3/25/2023 – Generally after winning a tournament in a dominating fashion, players tend to relax. That's not what GM Leon Luke Mendonca did. After clinching 27th Hit Open 2023 on the previous day, the teenager went on to defeat FM Domen Tisaj to score a perfect 9/9. Leon, who has just turned 17, performed at 3196, which earned him 26.4 Elo rating points. This is Leon's second consecutive tournament triumph this month: he remains undefeated after winning 38th ChessOrg Festival Bad Woerishofen 2023 on 11th March. Report with full post-match interview.

3/23/2023 – Leon Luke Mendonca has won the 2023 Hit Open with a round to spare after scoring eight wins in as many games. In the penultimate round, the teenager defeated GM Nigel Davies in just 19 movies. The veteran grandmaster from England neglected the safety of his king and paid a heavy price for it. The youngster from Goa turned 17 years old just ten days ago. | Photo: Nova Garica Chess Club

3/4/2023 – Sayantan Das won the sixth edition of the Cannes Chess Open. He defeated top seed Alexander Motylev in the final round to become the outright winner with 7½/9 points. This win also helped him to cross 2500 in the ratings list and become India’s 81st grandmaster. Sayantan had fulfilled all the norm requirements in January 2017. | Photo: Susan Polgar

3/2/2023 – GM Sethuraman S P gave himself the best gift on his 30th birthday, as he won the 2023 Cappelle-la-Grande Open. He and GM Harsha Bharathakoti scored an unbeaten 7½/9 each. Sethuraman won the tournament on tie-breaks. The game between them in the penultimate round ended in a draw. WIM Mounika Akshaya Bommini won the Best Woman prize. | Photo: L'Echiquier Cappellois

2/28/2023 – The reigning World Under-14 Open champion, Ilamparthi A R won WR Chess Junior Under-14 Boys with a perfect 5/5. He also won the Blitz event. These triumphs came 11 days after he became India's latest International Master at the 21st Rochefort Chess Festival Masters 2023. Ilamparthi, along with other participants of the junior tournament, also got training by the former world championship challenger, the legendary GM Boris Gelfand, and Germany no.1 female, GM Elisabeth Paehtz. We all hope he soon becomes a GM and strong enough to participate in the Masters events. Photo: Lennart Ootes/WR Chess 2023

2/5/2023 – It is rare to see female players take part in the open section of national championships. But 19-year-old IM Nurgyul Salimova decided to do it at the 2023 Bulgarian Championship. She scored an impressive 6/9 and edged past two grandmasters (who also collected 6 points) to finish second overall. Salimova obtained four wins, four draws and suffered her sole loss of the event against the top seed and eventual champion, GM Kiril Georgiev. | Photo: Nurgyul’s Instagram page

12/31/2022 – Magnus Carlsen has become World Blitz champion for the sixth time in his career. He won it in 2009, 2014, 2017, 2018, 2019 and now 2022. The Norwegian also became World Triple Crown champion for the third time in his career (2014, 2019 and 2022). Unlike 2019, this time Carlsen became a clear champion by scoring 16/21, a full point ahead of Hikaru Nakamura (USA) 15/21. Haik Martirosyan (ARM) scored the same and finished third on tie-breaks. The defending champion, IM Bibisara Assaubayaeva (KAZ) won her last five games to clinch the Gold 13/17. Koneru Humpy scored a magnificent 8.5/9 in her last nine games to secure Silver 12.5/17. IM Polina Shuvalova won the Bronze 12/17. Photo: Amruta Mokal

11/9/2022 – IM Laura Unuk has been the best woman of her country, Slovenia for over seven years. She has won several Slovenia girls championships - Under-10, 12, 14, 16 and 18 from 2009 to 2017. She has also won a team Gold, individual Gold (2014) and Silver (2017) at European Under-18 Girls' Team. She is also the World Youth Under-16 (2014) and Under-18 Girls (2017) champion. The brand ambassador of Ferme Fashion and Huawei Slovenia also became the brand ambassador of Ford Slovenia. She was given a brand-new custom designed Ford Puma hybrid car which she calls Pumica (Baby Puma). On her 23rd birthday, we wish her a very happy birthday and bring you a short interview we conducted few days ago. Photo: Cestni Dirkac

8/29/2022 – Arjun Erigaisi won his final-round game against David Anton to clinch first place at the 28th Abu Dhabi Masters. He played with the sole purpose of winning the game, as he kept manoeuvring until his opponent broke and made a mistake. Javokhir Sindarov and Jorden van Foreest claimed second and third place, scoring 7/9 and 6½/9 points, respectively. Six out out of top ten places were claimed by Indians. | Photo: Rupali Mullick

7/11/2022 – Indian prodigy Gukesh won his fifth consecutive tournament in Spain, fourth in this year. He scored an unbeaten 8/9 to win the 14th Gijon City Closed tournament, finishing 1½ points ahead of the competition. The youngest GM of India gained 9.7 Elo points and is now less than 7 points away from reaching the 2700-rating barrier. | Photo: Gijón 64

6/6/2022 – The second leg of the MPL Indian Chess Tour, sponsored by the Play Magnus Group, took place on June 2-6 as a 16-player single round-robin. Aravindh Chithambaram and Nihal Sarin finished in shared first place on 32/45 points — the football scoring system was in place — but Aravindh scored a higher number of wins, which granted him tournament victory. This win earned Aravindh a spot in the next event of the Meltwater Champions Chess Tour.

5/11/2022 – Gukesh won his third consecutive tournament in Spain as he scored an unbeaten 8/10 to claim first place at the Chessable Sunway Formentera Open. After missing several tournament triumphs on tiebreaks, Gukesh got outright victory in Formentera by finishing a half point ahead of the field. Jaime Santos (Spain) and Shant Sargsyan (Armenia) completed the podium. | Photo: Official site

4/18/2022 – Gukesh won his first classical tournament of the year at the 48th edition of the La Roda International Open. He obtained an unbeaten 8/9 score to finish a half point ahead of the competition. Haik Martirosyan from Armenia secured second place as the only player who got 7½/9 points. Five players scored 7/9, with Praggnanandhaa and Raunak Sadhwani getting third and fourth places respectively on tiebreaks. | Photo: Official site

3/6/2022 – Rating favourite Arjun Erigaisi won the MPL 58th National Senior Chess Championship 2022, which took place from February 25 to March 3 in the city of Kanpur. Arjun edged past D Gukesh and Iniyan P on tiebreaks. All three of them scored 8½/11 points. Only four players younger than Arjun have won the National Senior title in Indian chess history. | Photo: Aditya Sur Roy

2/14/2022 – Over-the-board chess tournament is resuming in India, starting with National Senior Open and Women 2022 later this month. There will be three consecutive GM Open tournaments at Guwahati, Delhi and Ahmedabad. It starts from 13th March. You can make plans for the three strong events which has a very good prize fund too. Check out the excellent conditions which are being offered for foreign GMs, IMs, WGMs and WIMs at three GM Open events. Photo: Various tournament circulars

2/9/2022 – There are plenty of openings to choose from and learn. Which one to prepare and where to begin? We are here to solve that dilemma. Austria no.1 and FIDE Trainer Markus Ragger explained the basics of the Grunfeld Defence. He even included his most recent games in this two volume ChessBase DVD. The opening course has been created with thorough research and utmost care because he himself plays it in his career. Check out the 100+ minutes long interactive session with IM Sagar Shah where Markus Ragger shows and explains a lot of lines of the popular opening and answers audience questions too. Photo: ChessBase India

11/22/2021 – Levon Aronian beat Arjun Erigaisi in the Armageddon Playoffs to win Tata Steel Chess India 2021 Blitz. The second day of the Blitz event saw several players at the top throughout the day, including Nihal, Gukesh, Levon, Parham and Arjun. However, in the end it was Aronian and Arjun who tied for the first place at 11½/18 each. Arjun was completely winning in both Playoff games, and Aronian admitted that he should have lost at least one of them. | Photo: Lennart Ootes

11/21/2021 – Records keep tumbling when Arjun Erigaisi plays tournaments. The 18-year-old continues his brilliant momentum in Blitz as he scored an unbeaten 6½/9 to gain sole lead. He is the only player who remained undefeated for nine rounds of Blitz. His total unbeaten streak is at 16 games now at Tata Steel Chess India 2021. That’s not all: he has climbed to World no.14 and India no.2 in Blitz in the live ratings. Aronian is once again in pursuit of Arjun as he is just a half point behind him at 6/9. They will face each other in the 14th round. | Photo: Lennart Ootes