India's 65th GM beats former World Champion Challenger

By Shahid Ahmed

Due to the Covid-19 pandemic all over-the-board tournaments have either been cancelled or postponed. However chess is such a sport that can still be played online without huge modifications, in fact slim to none would be the right thing to say. Thanks to various online platforms, players from all over the world can now play against the stronger opponents from the comfort of their home. Since most of the top players are not taking part in any over-the-board tournaments, they are often seen in various titled tournament events. Indian GM Raunak  Sadhwani made the most of the opportunity and beat the former World Championship Challenger Fabiano Caruana (and had a a winning position against Anish Giri). What is sopecial about this result: Raunak is all of fourteen years old!

Every Tuesday an online blitz tournament takes place on chess.com, where only titled players all over the world are allowed to take part. Last Tuesday (7th July) GM Raunak Sadhwani started the day well and got a winning position against Anish Giri in Round four. However Giri somehow managed to save the day. Caruana won the Swiss League with 9.0/10 and Raunak finished eighth with 8.5/10. But Raunak eliminated Caruana in the one-game mini match after Caruana misplayed in a completely winning position.

Anish Giri praised Raunak's win over Caruana and said Raunak's loss against him was an "unlucky defeat"

We now bring you analysis by IM Sagar Shah, the founder and CEO of ChessBase India. It is very instructive to follow his comments on this YouTube video and learn more about the ideas and thought processes of top players. If your screen is large enough you can at the same time follow the game on our replay board below the video.

If you have any "but why not?" or "what if?" questions that Sagar doesn't address, simply pause the video and ask the enigine on the replay board (fan icon below the chess diagram). If both the video and the relayer do not fit on your screen, try pressing Ctrl- (Ctrl Minus) a couple of times to compress the display (Ctrl-0 will restore the display to its original size).

In addition you should also pause the video when Sagar poses his quiz questions. Jot your answer on a piece of paper and award yourself the points he awards if you were right. Thinking is fun! So enjoy watching the dramatic game Raunak-Fabio, with Sagar commenting:

As you probably know, in our replay board above there are a large number of functions you can use to really understand the game and the analysis. The biggest advantage is that you can start an engine (fan icon) that will help you to analyse. You can get multiple lines of analysis by clicking the + button to the right of the engine analysis window. The "!" key, incidentally, shows you the threat in any position, which is incredibly useful in the case of unclear moves.

There is one more thing you can do. It is a lot of fun, but also a serious challenge: Click on the rook icon below the notation window. This will allow you the play the above position against Fritz, at your level of playing strength (e.g. "Club Player"), right here on the news page. Note that your analysis, in which you can delete, move or promote lines, is stored in the notation as new variations. In the end you will find the game with your analysis in the cloud. So nothing is ever lost,

And here is the unlucky game Raunak played against world's to ten GM Anish Giri:

Also read:

• Raunak Sadhwani is India's 65th GM
• The ingredients that helped Raunak Sadhwani become the 65th GM of India
• Mature beyond his years (like winning bronze at the U19 national championship at 11!)