12/19/2023 – D Gukesh scored his second win in-a-row, against Sanan Sjugirov, in the fifth round of the Chennai Grand Masters. Gukesh seized his advantage and synthesized an attack on the kingside. Sjugirov had no proper answer to it and succumbed. The Arjun Erigaisi-Levon Aronian saga continues. Arjun had a great opportunity to beat Aronian for the first time in a rated game in over two years. Unfortunately, he pushed a pawn incorrectly in the rook endgame and eventually lost his advantage. The two-time World Cup winner managed to salvage a draw. Pavel Eljanov handed Alexandr Predke his third consecutive loss. Gukesh is in the sole lead with 3½/5, followed by Pentala Harikrishna and Eljanov at 3/5 each. | Photos: Shahid Ahmed

10/25/2023 – India is beginning to seriously dominate the chess world, the country is on a path to becoming the super-power in the game. This is deeply gratifying – especially for the people involved in the training and advancement of the young stars. Frederic Friedel describes how the new group of super-talents is making its way to the very top. Other countries should take this as an example!

8/15/2023 – Four out of the eight players who reached the quarterfinals in the open section of the FIDE World Cup are Indian, as Vidit Gujrathi joined Praggnanandhaa, Arjun and Gukesh by beating Ian Nepomniachtchi in the tiebreaks of the round-of-16. In the women’s section, Aleksandra Goryachkina, Anna Muzychuk and Nurgyul Salimova advanced to the semifinals. | Photo: FIDE / Stev Bonhage

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

9/17/2022 – In the fourth episode of “Olympiad Stories with Saravanan”, we focus on the 14th world champion, Vladimir Kramnik. Kramnik arrived at the world scene in 1992 at the Manila Olympiad, with a score of 8½/9. His performance rating was over 2900! This was the stage where he broke through, before eventually defeating Garry Kasparov in the World Championship. In this episode, you get to know not only about the 1992 Olympiad and Kramnik’s games, but also about Vladimir’s personality.

5/25/2021 – This is a 12-year-old on a mission: to become the youngest chess grandmaster in history. Abhimanyu Mishra has made two norms, but in his latest tournament suffered a setback: in time trouble refused a draw offer by a GM and discovered that this is not such a great idea. Abhi lost the game, and a second one to boot, but staged a remarkable comeback with four back-to-back wins. He gained nine rating points and is currently just eight points from his goal. Read the messages of encouragement the lad from Englishtown, New Jersey, is getting from well-known personalities from all over the world.

3/29/2021 – Grandmaster Vladimir Kramnik became the Classical World Chess Champion in 2000 by beating Garry Kasparov. He defended his title in 2004 against Péter Lékó, and defeated the reigning FIDE World Champion Veselin Topalov in a unification match in 2006. In this article I will make a meal I think Kramnik would like and annotate the game Ponomariov – Kramnik, Linares 2003 | Photo: Lennart Ootes

2/19/2021 – This summer Vladimir Kramnik and Viswanathan Anand will face each other in an innovative chess variant, proposed by Kramnik: No-Castling chess. There is one simple rule change – no castling allowed, everything else remains the same as in the regular chess – is meant to combat over-preparation and drawing tendencies in chess. Experience shows that it also leads to more exciting games. In parallel the online Sparkassen Playchess Open for participants from all over the world will be in the "No-Castling“ format. This is your chance to try it out.

12/25/2020 – Do you know how many chess variants there are? In 1994 David Pritchard counted 1,450. Many are complex and require long explanations of the rules. Here's a variant that takes just a few seconds to explain, but completely changes the spirit of the game: Checkless Chess! Try it over the holiday season with friends – or solve a few brain-numbing puzzles. A Merry Christmas to all our readers!

12/22/2020 – Vishy Anand has ruled the number one spot in Indian chess for over three decades now. The five-time World Champion is now 51 years old and is still very much one of the best in the world. But Anand also wants to ensure that there are youngsters in India who rise quickly to the top of the world rankings in the years to come. It is with this objective in mind that the Westbridge Anand Chess Academy has been created. Nihal Sarin, Praggnanandhaa, Raunak Sadhwani, Gukesh and Vaishali are the five youngsters who received a fellowship and will be personally mentored by Vishy Anand.

7/11/2020 – Boris Gelfand is currently the top-ranked chess player in Israel. In the early 1990s, Gelfand was ranked third in the world. To show appreciation for Gelfand, this article has two recipes for dishes that he likes to eat and two of his wins. WIM Alexey Root tells why Gelfand is a Grandmaster Chef honoree. | Photo: Vladimir Jagr

5/30/2020 – Two months ago, just before his 14th birthday, Indian super-talent (Elo 2452) Leon Luke Mendonca played in the 1st Saturday tournament in Budapest, Hungary. He was scheduled to fly back on the 18th of March, but the Indian government closed the country on the 19th, when the flight was supposed to arrive. So for over two months now Leon and his father Lyndon have been separated from their family in Goa. Only comfort: they are stranded in what Lyndon called "one of the most beautiful cities in the world." And they got to meet a wonderful lady who inspired the young chess player deeply. Latest: yesterday five-time World Champion Vishy Anand was able to fly bacck to India after being stranded for over three months in Frankfurt, Germany.

3/6/2020 – The year 2020 has begun well for youngster D. Gukesh. He won the Hillerød Chess Club open in Denmark, and went on to fly through the Cannes Open as well. In a field that had over ten grandmasters, Gukesh scored 7½/9 with a rating performance of 2667. While Gukesh's performance and live rating of 2565 is impressive, what is even more jaw-dropping is the fact that the youngster says he has never used an engine for his preparation! In this article, Gukesh sends us an annotated game from the Cannes Open which, like always, he has analysed all by himself. A detailed report on Gukesh's victory along with an interview with the winner.

2/3/2020 – Last August former World Champion Vladimir Kramnik trained six Indian super-talents in Geneva. They went on to score remarkable tournament success and GM norms, attributing their performance directly to the training session. The sponsor, Microsense PL, decided to stage another training camp, this time with fourteen players and in south Indian city of Chennai, with two super-GMs. Frederic Friedel visited the camp and found it deeply impressive. Here is his pictorial report. | Photos: Amruta Mokal

1/19/2020 – All the rules of chess remain the same, just that both the players cannot castle. How does removing this one rule alter the game? Well, we decided to put this idea to test by getting 13 of the strongest Indian youngsters (average Elo: 2457) and holding the first ever No-Castling chess tournament at the Microsense Kramnik Gelfand Training camp in Chennai. Check out all the games, videos, analysis by IM SAGAR SHAH and some brilliant photos by Amruta Mokal.

1/6/2020 – Fourteen of the brightest talents of Indian chess will train with two of the legends in the world of chess: Vladimir Kramnik and Boris Gelfand. The Microsense Kramnik Gelfand chess program runs from January 8th to the 17th, 2020, in Chennai. This is the second training camp, after the successful completion of the first one in August 2019. Joining the original six students are eight more, all hand picked by Kramnik and Gelfand to receive intensive training over the next ten days. Microsense Private Limited is the sponsor of the program, while ChessBase India founders Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal manage the camp.

11/6/2019 – Are strong chess players generally better at logical thinking than people who rarely play the game? Can super-talented youngsters, of GM strength, solve logical puzzles better than amateurs or non-chess kids of the same age? Or are both equally good, or are the chess kids perhaps worse? ChessBase chief editor emeritus Frederic Friedel is conducting an experiment to find out. Today he tells us how his experiments so far have been conducted. Perhaps you can join in and supply your own results. Or at least have fun with his problems!

9/4/2019 – As we reported last week, Vladimir Kramnik conducted a special training camp in Chens-Sur-Léman, France, for six very talented Indian youngsters, all in their early teens, but already GMs or close to winning the title. The camp was sponsored by the Chennai-based company Microsense Private Limited and ended last Saturday. ChessBase editor Frederic Friedel visited the camp and watched the interaction between the kids and the former World Champion. | Photos: Amruta Mokal and Frederic Friedel

8/19/2019 – As we reported last Friday, Vladimir Kramnik is conducting a special training camp in Chens-Sur-Leman, France, for six very talented Indian youngsters. It is sponsored by the Chennai-based company Microsense Private Limited and is well under way. Sagar Shah, CEO of ChessBase India, is looking after the youngsters, aged between 13 and 16, and recording as much as he can of the sessions. He has written an extensive report from which you too can learn — and have a bit of fun in the process. | All photos: Amruta Mokal

8/16/2019 – It is a new development that will boost Indian chess beyond measure: Vladimir Kramnik, the 14th World Champion, has started to work with six talented Indian youngsters in a training camp that will be held in Chens-Sur-Leman, France. It is the first of four sessions and is sponsored by the Chennai-based company Microsense Private Limited. ChessBase India has played a pivotal role in bringing all of the elements of the camp together. IM Sagar Shah and Amruta Mokal will be accompanying the youngsters.

1/15/2019 – 12 years, 7 months and 17 days — that's the age of the new second youngest ever, GM-elect D. Gukesh. He's also the 60th grandmaster from India! How did this youngster achieve it? On the surface, it looks like an extremely smooth journey where Gukesh achieved one milestone after another. "But when you delve deeper", writes SAGAR SHAH, "you see tremendous amount of sacrifices, grit, determination and much more from not just the youngster and his entire family". | Photo: David Llada