seven report from New Delhi. | Photo: Niklesh Jain